Best Kung Fu Movies

[Snake n Crane]

Hey guys,

I am a serious asian movie buff.

I am also out of movies to watch in the "Kung Fu" - "Fight movie" genre.

What do you guys suggest?

Please give me your top five or 10 fight flix.

I really need some new stuff to look for.

cheers

SnC

[Su Lin]

Have you seen the other kung fu movie threads on here?
Jethro is your man when it comes to films!:p

[golden arhat]

in no particular order

1 magnificient butcher
2 fist of legend
3 prodigal son
4 fearless
5 once upon a time in china 1 and 2
6 shaolin temple
7 crouching tiger hidden dragon
8 ong bak
9 kung fu hustle
10 the whole naruto tv series

[5Animals1Path]

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow
Drunken Master (Original)


Both show Jackie in his prime, both physically and comically.

[jethro]

Fav ever is Legend of a Fighter

Some other old school movies

Shaolin Vs. Lama
Shaolin Intruders
Chinese Connection
Killer Constable
Young Master
Ninja in the Dragon's Den
Seven Grandmasters
Avenging Eagle
Secret Rivals
Shaolin Challenges Ninja
Kid With the Golden Arm
Cripled Avengers
Dance of the Drunken Mantis
Dirty Ho
Prodigal Son
Warriors Two
World Of Drunken Master
36th Chamber of Shaolin
Rebellious Reign
One armed Boxer
True Romance
Golden Swallow
Shaolin Prince
Shaolin Temple Strikes Back

I also love the Lone Wolf and Cub movies and I love all the Zatoichi movies I have seen.

New school

Once Upon A Time In China 1
Fist of Legend
Bride With White Hair
Sword Stained With Royal Blood
Iron Monkey
Swordsman 2
The Blade
Dragon's Forever
Eastern Condors
Project A
Hero
House of Flying Daggers


I will stop so you at least have a chance of reading all these titles. Just ask if you need any help finding them or want to know what they are about.

After thinking about all of my other Shaw favorites I have to add in Shanghai 13. Not exactly a deep story but unbelievable fights all the way through with the biggest Shaw stars ever and even Andy Lau in a great fight with Lu Feng. BeardyLeung Kar-Yan) was the highlight of that movie for me and Ricky Tien also deserved some sort of film award nomination.


I have to also add some other favs since Jimbo reminded me of some I forgot.


Hell'z Windtaff
Killer Wears White
Killing Machine(Shorinji Kempo)
Buddha Assassinator(for the coolest kung fu style ever)

And Jimbo, My 12 Kung Fu Kicks????????(with Bruce liang, right?) I hated that movie. Found Fists, Kicks, and Evils with Bolo much more fun.

[Jimbo]

Some of my personal favorites:

Shaolin Martial Arts
The Kid From Kwangtung
The Magnificent Ruffians
The Prodigal Son
Disciples of Shaolin
Five Shaolin Masters
The Men From the Monastery
Heroes Two
Warriors Two
The Invincible Armour
Shaolin Vs. Lama
Shaolin Temple (the original 1976 Shaw Brothers version).
The Boxer Rebellion
The Kid with the Golden Arm
Super Power
Death-Dual of Kung-Fu
The 7 Grandmasters
So Close
The Woman Avenger
Hell's Windstaff
Mar's Villa
Last Hurrah For Chivalry
Invincible Shaolin
The Hot, the Cool, and the Vicious
The Crane Fighter
New South Hand and North Kick Blows (aka, Secret Rivals 3)
Zen Kwun Do Strikes in Paris
36th Chamber of Shaolin
My Young Auntie
The Lady is the Boss
Fearless Hyena
Showdown at the Cotton Mill
The Heroes
Wheels on Meals
The Magnificent Butcher
The Pedicab Driver
The Outlaw Brothers
Two Fists Against the Law
Legend of a Fighter
Knockabout
The Victim
Thundering Mantis
Hit Man in the Hand of Buddha
Revenge of the Patriots
Eastern Condors
Heroes of the East
Dirty Ho
The Spiritual Boxer
The Miracle Fighters
The Big Fight
My Kung-Fu 12 Kicks
Bandits, Prostitutes, and Silver
The Master Strikes (this one only for the final fight scene)
The Killer Wears White
The Treasure Hunters
He Has Nothing but Kung-Fu
3 Evil Masters (aka, The Master)
Fist of the White Lotus
Legendary Weapons of China

[Jimbo]

Almost forgot...

