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Things I learned today: Ho Sung Pak, the actor who plays Henry in Drunken Master II, is also Liu Kang in the first two Mortal Kombat games.
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May 23, 2014 14:49
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Let's talk about a couple of Yuen Wo Ping movies...one early and one not. The early one is Miracle Fighters which is loving insane.  The plot involves an evil royal advisor with bat style kung fu  A former kung fu instructor of the royal army who kidnaps a prince and his ward who may be said prince  The evil minister kills our hero's adopted father (the royal kung fu instructor) and he falls in with a brother and sister pair of Taoist sorcerers  The minister ends up catching him and there is a fight with a woman trapped in an urn  and then it gets really weird... The DVD is cheap and the whole thing is a blast to watch. The second film is Iron Monkey.  A fantastic Robin Hood movie with Yu Rongguang as Doctor Yang/The Iron Monkey and Jean Wang as Miss Orchid his assistant...It is so weird seeing Yu not playing a villain.   Donnie Yen as Wong Kei-ying in a very non-arrogant style. I love watching Donnie's movies from the early 90s.  and Angie Tsang as a very young Wong Fei-Hung. It was the only movie she ever made and she just crushes it.  Then there are evil monks...  a hapless constable named Fox...  and a fight on loving burning telephone poles!  How can it fail?
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Jun 1, 2014 19:22
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Oh god, how I wish movie posters looked like that today. It would make the movie going experience so much more fun, because seriously what the gently caress is going on?
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Jun 1, 2014 19:52
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Miracle Fighters is one of my favorites. But I think I like Shaolin Drunkard a little more. edit--> Where can I get Miracle Fighters cheap on DVD? I've been looking to pick that one up. Best I can find is $14 used on Amazon. Boinks fucked around with this message at 20:57 on Jun 1, 2014 |
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Jun 1, 2014 20:49
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Boinks posted:Miracle Fighters is one of my favorites. But I think I like Shaolin Drunkard a little more. How can you not like the final competition in Miracle Fighters more? The different techniques for getting the key, crossing the bridge and the stop motion titan. Also quick change martial arts, creating chicken noodles, and summoning the rain storm...Drunkard is fantastic but Miracle Fighters is sublime. edit: I got mine for $8.99 at a mall video store. Decide yourself which is better... Humbug Scoolbus fucked around with this message at 13:57 on Sep 5, 2017 |
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Jun 1, 2014 20:58
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No love for the third in the trilogy, Taoism Drunkard aka Drunken Thai Chi? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJwfmk3nxCo&t=697s It's the one I grew up with, and it has The Watermelon Monster. That has to count for something. I think it's also the one where Rat Face drives around in a mouse-shaped car made of bamboo. Not that I can keep the Yuen brothers comedies straight in my mind after seeing them all, since they're constructed of purestrain crazy.
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Jun 1, 2014 21:28
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Oh they are all wonderful. I just like Miracle Fighters the best.
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Jun 1, 2014 23:11
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Iron Monkey is good, but I've never understood why it's held in such crazy high esteem. Is it just because it was given a US release?
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Jun 1, 2014 23:38
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Mechafunkzilla posted:Iron Monkey is good, but I've never understood why it's held in such crazy high esteem. Is it just because it was given a US release? I think it's a product of being of of the first wire-fu movies. It helps that it's fairly light hearted, the fights are excellent, and Tarantino put his name on it as a "executive producer". The US release thing doesn't hurt, mind.
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Jun 1, 2014 23:41
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Oh my I didn't realize Taosim Drunkard was the third in a series of anything. That movie is fantastic. I better find the other two.
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Jun 1, 2014 23:50
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:How can you not like the final competition in Miracle Fighters more? The different techniques for getting the key, crossing the bridge and the stop motion titan. Also quick change martial arts, creating chicken noodles, and summoning the rain storm...Drunkard is fantastic but Miracle Fighters is sublime. Miracle is a better movie I'll give you that. I guess I just have a soft spot for drinking in kung fu movies.
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Jun 2, 2014 00:21
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Mechafunkzilla posted:Iron Monkey is good, but I've never understood why it's held in such crazy high esteem. Is it just because it was given a US release? I saw it in Hong Kong in 93 so the US release didn't sway me. It has Yen at his best, some fantastic direction and an absolutely willingness to go balls to the wall in the fight scenes. It also has some incredible wirework.
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Jun 2, 2014 00:32
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Mechafunkzilla posted:Iron Monkey is good, but I've never understood why it's held in such crazy high esteem. Is it just because it was given a US release? I'll watch anything with Wong Fei Hung in it, even if he's a babby. The villain was pretty cool too, flying sleeves is a fun gimmick.
