Member Cognoscente Posted July 2, 2021 Member Share Posted July 2, 2021 8 hours ago, shukocarl1441996347 said: The streetfighting gung fu is both satisfying to an action addict and better than any pretty shapes shifting nonsense (my opinion only). This got me thinking about why Game of Death wasn't much of a money-maker when released in HK. Had the movie been completed and released way before the shapes era, it would have fared better at the local box office. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member saltysam Posted July 17, 2021 Member Share Posted July 17, 2021 Bruce's Ninja Secret Take various scenes from various Bruce Le movies and edit it all together into one new movie. This is glorious,at times incoherent fun. The plot concerns the hunt for a hidden treasure or a silver coin (depends who's doing the dubbing) Lo Lieh has moved on from being obsessed with the kung fu finger book to wanting the coin, meanwhile Bruce Wong, who's clothes change scene by scene, is busy battling nappy wearing midgets and knife wielding young girls emerging from the sea. The blu ray is a thing of beauty, grindhouse style and all. Another effort criminally neglected by Criterion. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member shukocarl1441996347 Posted July 17, 2021 Member Share Posted July 17, 2021 On 7/1/2021 at 10:50 PM, shukocarl1441996347 said: Just been having a Bruce Li double-bill night (no footy again). Bruce Lee - True Story (Man & Myth) still THE best 'bio' film. James Ho pulled out all the stops with this one in his 'Lee' portrayal. If only Raymond Chow had got him solely for Game of Death. The only time in that film that they captured the essence of Bruce Lee is the Bob Wall locker room fight. My co feature tonight was Exit the Dragon-Enter the Tiger, a much better title that the misleading Bruce Lee, Star of Stars. This is a ****ing cracking little crime thriller that would be just as good without the 'Bruce Lee' schtick. Once again James Ho is great in his part - going from heart broken fan-boy to vengeance seeking bad-ass over the course of the film. The streetfighting gung fu is both satisfying to an action addict and better than any pretty shapes shifting nonsense (my opinion only). It never fails to get me stirred up and the beach slug-fest with classy Chang Yi is just the icing on the cake. I just realised something: the mob in Exit want Bruce Lee to become a 'drug dealer' of sorts. With the discovery of Bob Baker's letters, that aspect is pretty truthful don't you think? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted July 21, 2021 Member Share Posted July 21, 2021 On 7/10/2020 at 4:49 AM, One Armed Boxer said: I recently got through watching Bruce Le's epic masterpiece 'Ninja Over the Great Wall', a production that rivals Kurosawa in its scope and depth. Ok, that last part isn't true, but I did give it the full review treatment over at COF, check it out via the link - https://cityonfire.com/ninja-over-the-great-wall-aka-fire-on-the-great-wall-1987-review-shaolin-fist-of-fury-great-wall-fighter/ On 5/11/2020 at 11:05 AM, Drunken Monk said: This morning I went for Ninja Over the Great Wall. Not really a Bruceploitation movie but hey, Bruce Le's in it. It's a surprisingly mature effort for Le. What starts off as a relatively simply Japanese vs Chinese story line builds to a battle of two warriors; both looking for two different types of revenge. For a Le film, it's very well shot and incorporates some beautiful locations (not just the Great Wall of China). There's a particularly good looking snow fight scenes where Le takes on a gaggle of white-clad ninjas. As for the fights, I'd say they're the best I've seen so for when it comes to Bruce Le. There's obvious (sometimes silly) undercranking but the choreography is crisp and complex. There's some really impressive fight work here. But this film commits a cardinal kung fu sin: NIGHT FIGHTS. There's three of four if them and I couldn't see a damn thing. A complete shame as I feel like if I'd been able to make out what was going on, this would have been a solid four star movie. Otherwise, it's a three star, maybe three and a half star movie. Even without the visible fights, it's very good. The final fight between the honorable Chinese and Japanese warriors is like an empty-handed version of the final of Duel to the Death. Question, how do we classify this film? Is it a Brucesploitation film? A Mainland movie? A Ninjasploitation film? Is it a Hong Kong production that would thus fall in the Hong Kong New Wave? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted July 21, 2021 Moderator Share Posted July 21, 2021 5 hours ago, DrNgor said: Question, how do we classify this film? Is it a Brucesploitation film? A Mainland movie? A Ninjasploitation film? Is it a Hong Kong production that would thus fall in the Hong Kong New Wave? All of the above! Except the last part, since HK New Wave usually refers to the more realistic and socially aware spate of movies which came out of the territory in the late 70's/early 80's - Tsui Hark's 'Dangerous Encounters of the First Kind', Alex Cheung's 'Cops and Robbers' and 'Man on the Brink' etc. