Member venoms5 Posted May 24, 2008 Member Share Posted May 24, 2008 Below is a random list of indy kung fu movies that I enjoy quite a bit and have seen numerous times as well as why they stand out for me. Are there others with a Dirty Dozen of Kung Fu that they enjoy to a high degree, and why? LIFE OF A NINJA (1983)-Chen Kuan Tai as a ninja master is reason enough to check this out. The fight between CKT and the Wrestler, Wong Ga Man is a highlight. Painful Ninja training as well as Kunoichi mud wrestling accompanied by the ROCKY 2 soundtrack are also memorable. Music from the US miniseries SHOGUN is also heard throughout. SHAOLIN TEMPLE AGAINST LAMA (1980?)-Possibly the best movie NOT directed by Robert Tai. The location shots are stunning as is the choreography. Fight after fight after fight...Alexander Lo excels here. The string of fights where the guy with the skull on his forehead annihilates all comers is great. The finale recalls EXECUTIONERS OF SHAOLIN (1976) as Lo Rei seeks out the villains weak spot resulting in a spectacular arterial spray. SHAOLIN VS LAMA (1983)-Possibly Lo Rei's best performance. Everybody shines in this movie. Chang Shan shines exuberantly as the insidious, nearly unstoppable villain. Good plot, great fights highlighted by a showstopping finale in which various maneuvers and styles (including wrestling!) are displayed. THE ODD COUPLE (1979)-Some of the finest choreo of sword and spear courtesy of Sammo and Liu Chia Yung. Intriguing plot deftly handled by director Liu as well. Beardy turns in a badass performance as the bad guy. Dean Shek is amusing as 'Mr. Rocking', accompanied by dance music whenever he is on screen. THE FEARLESS HYENA (1979)-I'm in no way a Chan Fan but this movie is gold and features some seriously smooth choreo from start to finish. The bits where Jackie assumes various disguises to combat assorted combatants was classic kung fu comedy done right. Loved the bit where he fought Stony Egg, Iron Head and the Great Bear! Not to mention Yen Shi Kwan was awesome as the main bad guy. The guest appearance by Ricky Cheng is a nice addition. SHAOLIN CHASTITY KUNG FU (1981)-Saw this as a kid and fell in love with the quirky nature of the film. Lots of gory violence mixed with some wild costumes and nutty fights. Loved the wrestler Wong Ga Man who sports his belt during the movie! Easily the best directed movie from the bitter but schizophrenically ambitious Robert Tai. HITMAN IN THE HAND OF BUDDHA (1981)-Directed and Produced by Hwang Jang Lee! Starring Hwang Jang Lee! As the hero! One of the best indies, IMO. One of the most centered and concentrated kung fu films. HJL obviously had a vision. Some supreme bootwork from the master. A memorable opening and finale. The duel between HJL and Tino Wong is also class. The score from BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) is utilized well, too. MAGNIFICENT NATURAL FIST (1981)-A Godfrey Ho flick I like. Doesn't make much sense but the near constant flow of fights is nice and the comradiery between Elton Chong and Mike Wong is humorous at times. Especially the "burial" scene--"Oh my gosh, what did he step in?" The Jesus lookalike villain was great and his elongated bionic arm at the end was out of left field. The music ripped from the original BATTLESTAR GALACTICA was jarring as all hell. THE DEADLY SILVER SPEAR (1977)-One of the nuttiest and most outrageous Wang Yu flicks I've seen. Great costumes and fights and the appearances by the poor man's version of the Flying Guillotine are most welcome. Also, there's acid spitting flying skeletons! COUNTRY OF BEAUTIES (1984)-Saw this on 'Night Flight' on the USA Network under the title ISLAND WARRIORS and fell in love with it ever since. The fights are nothing special but there's an island of vicious amazons who castrate men they use for breeding if they bear male babies thus turning them into homosexuals! The babies are then tossed into the ocean. There's a superhuman amazon who practices virgin kung fu, sex, nudity, a hidden cache of gold, pirates, opening credits dance numbers, some hilarious comedic hijinx, lesbians, Don Wong Tao and music lifted from both FIRST BLOOD and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Exploitation camp of the highest order. IRON FISTS (1979)-All star mega cast. CKT is a constable who gets his thumb cut off then has a special glove made to get revenge on Beardy, Liu Chia Yung for the murder of his family. Numerous double crosses abound as the bad guys stab each other in the back...and other places, too over the whereabouts of some hidden money. The finale features a great fight replete with booby traps. Meng Fei also stars. Some of the film reminds me of the great KILLER CONSTABLE (1980). THUNDERING MANTIS (1979)-Violent and wild kung fu flick starring Liang Chia Jen. Kao Hsiung is one of the most despicable villains in kung fu film history here. The end torture/battle is one of the best ever with Beardy going completely insane culminating in a cannibal feast during the final shot! A rare character driven indy flick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted May 24, 2008 Member Share Posted May 24, 2008 lol, at minimum I would have to put about 10 dozen. And Shaolin Chastity Kung Fu? You serious on that one? That's gotta be Lo rei's weakest oldschool performance. A few of the fights were alright I guess, but I just really hated that movie. And I have to see Country of Beauties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member venoms5 Posted May 24, 2008 Author Member Share Posted May 24, 2008 I said it was Tai's best movie, IMO. Saw it as a kid under the title REVENGE OF THE DRAGON and was attracted to the quirkiness of it as I listed the reasons why I like it. Lo Rei's in my opinion is SHAOLIN VS LAMA. Why not list a dozen than come back and list a dozen more and what you thought was special about them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted May 24, 2008 Member Share Posted May 24, 2008 Why not list a dozen than come back and list a dozen more and what you thought was special about them? Laziness:p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted May 24, 2008 Member Share Posted May 24, 2008 Here's some for you off the top of my head Venoms5- 60 second Assassin- awesome awesome awesome fights, decent story, and a good dark mood. Love and Sword- great story and acting, good action. Master Killers- crap movie, but good fights with Bolo, and an incredible final fight that will make you forget how bad the rest of the movie was. The Massive aka Murder of Murders- great cast, good story, above average action Sleeping Fist- I'm a huge fan of thundering Mantis, but I liked this movie a lot more. Leung Kar Yan is just so damn smooth. Shanghai 13- who cares about a good story when you have nonstop awesome fights with your favorite kung fu stars? Shaolin Blood Mission- One of Hwang's best performances, good action all around, and I will neve forget the chess game where they use slave women as chess pieces. Return of the tiger- I have watched the dojo fight and final fight a least 50 times. Impossible to get tired of. King of Kings- good fights and lots of em. A bit of a tearjerker this one. Iron Swallow- great fights and great dark story. Little Superman- aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! Ninja Terminator- tons of cheesy fun, and good fights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member tdubxvi Posted May 24, 2008 Member Share Posted May 24, 2008 Does Deadly Silver Spear have those sawblade yoyos? Is that what you refer to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member venoms5 Posted May 24, 2008 Author Member Share Posted May 24, 2008 Does Deadly Silver Spear have those sawblade yoyos? Is that what you refer to? Yeah, that's it. Morgoth, isn't NINJA TERMINATOR the one with HJL wearing that awful blonde wig and the good guy slowly kicks him down into a hole on the beach? I remember Bruce Baron playing the "American Ninja" in this one. At least the "ninja" fights weren't over quite as fast in this one; not really all that long, but not as "blink-and-you'll-miss'em" as some other entries. HJL was pretty vicious in SHAOLIN: THE BLOOD MISSION. Saw that one at the drive-in. Thought the end fight was kind of weak though. Hwang beats the holy hell out of everybody then he takes nowhere near the amount of punishment his adversaries had taken and is dispatched rather quickly. I never cared much for SLEEPING FIST. I got a wide copy a couple years back and have yet to watch it. Maybe a second viewing is in order? The first time around it didn't impress me like THUNDERING MANTIS did, which took a second viewing for me to enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted May 25, 2008 Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 Yeah Ninja Terminator's the one where he gets his shoes stuck because they were too heavy. The way he got defeated in Shaolin Blood Mssion wasn't that great, but way better than Ninja Terminator. And the great Richard Harrison plays the main ninja in this one. He has a Garfield phone, very class. His acting alone makes the movie worth watching. And the best part of the movie is at the end where Harrison and Phillip Ko duke it out with their swords in a spectacular ninja battle, and Phillip Ko admits defeat and blows himself up. Another magnificent directing job by Godfrey Ho. Sleeping Fist has the same cast as Thundering MAntis (Eddie Ko, Wong Yat Lung and Ma Chin Ku), except Simon Yuen takes over the teacher role. It doesn't have the amazing ending that T Mantis has, but the fights are better. And the whole movie I found more enjoyable from the start up until the very end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member venoms5 Posted May 25, 2008 Author Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 And the great Richard Harrison plays the main ninja in this one. Oh that's right. He wears a camouflage outfit, yes? Bruce Baron was in THE ULTIMATE NINJA and NINJA DESTROYER. The first one I saw with Harrison as Gordon the Ninja was that AWFUL Joseph Lai directed COBRA AGAINST NINJA. If only the movie contained ANYTHING found on the elaborate and glittery