Martial Club
Executioner From Shaolin
5 Superfighters
Shaolin Rescuers
Two Champions of Death
The Jade Claw
Mr. Vampire
Way of the Dragon (aka, Return of the Dragon)
Marco Polo (aka, The Four Assassins)
Carry On, Pickpocket
Encounter of the Spooky Kind (aka, Spooky Encounter)
The Dead and the Deadly
Killing Machine (aka, Shorinji Kempo)
8-Diagram Pole Fighter
The Odd Couple (Sammo Hung, Lau Kar-Wing version)
Full Contact (with Chow Yun-Fat)
Gang Master
The Loot
I'll Knock You Down, Dad
Flag of Iron
The Lama Avenger
The Savage Five
House of Traps
The Brave Archer, Part 4
Shaolin Hand Lock
The Deadly Breaking Sword
Buddha Assassinator
The Blooded Treasury Fight
The Dragon's Claw
Buddhist Fist
The Mystery of Chess Boxing

[jethro]

Very nice. I still have to see 8 Diagram Pole Fighter and Boxer From Shangtung cause I have obviously heard great things and of course many others on that list I have to see. Full Contact is kung fu? Who is the MA director? And then there is the Loot which I have heard the most about.

Seeing all those great Shaw classics on there I haev to ask if you have seen Killer COnstable. I am sure you have seen my avatar and that movie is one of the most amazing pieces of cinematic history. One it seems we both need to see is To Kill a Mastermind with Lung Wei Wang as the mastermind. From the director of Avenging Eagle and I have heard the majority say that this is a better movie. Good luck on finding it though, I have my fingers crossed that Celestial will pull it out of their vault.

[Li Kao]

They have a sweet little clip from To Kill A Mastermind here that shows about 3:00 of fight scenes http://www.shawscope.com/video_clip_selection.html -- it has a superb cast and all of the classic Shaw Bros elements are there -- flashy costumes, exotic weaponry, acrobatics, blood and gore -- I too can't wait for this to get the proper release so I can see it in a better format (I had rented it on VHS from a specialty store in Austin years ago and haven't seen it since). I'm sure most of you guys have been to this site, but there is some other cool stuff worth checking out if you've never been to it, including a Venoms section, a Chang Cheh section, and lots of other cool Shaw Brothers video clips and screen captures -- might just give you some more movies to check out. I consider myself, Jethro, Jimbo, Gene and the others who post here to be serious Shaw Brothers devotees and appreciators but the guy who runs this site owns over 700 Shaw Bros movies! :eek:

P.S. Check out the "missing" footage from Avenging Eagle on the same page -- Ti Lung was the epitome of cool in that role, from the black robes to some amazing use of the 3-sectional staff -- perhaps my favorite character he has played.

[jethro]

I defintely have much respect for that guy who runs that site. Interestign to note that Red Sun is HATED by a lot of people because they are considered a bootleg company. For some reason whenever I bring up the topic of "why have they been allowed to release all of these movies for this many years"(on another site) nobody ever has a response. I got Avenging Eagle from Red Sun right when it came out and was always mad becasue it had a few problems. The minute of non remastered footage I was the most mad about but now after finding out it was missing footage this changes everything. The DVD does have 2 more problems one bigger than the other. A couple of lines at the start are not English dubbed and are not subtitled. Then the big thing is about an hour into the movie there is a loud beap and it scared the crap out of me the first time I saw it. Overall this is actually a good release from Red Sun. They rip their transfers straight from teh IVL versions or whoever Celestial sold it to and if you look close you will see the pic quality is not as good. Also a lot fo their discs just stop working becasue they are junk I guess. There has been many bad releases from them. One Armed Swordsman's audio was literally unlistenable. Blood Brothers and Invincible Shaolin are 2 of the crappier remastered transfers and 7 Blows of the Dragon was amazingly bad. BUT, they did release Killer Constable uncut which was a treat for me. BTW-that movie is coming out remastered!!!

