recent purchases

[Jimbo]

Jackie Chan's Crime Story.
The Last Dragon.

Got both for under $15. Crime Story is good, but the main reason I bought it is I remember when I saw it in theater, they used several locations in Taipei I was very familiar with.

LD...what can I say? One of the movies that characterized the '80s for me.

[jethro]

Can't go wrong with Crime Story. I rate it my #2 Jackie movie after Young Master. Also some really good special features, of course. Last Dragon I haven't seen since I was little. When I see it in the bargain bin one day I'll get it.

[Jimbo]

I watched Last Dragon and it's very strange to watch something years later in a totally different context. It's still entertaining, but like a museum piece. I mean it's REALLY dated. The funny dancing, the music videos, the styles. Last time I saw it I was 21. It's basically everything cornball about the '80s multiplied by ten. I guess that puts it in the category of so bad it's fun. Which ain't bad (a he!luva lot better than DD#19, which is so bad it's lousy). I never noticed before that the Shogun of Harlem looks a lot like a bigger, nastier version of Eddie Murphy. Oddest of all is the sloppy mix of Chinese and Japanese MA traditions.

Funny thing is, back at the beginning of the '80s, prior to this movie, there was a black guy locally who would go to the grindhouse theaters when they played KF movies, who would go dressed just like 'Bruce Leroy', head to toe in a Chinese frog-button kung fu uniform and tai chi slippers. He would always sit by himself near the front of the theater with his soda and popcorn. I remember when I first saw LD, it reminded me of that guy.

[jethro]

I agree LD was just way too over the top, especially Leroy. But that's what made it fun. Really odd movie to watch when you are a little kid. I still remember Leroy, the kids, the weird singer lady, and of course the good looking leading lady. I remember a lot about it, so it was very memorable for me. I even remember being a bit scared in the final fight thinking the villain might win.




Today at Best Buy I got the new Videoasia MA Essentials Lau Brothers collection. I got it to see 2 movies, His Name is Nobody and 2 Graves to Kung Fu. His Name is nobody has a really good looking print, but 2 Graves is very badly full screened. Still watchable. Barely. I'll talk abotu the movies themselves below. Here's the other movies and the pic quality. Odd couple looks good, Revenge of the Patriots is the horrible Groundzero version, and Fury in the Shaolin Temple and Breakout from Oppression are the watchable Groundzero versions.


Fury in the Shaolin Temple- below average Gordon Liu movie directed by Godfrey Ho. A few of the fights are decent. A few are amazingly bad.

Revenge of the Patriots- decent movie, Chang Yi makes it above average. Chan Wai Man, Judy Lee and Bruce Li have had much better performances IMO.

Odd Couple- good movie, awesome weapons fights.

Breakout From Oppression- total crap this one. I've always heard it billed as gordon Liu's first leading role, and I believe it. A decent fight here and there, Gordon looks good, but really crappy movie.

2 Graves to Kung Fu- 1973 leading role for Lau Kar Wing. Some good action with him and Sek Kin. Hsu Hsia and Tino Wong get decent roles as villains. Lau Kar Wing uses a nunchuk in the final fight. Boring dama, but good action for 1973.

His Name is Nobody- Another leading role for Lau Kar Wing. Good comedy. Not great but good. Dean Shek usually annoys me, but he's good here as Lau's con artist/kung fu teacher, at least up to the end where he dresses as a woman. That was hard to watch. Leung Kar Yan and Chung Fa have good roles. Always a great pleasure to see them in action. But Leung Kar Yan gets very little action, even though he has a big role. Compared to most classics of the time there's not much hand to hand exchanges, but the fights are still good, just not nearly as plentiful as I would have liked. It's a good movie. I rate it almost even with Odd Couple as a movie, but Odd Couple has waaayy better fights. The ending is really shocking and stupid. Much like The Victim the final scene it leaves you saying "what!?". They must have recorded this from a DVD or VCD, because there is a lot of freezing at the end. But luckil this Videoasia glitch does't really effect the movie since the ending is retarded.

[Jimbo]

I have a VHS tape of My Name is Nobody that I got in Taiwan in the '80s; it's somewhere around. I actually didn't like it much at the time. I thought that Chung Fa, an awesome stuntman and supporting bad guy, did not make a good arch-villain. If I remember right, the final fight was gritty, but just lacked the 'feel' that great final fights have, at least for me. I also remember that early in the film, Lau Kar-Wing looks at the camera and starts talking to the audience for a bit.

