THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO THE MARTIAL ARTS MOVIES OF THE 1970s

[Karlos]

My copy arrived today

Am about 50 or so pages in and it really is a brilliantly written piece of work - light-hearted yet totally in love with the genre, and just bursting with insight.

And so many nice little touches - I mean, the % of time spent on actual martial arts in each film? Other writers should hang their heads in shame for not thinking of that!

Guys, in case you didn't already know, you NEED this book!!

[venom10463]

Received mine today and I'm blown away. Scanned through a few pages and I like the fact you also included Japanese samurai and yakuza films. I was thinking it was strictly Chinese martial arts films only.

[Shaolin Chamber 36]

And so many nice little touches - I mean, the % of time spent on actual martial arts in each film? Other writers should hang their heads in shame for not thinking of that!

Noting the percentage of the fights in a movie is something I was doing back in 2005 in my movie reviews, when I started my original site, Shaolin Chamber.

Instead of percentage, I actually stated this in minutes and seconds, as you can see here.

This is for the movie Shaolin Raiders of Death (AKA: Seven Steps of Kung Fu, Kung Fu of Seven Steps, 7 Steps of Kung Fu, Kung Fu of 7 Steps).

And YES, I highly recommend this book also, as I stated on my site in a recent article.

[Karlos]

Good read, SMK - in fact, I've just left a reply on your site!

It made me realise just how few decent MA film books there actually are out there!

[Stephe]

I got The Ultimate Guide to Martial Arts Movies of the 1970s about a week ago,

and can't say that I'm all that thrilled with it on the level of ascertaining which movies

are worth checking out or not. The writer seems overly concerned with the quantity

of martial arts footage to the detriment of the quality thereof. For example, there are

martial arts films with a buttload of fighting that pretty much stink, and there are

martial arts films with very little fighting that are great, and many that fall in between,

but this book is no help in separating the wheat from the chaff in that respect.

Also, if this book is supposed to have all the 70s kung fu films, why are two of my

favorites -- Deaf Mute Heroine (1971) and Crystal Fist [aka Jade Claw] (1979) -- not

listed?

[teako170]

Also, if this book is supposed to have all the 70s kung fu films, why are two of my favorites -- Deaf Mute Heroine (1971) and Crystal Fist [aka Jade Claw] (1979) -- not listed?

As DrCraig has mentioned, there was only so much room and had to limit the entries. Those 2 films are listed in the index at the back though you are right as there are many good films not discussed in the main body of the book. On the flip side, there are films which could have been skipped (I was surprised to see "Man w/ the Golden Gun" here or some of the documentaries) for better known films such as "Warriors Two" or "Hapkido."

I guess if I could have had it my way (chime in the Burger King jingle), I would have paid another 50% for another 250 films but I guess the decision to keep it at 500 had to do with what the publisher deemed best for overall sales, so I'm content with what we got.

[Tosh]

I got The Ultimate Guide to Martial Arts Movies of the 1970s about a week ago,

and can't say that I'm all that thrilled with it on the level of ascertaining which movies

are worth checking out or not. The writer seems overly concerned with the quantity

of martial arts footage to the detriment of the quality thereof. For example, there are

martial arts films with a buttload of fighting that pretty much stink, and there are

martial arts films with very little fighting that are great, and many that fall in between,

but this book is no help in separating the wheat from the chaff in that respect.

Well if you stick around on the forum you'll see one man's trash is another man's treasure, many of us love the "Venom" movies, others hate them, best to see if it interests you then askthe people here, where you'll get more opinions.

Ya I'll have to pick this up.

[Guest Markgway]

Warriors Two and Hapkido are missing??

I would've said those are seminal 70s martial arts movies.

[Monk Sante]

Ordered my copy today! ....More pics and reviews please.

[Shaolin Chamber 36]

I appreciate the comment Karlos, Thank you.

Good read, SMK - in fact, I've just left a reply on your site!

It made me realise just how few decent MA film books there actually are out there!

[Iron Boat]

Dr. Craig, I haven't purchased the book yet, just looking at a picture of the cover where i see my favorite Shaw star Chen Kuan Tai. I'm wondering if your book covers his work in depth? Thanks

[David Rees]

Will be picking this up soon, but was curious as to why a lot of the Golden Harvest films such as Hapkido etc are missing, seems odd or was it just space?

[Karlos]

Have now worked my way through a lot of the book now, and I can see now that there are faults with it.

There's some mistakes (but that's to be expected on a work this size) and yes, some (not many) of the films don't get any kind of review outside of the MA content, which can be irritating.

Oh, and the book doesn't share my love for Bare Knuckles LOL

BUT on the whole, it's a cracking piece of work and I'd still recommend it.

[KyFi]

I don't know if this was Dr. Craig's intention or not, but I might suggest that this book works great as a companion piece to Bey Logan's Hong Kong Action Cinema. Logan's book breaks down the important periods and subgenres, gives you an overview of the most important stars, and has a number of top 10 lists to familiarize people with the most important and best examples of each era. It's a great book to build up a foundation of knowledge about the genre. Dr. Craig's book then moves on to cover a lot more movies, and a lot more lesser-known movies, with a whole bunch of interesting tidbits, context, plot summaries, etc. I would say these two books work well together, as they're both excellent, and they cover a good deal of different ground.

