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The Best Shaw Film You've Seen Recently Is...


HAZ

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I watched Demon of the Lute (1983) yesterday with my little girl (5 years old), we both enjoyed it quite a lot.

This movie is completely insane, in a good way! it's aimed towards kids but adults could enjoy it just as well as long as you don't expect realistic kung fu. I guess if you like Super Inframan, its a bit similar in term of "over the top".

There is not too many shaw brothers I can watch with my kid.

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Drunken Monk

I just watched "Killer Constable" for the first time and...wow! It's not really something I'd typically expect myself to enjoy but I loved it. Dark, intriguing, bloody and with some of the greatest cinematography I've seen in a Shaw Brothers film.

Chen Kuan Tai is phenomenal in this one. A character tilt walking on the thin line between honourable and detestable. Great stuff!

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TibetanWhiteCrane

Getting a little more into late 60's early 70's wuxia, which it took me a while to warm to, outside of the immediate classics....

So I watched Have Sword, Will Travel yesterday, and I really liked it. Great characters, good story, and a love triangle to boot. I wish Chang Cheh would have stayed more in line with this type of filmmaking, and not just the bare chested homoerotic sausage fests that his work evolved/devolved into later on. Though I enjoy those as well. But there was way more pathos, atmosphere and deeper characteriziation at play in his earlier films. The trade off though, is that the action was substancially worse. I would have liked to see him marry all those aspects together, which he did in some films, to be fair. But had he kept the strong characters and solid narratives going with the progression of fight choreography, he would probably be one of my all time directors.

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Cloud Hands

Killer Constable is a solid gold classic. Time for me to rewatch it is overdue. Another very dark 80s Shaw I watched recently is Secret Service of the Imperial Court, havent seen it for a long time and it lived up to all my memories, plenty of limbs and heads go flying in this, and it has a decent storyline. I always bracket Usurpers of Emperors Power with it, I'll have to watch that again too, although I remember slightly prefering Secret Service.

Tibetan, regarding earlier shaw wuxia's - I also keep meaning to explore them a bit more beyond the classics. I've got a few on the shelf to be watched. I get what your saying about Chang Cheh's earlier works. My favourite early wuxia is hands down The Assassin.. a deep film.

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I watched Executioner from Shaolin yesterday, it's good movie with lots of kung fu, the story is a bit of a mess but it's ok.

There is one thing that is very weird about this movie.... it's the main guy (Chen Kuan Tai)always trying to grab the ennemi's crotch (Lo Lieh), that part was a bit "gay".

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Drunken Monk
There is one thing that is very weird about this movie.... it's the main guy (Chen Kuan Tai)always trying to grab the ennemi's crotch (Lo Lieh), that part was a bit "gay".

I don't think that's weird at all and certainly not "gay." Pai Mei is a villain well known for having the ability to move his vital points or being defeated via his pressure points.

The balls are a pressure point for all men so why wouldn't he aim for the crotch area? To deem it "gay" just seems juvenile. It wasn't like he was trying to grab it so he could suck him off.

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I don't think that's weird at all and certainly not "gay." Pai Mei is a villain well known for having the ability to move his vital points or being defeated via his pressure points.

The balls are a pressure point for all men so why wouldn't he aim for the crotch area? To deem it "gay" just seems juvenile. It wasn't like he was trying to grab it so he could suck him off.

:eek: .... I forgot what I was goin to say, ...Im still getting over the Iron Egg clip:tinysmile_angry2_t:

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massa_yoda

Holy crap.

There is one thing that is very weird about this movie.... it's the main guy (Chen Kuan Tai)always trying to grab the ennemi's crotch (Lo Lieh), that part was a bit "gay".

Executioners is such a classic. I love the epic story, the themes, and the action.

I admit I found the "grabs" a bit distracting at first too (not the "shapes" I was expecting), but as Drunken Monk said, it IS realistic and it did have a point, so it wasn't a problem for me.

Man, I think I need to watch this again...

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Tex Killer

Who takes this as fanproject?Delete all scenes with lily li, rewrite the dialogue, shaolin monks are bunch of homosexuals hunted down by straights and ckt has insane lust for lo liehs staff...

:crossedlips::tinysmile_angry2_t::tongue:

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I think you missed the point.

Probably, I need to re-watch it a second time :)

I understand the whole vital point thing but this was just...... unexpected !

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I watched two crappy Shaw today

Journey of the Doomed and Virgins of the Seven Seas.

Certainly not worth buying on dvd..... but both have huge amount of tits.

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I watched Demon of the Lute (1983) yesterday with my little girl (5 years old), we both enjoyed it quite a lot.

This movie is completely insane, in a good way! it's aimed towards kids but adults could enjoy it just as well as long as you don't expect realistic kung fu. I guess if you like Super Inframan, its a bit similar in term of "over the top".

