Kung-Fu Films.

luka

Well-known member
I'm not an expert in these. i started watching them because I was into Wu-Tang. I've watched a few, maybe 20, maybe 30. i've usually been a bit mangled when i've been watching them. i never remember much. they've all got the same plot anyway. someone does someone a wrong so they train in kung-fu for a few years then get their revenge. might get a little love interest along the way. I like them. I can't remember the name of the best one i've ever seen. it was good though. do you like them? where do you get yours from? ever been down that star video rentals in south-east london? might be on the walworth rd. go to any of the ones on that NFT series? some of them were pretty good. Got any favourite stars?
 
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Omaar

Guest
The 36th chamber of shaolin (1978) played here last year, it was pretty good, starred Chia Hui Liu who was in Kill Billl 2. There was also a screening of come drink with me, an early wu xia film from 1966. This had some nice wirework in it, and some pretty cool fx.
 

Diaz

Well-known member
Duel to the Death is pretty wicked stuff (in the wuxia style, which is like old school chinese opera and dungeons and dragons mixed together and is nigh the best thing ever); greatest swordsman of china and greatest swordsman of japan are brought together to fight a centennial ritual fight, with monks and ninjas (ninjas on kites!) backing them up and providing scenery.

wu-tang themselves have presented a couple of releases (at least here in america) that are pretty entertaining, including one where children form human pyramids and defend themselves from jerkface bandits.

oh plus mad props to Big Trouble in Little China for being america's best entry into the field.


"makes you see things no one else can see, do things no one else can do"

as far as straight-up kung-fu flicks goes, i don't know half as much.
 

cortempond

Active member
Find any King Hu stuff, if you can

King Hu was the master of Kung-Fu films during the '60's and early '70's. Try and find his Touch of Zen and the original version of Dragon Inn (though the Tsui Hauk remake was mighty nice). Dreadnaught (1983)with Jet Li is pretty top, as well as the Once Upon A Time In China series, the One-Armed Swordsman films, Master of the Flying Guillotine and Five Deadly Venoms. I have no idea whatsoever about the fighting style other than anything choreographed by Yuen Poo Ching (I think that's his name) is worth seeing.

I remember growing up there used to be what was called Black Belt Theatre on TV. It was shown late on Saturday night and featured Kung-Fu films. These films were just a series of scenes of people kicking the crap out of each other. There was no plot at all, causing the films to be a surreal sequence of weirdly shot scenes. Each film would end with the big fight but would always freeze frame as the two fighters jumped up to kick each other. That was the ending. No resolution, no tying-up of loose ends, sad farewells, villian getting their comeuppance. Just two people about to kick the living crap out of each other frozen in the air. I thought it was brilliant because it was so absurd. The film started, played and ended in a completely incoherant state of chaos. Who needs narrative?
 

Karl Kraft

Well-known member
Jimmy Wang Yu

Love the really bonkers 70's/80's ones featuring bronze golems, clockwork mechanisms, trap filled pagodas etc...
Here's some recomendations, all avilbl in uk (some vid clips included):

One-Armed Boxer 2(uk name) Classic, great soundtrack too. -aka Master of the Flying Guillotine:
http://www.duallens.com/index.asp?reviewId=100502

NINJA WARS: http://www.badmovies.org/movies/ninjawars/

Shogun Assasin (another great soundtrack):
http://www.kfccinema.com/reviews/swordplay/shogun/shogun.html

Zu Warriors of the Mystical Mountain 1983 (the only 'wire' movie I really love):
http://dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=5110

Unbeaten 28: http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.2825/qx/details.htm
-----------------------------



Some Recomendations from this site: http://www.revengeismydestiny.com/MartialArts.html

18 BRONZEGIRLS OF SHAOLIN (77) Yep, it's true. They're covered from head to toe in bronze paint and go "boing" when you hit 'em! Hilarious training scenes as the bronze babes slam into a giant bell, get crushed by stone columns, and have a huge wrecking ball slammed into them over and over. Plus a final death match in an open field highlighted by synchronized back flips and cheerleader pyramids!

HOUSE OF TRAPS (81) Extremely rare Shaw Brothers action directed by our main man Chang Cheh and featuring a diabolical boobytrap filled pagoda even Macaulay Culkin would admire. Kewl! Subtitled in English. Fair quality.

THE NINE DEMONS (85) aka The Demons. Wild fantasy martial arts flick directed by Chang Cheh and packed with colorful costumes, hyperkinetic fight choreography, and wacky special effects. A Chinese Boxer with the unlikely name of "Joey" slips through a time portal and trades his soul to The Black Prince of Hell for a stylish necklace of skulls that house the Nine Demons: eight bloodthirsty little imps and their cute plasma slurping mom. Lots of cool flying skull scenes, blood draining, and acrobatics in this one!