[DrCraig]

Hi Stephe, thank you for interest in my book. Actually the films you mentioned Deaf Mute Heroine and Crystal Fist are listed in the book, I just did not have the space to do detailed "martialogies" on them...space was limited. I'd love to do a second edition of this book and write another 500+ films, in that way I can cover another big chunk of these films.

[DrCraig]

Dr. Craig, I haven't purchased the book yet, just looking at a picture of the cover where i see my favorite Shaw star Chen Kuan Tai. I'm wondering if your book covers his work in depth? Thanks

Iron Boat, thanks for the interest in the book. Do you recognize the films on the cover? But yes, I do cover quite a few of Chen's stuff in the book. I have interviewed Chen a few times and draw on some of that material in discussions of his films. Cheers, Dr Craig

[DrCraig]

Will be picking this up soon, but was curious as to why a lot of the Golden Harvest films such as Hapkido etc are missing, seems odd or was it just space?

Hi David, Ultimately it all came down to space. I had initially intentioned the book to be the top 1001 films, but time, space and finances basically had the book cut in half. It really pains me to not write about all the other great films made in that decade. Thank you for taking the time to purchase and read the book, everyone's comments on the forum (the positive and not as positive) add valuable insights. Cheers, Dr. Craig

[DrCraig]

Dr. Craig, got your fantastic book on Friday and have just skimmed it from cover to cover.

Just some initial comments and questions:

1) As mentioned in a previous email, it is great that the book was printed on such high quality glossy paper. Made the great pictures that you had in there stand out even more. Would have been nice if some of the pictures were larger in size but I can understand the space constraints.

2) Would had been nice if you could had sourced some quality pictures for the non-Shaw Brothers films as the book seem to emphasize Shaw Brothers (SB) productions.

3) Just a question why the production companies beside SB wasn't identified for the films. Would have been nice to give credit to the other companies such as Golden Harvest, Seasonal Films and the other independent companies for their productions.

4) As mentioned, you had excluded listings for such quality films such as Hapkido, Warriors Two, The Magnificent Butcher, etc. due to lack of space. Could you not have

drop some of the other much less known films to include these more relevant films?

5) To give some sense of perspective or quality, it would have been nice to have included some notes about how some of these films did in terms of the annual Hong Kong box office.

Overall though a great effort. Thank you for all of your work and time that you spent in putting this together. This publication is a mountain of information and is something that all martial arts fans should buy asap or put on their christmas wish list. Thanks again!!

Hi LastWeaponMaster,

Some jolly good talking points. I broached many of the other distribution companies for photos and they were asking $300+ for one photo, Celestial was the only company willing to negotiate a lower fee. I even had a very powerful Golden Harvest executive try to help me get photos at a lower cost from the current owners of the GH collection...no dice. The sense I got was that these films are not about passion but money (but it's a business and that's the way it is), but I would like to note that Celestial bent over backwards to help as many of my contacts there simply like to chat about SB films, and their passion is very pure and honest. Thus the extra credit to the SB films at the end of each Shaw Martialogy.

I have no qualms in discussing the "behind the scenes" of the book, because when one knows what goes on, then the choices made for the who, what, and why things are done the way they are help people discern that final choices is not always the personal choices.

[Iron Boat]

Iron Boat, thanks for the interest in the book. Do you recognize the films on the cover? But yes, I do cover quite a few of Chen's stuff in the book. I have interviewed Chen a few times and draw on some of that material in discussions of his films. Cheers, Dr Craig

Definitely, Man of Iron and Blood Brothers, two of my favorite CKT roles. Boxer From Shantung of course being the "Ultimate!" I just think you picked a great actor for the cover, a true martial artist and a great actor in one. That alone convinced me to buy the book, it shipped today from Amazon. I will read it ASAP but for now it is being delivered to my mother as a gift.

She loves these films as much as I do. She's a Venoms gal, I'm an Iron Triangle plus CKT kind of guy. I was fortunate to read the introduction and its great especially your insight on dubbing, the famous "but still" mystery is solved! And though I am a bit of a pompous Martial Art film Know it all I am always happy to learn something new. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience in this industry.

[teako170]

I'm an Iron Triangle plus CKT kind of guy.

I believe I have one of the interviews Dr.C did with CKT. If you like, I can scan and post.

[Iron Boat]

I believe I have one of the interviews Dr.C did with CKT. If you like, I can scan and post.

Sure, that be great!

[teako170]

I hope DrC doesn't mind. If so, I will remove. Enjoy....

source:

Reid, Craig. "Shaw Bros Legend Chen Kuan-Tai: The Real Iron Monkey." Kung Fu Tai Chi Jul-Aug 2007: 48-52.

[gfanikf]

Cool I just picked up my copy from Amazon tonight. It should be here tomorrow morning!

[Iron Boat]

wow that's a great interview and I appreciate you posting it, I particularly like the remarks about Iron Monkey, I can see he loves that film as much as the fans do, funny how he can scantly recall some of the later films, I notice many of the Shaw Stars don't have too much to add on the making of these films. When you are shooting 3 different roles a day I guess it would all eventually become a jumbled memory.

[emeraldforest]

thank you so much for sharing this !!!