recent purchases

[jethro]

Wonderman of Shaolin aka Magnificent Wonderman
Shaolin Death Squad aka The Shaolin Kids
Foul Hero/Super Kung Fu Fighter 2-pack


Brentwood 10-pack- "Kung fu Crusade"
Vengeance of Snow Maiden
Hurricane Sword
Black and White Swordsman
Magnificent Kick
Fighting Life- modern day movie starring the 2 lead actors from Crippled Masters
Bruce Li's Magnum Fist
Ninja Grand Masters of Death aka Life of Ninja
Seven Blows of the Dragon
Kung Fu of 8 Drunkards
The Godfather Squad aka Little Godfather

Magnum Fist, Life of Ninja and Kung Fu of 8 Drunkards are fully widescreen, and a lot of the others are partly widescreen. Awesome!

[Egg fu young]

Wonderman of Shaolin aka Magnificent Wonderman
Shaolin Death Squad aka The Shaolin Kids
Foul Hero/Super Kung Fu Fighter 2-pack


Brentwood 10-pack- "Kung fu Crusade"
Vengeance of Snow Maiden
Hurricane Sword
Black and White Swordsman
Magnificent Kick
Fighting Life- modern day movie starring the 2 lead actors from Crippled Masters
Bruce Li's Magnum Fist
Ninja Grand Masters of Death aka Life of Ninja
Seven Blows of the Dragon
Kung Fu of 8 Drunkards
The Godfather Squad aka Little Godfather

Magnum Fist, Life of Ninja and Kung Fu of 8 Drunkards are fully widescreen, and a lot of the others are partly widescreen. Awesome!

I was looking into that 10- pack. Let me know if it's any good!

[jethro]

here are the movies I have seen-

Little Godfather- horrible.
Seven Blows of the Dragon- shortened American version of The Water Margin. Pretty good.
Kung Fu of 8 Drunkards- good fun and lots of fights.
Magnificent Kick- worth seeing for a small role from Kwan Tak Hing. TONS of fights, but not a great movie or anything.

I have only skimmed through the rest. They all look pretty decent. The 2 lead actors in Fighting Life are real cripples. One has no arms and one has no legs. Looks like a weird, but uplifting movie.

[Jimbo]

A Life of Ninja, is a pretty good Chen Kuan-Tai film directed by Lee Tso-Nan, and co-stars Yasuaki Kurata.

Magnificent Wonderman ... eh. Not a great Casanova Wong film, but not his worst Korean film by a long shot. Also has Han Ying (Eagle Han) in a minor role as an evil monk, and Austin Wai (Kara Hui Ying-Hung's brother) as an 'outsider' villain brought in to help the baddies.

Magnificent Kick is one of those films that could have been better, but settled for mediocre.

As far as Yellow Skin, I only vaguely remember it having that title. It was subtitled, seen in an Asian theatre. Unfortunately, Wang Lung-Wei's part was fairly brief. The main star is Wang Kuan-Hsiung. Kwon Young-Moon's character was described as being a former bodyguard for the South Korean president. Not really a martial arts film, more a crime movie with a little martial arts included. I remembered it as pretty good and fairly dark, but I'm hoping if I saw it today I would still think it's well-made, but hard to tell.

[jethro]

Life of Ninja looks ok I guess (I only briefly skimmed throught it). I think Sun Jung Chi also stars. He played the crazy hilarious monk in Shaolin vs Lama.

[Jimbo]

Yesterday, I noticed the last Suncoast in my immediate area was closing, and having a clearance sale. I got the Five Deadly Videos 5-pack. The movies are Rebellious Reign, Ninja Terminator, Five Fingers of Steel, Shaolin Master and the Kid, and Crazy Guy with Super Kung Fu.

Firstly, I would have preferred another title to that last one (Crazy Guy), as I already owned it, and do not like it much (very bad picture quality). But I really got it for Rebellious Reign and Five Fingers of Steel.

First I watched Five Fingers (FFS). This one I'd never seen, but it's obvious it was shot back-to-back with Young Hero; FFS was probably shot first, judging by the less-refined quality of the movie. Stars Yuen Mo, Ren Shi-Guan, Kwon Young-Moon, Hwang Jang-Lee, Chu Tieh-Ho, Liu Ho-Nien, Chen Liu (Chan Lau).

This film had a lot of excellent old-school performers, and some well-done fighting, but there was something that seemed a bit 'off' about it. Many of the fights seemed to go on and on, and then had anti-climactic endings. Or people would take tremendous amounts of punishment showing little effect other than some bruising and bloody mouths. IMO, the best-choreographed fight scene is the beginning of the end finale, where Ren Shi-Guan and Yuen Mo team up with weapons against Kwon's henchmen. There is some fast brutality, and the moves take effect on opponents.