SHAOLIN INVINCIBLES (77) Holy hair shirts! Check out this hilariously stupid chop socky masterpiece that stars a pair of goofy, kung fu fighting gorillas! See overheated actors in flea-bitten ape costumes punch, kick, jump around, and generally make monkeys of themselves! What a great idea! And wait until you see the big finish when they get swords stuck through the tops of their heads and shoot out fountains of blood like giant fuzzy beer cans! Aiieeeee!

INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN (79) aka The Unbeatable Dragon; North Shaolin vs. South Shaolin. Another ass kicking entry in Chang Cheh's long running "Venoms" series that's got so many breathtaking fights and gruelling training sequences it's better than a year's subscription to Inside Kung Fu! Letterboxed.

THE BATTLE WIZARD (77) aka Das Blut der Toten Python. Insane period fantasy action from the Shaw Bros. starring Danny Lee. Lee plays a young philosophy student who leaves home to see the world and gets more than he bargained for when he crosses paths with two high kicking hussies - one keeps snakes up her sleeves to ward off attackers and the other has a magic bone that shoots arrows! Non-stop action and goofiness!

CRIPPLED MASTERS (82) The first of THREE mindbogglingly tasteless "gotta see it to believe it" movies starring the real-life paraplegic kung fu tag team of Frankie Shom and Jack Conn. One's got no arms, the other's got no legs. Put 'em together and you've got an unstoppable killing machine! So incredibly, ridiculously over-the-top you'll be tearing your eyes out in disbelief! See also Two Crippled Heroes and Fighting Life for more handicapped hilarity.

THE FATAL FLYING GUILLOTINES (76) First film appearance of the dreaded Flying Guillotine, sort of an oriental sombrero with retractable blades inside attached to a long chain. Whip it onto a foe's head, tug on the chain, and presto! Instant spurting neck


*P.S. Does anyone have a copy of House of Traps, please let me know, its impossible to get hold of. Also looking for video nasty era streetgang movies, like 'the Warriors' but nastier. Sheepskin waistcoats, flick knives, subway trains etc.. Any recomendations?

EDIT: There used to be two really knowlegable sellers on Camden market, but they've gone since the recent makeover:( Also there was that place near centrepoint that sold Hiphop Vinyl upstairs and KungFu downstairs, also sadly gone, anyone know where these guys moved to? Also anyone know if you can get the soundtrack of OneArmed Boxer 2?

Hopping Vampires are great too......
 
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daren

Well-known member
Don't forget the remake of Bruce Lee's "The Chinese Connection" that Jet Li starred in called 'Fists of Legend". It reinforces the Chinese stereotype of hating the Japanese. I really am a fan of Jet Li's other stuff that deal in medieval and foreign colonialism times.

Also, I recently saw an old Stephen Chow film called "King of Beggars". If you're familiar with his humor, this one just makes fun of every kung fu movie cliche I can think off the top of my head...revenge, fighting tournements, humiliation, echo and delay in "crucial" hits, etc.

Right now, I'm trying to make it a goal to watch every kung fu film my university actually have available. It might take awhile...
 

AshRa

Well-known member
Did anybody used to go to the Shaolin film club in London around '95 - 2000...? The main venue was upstairs in a disused building at the top of Charing Cross Road (seem to remember it was pretty near Silverfish but i've not been back to London for years and my memory is failing!) They would show a shaolin double bill interspersed with Tekken tournaments plus music & food (CUP NOODLES!) in another room.

It was my favourite night out for ages when I lived down there but it disappeared for a while and came back to club 333 for a couple of nights, but the magic just wasn't there any more!
 
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Omaar

Guest
Was checking the one armed boxer (aka master of the flying guillotine) film mentioned up thread, and found this:

"One of the reasons I'm always excited to watch this film is that, as wuxia sountracks go, things don't get much crazier than this. Some scenes feature the period music that you'd expect, featuring flute and percussion. But then there's the other stuff - the electronic cues and crazy rock jams. The inclusion of these tracks is remarkable, because the cues are taken from early records by Kraftwerk, and the jams by an offshoot duo called Neu!. That duo is responsible for the two most prominent tracks: 'Super', which plays over the main menu and some fight scenes, and 'Super 16', which is the theme music for the master of the flying guillotine. Both are from Neu! 2. "

from here

?!! anyone know the background to this? apparently it was used in kill bill too.