There is not too many shaw brothers I can watch with my kid.

Demon of the Lute is def one of the fun "batshit insane" (Holy Flame, Web of Death, etc.) Shaw flicks, always a good time.

I watched two crappy Shaw today

Journey of the Doomed and Virgins of the Seven Seas.

Certainly not worth buying on dvd..... but both have huge amount of tits.

I SWEAR I'm one of the only people that find any enjoyment in Journey of the Doomed....it's Shaw Brothers meets the 80's Flash Gordon :tongue:

After a (way to long) movie drought, I got back into the Shaw game....

Just finished The Delinquent, fun, but choppy "modern" actioner...def worth a watch.

Also watched Tales of the Eunuch...some solid action, a few to many subplots going on at once, but still ties together well enough.

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The Tea House....not quiet sure why this is a CAT III flick, but maybe because it's a very early triad flick?

Chen Kuan-tai was superb, in this one...as is most of the supporting cast.

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TibetanWhiteCrane

Watched Flag Of Iron with the english dub for the first time, and oh my word.... this has to be the worst Shaw dub i've ever heard!!! Everyones voice seems off, especially Kwok Choi and most def Lu Feng. He sounds like some upper class British gay guy.... just terrible. Takes all the edge off his performance.

Never playing that dub again, for sure.

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Watched Flag Of Iron with the english dub for the first time, and oh my word.... this has to be the worst Shaw dub i've ever heard!!! Everyones voice seems off, especially Kwok Choi and most def Lu Feng. He sounds like some upper class British gay guy.... just terrible. Takes all the edge off his performance.

Never playing that dub again, for sure.

How about movie itself?I rank it in top5 of Venoms...I have ivl only so can`t check that dub but sounds awful:neutral:

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TibetanWhiteCrane

It's not one of my fave venom flicks, but it's ok. I have the Tokyo Shock version and usually watch in original language, but since I always loved the dubs for other venom films, I thought I would try it out...... never again!

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Kao Li did not make much movies and only other I have screened by him is "invincible sword".

This one is superior though, extremely interesting. If you can stand old wu xia choreography, highle recommended to add into shopping cart from f.e. dddhouse

Sets and costumes are usual decent shaw standard you have seen in movies from that era(made in 1967):wink:

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I watched Trilogy of Swordsmanship today and was pretty disapointed.

The 3 stories had potential but ended up being boring and uninspired. Almost zero combat, except for Chang Cheh' story and everything is just slow.

Lots of great visual but I guess I'm not much of a wuxia fan, especially the old ones.

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How about movie itself?I rank it in top5 of Venoms...I l:

personally I thought it was just okay but would like to re-evaluate it someday.

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New Shaolin Boxers. That Fu Sheng guy's Kung Fu wasn't bad.

:D

It certainly was not. NSB in my opinion is finest I have seen as Fu Sheng as leading star though disciples of shaolin comes very close.

Movie has nothing to do with shaolin though, studio propably added it to title for getting more interest...

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massa_yoda

It's been a long time, but I've finally started watching my movies again (instead of just letting them continue to pile up). The shaw film I chose was Life Gamble because the mixed opinions made me curious. I recently acquired the BCI version which came with the interviews and liner notes.

What I liked:

The is a massive epic. The Martial world doesn't get much more crowded than this, not to mention more devious. I loved how this film kept building up the "gamble" of the title. It felt almost like how White Vengeance built up the banquet. You know it's coming and you know lots of people will die, but the question, of course, is who?

What I didn't like:

Didn't quite get the character motivations. First, those four criminals who stole the jade. Come on, they should have known they would all try to kill each other at the gamble. What's the point? They should have just had it out right away. And the Blacksmith...if he wanted to leave the martial world, why didn't he move out of the town where everyone still knows him and can find him no problem? This includes his enemies. And finally, this was almost too big. They could have just made a movie about the four criminals who took the jade, learned about their past, their motivations...it would have made a tighter movie. But on the other hand, if you have the opportunity to have so many classic actors in one movie together...why not?

In all, this is a big, packed drama with unfortunately little action. The only lengthy action comes at the end. And even then it wasn't the best I've seen these guys. Still an intriguing movie that had me interested to the end.

A question for the community here: I see the liner notes are written by Ric Meyers! So...are these any good??? I don't want to read them if they're crap.

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TibetanWhiteCrane

I wouldn't bother with anything coming from Meyers, only for comedic value.

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Killer Meteor
Watched Flag Of Iron with the english dub for the first time, and oh my word.... this has to be the worst Shaw dub i've ever heard!!! Everyones voice seems off, especially Kwok Choi and most def Lu Feng. He sounds like some upper class British gay guy.... just terrible. Takes all the edge off his performance.

Never playing that dub again, for sure.

Shaws farmed off this and Five Element Ninjas to what sounds like one effeminate man or two brothers who love each other way too much.

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