Once again, Hwang Jang-Lee proved to be IMO the best kicker in cinema. Kwon Young-Moon is a master kicker, but Hwang's kicks have that 'something' that separates him from the pack. He had a bizarre combination of agility/coordination/speed/power/accuracy that has not been replicated in films since; this without all the wire-work today. Besides his legs, Hwang's hands seemed very powerful. In fact, in everything he does, from strikes, kicks, to even staff work (Hell's Windstaff) he demonstrated full-body torquing power, which made his movements look painful to be the recipient of.

Even here, with Kwon as the arch super-villain, he seems a bit oddly-matched against Hwang (they've met in at least 3 other films). It seems their onscreen styles don't mesh very well together. Other than a decent mid-movie fight in Young Hero, their onscreen fights mostly strike me as being less than they could/should have been. Both Hwang and Kwon have had good onscreen battles with John Liu, who seemed able to mesh styles nicely with most any other superkicker onscreen. And the conclusion to FFS was a disappointment to me. But overall a movie worth owning for anyone into the old-school KF films.

I was surprised by the quality of the transfer of Rebellious Reign. Considering it's released by Videoasia, the only other near-perfect transfer from them I have is Invincible Armour. I'd seen the film in theater, and later in Taiwan I bought an old VHS version of it. This was much clearer/cleaner than either of those.

It's a surprise Jimmy Lee never got any other starring roles. Usually a bit player, most often in Bruce Li movies, in this one he shows he was one of those rare few who could smoothly mix together his punches and kicks in seemless, flowing combinations. Most screen performers either only excelled in hands; excelled in kicks; or excelled in both, but could only do one at a time, i.e., now use only hands, then switch to only feet. Actually, everyone in this films turn in excellent performances: Alan Hsu, Chen Hui-Lou, Kwon Young-Moon, Chu Ko, Hsu Shao-Chiang ( Norman Tsui Siu-Keung), etc. There are really no boring moments, as even the non-fighting parts are well-done. Of the non-fighters, I esp. like the guy who plays Norman Tsui's old loyal servant, best-recognized in the West as a co-star in Bruce Lee's first 2 kf films, but a mainstay in several Taiwanese kf movies.

Kwon Young-Moon is far better here than in FFS; I can only assume it has all to do with casting, story and choreography. IMO his best onscreen performance. In the end, he becomes a virtual one-man killing machine against the Ming Patriots. BTW, the Chings are misnamed as Mongolians when in fact they were Manchurians. Still one of the best and every bit as enjoyable as I remembered it.

[jethro]

I agree Jimbo, I thought this was Moon's best performance. He was a maniac. And it definitely had to do with the choreography, and they probably had a pretty big budget on Rebellious Reign. I doubt Five Fingers of Steel had the that kind of time and money. Let me know what you think of Ninja Terminator and Shaolin Master and the Kid. And I agree with Crazy Guy wth Super Kung Fu not being that good. Its not even close to being on par with other movies from Sun Jung Chi and Peng Kong (Leg Fighters and Shaolin vs Lama).

[jethro]

Shaolin and Tai Chi with Eagle Han Ying and Secret of the Shaolin Poles.

[Jimbo]

Jethro:
Secret of the Shaolin Poles is a pretty good movie, and the choreography is by Lau Kar-Leung (or the Lau brothers). The version I have by Crash's Shaolin Collection had a washed-out looking print, but with Meng Fei, Yasuaki Kurata, Chang Yi, Tan Tao-Liang, and Lau Kar-Wing in the cast, it's better than one might expect. Hopefully the version you got is a better-quality release.

[jethro]

Yeah I got the crappy version. Shaolin and Tai Chi is widescreen and has better pic quality so I am watching that first. I'm halfway through and I like it a lot. Good kung, and a good story to go along with it.

[jethro]

It's a surprise Jimmy Lee never got any other starring roles.

You know, I was thinking about that and all I could come up with are Bigg Boss of Shanghai and Wiley Match. He was in plenty of films, but you are right he was mainly a bit player. I remember him from all the Lee Tso Nan movies. And he must have been one of Tommy Lee's main guys because he had a part in almost of all the movies Tommy Lee did the action for.

[Jimbo]

You're right. And the most recent film I remember him in is Kickboxer's Tears as the big boss-man villain.

[jethro]

Iron Fisted Monk
Best of Shaolin Kung Fu

[Jimbo]

Iron-Fisted Monk is a great old Sammo movie, but I absolutely hate the rape scene (and rape scenes in general).

I didn't like Best of Shaolin Kung Fu. For one thing, the DVD I got cannot play straight through; instead, every 15 minutes or so, it skips around. It's an older Videoasia version, so I'm sure the "insta-action" was not programmed(?) correctly on it. But even so, I was expecting a lot more of it, because I've heard it so hyped up. And judging from Cliff Lok's interview in the Choi Lee Fut DVD, he seems to feel it's his best film, though I would disagree.

[jethro]

Yeah nothing too special. I like how Lok learns all the Shaolin techniques in one day. That was funny. And you are right it is one of those discs where you have to fastforward through when it gets to the end of the chapter to watch the movie with no interruptions. Ironfisted Monk was pretty good, just not as good as other Sammo movies like The Victim, Prodigal Son and Warriors Two.