Mainland flicks

[AbeRudder]

Hey guys, ive been in the mood for some more mainland martial art movies and i was wondering if anyone could recommend some good mainland titles. So far ive seen

Shaolin Temple Trilogy

Fist of Shaolin

Undaunted Wudang

South Shaolin Master 1 & 2

Holy Robe of the Shaolin Temple

Ones i havent seen yet am curious about

Disciples of Shaolin

Young Hero of Shaolin

Kung Fu Hero Wang Wu

White Lotus Cult

One Armed Hero

Warriors of Sung Dynasty

Murky Shadows Over the Gorges

Marshes of Sha Liang Po

[fiol]

[quote=AbeRudder;109771

Undaunted Wudang

[Jesse Smooth]

I believe Warriors of the Sung Dynasty is an AKA for Marshes of Liang Shan Po. Good move nonetheless. Check out Ninjas and Dragons. Good underrated film.

[Yang Wu Liang]

On your list Warriors of Sung Dynasty would be the one I'd most recommend, the tournament at the end is fantastic.

My all time favourite, which you don't hear mentioned much, is Queen of Tibet which has some real fast swordplay and spectacular Tibetan scenery - a real epic!

[rdenn]

some good ones to track down are Lost skill, betrayal and revenge, young heroes, and 3 heroes with yu rong guang which i think had a cut and paste job and was re released as foul hero with new actors in it

[HAZ]

I think Yao's Young warriors is a a mainland film. Swordsman From Double Flag town was cool. Not a lot of fighting, though. I really liked that one. Yellow River Fighter is a must. I Didn't think that One Armed Hero was a mainland movie.

[JAMAL]

COMING NEXT YEAR,FIRST MAINLAND SUBTITTLE PROJECTS.

DEATH AT THE CAREFREE MANSION

]

http://jamalkungfuprojects.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html

[Morgoth Bauglir]

One to see is Secret of Tai Chi. Nonstop fights. Pretty much all good. One to skip is Kung Fu Hero Wang Wu. I don't remember anything good about it.

Isn't Disciples of Shaolin really highly rated? rdenn I think you've said good things about it. I have Foul Hero so I'll have to check it out again. I thought the new footage with Kuan Tai was ok but the stuff with Rongguang Yu is terrible.

[Yakuza954]

Yeah, Disciples of shaolin has very good action scenes, but the story is a little weak. It also has a very annoying fat chick in it. Still, the ending action scene in that one makes up for everything. Man, that one had some of the most complicated takes i've seen in a martial arts film.

My favorite: Arhats of Fury. the first mainland flick I saw and still my favorite. Great story and one of the few martial arts movies I can think of where Shaolin Temple isn't portrayed like such a great place to live. It also has the epic scenery and huge casts that differentiate Mainland kf films from most of their HK/Taiwanese conterparts. The only problem I have with the movie is the first fight in it is the best, and the final one is a bit short.

Other great mainland films that haven't been mentioned in this thread:

Pride's deadly fury-probably the definitive 'bagua' film. Follows the same storyline as Fearless.

Mirage- This is a mainland and hk co-production and imo, it's Yu Rong-Guang and Tsui Siu-Ming at their best. It's an epic indiana jones type adventure movie that is great in all respects, but whats most impressive about it are the insane stunts throughout. It's a miracle that both of them (particularly tsui) survived the filming of this movie.

Love's blood- Another good Yu Rong-guang mainland film. In this one he has two lead roles, playing two twins. This one feels a lot Mirage, except that its a bit older and more rough around the edges, but it has an epic action scene involving chinese soldiers that like Mirage, is as crazy as any of the stuff done in Hong Kong.

King of Darts- Not much I can say about this one that wouldn't make me sound like a broken record player, i.e, "it has great mainland scenery and action scenes", but to go with that, this one is also a very realistic depiction of western influence and the opium problem in China during the late 18th century.

Young Heroes- Man, this is a fun movie to watch even raw. The kids and adults in this movie can kick ass, and it has little of the silly shenanigans that bogged down most of the Kung fu kids movies and their American counterparts. Who knew Mau Dui-Fai had it in him? This man makes a career out of making some of the nastiest, stomach-churning, exploitative films in film history (Lost Souls, Men Behind the sun, black sun) but was still able to make one of the best martial arts 'kid' adventure movies.

And Jamal.. I think hearing that you're going to start subtitling mainland flicks is the best news I've heard so far this year. There's so many great mainland flicks that so few people have seen because they're only available in mandarin (ala young heroes, in triublous times, super revengent monk), or like even your first project, Death at the Carefree Mansion (which has more crazy stunts galore). I think this could introduce people to a lot of great movies they wouldn't have seen otherwise.

[BaronK]

For me Disciples of Shaolin and South Shaolin Master 1 are bloody tops. Yao's Young Warriors and Yellow River Fighter coming right after.

