Coolest martial arts villians

[Li Kao]

This is a companion thread to Su Lin's thread, since I noticed most people were listing heroes/protagonists and didn't want to derail it by listing villians.

Here are my 2 favorites:

Lo Lieh as the White Lotus leader Bak Mei in Fist of the White Lotus. This was Lo Lieh's directorial debut, and Lau-Kar Leung did the fighting sequences. Lo Lieh also played the film's villian, and what a performance it was. Bak Mei only had one weak spot, and so was impervious to normal strikes. He also had a "light" skill, where he could absorb a blow or simply float backwards, like a balloon bouncing about. What also made his final defeat so rewarding was the number of times that he fought the movie's hero, Gordon Liu. Poor Gordon would learn a new skill, and rush out to challenge Lo, only to get soundly whipped and sent running with his tail between his legs, while Lo would laugh maniacally. The scene at the end was a mix of ingenious cinematography and humor. Gordon sneaks into Bak Mei's compound, and attempts to ambush him while he is resting in a hot bath. Bak Mei senses the attack at the last second, and literally leaps bare-assed out of the bath to dodge the attack. Then there is short scene where he defends himself against Gordon's attacks while putting on his loincloth and robe. There was the menacing scowl, maniacal laughter, supreme ****iness, and shocking white hair -- my favorite rendition of this notorious villian, and one that Gordon himself paid homage to years later in Kill Bill --notice my avatar =)

Guk Fung aka Ku Feng as the psychotic patriarch in Avenging Eagle. The heroes did a great job in the final fight -- Ti Lung was amazing with the 3-sectional staff and Alexander Fu Sheng had blades (coneealed in his shoes, no less) that he attached to iron rods on his wrist -- but Ku Feng stole the show in the final scene. His weapons were the these golden eagle claws/gloves, and he proved nearly impossible to kill. Much of the fight is Ku leaping through the air, slicing the heroes to ribbons. Another example of the old fierce white-haired villian -- Ku was absolutely ruthless in this performance.

[mickey]

Greetings,

I thought Su Lin's thread was open for villains.

1-Chang Shan in Shaolin vs Lama

2-Peng Kong in the Leg Fighters. Peng Kong was probably the first choreographer to put throwing moves into his movies. The inclusion of Shuai Chiao was a great move for the time.

3-Milton Royama in the Streetfighter Pts 1 and 2.

4-Lo Lieh as Pai Mei in Executioner from Shaolin. The character he played in Fist iof the White Lotus had a different name. He may have been the brother or classmate of Pai Mei.

5- I forgot Ku Feng. Always a good villain. I have yet to find out what style he practiced in real life.

6-Yuen Wah. I feel this guy never had the opportunity to really show his stuff.

7-Shek Kin: what more can I say?



mickey

[jethro]

Well Chang Shan of course:D

But then slightly above him was silver fox. My 2 favorite parts of secret rivals is when he puts on the kicking display where he just starts firing offroundhouse kicks like a machine gun and then when he calls Joh Liu out and goes down to meet him. He proceeds to do 2 huge leaps without breakign a stride. You have to see it to knwo what I am saying. Silver fox is the definition of badass.

I always liked Bolo to, though he was majorly underused. Image of Bruce Lee and the Fists, the Kicks, and the evils are really the only 2 that stand out for me.

And the thing that stood out for me in particular in Avenging Eagle was how he kept moving to the back of the mansion in the final fight, then a guy came and brang a box and set it by Ku Feng. Finally once everybody is dead, he finally opens up the box and we see these huge iron claws. The build up was just incredible. So that is the one thing that stood out for me out of 100's of great parts in Avenging Eagle.

Also some more would be Yen Shi-Kwan not really as a villian but more of Jet's opponent in Once Upon a Time In China.

Jason Pai Paio as the evil 9th prince with the iron fingers in Shaolin Prince.

Too many to name but you really don't get any more cool than Lo Lieh as Pai Mei.

[Jimbo]

My favorites are:

Hwang Jang Lee as the Manchu villain in The Kid from Kwangtung. He goes into a trance and then behaves as if possessed by the spirit of a cat and throwing some of the best kicks in cinema.

Liang Jia-Ren (Leung Ka-yan) and Wang Lung-wei as the "virgin kung fu" killers in Shaolin Martial Arts. They are with the Manchu against the Shaolin fighters and are almost invulnerable. Fu Sheng combines the crane style with his tiger style to defeat Liang; Chi Kuan-chun learns short-strike power to beat Wang.

Chang Shan as the Lama in Shaolin Vs. Lama.

Ren Shi-kuan as Liang Tung-tien (Mandarin version) in The Master Strikes. The movie itself is pretty stupid, but he gives an excellent performance in the final fight scene against Casanova Wong.

Lo Lieh as Pai Mei in Executioner from Shaolin.

Wang Lung-wei as the main villain and Yang Ching-ching as his deaf-mute sister in The Treasure Hunters.

Wang Lung-wei in Three Evil Masters.

Hwang Jang Lee in The Invincible Armour.

Lu Feng, the villain who uses a horse cutter to eliminate all other kung fu fighters in The Magnificent Ruffians. Lu Feng was one of the original 5 Venoms along with Kuo Chui and Chiang Sheng.

Feng Ko-an as the "Ground Mantis" villain in Warriors Two.

[jethro]

I have to disagree with you and say that Hwang was too underused in Invincible Armor and the role could have been played better by somebody else.

Kid from Kwantung, I will have to look it up. Hopefully this isn't the movie that yo uare tlakign about, but you have to see buddhist assasinator. It is a godawful movie and I almost didn't make it to the finale. Thank god I did, coolest kung fu style ever and it neevr would have worked if it wasn't hwang playing the role.

