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enquiry about kung fu vs. japanese/karate films..


ben

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this is going to be a bit of a strange enquiry but hopefully somebody can help me out.

excluding "Fist of Fury" and all the associated 'sequels', "The Chinese Boxer" and "King Boxer", can anyone advise of any other films which are based on conflicts between chinese/kung fu martial arts and japanese/karate schools, whether it is about one system being more superior over the other, or more of a personal film based on students from one of the schools who is seeking honor or revenge or anything like that? need some assistance for a project.

thanks.

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ironfistedmonk

The obvious one is Heroes of the East, wall to wall chinese vs japanese styles and a great movie too, very highly recommended. Jimmy Wang Yu made alot of movies matching himself up against the Japanese but I'm not his biggest fan and can't for the life of me remember the titles of these films.

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I guess there must be loads by indie companies...rite now I remember at least"bloody fists","two fists vs seven samurais" and "japanese connection"...has been long time since I saw those but I recall none of them were good.

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Beach Of The War Gods is a good Jimmy Wang Yu one.

IIRC Hapkido and When Taekwando Strikes are good Korean/Taiwan based vs Japanese flicks. Legend Of A Fighter springs to mind, without having seen in a while, sure Kurata's playing native there.

These next couple/few are after the basher boom, which you might possibly be looking for, them old karate chopping flicks - I don't know, but still, Duel To The Death. Ninjas & Dragons, come to mind for wire-y antics.

Also Bastard Swordsman Part 2, My Rebellious Son, 5 Element Ninja, Thunderbolt Fist, 7 Man Army, 5 Tough Guys (got that big Judo dude from Heroes Of The East in it), some Shaw flicks based Chinese vs Japanese, sporting usually the typical HK, etc. guys playing Japanese.

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There's also Ninja in the Dragon's den, but it is more like a personal vengeance thing between japanese, where the chinese gets stuck in the middle of it. Alot of honor involved from the ninja.

Also the others mentioned, especially Heroes of the East and Legend of a Fighter.

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Heroes of the East. It goes beyond the classic revenge plot. They actually discuss the diferences between the chinese and japanese styles, match similar weapons,etc.. and the japanese martial artists are actually japanese, not chinese playing the roles.

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Morgoth Bauglir

One Armed Boxer is a must see. It is one of Jimmy Wang Yu's best performances. The end fight is a crazy one between him and Lung Fei who plays a Japanese. He also fights a Yoga dude, 2 Tibetan Lamas, 2 Thai Kickboxers, a Judo guy, a Karate guy, and Lung Fei's 2 Japanese students. Easily one of the best kung fu movies ever made.

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I want to thank all of you for taking the time to respond and help me out, I really appreciate it alot. this is a great help.

"One Armed Boxer" was a film I was personally interested to see for a long time, I'll get an order in for that online today if i can, and check out some of the others that have been suggested.

"Legend of a fighter" is a film that has been sitting on the shelf of the DVD store I go to for many many months now. i will definitely go and pick that up next time i am in the area.

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NINJA IN THE DEADLY TRAP

KNIGHT ERRANT

Countless Robert Tai/Alexander Lou flicks like...

NINJA VS SHAOLIN GUARD

SHAOLIN VS NINJA

NINJA: THE FINAL DUEL

MAFIA VS NINJA

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Chinatown Kid

Rage of Wind and Kung Fu: The Invisible Fist are two early 70's bashers starring Chen Sing which pits Kung Fu vs Karate. Kurata plays the villian in both films. The Bloody Fists is another early 70's basher starring Chen Sing as hero and Chen Kuan Tai plays the Japanese villian.

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Duel of the 7 tigers (aka. Shadow of the tiger)..

Karate vs different chinese styles (wing chun, hung gar, monkey fist, etc). The stars of the movie are all real time masters of the style they use in the movie.

800 heroes..

a movie about the japanse invasion of shanghai. This is, however, a war movie, not a kung fu movie, since there's no actual martial arts.

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More titles to add:

The Invincible Iron Palm

Rage of Wind

The Bloody Fight

Lady Whirlwind

Triangular Duel

Chinese Iron Man

Fists of Vengeance

Kung Fu Superman

The King Boxer (Meng Fei)

All of these films had the Chinese vs Japanese Kung Fu/Karate themes at the heart of their conflicts.