I saw some action from Warriors of the Sung Dynasty and would like to see it. Haven't yet sat down to watch Death at Carefree Mansion yet.

[HAZ]

Yeah, Disciples of shaolin has very good action scenes, but the story is a little weak. It also has a very annoying fat chick in it. Still, the ending action scene in that one makes up for everything. Man, that one had some of the most complicated takes i've seen in a martial arts film.

My favorite: Arhats of Fury. the first mainland flick I saw and still my favorite. Great story and one of the few martial arts movies I can think of where Shaolin Temple isn't portrayed like such a great place to live. It also has the epic scenery and huge casts that differentiate Mainland kf films from most of their HK/Taiwanese conterparts. The only problem I have with the movie is the first fight in it is the best, and the final one is a bit short.

Other great mainland films that haven't been mentioned in this thread:

Pride's deadly fury-probably the definitive 'bagua' film. Follows the same storyline as Fearless.

Mirage- This is a mainland and hk co-production and imo, it's Yu Rong-Guang and Tsui Siu-Ming at their best. It's an epic indiana jones type adventure movie that is great in all respects, but whats most impressive about it are the insane stunts throughout. It's a miracle that both of them (particularly tsui) survived the filming of this movie.

Love's blood- Another good Yu Rong-guang mainland film. In this one he has two lead roles, playing two twins. This one feels a lot Mirage, except that its a bit older and more rough around the edges, but it has an epic action scene involving chinese soldiers that like Mirage, is as crazy as any of the stuff done in Hong Kong.

King of Darts- Not much I can say about this one that wouldn't make me sound like a broken record player, i.e, "it has great mainland scenery and action scenes", but to go with that, this one is also a very realistic depiction of western influence and the opium problem in China during the late 18th century.

Young Heroes- Man, this is a fun movie to watch even raw. The kids and adults in this movie can kick ass, and it has little of the silly shenanigans that bogged down most of the Kung fu kids movies and their American counterparts. Who knew Mau Dui-Fai had it in him? This man makes a career out of making some of the nastiest, stomach-churning, exploitative films in film history (Lost Souls, Men Behind the sun, black sun) but was still able to make one of the best martial arts 'kid' adventure movies.

And Jamal.. I think hearing that you're going to start subtitling mainland flicks is the best news I've heard so far this year. There's so many great mainland flicks that so few people have seen because they're only available in mandarin (ala young heroes, in triublous times, super revengent monk), or like even your first project, Death at the Carefree Mansion (which has more crazy stunts galore). I think this could introduce people to a lot of great movies they wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Are King Of Darts, Mirage & Love's Blood available with subs?

[fiol]

you guys wrote a lot of movies that i could be interested in, but... where did you find them? they are out on dvd or vcd? (without subs is fine)

just to know where to look ^^

edit: ok i just found out that i already have some on dvd xD

edit: Arhats of Fury is the same as Arhats in Fury,right? if so, what's ur opinion of the UK version (prism)? is it good?

[HyperDrive]

Anyone seen one called The Little Black Box?

[Yakuza954]

Are King Of Darts, Mirage & Love's Blood available with subs?

Mirage of Martial arts is available english dubbed, sourced from an old South African VHS. There's also a subbed HK VCD. I really wish someone would match up the English audio with the far superior German VHS.

King of Darts is available english subbed, also from a VHS. It's hard to see the scenes that take place at night though (which includes a very good fight).

The subbed version of Love's Blood was recorded by someone on TV when the International Channel aired some rare Mainland films a few years back. Like the rest of these, the quality is lacking, but with these kind of films, you take what you can get.

Anyone seen one called The Little Black Box?

Yeah, I've seen some of it raw. From what I saw, there was nothing too memorable, and it seemed more like a fantasy with wirework - which usually aren't my kind of films. Surprisingly, there was a DVD of it released in Spain, so maybe thats my chance to re-visit it again and find out what was actually going on.

[GoldenPigsy]

There's a Spanish dub for Little Black Box. I've seen it once or twice on the local Spanish language channels.

[HyperDrive]

Thanks for the info guys. It sounds like more of a miss than a hit.

[shapes]

Yao's young warriors has some temendous action in it, Death at carefree mansion is pretty good too.

the best of all is probalby Prides deadly fury, Holy robe of shaolin' and Disiples of shaolin,

Anyone know if there is a mandarin version of "Warrant of Assasination" is availble on a VCD, DVD?

[peringaten]

Pride's is good, great training & bagua promoting scenes.

Yao's lost me a bit, but good wu shu stuff, not so much my cup of tea.

South Shaolin Master is good; but stuff with some little dog pissed me off too much, that might just be me though.

Arhats is excellent, but there's too much frame clipping going on in the fights.

