"Fake" kung fu movies (the thread for non East Asian martial arts movies cashing in on the kung fu craze)

[Shaolin Dragon]

These movies might be obscure or forgotten but still worthy of a thread.

Here are a few to begin with

 

Kung Fu Mortal (Mexico, 1983)

 

La Furia de los Karatecas (Mexico, 1982)

 

Los Kalatrava contra el imperio del karate (Spain, 1974)

 

Karate Girl aka Karateci Kiz (Turkey, 1973)

 

Aç kartallar (Turkey, 1984)

 

 

Anyone know of other "fakes"?

Edited January 25, 2021 by Shaolin Dragon

[sym8]

Man from uncle cash in

[shukocarl1441996347]

"Fake" Kung fu movies? America must have made 100's especially in 70s/80's, then you have India, Phillipines, France. Spain, Australia, Germany, Denmark (Ninja Mission), Japan, Korea... that's if you say "Real" Kung fu movies come from HK,Taiwan or China?

[Shaolin Dragon]

You definitely have a point in that.

But as the title mentions interesting movies for this thread would be the obscure ones made outside of East Asia. The ones who almost in a sense belongs to their own kind of sub genre of exploitation wannabe Asian martial art films that was made during the kung fu craze. The common thing for these movies were that they all wanted to ride along on the kung fu movie wave that swept around the world at the time. Mimicking not only the fight scenes but also other things such as plot lines or visual elements such as clothes, props or locations. Some just as parodies others more seriously. 

So are they Fake or Real? I would say they are definitely real films that was made for an audience that couldn’t get enough of kung fu action on the big screen. So why then call them “Fake” kung fu movies? That’s just out of lack of an appropriate name for this interesting sub genre.

Someone maybe have a fitting name for these?

Edited January 25, 2021 by Shaolin Dragon

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

1 hour ago, Shaolin Dragon said:

You definitely have a point in that.

But as the title mentions interesting movies for this thread would be the obscure ones made outside of East Asia. The ones who almost in a sense belongs to their own kind of sub genre of exploitation wannabe Asian martial art films that was made during the kung fu craze. The common thing for these movies were that they all wanted to ride along on the kung fu movie wave that swept around the world at the time. Mimicking not only the fight scenes but also other things such as plot lines or visual elements such as clothes, props or locations. Some just as parodies others more seriously. 

So are they Fake or Real? I would say they are definitely real films that was made for an audience that couldn’t get enough of kung fu action on the big screen. So why then call them “Fake” kung fu movies? That’s just out of lack of an appropriate name for this interesting sub genre.

Someone maybe have a fitting name for these?

They  are just action/martial arts films, if you looked them up on say Netflix, that is what would pop up. There are so many sub genres of these films even in HK Taiwan and Japan. The initial movies like Vengeance or The Duel were just considered action films I think, basically modern swordplay, even in HK, whereas "The Chinese Boxer" and "Hapkido"so on were sort of Kung fu nationalist movies (later called bashers) and most of the cast was actually doing sort of karate or tae kwon do. Many of the famous actors had more serious training initially in these arts then say Hung Gar or Wing Chun. After the shapes came out, at least to my Chinese friends, those were "kung fu" movies. While my non Asian friends and I would refer to Jackie Chan's movies like "Meals on Wheels" and "Project A" as kung fu comedies, a lot of people felt like until "Drunken Master 2" was made, Jackie had not done a real "kung fu movie" since "Young Master". They referred to most movies like Yes Madam and In The Line of Duty as "fighting movies" since the style was really sort of jeet kune do, tae kwon do, kickboxing and not classical kung fu movies. Same with Japanese films, where there were different sort of films- sword fighting films, pink films, historical dramas. They all had Samurai in them it seemed, but some were basically Yakuza films where the guys carrying swords were thugs, not Samurai (Zatoichi, Wicked Priest, Hoodlum Priest, etc).  

[TheKungFuRobber]