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BillyLo Posted January 14, 2022 Member Share Posted January 14, 2022 I recently watched Martial Monks of Shaolin Temple (1983) with Dragon Lee. I’m not sure whether this one counts as Brucesploitation other than the fact that it has Dragon Lee in it. Overall, it’s an entertaining kung fu film. According to the English version, it was directed by Godfrey Ho but IMBD credits someone else. Anyone know why Ho was credited on the English print? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted January 15, 2022 Moderator Share Posted January 15, 2022 23 hours ago, BillyLo said: According to the English version, it was directed by Godfrey Ho but IMBD credits someone else. Anyone know why Ho was credited on the English print? 'Martial Monks of Shaolin Temple' is the English dubbed (and likely re-edited) version of the Korean movie 'Shaolin Yong-pal' (check out the official entry in the Korean Movie Database here) directed by Kim Si-hyun. Godfrey Ho was a smart guy, and knew kung-fu was selling in the west, so during the early 80's he and Tomas Tang bought the overseas distribution rights for a heap of Korean kung-fu flicks, re-did the opening credits (usually changing the title to something more sellable, and would list Godfrey Ho as the director, which answers your question), added an English dub, and would frequently re-arrange and completely change the original plot. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted February 1, 2022 Member Share Posted February 1, 2022 (edited) Here is my old review of Tower of Death: Starring: Bruce Lee, Kim Tai-Chung, Roy Horan, Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee, Miranda Austin, Lee Hoi-San, Tiger Yang Director: Ng See-Yuen Action Director: Yuen Woo-Ping (although I've been told that Corey Yuen and Sammo Hung contributed, too) I have an unconditional love for the first Game of Death. I have no shame in admitting it to be my favorite Bruce Lee movie. I'm the sort of person who gets quite sad inside when I see the movie receiving one-star reviews from genre fans. It breaks my heart to see such entertaining cinema get trashed so much because of a few goofty attempts to mix Bruce Lee into new footage. I think it was the whole "Let's bash Game of Death while we praise Tower of Death" attitude of some reviewers that kept me from watching this, despite the promise of seeing more Yuen Woo-Ping-choreographed Hwang Jang Lee fight scenes. As it turns out, this one of the great Jade Screen kickfests, right up there with Call Me Dragon, Secret Rivals and In the Line of Duty 4. The story is a little bizarre. Apparently it went public after the events of the first movie that chopsockey superstar Billy Lo (Bruce Lee and Kim Tai Chung...and perhaps Yuen Biao?) didn't actually die, but faked his death in order to take down the Syndicate. Billy doesn't seem to be acting anymore, but spends his time visiting friends like Chin Ku (Hwang Jang Lee) and chiding his younger, porn-obsessed brother, Bobby (Kim Tai Chung), about not taking his training seriously. Chin Ku dies under mysterious circumstances and Billy tries to figure out what happened. At the funeral, a helicopter shows up to steal the coffin. Billy tries to stop it, but is killed by a poison dart. Enter Bobby Lo, who travels to Japan to find out what happened and avenge Billy's death. He is directed to Lewis (Roy Horan), a friend of Chin Ku's who lives at a palace filled with karate guards, lions and peacocks. Strange stuff starts happening after Bobby arrives, including cinemas only example of putting a kung fu fight with a man in a lion costume AND full frontal female nudity (courtesy of Miranda Austin, whose make-up looks like it was applied via Homer Simpson's shotgun-makeup contraption) in the same scene... The first forty minutes follow Billy Lo's character and is made up largely of unused, re-dubbed Enter the Dragon footage, which must've been pretty ingenious at the time. But then the film pulls a Psycho and focuses on the the non-Bruce Lee character. That's good, since it means that the last 50 minutes don't have to rely on goofy cutaways to Bruce Lee's face just to remind us that this is a Bruce Lee movie. The last twenty-five minutes or so take a real turn for the bizarre once we figure out what's going on and who's behind the evil plot. It's pretty unbelievable, even by genre standards, but oh so fun. The action comes quite frequently, courtesy of Yuen Woo-Ping. According to "City on Fire," Corey Yuen directed the alleway fight sequence and the one at the strip club and did co-directing duties for the film. Sammo Hung directed the fight between Kim Tai-Chung/Yuen Biao (I'm guessing that Kim Tai-Chung's more impressive moves were performanced by Yuen Biao, which is *very* frequente) vs. Casanova Wong fight, Hwang's opening fight, and Roy Horan's fight with the challengers. Yuen Woo-Ping would've choreographed basically everything in the last 30 minutes of the movie. Everything is of an extremely high