Swordsman in Double Flag is a brilliant film, one of the best; if you like westerns & suspense it's up there, but it's not fighty, there's like 5 seconds of action in total the whole movie - it's about the build-up, tension & the threat of conflict; still worth it for any martial fan though.

Was White Lotus Cult mainland? I watched that, wasn't greatly interested, can't remember much - wire-y; thought it was HK...

Marshes/Warriors of Sung - good Water Margin adaptation, excellent tournament fighting - can't complain.

King Of Darts - this has some excellent fighting scenes & locales. No clue what it's about, my copy's raw - still enjoyable. Seek this out.

Legend of the Lion Players - think that''s what it's called, another raw one, reminds me of King of Darts, but not quite as good I guess; decent fighting.

[kungfusamurai]

I love it when I accidentally find a movie that looks good. I was looking for clips on youtube for Disciples of Shaolin, the Shaw film, when I came across the Disciples of Shaolin Temple clips. I never knew about this film before, even though I see it was also released as part of Joy Sales Legendary Collection. It's definitely a mainland flick, and the fight scenes look really well done.

Someone's uploaded it in pieces to youtube. Here's one section. They selected cantonese instead of mandarin audio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgIozhDghvg

Edit: Sorry, I tried to embed the video, but it wasn't working for some reason.

KFS

[Ramji]

My favorite: Arhats of Fury. the first mainland flick I saw and still my favorite. Great story and one of the few martial arts movies I can think of where Shaolin Temple isn't portrayed like such a great place to live. It also has the epic scenery and huge casts that differentiate Mainland kf films from most of their HK/Taiwanese conterparts. The only problem I have with the movie is the first fight in it is the best, and the final one is a bit short.

Just finished watching Arhats of Fury as was intrigued to give it another watch after reading this thread. It's a really interesting film, one that could have its own dedicated thread I feel.

I've read previous comments and reviews accusing the film of Mainland Propaganda as it doesn't give a very favourable impression of the monks and there rigid interpretation of Buddhism. I can see where they are coming from, as we know the Communist party are essentially anti-religion and thus a film produced out of Mainland China at this time (1985) would reflect these views or risk not being allowed through censors.

The senior monks minus the abbott seem outright cruel during some parts of the film enslaving the lay monks in chains and sending them out on extreme ascetic missions to cleanse their sins and free them from emotional attachment. At the same time, the elders seem more interested in the preservation of the temple and the detachment from worldly affairs, choosing not to help the nearby villagers from the oppressive Jin. As highlighted by more leniant monks in the temple, this is not the Buddhism of love and compassion.

But this is what made me question those who have labelled it as propaganda. Throughout the movie we do have alludes to a loving, compassionate Buddha, and in one pivotal moment, a senior monk, tells the hero Zhi Xing that Buddhism exists outside the temple and wherever you go, in your heart. So by these messages I find it hard to label the film as anti buddhist.

Really worth a watch and would be interested in other people's thoughts on this film. Aside from a interesting commentary on Buddhism, the film does contain some great Wushu action. The main star is pretty nifty with the jian as is the female general. Overall great weapon work but personally thought the hand to hand combat was a little flat, but that's Wushu for you, doesn't have the complexity of traditional kung fu's handwork.

[kungfusamurai]

Even if some of these mainland flicks were propaganda, what's the big deal? How many hollywood films are out there that praise the American way?

I love the wushu action. I like it even better when they whip out the bagua and tai chi in these movies.

KFS

[fiol]

just a quick question:

why you guys say that Arhats in Fury is a mainland flick? everywhere is said that it's from hk and not from china

anyway i might pick it up since it's damn cheap xD

[Ramji]

Even if some of these mainland flicks were propaganda, what's the big deal? How many hollywood films are out there that praise the American way?

KFS

I agree to an extent. It's more if the film is anti Buddhist that's all. I don't support the suppression of religion whether it be in a american or chinese film. But like I say, I don't know if it does. More that blindly following strict doctrines and an ascetic life does not lead to enlightenment. Possibly:tongue:

Love the wushu action too. Love the flow and grace of the movements.

[kungfusamurai]

I agree to an extent. It's more if the film is anti Buddhist that's all. I don't support the suppression of religion whether it be in a american or chinese film. But like I say, I don't know if it does. More that blindly following strict doctrines and an ascetic life does not lead to enlightenment. Possibly:tongue:

Love the wushu action too. Love the flow and grace of the movements.

The actors in those wushu films also tend to do their own physical stunts. Not as much body doubling, as far as I can tell.

KFS

[Yakuza954]

just a quick question:

why you guys say that Arhats in Fury is a mainland flick? everywhere is said that it's from hk and not from china

anyway i might pick it up since it's damn cheap xD

It is a mainland film. Co-produced by a HK studio but filmed in Mainland China and made with actors and a production crew that by and large hail from the mainland.