Odd Couple has some of the most incredible weapons fights put to film. It's easy to forget how good the old-schoolers were at performing complex empty-hand and weapons choreo until you revisit these old classics.

2 Graves to Kung Fu is a decent early-'70s film that I remember seeing on Kung Fu Theater in the '80s. Like you say, the drama was boring, but decent fighting for the time, esp. for an independent(??) film.

I really wish someone would digitally remaster Revenge of the Patriots (aka, The Ming Patriots). Not great, but it is a pretty good film. I really like Chang Yi in this one. I can only think of one other Chang Yi film where the Lau Brothers choreographed, and that is Secret of the Shaolin Poles. It's also one of the earlier films where Ho Chung-Tao (Bruce Li) was not forced to do the BL impressions. Jimmy Lee looked weak here, and Chan Wai-Man was a good supporting villain, though IMO the filming conditions must have been difficult. Because none of the cast looked particularly sharp, though Chang looked the sharpest. If you look closely early in the film, Kuo Chui can be seen as an extra fighting Carter Wong. The only copy I own is I think the Ground Zero(??) release, which isn't good quality at all.

Thanks for the report on the quality of the various movies.

I recently spotted another Wu Tang collection-type thing also by Videoasia, and Undaunted Wu Tang was one of the films. But I'd rather buy that film if someone else releases it, if possible. Some Videoasia releases are better than others, but so far the all-time best quality I've had from them is the Blood Money release. It would be nice if Videoasia would have upped the quality of all their releases across the board, considering the quality of releases that other companies, like Mediablasters, etc., have achieved, but I guess not.

[jethro]

Chung Fa is a little guy, but he has a mean face and I love him as an actor, so it worked for me having him as the lead villain. And Leung Kar YAn gives a brilliant performance. It's just too bad they don't get much hand/foot action.

A good looking wide version of Undauted Wudang has been released, but it has no subs. But I would buy it if I saw it. I already know the story well enough. It would just be nice to have a good version.

[Jimbo]

I have an old VHS tape, again from Taiwan, of Undaunted Wudang. I'd be fine without subtitles as long as the Mandarin is clear. It would be nice in a good widescreen DVD version. But I would not want an English-dubbed version (I think the Videoasia version is dubbed).

I finished watching Duel of the Century. I actually liked it better than Bat Without Wings. Not great but not bad at all. Although again, it seems like a chapter out of a series, because it presupposes the viewer knows the characters, esp. Lu Xiao-Feng (Tony Liu-Yung). I've seen various actors portray Lu Xiao-Feng, so was a bit familiar at least with his character.

Too bad Sun Chien and Kuan Feng were so wasted, though I wouldn't expect a super-kicker and a super weapons man to be used to full effect in any Chu Yuan wuxia film. I would have loved to see those two guys in a good period film by Lau Kar-Leung. Sun Chien did have a part in Lady is the Boss, but as usual had little opportunity to really show his stuff.

I picked up The Crow today. Mainly because I was reading about some odd coincidences between this film and The Dark Knight. For example, both Brandon Lee and Heath Ledger played characters that, although opposite as far as good/evil, both had white face/clown-type makeup; long, scraggly hair; and both stars died before the respective films' releases at age 28 (I think Heath was still 28). Also, both films are marked by a logo/symbol of a winged animal in a similar shape (compare the "crow" symbol with the "bat" symbol). I saw both films when they were released, but never put those things together. Kinda interesting.

[jethro]

I have to wonder if the makers of dark Knight watched the TV series because there is a scene in the series where Dacascos is acting like Heath Ledger's Joker spot on. It's the episode where he is being experimented on and was being held in a lab and he was acting really crazy. And Brandon Lee's Crow always reminded me of The Joker even before ledger played the part. But I see what you are saying with those similarities between Brandon Lee and Ledger.

[jethro]

I got a bunch of DVDs today at Cd Tradepost. Ground Zero double feature Tomb Raiders aka The Avenging Quartet and Godfather's Daughter Mafia Blues, Kung Fu Shadow aka Imperial Sword, Roaring Fire aka Hoero! Tekken with Hyoruki Sanada and Sonny Chiba, Ferocious Monk From Shaolin aka Thou Shall Not Kill... But Once, aka Shaolin Warrior and OPIUM AND THE KUNG FU MASTER!!! Only $16 altogether. I'll list what versions I got and if the movies are any good in a few days.

