Member ShawAngela Posted February 11, 2020 Member Share Posted February 11, 2020 Another excellent Billy Chong's movie, which I sadly only got in German language, but I enjoyed it A LOT !! This guy is excellent, and it's too bad that he played in just a few movies... The fights and the choreography are great, inventive and powerful. That's just too bad that the girl didn't have real fighting scenes... 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member CT KID Posted February 12, 2020 Member Share Posted February 12, 2020 Yes Billy Chong was awesome and should have went alot further, would have been great to see him progress to modern day films like Jackie, Sammo and Biao did. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member paimeifist Posted February 14, 2020 Member Share Posted February 14, 2020 odd that I just happened to watch a classic martial arts flick for the first time in a while, and it too was a Billy Chong flick. Crystal Fist. I haven’t watched a classic MA film in a while, and my good friend @DrNgor inspired me to get back into it. Searched amazon prime for “martial arts” and ran across Sun Dragon, so decided I’d watch a Billy Chong film. I didn’t recognize anyone else in that film, and saw that the Yuen clan was involved in Crystal Fist, so I went with this. Crystal Fist was an above average kung fu comedy with the typical plot and characters, and fantastic fights in the last half hour. The training scenes were decent, Billy Chong showed some impressive feats of flexibility and strength. Simon Yuen was funny and charming as usual, and his stunt doubles (likely his relatives) were bad ass. Near the end when I heard “Phoenix Eye Technique” I thought I may have seen this before, because that sounded very familiar.. Is something similar to that said in other films? Not sure though, I think the only Billy Chong films I’d seen prior were Kung Fu Zombie and Superpower. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted February 15, 2020 Member Share Posted February 15, 2020 On 2/12/2020 at 1:44 AM, CT KID said: Yes Billy Chong was awesome and should have went alot further, would have been great to see him progress to modern day films like Jackie, Sammo and Biao did. I suspect stars like Chong, Conan Lee and Meng Yuen-Man etc suffered from basically being cast as Jackie clones, so it was harder to stand out to audiences and big studios. That, and Conan's legendary bad-career management. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted February 15, 2020 Member Share Posted February 15, 2020 1 hour ago, Killer Meteor said: I suspect stars like Chong, Conan Lee and Meng Yuen-Man etc suffered from basically being cast as Jackie clones, so it was harder to stand out to audiences and big studios. That, and Conan's legendary bad-career management. As I understand it, Billy Chong went back to Indonesia and became a big TV star. Meng Yuan-Man suffered a heart attack at a young age that didn't kill him, but forced him out of the action business. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted February 18, 2020 Member Share Posted February 18, 2020 I agree that post Crystal Fist, Chong managed to stand out from the rest of the Chansploitation crowd. I think the likes of Meng Yuen Man, John Cheung and Lee Yi Min made a decent go of it, while others like Chen Shao Lung, Lau Kar Yung and Meng Hoi were never really in contention, despite having the skills to pay the bills. Luckily most of them found steady work in the biz after the Chansploitation fad faded out. I believe the only one Jackie himself was a bit worried about for a minute was Conan. Though he of course managed to fuck it up for himself by being a raging douche. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted February 18, 2020 Member Share Posted February 18, 2020 Now I think about it, Conan would have been awesome in The Protector! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member CT KID Posted February 18, 2020 Member Share Posted February 18, 2020 15 hours ago, Killer Meteor said: Now I think about it, Conan would have been awesome in The Protector! Now that would have been cool as good as he was in Tiger On Beat. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member paimeifist Posted February 18, 2020 Member Share Posted February 18, 2020 18 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said: I agree that post Crystal Fist, Chong managed to stand out from the rest of the Chansploitation crowd. I think the likes of Meng Yuen Man, John Cheung and Lee Yi Min made a decent go of it, while others like Chen Shao Lung, Lau Kar Yung and Meng Hoi were never really in contention, despite having the skills to pay the bills. Luckily most of them found steady work in the biz after the Chansploitation fad faded out. I believe the only one Jackie himself was a bit worried about for a minute was Conan. Though he of course managed to fuck it up for himself by being a raging douche. Chong is the only one I can think of that really stood out. The others that did well as you mentioned were Lee Yi Min, but he lucked out by being surrounded by superior talent or Conan Lee, who seemed to have the goods but all I can recall seeing him in was Ninja in the Dragons Den. The best "Chansploitation" movie to me is Dance of the Drunken Mantis, and its in my top five classic kung fu films of all time.. Yuen Shun Yi was great, and he kind of reminds me of Lau Kar Wing in that he seemed a supremely talented screen fighter, and even a competent actor, who just didn't spend enough time on the screen for me. No doubt both of them played a part in choreographing (and stunt doubling) in many great films. Also coming from and being overshadowed by great martial arts film families. Note: Competent actor means relative to the style of acting in martial arts films of the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted February 19, 2020 Member Share Posted February 19, 2020 I personally couldn't really get on board with Yuen Shun Yee as a leading man. Not contesting his creen fighting skills or acting abilities, nor does it have to be some kind of beauty contest, but I found his face too scowley and villainy and his overall energy kinda dark. I like Drunk Mantis and especially Buddhist Fist, but I don't really love him as the protagonist in them. Now in Dreadnaught he's perfect as the psycho villain. