Poll - "Honorable Mentions" for the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Action Choreography - 2006

[sym8]

Hard boiled for me,the one take shot in the finale was fantastic.

[Super Ninja]

On 4/23/2023 at 6:50 PM, Drunken Monk said:

I actually prefer The Killer to Hard Boiled, but that’s just me.

That's two of us then.

As much as I want to give my vote to Operation Scorpio, in all fairness Hard Boiled has to take the win here. 

[ShaOW!linDude]

Twin Dragons for me. I love that entire set piece. Fantastic interweaving of stunts and choreography.

[Darth Kermit]

Hard Boiled is my 2nd favorite movie, so it definitely has my vote, but Twin Dragons is also a lot of fun. Great series by the way, love this thread.

[DrNgor]

On 4/25/2023 at 1:34 PM, Darth Kermit said:

Great series by the way, love this thread.

Thank you! Have fun with these polls!

[DrNgor]

Last call for votes!

[DrNgor]

And the winner of the "Honorable Mention" of the 12th annual HK Film Awards is Phillip Kwok for Hard Boiled! Our first bullet ballet winner here. Thanks, guys!

[DrNgor]

By 1993, wire-fu was all the rage and that was reflected in the Best Action Choreography nominations, with the only outlier being Jackie Chan (sound familiar?). While the emphasis on this week's nominations are wire-fu and wuxia films, I tried to keep the GWG nominations alive for at least one more year. As for Jet Li, I put the other four movies of his--he was insanely prolific in 1993--in a bag and drew two choices.

So, we got:

 

Jackie Chan's Stuntman Association, Tony Ching Siu-Tung (City Hunter)

Corey Yuen, Yuen Tak (Fong Sai Yuk II)

Yuen Biao (Kickboxer)

Sammo Hung (Kung Fu Cult Master)

Yuen Bo (Angel Terminators II)

Tony Ching Siu-Tung, Ma Yuk-Sing (Butterfly and Sword)

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by DrNgor

[sym8]

Chosen Kickboxer,never been a fan of wire fu and it was refreshing to see a ground based Kung fu movie from this era of flying around nonsense.

[DrNgor]

47 minutes ago, sym8 said:

Chosen Kickboxer,never been a fan of wire fu and it was refreshing to see a ground based Kung fu movie from this era of flying around nonsense.

I wanted to keep things balanced between what was vogue and what some members here prefer.

[Drunken Monk]

Angel Terminators II takes it for me. Awesome modern, kickboxing style choreography, some great stunts and some really solid gunplay. I love the finale of this film and think it showcases its stars perfectly. An absolute banger of a fight scene.

[ShaOW!linDude]

Kickboxer!!! Yuen Biao owns it!!!

[thekfc]

Kickboxer

[DrNgor]

Bumping the thread for votes!

[legendarycurry]

Aww, I'm sad I missed out on so many of the polls as I love talkin' choreography. Awesome thread. I'll join coming polls hopefully!

[DrNgor]

2 hours ago, legendarycurry said:

Aww, I'm sad I missed out on so many of the polls as I love talkin' choreography. Awesome thread. I'll join coming polls hopefully!

Just show up and vote and have fun. Looking forward to your participation!

[legendarycurry]

I voted for Fong sai Yul 2. I think it has a great level of creativity and overall great way of building from scene to scene. It was between that and Butterfly and Sword for me. BAS has nice creative sequences too IMHO, but Fong Sai Yuk wins for being more fun overall. This might be hard to justify or explain but: To me Fong Sai Yuk  2's fights have cooler concepts than those of Butterfly and Sword, even if Butterfly and Sword executes what it has got quite nicely. 

I find Fong Sai Yuk 1 the superior film to its sequel, but the finale in Fong Sai Yuk 1 is very underwhelming despite the promise it has and the overall stakes, setting and build up.

I find City Hunter to be a shitty movie in most aspects, including the underwhelming action sequences that lack impact and have  a tone that is so nonsensical nothing seems to matter in the slightest when people supposedly are trying to kill each other. It's like the " I am using the blunt side of the sword" gag from Wing Chun taken to the extreme in every sequence.

Evil Cult is a fun, confusing mess with decent fight scenes but I find Sammo Hung's best stuff often isn't of the wire-fu variety. Sammo is my favorite but his work in Wuxia/Wire-fu is often best when it is set apart by some sort of artistic gimmick associated with the film that works in  favor of it's overall tone (Ashes of Time)  or more grounded compared to other works in the genre (His sequences in Moon Warriors and the monk battle in Evil Cult for example). It is very interesting watching Moon Warriors (one of my fave swordplay films) and comparing the work of the three choreographers from scene to scene.

I have not seen the other nominees you have in the poll though I would like to.
 

[DrNgor]

Last call for votes!

[DrNgor]

We need a tie-breaker vote!

[DrNgor]

And the winner of Honorable Mention for the 13th annual Hong Kong Film Award for Best Action Choreography goes to Corey Yuen and Yuen Tak for Fong Sai Yuk II.

[DrNgor]

Okay, for 1994, Jet Li got 3 nominations and still lost to Jackie Chan. Neither of them are present in the films I chose here, but the emphasis is on wire-fu and wuxia. So, vote and enjoy! 

(Clips will be posted later)

Chris Lee (Burning Paradise)
Yuen Woo-Ping, Yuen Shun-Yee, Donnie Yen (Wing Chun)
Alexander Lo Rei (21 Red List)
Yuen Bun (Once Upon a Time in China V)
Mang Hoi, Lee King-Chu (Deadful Melody)

[DrNgor]

Burning Paradise

Wing Chun 

21 Red List

Once Upon a Time in China V

 

Deadful Melody

 

 

 

 

 

[thekfc]

Since 

1 hour ago, DrNgor said:

the emphasis is on wire-fu and wuxia

I will have to go with Deadly Melody this round.

[Drunken Monk]

I was left debating between Burning Paradise and Wing Chun this time around (I don’t think the others come close) and ultimately settled on Wing Chun.

Woo Ping was on fire. Granted, he was a little severe with the undercranking and the wire-work was a little nuts but, to me, the choreography in this film is the most entertaining.

[DrNgor]

7 minutes ago, Drunken Monk said:

I was left debating between Burning Paradise and Wing Chun this time around (I don’t think the others come close) and ultimately settled on Wing Chun.

Woo Ping was on fire. Granted, he was a little severe with the undercranking and the wire-work was a little nuts but, to me, the choreography in this film is the most entertaining.

This was one of the earliest entries in The Classics list that a friend of mine and I made up in the late 90s. So it was an automatic "Yes" for me.