Also, what are some of the best shaw brother films to check out? I'm in HK at the moment and there are a whole lot around, not sure where to start aside from the films mentioned up thread. any must see recommendations?
 

Karl Kraft

Well-known member
The next part of the BFI Kung Fu movie season is all 70's - 80's stuff. Gonna be showing 'Five Venoms' and some other classics. Never seen any of these flicks in a cinema b4, deffo wanna check out Magic Blade:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/southbank/seasons/heroicgrace/titles.php

To the guy above ansking abt Nue2 in One Armed Boxer2-Master of the Flying Guillotine, dunno the story behind it, but you can see the trailer featuring both pieces of music here here:

http://www.shaolinchamber.com/trailerschamber.html

^ Fantstic site that one, 100's of trailers, check out the poster section too.K
 

Octopus?

Well-known member
The use of the Neu! in Master of the Flying Guillotine is truly masterful. "I will kill every one armed man!"

Some other good 'uns:

Come Drink With Me
Boxer's Omen (less kung fu, more boxing, but INSANE)
Water Margin
Dragon Inn
Master Killer
Drunken Master (original)

Second Five Deadly Venoms and 36th Chamber of Shaolin, and would also humbly suggest you see The Crippled Masters.

Some of the Japanese wuxia installments, like "Ninja Wars" are quite good as well, but almost deserving of an entirely different Samurai recommendation thread.
 
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Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Kung Fu Hustle is absolutely amazing. It's a 1940s gangster movie set in Shanghai with all kinds of crazy stuff going on - magic (in an amazingly non-cheesy way), HUGE fights, sadistic crime bosses, snappy suits, an ancient kung fu master, a love story, everything. Some bits of it are like an old Warner Brothers cartoon (people running at hudreds of miles an hour with their legs forming a circular blur, that sort of thing), awesome choreography and SFX, and on top of all that the love story bit is touching and well acted.
You HAVE to see this film.
 

JP Nut

Wild Horses
Kung Fu Hustle is absolutely amazing. It's a 1940s gangster movie set in Shanghai with all kinds of crazy stuff going on - magic (in an amazingly non-cheesy way), HUGE fights, sadistic crime bosses, snappy suits, an ancient kung fu master, a love story, everything. Some bits of it are like an old Warner Brothers cartoon (people running at hudreds of miles an hour with their legs forming a circular blur, that sort of thing), awesome choreography and SFX, and on top of all that the love story bit is touching and well acted.
You HAVE to see this film.


kung fu hustle is a great film...



for straight up kung fu fighting i would recommend "Prodigal Son".

no wire work and lots of gags. everyone i've met with more than a passing interest in martial arts loves it.

I won't write the plot, but you can check it on amazon prodigal son
 

nomos

Administrator
I came home from Toronto last time with a stack of Shaw Bros. Started with Disciples of Shaolin which was more on the slapstick end, still very good fight sequences. Next up is...

image007.jpg
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Second Five Deadly Venoms and 36th Chamber of Shaolin, and would also humbly suggest you see The Crippled Masters.
Is that the same thing as Two Crippled Heroes? Excellent stuff.

On a (slightly) more serious note, I'm a big fan of Boxer from Shantung for nihilistic revenge driven bone crunching, and A Touch of Zen for proto Crouching Tiger swordplay and a frankly bizzare psychedelic enlightenment scene at the end.
 

elgato

I just dont know
just last night i watched The Street Fighter with Sonny Cheeba, and it was incredible. so dark and gritty, so good. the use of sound (and more importantly silence) gave it a real majesty. i think the guy on imdb does it a great dis-service with his chat

also good for a bit of variety from the usual styles is Ong Bak, which centres around Thai Boxing
 

andre_tfg

New member
Don't forget the remake of Bruce Lee's "The Chinese Connection" that Jet Li starred in called 'Fists of Legend".
Actually 'Fist of Legend' is a remake of 'Fist of Fury', probably the best film Jet Li ever played a part in, fighting sequences wise I mean.

I've seen some Shaw Brothers movies and enjoyed them all, specially 'Blood Brothers', which is great both action and story wise as I see it. For more modern movies I like Tsui Hark's stuff, like 'Seven Swords' and specially 'Black Mask' and Zhang Yimou for something more art-house.
 

Noah Baby Food

Well-known member
Drunken Wu-Tang aka Taosim Drunkard is a crazy one, worth seeing. Features 'the watermelon monster' (that looks like a cannonball) and the 'the rat cart'.

Remembering seeing Ninja Hunter years ago too, that's really good.
 
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