And To Kill a Mastermind looks pretty awessome. WIth Opium and the KUng Fu Master, Chinese Super Ninjas, and Killer Constable all having scheduled releases, I guess I can still hope for Mastermind to come out.

[jethro]

http://p081.ezboard.com/fkungfufandomfrm1.showMessage?topicID=11345.topic

Wow, my friends at this site explained everything. Certainly DO NOT buy anything Red Sun distributed movies. The people at this site are able to list literally every source that Red Sun stole their versions from.

[Jimbo]

Li Kao:
Thanks for the info!
Jethro:
I have yet to actually have seen To Kill a Mastermind but it sounds like a great one. Of course, one of my faves is Treasure Hunters which is on the list...also a good film where Wang Lung-Wei is the main villain. I'm not sure if I've seen Killer Constables or not. Back in the early '80s I literally saw many hundreds of kung-fu films at two Asian theatres that used to operate in San Diego, and then when I went to Taiwan saw a lot on video. Many I have simply forgotten the titles. One Vietnamese theater, long closed up, used to specialize in Shaw Bros films and some independent kung fu films, plus the occasional Golden Harvest...now, of course, Golden Harvest are generally easier to find on DVD. Good thing Celestial is making some Shaw's on DVD in regular format. I hope they release Shaolin Martial Arts and all the other Fu Sheng-era Shaolin films directed by Chang Cheh. I believe Shaolin Martial Arts (SMA) was the first martial arts film to seriously feature kung fu training sequences. I know it was the first screen credit of Gordon Liu and possibly also the first of Wang Lung-Wei and Leung Ka-Yan. It influenced all later "training sequence" movies and its influence can be seen directly or indirectly in The Karate Kid and Kill Bill Part 2, among others.
I recently spotted Legendary Weapons of China and The Water Margin released by Celestial. Was not interested in Super Inframan.:)

[Li Kao]

Jethro -- I just noticed you're at 1k posts, you dirty dog you! /bows to your web-fu ... thanks for the link, I used to post on a similar board a few years ago and learned alot about the whole business behind all the various DVD remasters, licensing, bootlegs, etc. It certainly opened up my eye to what was going on, and I like to keep up on that kind of info, so I'll probably go through their archives when I get some free time. I'm a lot more patient and more demanding these days when it comes to buying DVD's -- back in the day, I was ignorant of bootlegs and would try to get long-lost movies in any way, shape, or form. When I was in Beijing a few years ago, I remember buying some bootlegs from a street vendor, more out of curiosity than anything -- when I got home and watched them, I found out they had been filmed right in the theater with an amateur hand-held video cam! Now though, since I have almost every movie I want (or have time to watch anymore), I make sure I get high quality DVD releases (I have a pretty nice home theater setup as well) -- I've even stopped buying VCD releases from Chinatowns, because there's not really any movie I just *have* to own that I can't get in a quality format. Obviously, the whole Celestial deal has been the biggest thing in years in regards to the old Shaw Bros stuff -- I'm still waiting on a few titles to be released, but all in due time...

Jimbo -- I'm the same way as you in terms of not remembering all the movies I've seen over the years. When I was a kid/teenager, I used to stay up and watch 2-3 movies a night -- all old Shaw Bros and Golden Harvest too. A lot of them I remember and the majority of them are foggy now, at least in terms of specifics. For example, I remember most of the Venoms gang movies, but a lot of the Ti Lung/David Chiang/Cassanova Wong/Alexander Fu Sheng movies are blurred. It would be a dream to have the complete Chang Cheh library one day, but that's talking over 100 movies -- the problem I have these days is having too many movies and not enough time to watch them. :) It's hard enough to keep on top of all the new stuff coming out, let alone fill in the holes in my collection -- replacing the classics in my old VHS collection of 300+ movies to DVD has been several years in the making -- but still, it's a labor of love that a few of us here share, eh?