standard. We're talking "best Brucesploitation fight choreography" level here. The kicks are marvelous, especially in the fight with Casanova Wong, which had been edited out of the original Game of Death. Hwang Jang Lee has done better kicking, but he's extremely versatile here, doing some nice handwork and some elaborate swordplay at the finale. You know, for being a porn-addicted layabout, Bobby Lo is even more invinicible than his brother Billy Lo ever was. I must try that method of martial arts training...I jest. So yeah, this movie comes highly recommended by me. Enjoy! Edited February 1, 2022 by DrNgor 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted February 28, 2022 Member Share Posted February 28, 2022 Well, I've just seen something... I just watched CHINESE GODFATHER online, which is a basher starring Chan Wei-man. It's from the same people who did FIST OF UNICORN, and much to my surprise, it's a sneaky Bruceploitation. 1) It was sold with a short documentary called The Last Days of Bruce Lee. 2) It features Betty "just friends" Ting-pei. 3) It has Enter The Dragon music (not that unusual, to be fair) 4) During one of the fights, they sneak in subliminal images of Bruce Lee! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member saltysam Posted March 26, 2022 Member Share Posted March 26, 2022 (edited) Superdragon-The Bruce Lee Story Gave this a rewatch (one the first in the bruceploitation genre) possibly the first time Ho Chung Tao played Lee? Anyway the movie starts off with Bruce delivering newspapers,quickly getting into an altercation with the local youth, winning a karate tournament, meeting Leena (as the dub calls her) seeing off a challenge from a japanese fighter, landing the part on Green Hornet and fighting off 3 samurai dressed fighters who show up at his door (this is all in the first 25 minutes) film then settles into fairly repetitive scenes of Bruce on film sets, and his relationship with Betty until Leena shows up again later on to complicate things. Not a good movie but an interesting one, with a blink and you'll miss her appearance by Anne Winton. The Amazon Prime print is unrestored HD and looks decent, no doubt this will surface on a expensive german mediabook before too long. Will i buy it, what do you think Edited March 26, 2022 by saltysam 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member legendarycurry Posted March 26, 2022 Member Share Posted March 26, 2022 Enter The Game Of Death (1978) Plot: Bruce Le must enter a tower of death to retrieve an important document in a story involving secret organizations and double agents. lots of fighting happens Review: Filled to the brim with fight sequences, this 1978 effort from director Lam Kwok Cheung features famous Bruceploitation actor Bruce Le AKA Wong Kin Lung playing a Bruce Lee analogue complete with yellow tracksuit plus trainers which he wears while he (as expected) apes various Lee-associated mannerisms. From a technical point of view this one is a cheap production with recycled music and unremarkable direction while the acting is not exactly award-worthy. The action however is very high in quantity and not too excessively bad in quality. The plot is thinner than the doors of a pagoda (which I believe are very thin) but the fighting is plentiful and well spread out throughout the movie. Bolo is a highlight, showing of skills with a sword while also appearing in several fights in a ring which are very entertaining. Bolo has such a presence about him that on its own make the fights great to watch despite the choreography not being excellent in-and-of-itself. Sadly his final fight against Bruce Le is ruined by unnecessary and excessive use of slow-motion. This is a problem in more than one fight in the film. Bruce Le is not a bad screenfighter but his performance is marred by the sheer Bruceploitatonisms of his antics. The movie shines in the scenes with Bolo but the tower of death sequences are also creative, especially considering how much the film is based around being like something that already exists. Fights with Baat Jam Dou featuring Lee Hoi San, Snakes being thrown around with their venom being used in fights, and a nunchaku vs nunchaku battle are among the things on offer here. The entire second half of the film is essentially just a series of fight sequences of varying quality, which considering the sheer amount of fights already in the first half, should tell you how much of a fightfest this movie is. Unfortunately the quality does not quite match the quantity and some fights lack flourish and impact, not quite managing to stand out. Overall this movie is very fast paced and keeps it moving very swiftly from scene to scene,while the amount of fight scenes present make the film far from boring as there is always something to behold. Just a shame that not all of it is of a very high caliber. My final thoughts on this movie are that it is a fast and furious kung fu ride ripe with Bruceploitation and scene after scene of battle. Entertaining but not great, as it lacks polish and needs better choreography for a better score