Don't get me wrong but I don't quite understand. The nation in which the movie was made defines whether or not it is "real" martial arts? I mean, do you really think these guys starting with Cathay really knew shit to be honest? I mean no shit there, but even with The Chinese Boxer with Wang Yu who by now should be a famous phony and Shaws who knew how to make great homoerotic dance movies with lots of death... I mean sure, you had good acrobats and what not but where does it extend to? I mean for goodness sake Leung Kar Yan admits he knows nothing about martial arts but they still made him good to watch on screen. There are loads of other styles of fancy fisty movies which extend greater than the Orient. You should have a look at some Turkish fight choreography at some point, very interesting how that's done.  But back on topic, start with Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam and then White Fire (which is a good place to start as it's accessible to an English speaking market), the style is very interesting and many action movies were made in Turkey at the time with a unique style of acrobatics, chorography, camerawork and the same kind of contempt for the personal safety of the actors involved. You won't regret it unless you expect the acting and stories to be anything other than a lot of keich. And of course Wheels on Meals is a kung fu comedy, it always was. Sure it wasn't set in a revisionist interpretation of old China but the main guys having kung fu and beating people up in flashy choreographed ways is a focal point of the movie itself, and the Hong Kong Action genre as a whole in that instead of having a gun as an extension of their penises which became trendy with John Woo and Ringo Lam they are all high kicking and hitting the shots with fists and feet involved start to finish.

Edited January 26, 2021 by TheKungFuRobber

[TheKungFuRobber]

 French-Turkish action thriller with Anglophonic lead cast, probably the most accessible introductory movie with elements of Turkish action choreography for English-speaking audiences. The main cast dub their own voices.

[Shaolin Dragon]

Interesting discussions!

My intention using the term “kung fu movies” was actually not meant to distinguish the specific style of martial arts used in the movies. I’m one of those that have a very limited ability to differentiate the various styles featured in these movies. I’m always very impressed by people who can 

My use of the term “kung fu movies” was actually much more general, more like the old term “chopsocky movies” (meaning East Asian martial arts films, predominantly made between the late 1960s and early 1980s).

So from a wider view these hilarious Mexican “fake” chopsocky movies were definitely also in a sense movies that belong to the martial arts movie genre just as their East Asian cousins that they were mimicking. But as a phenomenon I think these movies have much more in common with “fake” chopsocky movies from for example Turkey during this time. This is why I think these movies in some sense belong to their own sub genre of films from this period. Just like the Bruceploitation movies have been put under one label, these “fake” chopsocky oddities from around the world could maybe also deserve their own sub genre label?

 

[DragonClaws]

 

[Shaolin Dragon]

A few more...

 

Ejderin İntikamı (Turkey, 1984)

 

Los Mercenarios de la Muerte (Mexico, 1983)

 

Ku-Fu? Dalla Sicilia con furore (Italy, 1973)

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

1 hour ago, Shaolin Dragon said:

A few more...

 

Ejderin İntikamı (Turkey, 1984)

 

Los Mercenarios de la Muerte (Mexico, 1983)

 

Ku-Fu? Dalla Sicilia con furore (Italy, 1973)

I remember when the first book on Bruce Lee came out by Alex Ben Block. No one on this side of the USA had seen Way of the Dragon yet. Basically Bruce did not want Americans to see it, as it was lowbrow. The author said "It was like a light Italian Comedy".

[TheKungFuRobber]

Check out these ones

Wop Fu

Crouching Tiger Hidden Mexican

The Cholo Boxer

The 36th Spaghetti of Shaolin

The Big Bolognese

Eagle vs Silver Fanculo

The Way of the Sicillian

Jokes aside. I would come up with some Turkish ones but they already come up with wacky enough titles in real life. In Scotland we never exploited the kung fu craze because we're too fat and hairy for that, and instead we end up with stuff like The Wicker Man and Gregory's Girl. Most of our movie industry only really began in the last 20 years to be honest after devolution I think, because it was cheaper to make movies at Pinewood and Scottish actors had to de-facto assume a British identity and speak with RP accents (part of a cultual genocide I see as having started in the 1700s by the British empire), so other than maybe Sean Connery who plays an Englishman anyway in the films that got him big, we were undesirable as such for that. Americans did tap in in the 80s and 90s with Highlander and Braveheart which helped. A lot of our films that do get made tend to be about poverty and social issues, see Sweet 16 for instance and Local Hero. I don't admire necessarilly what Sean Connery did but what he represents for Scots in the media, because he never gave up his identity for success. But I digress.

If you didn't have this accent, good luck getting accepted in the British media industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

Edited January 27, 2021 by TheKungFuRobber

[DragonClaws]

 

19 hours ago, TheKungFuRobber said:

If you didn't have this accent, good luck getting accepted in the British media industry.

 

If you didnt have a cut glass accent, even if you were English it was still hard to get a job in the British media. Regional accent were not allowed at one point, but things have improved a lot. My great grandfather was Scottish, he was a farm worker who moved to the north of England when the work dried up for him locally.

 

Have you heard of this title before @Shaolin Dragon?.