[Jimbo]

Li Kao:
I know what you mean, esp. by having lots of these things on VHS and trying to upgrade them to DVD format. Yup, you can forget titles of a lot of movies, when you see so many, the exceptions being those you might take special note of after seeing it. I will remember something I've seen if I see it again, but sometimes the old movies have multiple titles, which can be confusing as heck. For example, a long time ago when I saw Mar's Villa (starring John Liu and Phillip Ko), it was titled "Rocky Lee" for the U.S. grindhouse release. And I think New South Hand Blows and North Kick Blows, a.k.a. Secret Rivals 3, was given the exploitation title Mission To Kill.

Jethro:
Full Contact is not a martial arts movie per se. It's more a gangster/crime movie with Chow Yun-Fat, and Simon Yam as the effeminate villain. It's directed by Ringo Lam. I like it more than the John Woo films of that period (1992). It's far less of an over-the-top excess of shootings and explosions than the Woo films, which tend to desensitize you after a while, but yet it's more gritty. There are a few fight scenes, particularly a well-done sequence or two with Chow using a bali-song or butterfly knife against multiple attackers.

Is Killer Constables a Chen Kuan-Tai movie where he decimates a palace full of guards with a broadsword at the end? I'm not sure, but I remember a movie with that sequence.

[jethro]

Oh yes, I have been waiting for a while for SOMEBODY to ask me what Killer Constable is about.:D It is a pretty dark movie. If you like Shaw flicks and want to see one that is a bit different, this is definately for you. It starts with Kuan-Tai gathering up his fellow constables to hunt down the robbers who took a s***load of gold. If you have seen Demon Strike(don't know any other titles of it) then this movie will seem very similiar. While the finale with Jason Pai Paio and Leung Kar-Yan vs. Hwang Lee diverges from Killer Constable completely, they totally copied it. Even the final death scene(s) of tthe movie are basically the same. Anyway, the real version is ten times better.

I will name you the stars of this movie. It is a bit like a Chang Cheh film like Golden Arm or Shanghai 13 where you have a lot of good fighting cameos but all of the guys in of the more extended roles standout also. The acting is very good. Don't expect the greatest kung fu ever(the movie is aka 'Lightining Kung Fu'), but there are 3 or 4 amazing fights. If you like your hero always dripping blood and never caring whether or not he lives than you will love this. Kwan Yeong-Mun(don't get too excited) has a good fight and a good little role. You may remember the line that Kuan Tai told Yeong-Mun-"I said that that I would forgive your doing, I didn't say that I would spare your life". The muscular Bolo clone from Drunken Master has a fight. San Kwai has a fight and has my favorite shot of the movie when they show him sitting on these steps in the dark with fog all around and he has a huge axe on his lap. Of course his face is covered by one of those cool hats. Paio Paio comes in to fight him in an AWESOME performance. Ku Feng actually equals him in a couple of great scenes. Overall I found Ku Feng the most real part of the movie. He lays the acting on super thick when you first see him but he is brilliant in this. You will recognize a scene from The Killer and once again the original is better. Yuen Wah has an amazing fight and yes Kuan Tai does rip apart a whole bunch of people. My favorite part of the movie is when Kuan-Tai goes for revenge and while walking in the middle of the street to intentionally block traffic a guard pushes him out of the way and in less then a second gets slashed in the head by Kuan Tai's big blade. Hopefully you don't remember the ending because that is a what I call a freaking ending!!!! BTW- I have seen screen caps of the Korean version where the endign is totally reversed. Hopefully Celestial can get ahold of that.

Also D!ck Wei :p and Kong Do play 2 of the other constables. I recommend you get the uncut version of this movie which is around 96 minutes long but even the Lightining Kung Fu version is great. OR, you could wait for the remastered Celestial version though I don't know if that would have the same feel.