VHS box art. Imperial Entertainment and Transworld could really make crap look worthwhile. NINJA KILL and NINJA SQUAD were two other Harrison crapfests. NINJA THUNDERBOLT wasn't TOO bad...which isn't saying much. I remember Harrison also in THE GOLDEN NINJA WARRIOR which had Chiang Tao as a villain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted May 25, 2008 Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 Check out Clash of the Ninja. Greatest final fight, ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member venoms5 Posted May 25, 2008 Author Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 Check out Clash of the Ninja. Greatest final fight, ever. I may have seen it already. When I was a kid, I was strangely attracted to these ridiculous "ninja" movies. The Tomas Tang ones were the "best" I thought. Possibly the most riotous ones were NINJA: AMERICAN WARRIOR and DEVIL'S DYNAMITE both simply two of the worst movies of all time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted May 25, 2008 Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 Here ya go. Fastforward to the 4 minute mark and watch from there on. Rebellious Reign, Killer Constable, Thundering Mantis... none can compare to the ending of this movie- fh0flohL4vk&feature=related Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member venoms5 Posted May 25, 2008 Author Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 Here ya go. Fastforward to the 4 minute mark and watch from there on. Rebellious Reign, Killer Constable, Thundering Mantis... none can compare to the ending of this movie- You are joking, right....? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member venoms5 Posted May 25, 2008 Author Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 The exploding styrofoam ninjas is similar to the one in NINJA: AMERICAN WARRIOR only there it's a dummy that doesn't have hands or feet and the wig goes flying off as the explosive goes off next to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted May 25, 2008 Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 I don't joke around If you find that Ninja American Warrior clip I have to see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member venoms5 Posted May 25, 2008 Author Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 If you find that Ninja American Warrior clip I have to see it. Here's the VHS...The whole movie is insane actually...terrible movie but terrible in a fun way... http://www.amazon.com/Ninja-American-Warrior-Jeff-Houston/dp/6300161412 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member venoms5 Posted May 25, 2008 Author Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 Here's some clips from the no budget wonder that is NINJA: AMERICAN WARRIOR... DAWN OF THE DEAD music is used here... The dutch trailer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Black Dragon Posted May 25, 2008 Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 Here ya go. Fastforward to the 4 minute mark and watch from there on. Rebellious Reign, Killer Constable, Thundering Mantis... none can compare to the ending of this movie- fh0flohL4vk&feature=related LMMFAO!!! The american fascination with ninja movies, in the early 80's, is what lead to the downfall of good Kung Fu films being distrubuted here. That being said, that has to be one of the most ridiculous and over the top endings that I have ever seen in a live action film. I'm still laughing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member oldeschool17 Posted May 25, 2008 Member Share Posted May 25, 2008 LMMFAO!!! The american fascination with ninja movies, in the early 80's, is what lead to the downfall of good Kung Fu films being distrubuted here. That being said, that has to be one of the most ridiculous and over the top endings that I have ever seen in a live action film. I'm still laughing. this was horrible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member TibetanWhiteCrane Posted May 26, 2008 Member Share Posted May 26, 2008 Man, that avatar made me bust a gut... thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Elaquent Posted May 29, 2008 Member Share Posted May 29, 2008 man....shaolin chastity kung fu has good fighting....but thats otherwise one of the worst movies ive ever seen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Morgoth Bauglir Posted May 30, 2008 Member Share Posted May 30, 2008 I didn't even like the fighting! I mean some of it was ok, but not much. I think one reason I hated Shaolin Chastity was because the DVD has Chang Shan on the cover, and I was really disappointed that he wasn't in the movie. I haven't seen it in like 3 or 4 years, but after having such a bad experience watching it the first time, I don't see myself rewatching it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member oldeschool17 Posted May 30, 2008 Member Share Posted May 30, 2008 Man, that avatar made me bust a gut... thanks! if yer talking to me. thanks yer welcome:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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