than the one I am giving it Score: 5/10 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member BillyLo Posted April 14, 2022 Member Share Posted April 14, 2022 On 1/15/2022 at 2:10 AM, One Armed Boxer said: 'Martial Monks of Shaolin Temple' is the English dubbed (and likely re-edited) version of the Korean movie 'Shaolin Yong-pal' (check out the official entry in the Korean Movie Database here) directed by Kim Si-hyun. Godfrey Ho was a smart guy, and knew kung-fu was selling in the west, so during the early 80's he and Tomas Tang bought the overseas distribution rights for a heap of Korean kung-fu flicks, re-did the opening credits (usually changing the title to something more sellable, and would list Godfrey Ho as the director, which answers your question), added an English dub, and would frequently re-arrange and completely change the original plot. I suspected something like this but the film appeared to be very consistent, which makes me wonder whether he shot any original footage at all. If he did, he managed to sync it together very well. In most of his films, it’s usually pretty obvious which bits are actually Ho’s scenes. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted April 15, 2022 Moderator Share Posted April 15, 2022 23 hours ago, BillyLo said: I suspected something like this but the film appeared to be very consistent, which makes me wonder whether he shot any original footage at all. I don't think any of the Dragon Lee starring kung-fu flicks were subject to Ho's own ninja shot footage, it was mainly movies were action wasn't the main focus (or there wasn't enough of it) that got chopped up and had ninja storylines inserted into them, like 'Poisonous Rose Stripping the Night' being used as the basis for 'Ninja Champion', and of course most famously 'The Uninvited Guest of the Star Ferry' being used as the basis for 'Ninja Terminator'. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member saltysam Posted April 17, 2022 Member Share Posted April 17, 2022 Image Of Bruce Lee Special forces cop Bruce Li is on the trail of counterfeiters Han Ying Chieh,John Chang & Bolo. Dana is an undercover agent who's idea of infiltrating is stripping off and flirting with every man she meets. Good cast with a bravura climax, Ho Chung Tao vs The Big Boss. Bolo wears a cool red jacket for a spell. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member saltysam Posted May 2, 2022 Member Share Posted May 2, 2022 Tower Of Death "In this world of guns and knives, a true HD copy of TOD does not exist" one of the greatest genre films ever made,this has everything. Bruce Lee inserts, Billy Lo,Bobby Lo,The Abbot,Hwang Jang Lee and more. An incredible achievement that links back to both Game Of Death & Enter The Dragon. Fantastic fight scenes, Roy Horan as Lewis who eats raw venison and deers blood for breakfast, stunning helicopter stealing a coffin sequence,Billy Lo taking on triad in chinatown,sexy blonde actress, a vicious looking lion attack that beats Ghost & The Darkness. Please Fortune Star restore this and give it to 88 for a deluxe edition with KFB cover. It's only misstep is reusing the Bruce funeral footage again. A true classic. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Killer Meteor Posted May 3, 2022 Member Share Posted May 3, 2022 On 4/17/2022 at 8:31 PM, saltysam said: Image Of Bruce Lee Special forces cop Bruce Li is on the trail of counterfeiters Han Ying Chieh,John Chang & Bolo. Dana is an undercover agent who's idea of infiltrating is stripping off and flirting with every man she meets. Good cast with a bravura climax, Ho Chung Tao vs The Big Boss. Bolo wears a cool red jacket for a spell. Contains the funniest suicide scene in cinema history! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted May 3, 2022 Member Share Posted May 3, 2022 27 minutes ago, Killer Meteor said: Contains the funniest suicide scene in cinema history! I dunno, there was a really funny one in one of the Ninja Death movies, I think the second one. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member saltysam Posted June 20, 2022 Member Share Posted June 20, 2022 (edited) Jackie Vs Bruce To The Rescue I often wonder why i do this to myself,sitting through rubbish like this Tong Lung wears a cheapo GOD knock off trackie that looks like it was bought off the clearance section of Sports Direct,Jackie Chang is actually not a bad likeness but has zilch screen personality.The story is about Ymca vs Ching Wu school,double crossing and awful acting. I'd still buy a blu ray of it though Edited June 20, 2022 by saltysam 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted June 20, 2022 Member Share Posted June 20, 2022 6 minutes ago, saltysam said: Jackie Vs Bruce To The Rescue I often wonder why i do this to myself,sitting through rubbish like this Tong Lung wears a cheapo GOD knock off trackie that looks like it was bought off the clearance section of Sports Direct,Jackie Chang is actually not a bad likeness but has zilch screen personality.The story is about Ymca vs Ching Wu school,double crossing and awful acting. I'd still buy a blu ray of it though So many GOOD martial arts movies are MIA in Brazil, and this one scores a legit DVD release here. Go figure. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member saltysam Posted June 21, 2022 Member Share Posted June 21, 2022 True Game Of Death I'm punishing myself this week, another terrible effort watched tonight. Movie opens with the familar Unicorn press conference, Bruce dies, funeral footage ,then the movie switches it's focus to his replacement,Hsao Lung. He's making his latest movie when he's threatened by low rent versions of Dean Jaggers henchmen, three who wear tuxedos with a red tie and hat. Eventually they get his western girlfriend Alice to poison him.This film is batshit crazy,,no redeeming features (well the pagoda rips are good for a laugh) i'd still buy a blu ray. This english dub version i think i got from youtube, english dubbed,runs 73 minutes, it's cropped to about 1:78 but weirdly at the end of the Inosanto rip off fight it switches to full widescreen. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted July 19, 2022 Member Share Posted July 19, 2022 (edited) Bruce Lee and I Betty's adolescent sob story was a waste of time. The talking candle scene was a waste of time. Seeing Bruce's final hour for the second time was a waste of time. The ballad scenes were a waste of time (it doesn't help that the lyrics written by the director are woeful). Even two of the movie set fights were a waste of time. All the time spent on these things could have been used to depict what went down when Betty accompanied Bruce to the sets of Fist of Unicorn and The Way of the Dragon. Betty's movie is more interesting when thinking about the missed opportunities such as the suicide attempt that landed her in hospital near the end of 1972. Considering that Raymond Chow left the Shaw Brothers in a poaching manner, it's weird that he gets an easy ride in this. Chow at one point says "Have I ever let you down?" despite Bruce in real life not being happy with failing to cast Lee Kwan in The Way of the Dragon. We don't see any major arguments concerning what Chow told the press about Bruce being like a child or what Concord funds he was hiding from Bruce. While Lo Wei is identified as just Lo, Chow is called Kong. If you're going to change someone's name, go to town on that person like Wong Jing did in High Risk. The closest to a harsh insult aimed at Chow is when Bruce tells Lo's wife that he is a white head (this precedes a scene where Bruce has to attend a challenge match at White Head Mountain). Speaking of Lo's wife (still named Liu), she mentions at an office meeting that she doesn't understand what Bruce sees in Betty. I'm surprised that Betty allowed that line to be spoken since the Bruce biography Fighting Spirit reported her to be ego-driven enough to demand Shaw that he spend 20,000 dollars on dresses for this movie. Speaking of which, we don't get to see the moment when Betty went shopping with Linda. For a Shaw movie, it's weird that her Shaw career wasn't touched on...but I guess that would have been too self-referential. Corey Yuen is in this movie, and I would like to know how he felt about being in it when compared to working on Birth of the Dragon. The sad thing about Bruce Lee and I is that there were cheaper movies which were more accurate. I don't get why Betty's biopic depicts Enter the Dragon and Game of Death as the same production. If this biopic was to be believed, Betty never saw Bruce do coke despite seeing him be a bar hopper, pill popper and toker. Ironically, while we get to see Bruce slap Betty...we never get to see her slap him when he loses consciousness near the end of his life. 3/10. Edited July 19, 2022 by Cognoscente 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted July 19, 2022 Member Share Posted July 19, 2022 On 7/2/2021 at 3:19 AM, Cognoscente said: This got me thinking about why Game of Death wasn't much of a money-maker when released in HK. Had the movie been completed and released way before the shapes era, it would have fared better at the local box office. Are you sure this wasn't much of a money-maker? Apparently, it was the 4th highest-grossing domestic film of 1978, falling behind The Contract; Drunken Master; and Follow the Star. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted July 19, 2022 Member Share Posted July 19, 2022 What I mean is that it could have done FOF numbers (if not WOTD numbers) instead of ETD numbers. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member DrNgor Posted July 19, 2022 Member Share Posted July 19, 2022 17 minutes ago, Cognoscente said: What I mean is that it could have done FOF numbers (if not WOTD numbers) instead of ETD numbers. Would ETD done better if theaters hadn't jacked up the price? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted July 19, 2022 Member Share Posted July 19, 2022 Definitely. It might not have surpassed The House of 72 Tenants but it would have grossed more than 3 million. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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