[jethro]

I finished watching all of them.


Opium and the Kung Fu Master

Great movie. Or at least extremely close to being great. Best of the bunch. I rate it a 4/5. I rated all these movies in the order of how much I liked them. I enjoyed the interviews on Opium (**** how many interviews has Toby Russel done?! I/m pretty sure I've seen the Lee Hoi San interview, I just can't place where). It's sad that there won't be more releases from BCI. I guess having a DVD of HK Godfather that is this awesome was just too good to be true.



Roaring Fire- Red Sun, very good pic quality, widescreen, original language.

Good movie, some very good comedy, and great action. And a really good role for Sonny Chiba as a magician. I can't believe I had never heard of this before. rating- 4/5



Kung Fu Shadow aka Imperial Sword- Saturn, full screen, decent pic quality, English dub

I didn't know what to expect from ths one. Decent story and good action Judy Lee is always a treat to watch, and Chang Yi rarely disappoints. Roc Tien and Lung Fei look decent. Blackie Ko has some sort of a jerri curl going on (I have no idea how to spell that), but good performance from him. Also nice little performance from Chin Lung. Jack Long is underused, and doesn't look all that great in the little fight time he has. Overall a good oldschool movie. Rating- 3.5/5.



Ferocious Monk From Shaolin aka Thou Shall Not Kill... But Once, aka Shaolin Warrior- Xenon, full screen decent quality. English dub.

Wow, this one really surprised me. It's actually a good movie! After that horrble experience of watching Triumph of 2 Arts, I wasn't too excited about another movie with Kam Kong and Chan Wai Man as the lead actors. But Chen Sing is the 3rd lead actor. I don't want to give anything away in these reviews in case you haven't seen the movies, so I will just say it is a good movie with good fights. Rating- 3.5/5.



Ground Zero double feature, Tomb Raiders aka The Avenging Quartet and Godfather's Daughter Mafia Blues

Godfather's Daughter- original language with subtitles. Full screen, a little better than decent pic quality. A lot of the subs are cut off.

OK movie. It starts off with a lot of fighting, but then there's not a lot of action the rest of the way. Abotu a 50/50 mix of fighting and somewhat boring gunplay. Yukri Oshima has a couple good fights, one against Deke Wei. But he has an injury because he got shot and he doesn't kick. How stupid is that. It's always nice to see Benny Lai in action, and I didn't realize Mark Cheng could look good fighting, but man he is really good in this. Also nice to see Fung Fung, Fung Hak On's dad. Fung Hak On actually directs the movie, and has a decent sized role. Too bad he only gets a few seconds of fight time. Ken Lo looks good, but very little fighting from him too. Rating- 3/5.

Tomb Raiders- Full screen, English dub, very bad pic quality.

Bad movie with the best female fighting cast I have ever seen, not counting oldschool movies, though I can't think of any oldschool movies right now that can top this- Cynthia Khan, Moon Lee, Yukari Oshma and Michiko Nishiwaki. Some of the fighting is good. While the movie is bad, it's so stupid that I actually found it kind of fun. Moon Lee is always fun to watch, and Chin Kar Lok had me cracking up quite a few times. And even the drama scenes are so bad they are good, especially the ending. I rate it a 2.5/5. The dub is done by people from oldschool movies, so that added a lot to my enjoyment.






Oh yeah, one more. Journey of the Doomed was in the cheap section not too long ago at CD Tradepost. I watched it, and then I went to Suncoast and traded it the same day. I don't think I've ever done that before. Jimbo I believe you said it was the worst Shaw movie you have ever seen, and I thought to myself, no way, he has to be wrong. With that cast it has to b at least decent. But I was wrong. It is without a doubt one of the worst kf movies I've ever seen. Right there with Raiders of Buddhist kf and Ninja vs Ninja. Rating- 0/5

[Jimbo]

Picked up Dazed and Confused today.

[jethro]

Wow our last posts must have been at almost the same time. Dazed and confused is one of my favorite movies. possibly in my top 20 or so. "Check you later man".

[Jimbo]

Hey, Jethro. Yeah, I love Dazed and Confused. There's a lot of things in it that remind me of my school days (daze?) in the '70s. But we never got paddled by the seniors, though. Plus it has a great soundtrack.

Good reviews above. I think it's a pure shame that BCI is done. Their Shaw releases (Life Gamble and Opium) were very well-done. Hopefully their unreleased Shaws will be taken up by MediaBlasters. And the interviews on the BCI's were probably the best. Plus, I think it means that Rarescope is also done, as I think that was also part of BCI.