It is nice to see good kung fu movies coming around. If anyone has seen those Rarescope trailers than get ready, 3 FAMOUS CONSTABLES IS COMING OUT NEXT MONTH!!!!!!!! Sword of Revenge I have no news on but I am getting #2 on my list! Dragon Dynasty is shaky. Kill ZOne was fine but Police Story had less than stellar picture quality and I have seen screen caps of the Tom Yum Goong disc and while it doesn't look too bad, it is literally like twice as dark as the Protector disc which looks great. Image Entertainment is good, they just put out Legendary Weapons which is finally a real kung fu release. I hadn't seen that or Water Margin which I liked but Boxer's Omen is BY FAR my favorite movie that they have released. DOn't expect action and don't expect a movie as good as Killer Constable but it is actually from the same director. It is one of the wierdest greatest movies I have ever seen. I will never get that image out of my head where Phillip Ko Fei vomits up that huge live eel into his sink. :eek:

Also, all of this info may be of no use since Inframan would be my second fav release from Image. What was your problem with that!! It was by far the greatest Power Rangers episode or movie ever. Of course I am also eagerly awaiting Intimate Confessions of a Chine Courtesan. I also have to see Black Magic(1 and 2), Hex(somewhat of a prequel to Boxer's Omen), and around a million other movies.

[Jimbo]

Jethro:
I probably saw Boxer's Omen back in the day. Is it the one where Phillip Ko fights Bolo Yeung in a kickboxing match, but also has some evil magician out to get him? I think at the end he fights something like a giant stone statue that comes to life?? And at one point he's following a light orb down a dark hallway? I liked it, if that's the one.

Yup, I have seen Killer Constables. You mentioned Kuan Young Moon, I remember Chen Kuan-tai chopping his kicking leg off at the end of their fight scene. I saw it twice a long time ago and it is a great movie.

I mentioned The Loot in my movie list. It has my favorite performance from David Chiang. Most of the time I don't really care for his performances, as he tends to appear weak in most of his fights. But in The Loot he's very funny together with Hsu Shao-Chiang (Tsui Siu-Keung). Villains include Phillip Ko, Lili Li, and Kwon Young-Moon. The final 4-way weapons fight between Chiang, Hsu, Ko, and Li is pretty awesome. I wish they'd remaster that and release it on DVD, as it's been almost 20 years since I've seen it. BTW, it isn't a Shaw film.

I guess I'm not giving Super Inframan a chance because it looks like a ripoff of Ultraman which I watched as a kid.:)

Actually, Shaw Brothers made a lot of really weird stuff, too. I've seen some non-kung fu stuff you'd never see English-dubbed that was pretty twisted, at least for back then. That would include some movies that were collections of stories "based on true crime stories." Hopefully, Celestial will pretty much stay away from releasing the crappier side of kung fu cinema like a lot of other companies have done...so many crappy kung fu movies have been put on DVD while so many kung fu classics remain unreleased and unheard of, and most people's impressions of kung fu films are of the really bad ones they might've seen. That in turn makes the overall popularity drop.

[jethro]

Boxer's Omen starts out with a great fight with Bolo vs. Johhny Wang Lung Wei and there is one more fight with Ko Fei vs. Bolo that is ok.

You would remember one part where Ko Fei defeats this Black Magic guy and then his 3 disciples do black magic of their own to revenge him. After taking out a mummified woman's body from a pond under their house, they kill a huge croc, gut it, and stick the body in there. After a day or so they take the woman's body out of the croc's body and wash off all of the maggots that have been repleneshing the milky white naked woman. TO bring the woman back to life they make a special formula for her to eat. One guy starts by taking a huge bite out of a dead, rotting chicken and chews it real good, then he puts some kind of sick outdated fruit in his mouth, after he puts the fruit in he gives it one chew and spits it out on a plate. He passes it to the next guy who licks all of this crap off the plate, chews it real good and adds a banana peel to his mouthful. Takes one or two chews and spits on the plate and passes it. The 3rd guy chews it up real good, cuts off a live chicken's anus, and he SERIOUSLY eats it. They don't make a single cut during this whole scene and it is as weird as it gets. But hey, other than that part, it is a great movie:p

You remember Killer COnstable if you remember Mun's leg gettign cut off. He was really the only guy in the movie that didn't get to show off his skills.