[Jimbo]

I also liked the end fight in Buddha Assassinator. Hwang excels when he is allowed to act like a crazy man.

The Kid from Kwangtung is my favorite Hwang Jang-Lee performance. I have not seen the movie since 1983, but it still stands out for me. It was a 1982 Shaw Brothers production, starring Yung Wang-yu, Chiang Chin, and Yang Pan-Pan. It also features Ren Shi-kuan as the master helping to train them to beat Hwang, though Ren gets wasted by Hwang pretty easily. As far as I know, this one is not available. I asked at a local store that carries lots of Shaw movies on DVD in the Asian format, and even they hadn't even heard of it.

I think I like Hwang in Invincible Armour more because I liked the entire movie quality. It does seem like a lot of his early performances were more downplayed than his later ones, almost like it took directors a while to figure out he could physically do a lot more than they gave him credit for.

[jethro]

I also liked the end fight in Buddha Assassinator. Hwang excels when he is allowed to act like a crazy man.

The Kid from Kwangtung is my favorite Hwang Jang-Lee performance. I have not seen the movie since 1983, but it still stands out for me. It was a 1982 Shaw Brothers production, starring Yung Wang-yu, Chiang Chin, and Yang Pan-Pan. It also features Ren Shi-kuan as the master helping to train them to beat Hwang, though Ren gets wasted by Hwang pretty easily. As far as I know, this one is not available. I asked at a local store that carries lots of Shaw movies on DVD in the Asian format, and even they hadn't even heard of it.

I think I like Hwang in Invincible Armour more because I liked the entire movie quality. It does seem like a lot of his early performances were more downplayed than his later ones, almost like it took directors a while to figure out he could physically do a lot more than they gave him credit for.


I agree, that was a great all around movie. My favorite performance form tino wong. But you just cam't beat the white haired masters battle.

And Hwang in a SB movie? I have gotta see that!

[Jimbo]

Hwang made two Shaw Brothers movies. Besides Kid From Kwangtung, he was the villain in another one called Ghosts Galore starring Chin Siu-Ho and Lo Lieh; sort of a Shaw's version of Sammo Hung's Spooky Encounters. He plays an evil Japanese wizard and the movie has some good pre-computer special effects.

[jethro]

jimbo, I have to check out Kid From Kwantung, thanks for the info. Here are a couple of really good Hwang movies you may not have seen yet. Demon Strike where he has a Ku Feng look from Avenging Eagle and Heroes of Shaolin. Chen Sing vs Hwang was one of the coolest things I have seen in a while and Demon Strike(beardy and Pai Paio vs. Hwang) has these special effects where Hwang shoots blue powerballs or something out of his hands. But the final fight is a masterpiece, I guarantee you.

Also the only place I know that you can find heroes of shaolin is in that 50 pack from tree line films. And Demon Strike is BAD pictrue quality. But it is from video asia so what do you expect. I have watched it like 5 times and I may finally be tired of it.

[Su Lin]

My thread is for goodies only then!!!:p

[Li Kao]

Su Lin,

I really only made this thread because I had already posted on yours and noticed that the choices were mainly the "good guys." So I thought the villians needed a thread of their own =)

[jethro]

My thread is for goodies only then!!!:p


Su lin, I am sorry for postign so much in this thread:p

To be honest though, me and Jimbo could talk hwang Jang Lee(Silver Fox) films ALL day.

Just to let you know though the last really good movie I saw was The Sword Stained With Royal Blood. Oh man was that flick freakign awesome. It was dark, it was hilarious, and it had pretty good action. There are 2 versions of this movie. I saw the one with Yuen Biao from 1993.

[Su Lin]

No worries everyone, I hadn't taken offence! And Jethro, please keep posting away- I'm learning lots!

[Wood Dragon]

Agent Smith.

[Chief Fox]

Sho' Nuff, The Shogun of Harlem!

[Jimbo]

A film that isn't talked about very much is Rob Roy, and the villain is an effeminate master of the sword named Archibald (played by Tim Roth) who is a very nasty villain. The makers of Rob Roy got their inspiration from Westerns, but in reality, it shares more in common with many wuxia swordsman films.

I liked the fact they chose Roth, who is much smaller than the hero of the film, played by Liam Neeson. Roth's character is considered unbeatable in one-on-one combat in the story.

[Li Kao]

In regards to Rob Roy -- yes, the size difference between the two was a sharp contrast -- Liam Neeson is 6'4" and I think Tim Roth is like 5'7" or so -- he did indeed make a suprisingly good villian though (how bad did you hate him in the scene where he rapes Liam's wife? He just seemed so cold and detached.) I think he even got an Academy award nomination for that performance -- which was well-deserved. I will say that he didn't win me over with his next performance as a sword-swinging villian in the awful The Musketeer, though I don't really fault him as much as the movie itself (which is the same opinion I have of the awful remake of Planet of the Apes -- love Tim Roth, hated the movie.) Okay, I better stop now, I'm starting to trail off and derail my own thread :o

[golden arhat]

pai mei and agent smith (only in the first movie the others were crap)

[David Jamieson]

Mr.Han from Enter the Dragon.

the ultimate MA villain in my opinion.

[Jimbo]

Eddie Ko (a.k.a. Kao Hsiung) as the Eagle Claw villain and leader of the Jade Horse Gang in Thundering Mantis. Eddie Ko is probably more familiar to American viewers as the immigrant grandfather staying with Danny Glover's family in Lethal Weapon 4. But back in the day he played lots of villains (Hitman in the Hand of Buddha; Sleeping Fist).

[jethro]

I didn'ty even recognize Ko from Lethal Weapon. My favorite performance by Ko is in Wy Tang Master(Shaolin Drunkard) and the person who I will never forget being in Lethal Weapon for is Conan Lee.