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Chu Liu Hsiang Posted February 19, 2020 Member Share Posted February 19, 2020 (edited) Sorry for OT but ... By recent posts I felt inspired to look for Billy Chong movies and searched on eBay for CRYSTAL FIST. This was the first hit VINTAGE WOOD & BRASS AND QUARTZ CRYSTAL AMETHYST EMBELLISHED FIST! UNIQUE FIST WITH THE THUMB BETWEEN THE INDEX AND MIDDLE FINGER Not quite what I was looking for Edited February 19, 2020 by Chu Liu Hsiang 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member paimeifist Posted February 19, 2020 Member Share Posted February 19, 2020 8 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said: I personally couldn't really get on board with Yuen Shun Yee as a leading man. Not contesting his creen fighting skills or acting abilities, nor does it have to be some kind of beauty contest, but I found his face too scowley and villainy and his overall energy kinda dark. I like Drunk Mantis and especially Buddhist Fist, but I don't really love him as the protagonist in them. Now in Dreadnaught he's perfect as the psycho villain. I have to agree, Dreadnaught was probably his best role! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted February 26, 2020 Member Share Posted February 26, 2020 On 2/13/2020 at 10:10 PM, paimeifist said: I haven’t watched a classic MA film in a while, and my good friend @DrNgor inspired me to get back into it. Always a pleasure, buddy! On 2/19/2020 at 12:21 AM, TibetanWhiteCrane said: I personally couldn't really get on board with Yuen Shun Yee as a leading man. Not contesting his creen fighting skills or acting abilities, nor does it have to be some kind of beauty contest, but I found his face too scowley and villainy and his overall energy kinda dark. I like Drunk Mantis and especially Buddhist Fist, but I don't really love him as the protagonist in them. Now in Dreadnaught he's perfect as the psycho villain. Yeah, put me in that camp. DOTDM beats the original DM in terms of action, and I like how it reveals that Drunken Boxing is only a subset of a larger system of styles. But YSY lacks Jackie's inate charisma and Simon Yuen acts like a grouchy old goat for most of the film. He was more likeable in DM. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Chu Liu Hsiang Posted April 1, 2020 Member Share Posted April 1, 2020 SUPER POWER - this was the first Billy Chong movie I saw, this guy is really great to watch in every regard, he's moving so gracefully. I have to dig out FISTFUL OF TALONS which I have somewhere on a heap but not seen yet. I had hoped his fiancee would join in the fights as she was seen practicing early in the movie but it did not happen. One to rewatch. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Drunken Monk Posted June 30, 2020 Member Share Posted June 30, 2020 While it's safe to say 2020 has been a pretty horrendous year as far as society goes, it's been one of the best years for me when it comes to kung fu cinema. Not only did I dive head first into the treasure trove that is Bruceploitation but I finally hunkered down and gave Billy Chong the focus he deserves. Today I watched Super Power (1980) Let's get the obvious out of the way: this film's plot is a mess. It feels like two different movies stitched together. Though it does all come together by the end. I'm pretty sure we don't even seen Billy until about twenty minutes into the movie. But let's ignore all that. This film is a fight filled joy. Shapes galore! Even the comedy fights are top quality with a particularly enjoyable fight surrounded by precious antiques. I really enjoyed this one. It might not be as good as Crystal Fist or even Sun Dragon but it's another excellent Billy Chong movie. Time to move onto A Fistful of Talons and Kung Fu Zombie. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member sym8 Posted June 9, 2022 Member Share Posted June 9, 2022 Super power Fights,fights and more fights in this Billy Chong classic.I think this,Sun Dragon,Crystal fist and Fistful of talons are some of the best of the smaller studio productions.It would be great for 88,eureka or arrow to get hold of these. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted July 30 Moderator Share Posted July 30 I'm also in the "Checking out 'Super Power' for the first time in the 2020's" club, but am definitely glad I did! One of those movies that acts as a reminder as to why you got into kung-fu cinema in the first place. I gave it the full review treatment over at COF - https://cityonfire.com/super-power-1980-review-billy-chong-fist-dragon-lin-chan-wai-martial-arts-movie-news-kung-fu/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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