I have always wanted to see the Loot. I am sure you remember how a lot of director's would shoot 2 or 3 movies at the same time. 7 Grandmasters was superior to Chessboxing but Chessboxing was the lower end of the 2 but of course is still a classic. Robert Tai made Shaolin vs. Ninja which was a bad movie that had some AWESOME action. The movie he made side by side to that was Devil Killer, one of the worst movies ever. It stars, Lo Rei, Alan Chui, Robert Tai, Wong Chi Sang... and it was as bad as it gets!

The Loot had a lower end movie that was made alongside it or at least that is what I guess. Norman Chu, David Chiang, and Phillip Ko Fei. Check this out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsn1p7SojOo

[Jimbo]

Jethro:
I think that movie made alongside The Loot was one I saw available in a Taiwan video shop titled "Ti Guan" (which roughly translates as making a challenge at a rival kung fu school). Unfortunately, I never saw it, but I bet it's pretty decent.

I know what you mean by side-to-side movies, one being the better and the other(s) being of lesser quality with the same basic cast. Chess Boxing seems to have the greater notoriety of the two, but IMO 7 Grandmasters is the better film, though both are very entertaining.

In 1986 in Taiwan, there was a fairly successful theatrical release of a movie called The Big Fight (I think that's the English title). It starred mainly Taiwanese non-martial arts TV personalities, but it's a MA movie. It also starred Yukari Oshima as a Japanese lady cop, and Yasuaki Kurata as a Yakuza boss villain, and an excellent African-American martial artist named Eugene Trammel who was Kurata's top henchman. It attracted a good-sized audience for that time, because by the mid-'80s MA movies were no longer very popular in Taiwan except the big Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung Chinese New Year and summer releases. However, I seriously doubt it will see Stateside release on DVD because, unfortunately, during the final team-up fight against Eugene Trammel, the Taiwanese male and female lead stars began to taunt him with racial slurs in broken English and giving him the finger, which the audience found hilarious but I thought was totally unnecessary. So unless they completely changed the meaning of the subtitles or dubbed a different translation in, it would be a tough find, not just for the slurs but the cruel nature of them, done by the heroes of the film no less.

But of course, later that year they came out with a second film starring some of the same people trying to cash in on the popularity of the first film, which barely made a ripple it was so bad.

[jethro]

OH MAN I LOVED EUGENE TRAMMEL! He skills looked great on screen and he had a powerful screen presence. I wish he had become a bigger star. I have seen him in like 6 movies and they were all with Lo Rei.

[Jimbo]

Yeah, Eugene Trammel was in a bunch of Lo Rei movies, sometimes as the enemy and sometimes as his ally. He was also in a bad movie, Ninja the Final Challenge; he was about the only good thing in it. I actually liked his performance in The Big Fight better than his other films. It was surprising, because the two main male and female leads were TV variety show personalities and a third was known as a pop singer, yet they did really well in the fight scenes. And of course Yukari Oshima and Kurata were great as usual.

[lonewolf]

1. fearless
2. last hurray for chivalry
3. ong bak
4. once upon a time in china 1-3
5. shaolin v wutang
6. hard *******
7. the odd couple
8. shaolin temple 1,2
9. street fighter 1-3
10. kiss of the dragon
11. enter the dragon
:D

[jethro]

Is #7 on there Hard Bastad with hwang Jang Lee?

[lonewolf]

Is #7 on there Hard Bastad with hwang Jang Lee?

yeah that's the movie, it was one of the first old school kung fu movies that i had ever seen and i though the fighing was awsome. had i seen something more up to date first and seen it later it might not have had the same effect but it's still in my favorite list. i didn't think bastad would have been bleeped like that. i can't really think of that word being bad since i am one.:D

[jethro]

I have never seen it but always wanted too. It is an Asso Asia film so it has to be corny but Hwang can make anythign worth seeing.