I'd heard of Roaring Fire back in the '80s, but have not seen it yet.

I think I have Fericious Monk. If I remember, Chan Sing is the monk?? If it's the one I'm thinking about, it is a good film.

I warned ya about Journey of the Doomed! Another thing that annoys me about it is that, although it's such a bad movie, the pic quality is very good. There are way, waaaaaay better movies that haven't gotten nearly as good a treatment as this piece of p00p.

You know, I think it would be cool if Toby Russell released a series of DVDs called something like, Kung Fu Cinema: The Interviews. And have in-depth interviews with all the old-school KF stars, interspersed with scenes from their movies, and maybe scenes of them actually training. Unfortunately, I doubt that could sell to the general public. It would only be appealing to hard-core fans.

[jethro]

Yeah Chen Sing is the monk/main character in Ferocious Monk. There's are a lot of things wrong with the movie, but there's a lot of small touches that I liked. Like right after Chan Wai Man has agreed to work for the evil government, there's a very short shot of him in the mass morning prayer, and it seems that he's struggling with his prayers. Also the scene where he screams and runs and jumps over the temple wall. He always shows great emotion, but I feel this is one of his best performances for fighting and acting. He doesn't play around in this movie. He looks like he's really going at it hard in his fights. And while he doesn't fit the monk role to a T like say Chen Sing or Gordon Liu, it was still cool to see because I don't think I'd ever seen him play a monk before. Some very good scenes between him and Chen Sing.

Roaring Fire you have to check out, though I don't know where you would get it. PRobably from Amazon or Ebay. Very nice to see Sanada in a modern day action movie when he was in his physical prime.

That would be a great idea to have a couple interview DVDs done by TOby Russel. great only for people like us, sadly. Speaking of Toby, today I got that Top Fighter Deadly Fighting DOlls you are always talking about. I like how they let you know right away it is going to be a classy doc by showing the huge breasted Amy Yip jumping up and down in a bikini, and the nude fight scene from Ninja the Final Duel. But, this is an awesome doc. I really enjoyed it, from beginning to end. Especially the beginning!

[Jimbo]

This may sound bad, but I actually thought that nude, ninja-fighting lady (as well as Amy Yip) were kinda "uggo". But it does immediately imply that this is not a docu for little kids. It was interesting that of all the female stars, Elaine Lui was pretty P.O.'d.

What I want to know is, how the heck does Toby track down these people for these interviews? I heard that Polly Shang-Kuan runs (or ran) a restaurant in Los Angeles. And Judy Lee (Chia Ling) had supposedly moved to L.A. with her family and ran a travel agency. I wonder, did he go all the way to to L.A., and also to Queens, NY to interview Angela Mao? I think he himself might be an interesting story. I don't know of any KF movie fan who is so knowledgeable and obsessive that he's gotten himself into such a position to get these rare interviews.

Others I'd like (Actually on a DVD):
Lo Rei
Chang Shan
Hwang Jang Lee
John Liu
Hsia Kuang-Li (Ha Kwong-Li)
Wang Lung-Wei
Yen Shi-Kuan
**** Wei
Billy Chow
Kuan Feng
Billy Chong
Chien Yueh-Sheng (Chin Yuet-San)
Lu Feng
Sun Chien
Casanova Wong

I know that several of these have interviews on youtube, and Lo Rei did a good interview in Britain's Combat Magazine in the late '80s or so, and Wang Lung-Wei did a 2-part Asian movie magazine interview a few years ago. But I'd like them on disk. In 1984, a family in Taiwan that initially hosted me in Taipei introduced me to Hsia Kuang-Li, and she mentioned at the time that she learned Peking (Beijing) Opera at Lu Kuang Drama Academy. Which is different from the Fu Shing Opera school attended by Angela Mao, Chia Ling, and I think also the main Venoms. By that time, she was no longer doing any KF movies, but was a student again attending an art school. She did appear in a few TV series and even directed a non-KF film a bit later. It would be cool if Toby could interview her. And sooner better than later. Some former stars *might* be less willing to appear on-camera the older they get.

Besides Top Fighter and Deadly China Dolls, there's another Toby Russell docu, Cinema of Vengeance, but the Fortune 5 DVD release of it suks and is unplayable. I have the VHS and among other things, it has a good Chan Wai-Man interview where he discusses his excellent gangster film, The Club.