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BlurayStation3

Thanks for the recommendations. I just finished watching Heroes of the East; very awesome. This is the first Gordon Liu/Shaw Brothers film I've ever seen. Which other ones are as good as this? I'm looking for ones with actual Japanese or Korean martial artists facing Chinese martial artists, and where the non-Chinese characters aren't just portrayed as evil/one sided.

I saw Hapkido but didn't really enjoy it.

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KUNG FU BOB
Thanks for the recommendations. I just finished watching Heroes of the East; very awesome. This is the first Gordon Liu/Shaw Brothers film I've ever seen. Which other ones are as good as this? I'm looking for ones with actual Japanese or Korean martial artists facing Chinese martial artists, and where the non-Chinese characters aren't just portrayed as evil/one sided.

Actually this portrayal of the Japanese as multi-dimensional people as opposed to shallow monsters was extremely unique for it's time. Of course it's no surprise that the maestro Lau Sifu would once again be the innovator of new ideas in kung fu cinema. Typically what you're going to find in kung fu cinema are one dimensional portrayals of the Japanese as beasts. In Jimmy Wang Yu's early films they are especially devilish, at times even appearing with fangs! The couple that come to mind that have at least a few, more fleshed out portrayals are FIST OF LEGEND and LEGEND OF A FIGHTER. Right now that's all I can think of.

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kungfusamurai

Many will disagree with me, but I still found the Japanese characters in Heroes Of The East to be one dimensional. They came across as being either ruthless or crafty or so blinded by honour they didn't care about the truth until Gordon Liu's character 'taught' them through defeat that they were not superior martial artists. At least, that's my interpretation of Heroes Of The East. Still it's a great movie to watch, but I think in the contest of samurai sword vs chinese sword, the samurai would have won.

KFS

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Thanks for the recommendations. I just finished watching Heroes of the East; very awesome. This is the first Gordon Liu/Shaw Brothers film I've ever seen. Which other ones are as good as this? I'm looking for ones with actual Japanese or Korean martial artists facing Chinese martial artists, and where the non-Chinese characters aren't just portrayed as evil/one sided.

I saw Hapkido but didn't really enjoy it.

Fearless and Ninja in the Dragons Den as well as the two Kung Fu Bob mentioned.

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Might watch fearless.

Its a great film i reckon, some annoying wirework at points but overall its good stuff.

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KUNG FU BOB
Many will disagree with me, but I still found the Japanese characters in Heroes Of The East to be one dimensional. They came across as being either ruthless or crafty or so blinded by honour they didn't care about the truth until Gordon Liu's character 'taught' them through defeat that they were not superior martial artists. At least, that's my interpretation of Heroes Of The East. Still it's a great movie to watch, but I think in the contest of samurai sword vs chinese sword, the samurai would have won. KFS

I totally hear what you're saying. But consider the multi-faceted character of Gordon's wife in the film- she's Japanese. And the other characters have been insulted, and are pissed, so there's not a lot of room for character development for them within the context of the story. Still, it's a long way from Wang Yu's growling, animal-like villians.

And yes, I'm afraid that katana would have been the last flash of steel our favorite Master Killer ever saw! LOL

Might watch fearless.

I love this movie. Easily one of Jet's best, with a powerful story, terrific production values, and exciting fights.

Its a great film i reckon, some annoying wirework at points but overall its good stuff.

I agree, the wirework is it's only stumbling block for me too. But it's nothing like the wire crazy FONG SAI YUK[ films.

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kungfusamurai
I totally hear what you're saying. But consider the multi-faceted character of Gordon's wife in the film- she's Japanese. And the other characters have been insulted, and are pissed, so there's not a lot of room for character development for them within the context of the story. Still, it's a long way from Wang Yu's growling, animal-like villians.

And yes, I'm afraid that katana would have been the last flash of steel our favorite Master Killer ever saw

I hear ya. I guess it was a stepping point to better portrayals in Chinese cinema. At least they got the costumes right. So many of those earlier films showing Japanese have them wearing wrong clothing, and the weapons don't look authentic like in Heroes. The same could be said of Japanese cinema portraying Chinese people. I always found it funny the sound of mandarin or cantonese being spoken in a strong Japanese accent, like in the Sister Streetfighter films, or in Shogun's Ninja.

KFS

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At least, that's my interpretation of Heroes Of The East. Still it's a great movie to watch, but I think in the contest of samurai sword vs chinese sword, the samurai would have won.

KFS

Nah, the katana's just had better PR over the years---the jian was a good match for it any day.

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