Member De Ming Li Posted April 16, 2018 Member Share Posted April 16, 2018 Vietnam as a country suffered widespread devastation through three decades of war during the last century, up until eventual unification in 1975. Being a nation and culture within the Sinosphere, did they make any notable MA movies at all? I find their near total absence from the scene somewhat surprising, even accounting for what they went through. I would have thought at least South Vietnam might have produced some back in the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Asmo Posted April 16, 2018 Moderator Share Posted April 16, 2018 A very good question. I'd have thought that (admittedly, pre-1975) Cholon would have made a good setting for a film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member whitesnake Posted April 16, 2018 Member Share Posted April 16, 2018 I found this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Vietnamese_films It is admittedly incomplete, nothing for the 1960's, very little for the 1970's and 1980's, let alone martial arts titles. No update since 2016, and even that year is incomplete. Tam Cam: The Untold Story (2016), a fantasy movie with some martial arts, got a US home entertainment release in 2017, and even that isn't on this Wikipedia list. Back in the late 1970s, when I got to see some Hong Kong martial arts movies (in Chinese) at a local theater, once in a while there'd be a Vietnamese movie shown, considering the audience. Don't remember the title, but I saw one, an unhappy romance, that was pretty dull, certainly no martial arts. Part was filmed in a liberated jungle (no Viet Cong presence) and the rest was filmed inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NinjaNinjaNinja Posted April 16, 2018 Member Share Posted April 16, 2018 3 hours ago, whitesnake said: I found this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Vietnamese_films It is admittedly incomplete, nothing for the 1960's, very little for the 1970's and 1980's, let alone martial arts titles. Don't remember the title, but I saw one, an unhappy romance, that was pretty dull, certainly no martial arts. Part was filmed in a liberated jungle (no Viet Cong presence) and the rest was filmed inside. Much more on the German wiki: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_vietnamesischer_Filme Perhaps this one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NinjaNinjaNinja Posted April 16, 2018 Member Share Posted April 16, 2018 Fun fact: War scenes from the film above were borrowed for the opening credits of Taiwanese 'Namsploitation actioner Last Breath (1985). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Fist of the Heavenly Sky Posted April 16, 2018 Member Share Posted April 16, 2018 It's unlikely that Vietnam would get much in the way of martial arts movie genre department. Nevermind that Chinese emigration has all but ceased with the inevitable onset of wars in the mid 50's, there also the fact that the respective governments never really got along with each other at all. Plenty of Vietnamese folks did migrate to Thailand (which evidently already had it's own martial arts movie scene in the 70's) and Hong Kong, and I'd imagine that the modern Vietnamese denizens are fond of chopsocky flicks (who wouldn't be?). What I'm trying to get at is that there probably isn't any Vietnamese martial arts movies, but it's not a stretch to believe that quiet a few Vietnamese individuals are involved in Hong Kong, Japanese etc. productions here and there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member De Ming Li Posted April 17, 2018 Author Member Share Posted April 17, 2018 3 hours ago, Fist of the Heavenly Sky said: It's unlikely that Vietnam would get much in the way of martial arts movie genre department. Nevermind that Chinese emigration has all but ceased with the inevitable onset of wars in the mid 50's, there also the fact that the respective governments never really got along with each other at all. Plenty of Vietnamese folks did migrate to Thailand (which evidently already had it's own martial arts movie scene in the 70's) and Hong Kong, and I'd imagine that the modern Vietnamese denizens are fond of chopsocky flicks (who wouldn't be?). What I'm trying to get at is that there probably isn't any Vietnamese martial arts movies, but it's not a stretch to believe that quiet a few Vietnamese individuals are involved in Hong Kong, Japanese etc. productions here and there. Which country do you think had a stronger martial arts film scene during that era, Thailand or Philippines? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted April 17, 2018 Member Share Posted April 17, 2018 Phillipines by a mile. Tons. They are somewhat rare and funky, but tons! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Fist of the Heavenly Sky Posted April 17, 2018 Member Share Posted April 17, 2018 2 hours ago, De Ming Li said: Which country do you think had a stronger martial arts film scene during that era, Thailand or Philippines? By the 70's the Filipinos were already knowledgeable enough to produce most their own flicks without requiring external assistance from Hong Kong and what have you. To my knowledge this wasn't necessarily the same case in Thailand. As far as that decade is concerned, I can't think of any martial arts flick filmed in that country that did not feature either Chinese or Japanese actors in the lead. There were the occasional movies that did put Muay Thai at the forefront, but those were exceptions rather than the norm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Asmo Posted April 17, 2018 Moderator Share Posted April 17, 2018 5 hours ago, Fist of the Heavenly Sky said: It's unlikely that Vietnam would get much in the way of martial arts movie genre department. Nevermind that Chinese emigration has all but ceased with the inevitable onset of wars in the mid 50's, there also the fact that the respective governments never really got along with each other at all. Plenty of Vietnamese folks did migrate to Thailand (which evidently already had it's own martial arts movie scene in the 70's) and Hong Kong, and I'd imagine that the modern Vietnamese denizens are fond of chopsocky flicks (who wouldn't be?). What I'm trying to get at is that there probably isn't any Vietnamese martial arts movies, but it's not a stretch to believe that quiet a few Vietnamese individuals are involved in Hong Kong, Japanese etc. productions here and there. A well known MA film actor who worked in HK and Taiwan, mostly in the 1970s, was Vietnam-born Chinese. Some others came to mind too, but this one surprised me. And you're right. There are plenty of Vietnamese individuals working on MA films nowadays, in some capacity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Fist of the Heavenly Sky Posted April 17, 2018 Member Share Posted April 17, 2018 9 minutes ago, Asmo said: A well known MA film actor who worked in HK and Taiwan, mostly in the 1970s, was Vietnam-born Chinese. Some others came to mind too, but this one surprised me. And you're right. There are plenty of Vietnamese individuals working on MA films nowadays, in some capacity. Who is the actor in question, I wonder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted April 17, 2018 Member Share Posted April 17, 2018 http://thaiworldview.com/tv/tv17.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Fist of the Heavenly Sky Posted April 17, 2018 Member Share Posted April 17, 2018 1 hour ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said: http://thaiworldview.com/tv/tv17.php Not to be picky, but it doesn't appear that most of the movies in that list are strictly martial arts affairs. Regardless, I'm glad you posted this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member NoKUNGFUforYU Posted April 17, 2018 Member Share Posted April 17, 2018 I don't think martial arts were a big thing. They had and have Thai boxing, which in everyday life back then demolished all the other styles that came over, so they probably weren't that big on karate or kung fu. On the flip side, a thai boxer is a very low grade type of person back then, not held in high regard, except in the ring. Hard to fit that kind of guy into an action movie, so they sort of erred towards spy movies, from what I can tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Fist of the Heavenly Sky Posted April 17, 2018 Member Share Posted April 17, 2018 1 hour ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said: I don't think martial arts were a big thing. They had and have Thai boxing, which in everyday life back then demolished all the other styles that came over, so they probably weren't that big on karate or kung fu. On the flip side, a thai boxer is a very low grade type of person back then, not held in high regard, except in the ring. Hard to fit that kind of guy into an action movie, so they sort of erred towards spy movies, from what I can tell. Have you watched Duel of Fists and The Tournament by any chance? Those are two HK productions set in Thailand that do make Muay Thai the focal point of their plotlines. With that said, those are some very interesting points you raise, and it does help explain the predominance of James Bond esque flicks on that list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Asmo Posted April 17, 2018 Moderator Share Posted April 17, 2018 9 hours ago, Fist of the Heavenly Sky said: Who is the actor in question, I wonder? I want to admit that I posted it like that to see if anyone knew Kam Kong. I read that in the unlikeliest of places, but then it took me a while to confirm who it actually was. Because the book that mentioned this fact (it wasn't a book related to cinema) used his real name. Out of curiosity I searched for this name in HKMDB and nothing came up, so I was interested in seeing who it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Kwok Choi Posted April 22, 2018 Member Share Posted April 22, 2018 On 16/04/2018 at 3:33 PM, De Ming Li said: Vietnam as a country suffered widespread devastation through three decades of war during the last century, up until eventual unification in 1975. Being a nation and culture within the Sinosphere, did they make any notable MA movies at all? I find their near total absence from the scene somewhat surprising, even accounting for what they went through. I would have thought at least South Vietnam might have produced some back in the day. "The Rebel" http://variety.com/2007/film/reviews/the-rebel-2-1200557505/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.