 

source- http://www.badsoundingsentences.com/random-trailer-park-raw-force-1982/

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by DragonClaws

[Shaolin Dragon]

@DragonClaws That image on the lobby card definitely looks like “chopsocksploitation” 

[Shaolin Dragon]

More "chopsockploitation"...

Ölüm Vuruşu (Turkey, 1986)

 

Kung Fu Contra as Bonecas (Brazil, 1975)

 

Son Savaşçı (Turkey, 1982)

[Shaolin Dragon]

Ölüm Döğüşü (Turkey, 1986)

 

Son Kahramanlar (Turkey, 1987)

[DragonClaws]

On 1/27/2021 at 4:57 AM, Shaolin Dragon said:

@DragonClaws That image on the lobby card definitely looks like “chopsocksploitation” 

 

@Shaolin Dragon the following thread might be of interest to you?.

[Red Lion]

On 1/27/2021 at 12:22 AM, TheKungFuRobber said:

Check out these ones

Wop Fu

Crouching Tiger Hidden Mexican

The Cholo Boxer

The 36th Spaghetti of Shaolin

The Big Bolognese

Eagle vs Silver Fanculo

The Way of the Sicillian

Jokes aside. I would come up with some Turkish ones but they already come up with wacky enough titles in real life. In Scotland we never exploited the kung fu craze because we're too fat and hairy for that, and instead we end up with stuff like The Wicker Man and Gregory's Girl. Most of our movie industry only really began in the last 20 years to be honest after devolution I think, because it was cheaper to make movies at Pinewood and Scottish actors had to de-facto assume a British identity and speak with RP accents (part of a cultual genocide I see as having started in the 1700s by the British empire), so other than maybe Sean Connery who plays an Englishman anyway in the films that got him big, we were undesirable as such for that. Americans did tap in in the 80s and 90s with Highlander and Braveheart which helped. A lot of our films that do get made tend to be about poverty and social issues, see Sweet 16 for instance and Local Hero. I don't admire necessarilly what Sean Connery did but what he represents for Scots in the media, because he never gave up his identity for success. But I digress.

If you didn't have this accent, good luck getting accepted in the British media industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation

Fellow scotsman. 🤜🤛

Totally agree that very little genre films get made in Scotland purely for the simple fact that the money behind filmmaking just now looks down thier nose at genre films. The odd few indy horror films come out but apart from that its all socially conscious or poke fun at ourselves type of films.

Given the fact that martial arts films were always good sellers here even from the vhs days shows theres a market in this country for action cinema.

I remember back in the late 90s/Early 2000s I started writing a script based in the Glasgow triad scene following some pretty juicy news reports at the time and it was heavily John Woo inspired but it was pretty pish and I knew it would be a hard sell. Lol.

[AlbertV]

On a side note, Turkish actor Nihat Yigit founded his own martial arts system in 1999, called Sayokan. He was a practitioner of Kyokushin Karate and Ashihara kaikan karate. 
http://www.swf.org.tr/english/founder.htm

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by AlbertV

[edher_M.A.]

"Los Extermineitors" a movie series from Argentina from the late 80s to the early 90s

Edited May 4, 2021 by edher_M.A.

[AlbertV]

12 hours ago, edher_M.A. said:

"Los Extermineitors" a movie series from Argentina from the late 80s to the early 90s

Ah yes, I've seen the 1st three films, mostly because of a young Hector Echavarria. The villain of Parts 2 and 3 (and hero in Part 4), martial artist Rand McClain, later became a doctor in Los Angeles.

And the 1st film's villain Nestor Varze, runs his own martial arts school, Satsuma Dojo.

Edited May 4, 2021 by AlbertV

[Shaolin Dragon]

On 5/3/2021 at 8:34 PM, AlbertV said:

On a side note, Turkish actor Nihat Yigit founded his own martial arts system in 1999, called Sayokan. He was a practitioner of Kyokushin Karate and Ashihara kaikan karate. 
http://www.swf.org.tr/english/founder.htm

 

That Garra de Tigre movie really looks like fun “chopsocksploitation” 

Is it a Mexican movie?

[AlbertV]

6 minutes ago, Shaolin Dragon said:

That Garra de Tigre movie really looks like fun “chopsocksploitation” 

Is it a Mexican movie?

It is. It was produced by Ruben Gonzalez, who was a black belt student of Chuck Norris. I saw it late night on Telemundo years ago. It was trying to turn Western actor Rodolfo de Anda into a Mexican Norris 😂

[DragonClaws]

 

[AlbertV]

I love how the title sounds like a horror movie but jeez...I liked the film, but damn that screaming in the third act...if you've seen it...you know

Death Promise - The "Scream" Fight