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Jun 2, 2014 02:28
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Mechafunkzilla posted:Iron Monkey is good, but I've never understood why it's held in such crazy high esteem. Is it just because it was given a US release? El Gallinero Gros posted:I think it's a product of being one of the first wire-fu movies. It helps that it's fairly light hearted, the fights are excellent, and Tarantino put his name on it as a "executive producer". All of that is correct except for the part where you'd call it "one of the first" wire-fu movies. Iron Monkey came out a full decade after "Tony" Ching released the super awesome Duel to the Death in 1983, which I generally consider the first to go full-bore with heavy-duty wirework that kicked off the trend. Ching is basically The Man when it comes to the insane wire-fu fests intending to capture the comicbook spirit of wuxia novels that defy all logic, having also done Swordsman 2, Dragon Inn, and Chinese Ghost Story. Those all came out before Iron Monkey, which as you said is so known because it's the one that got a US theatrical release with "Quentin Tarantino Presents" on it. Check out his IMDB. Dude's worked as a director or action director/2nd unit director on a ton of good stuff. In recent years he's also done some total junk (The Emperor and the White Snake, I'm looking at YOU), though in his defense the problem with Dr. Uwe Boll's In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale wasn't the fight choreography he was tasked with handling.
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Jun 2, 2014 13:15
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I watched Shaolin Prince (1982) over the weekend and that had a lot of wire work in it too. I really enjoyed it, especially the 3 mad monks and the giant diagram of monks near the end.
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Jun 2, 2014 15:19
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I'm a big fan of Jet Li's Twin Warriors aka Tai Chi Master (1983) when it comes to early wire-fu epics. Sometimes the best kind of martial arts movies are the ones that are completely bonkers!
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Jun 2, 2014 22:00
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Starscream posted:I'm a big fan of Jet Li's Twin Warriors aka Tai Chi Master (1983) when it comes to early wire-fu epics. Sometimes the best kind of martial arts movies are the ones that are completely bonkers! Like Kung Fu Cult Master!!   just watch it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_23BWterUc
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Jun 2, 2014 23:38
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Like Kung Fu Cult Master!! That's the one that doesn't have an ending
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Jun 3, 2014 00:42
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Starscream posted:I'm a big fan of Jet Li's Twin Warriors aka Tai Chi Master (1983) when it comes to early wire-fu epics. Sometimes the best kind of martial arts movies are the ones that are completely bonkers! Twin Warriors is the movie that cemented my love for Jet, wish he would do something great these days
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Jun 3, 2014 00:45
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Snowman_McK posted:That's the one that doesn't have an ending Yeah it does. The Legend of the Condor Heroes TV series.
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Jun 3, 2014 01:17
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Yeah it does. The Legend of the Condor Heroes TV series. That's not what the word 'ending' means. That's part of the movie's charm. It just stops seemingly in the middle of a scene
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Jun 3, 2014 02:44
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Finally got around to watching Five Fingers of Death (1972). I can see why it's an influential film, but it's also...not that good. A lot of interesting ideas that wound up being done better in subsequent years. There's also one scene that's a blatant ripoff of Shane, which I found funny.
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Jun 9, 2014 19:11
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Daryl Surat posted:
He did the action stuff on Flying Dagger and it's really good. Not the House Of Flying Daggers but the utterly insane 1993 movie with Maggie Cheung and the other Tony Leung.
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Jun 10, 2014 11:51
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For another amazing kung fu film with a female lead check out Lady Whirlwind with Angela Mao. It is seriously awesome. She swindles some money from Sammo Hung then proceeds to beat the poo poo out of him with the bag of coins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR2utrfSWEI The film is about Mao tracking down the man who killed her sister so she can take her revenge. She finds the man but he pleads to let him carry out his own vengeance on another man first. But seriously anything with Angela Mao is really good. Also check out Hapkido specifically. Sammo is in that one as well, also has Jackie Chan as an extra who gets murdered by Mao in one of those 50 goons against one scenes. Broken Oath is pretty good too if just for the move she does of killing people using actual scorpions. Wrageowrapper fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Jun 11, 2014 |
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Jun 11, 2014 02:28
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CeeJee posted:He did the action stuff on Flying Dagger and it's really good. Not the House Of Flying Daggers but the utterly insane 1993 movie with Maggie Cheung and the other Tony Leung. This movie is completely crazy. It will melt your goddamn brain out of your nose.   I was not prepared.
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Jun 11, 2014 16:22
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Does anyone own this DVD of Taoism Drunkard? The cover says widescreen but the specs on Amazon and other sites say it's 1:1.33, so which is it? 
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Jun 11, 2014 23:24
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The movie that Brigitte Lin tries to forget... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqJQK3ey_M4 Humbug Scoolbus fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Jun 13, 2014 07:13
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:The movie that Brigitte Lin tries to forget... Tries to forget? I've seen Fantasy Mission Force at least a half-dozen times and I could only recall the loosest of plot outlines if pressed. Fake Edit: james bond -> chick with rocket launcher -> scottish guy -> hopping vampires -> surf nazis -> everyone dies to camptown races Real Edit: Creepy thumbnail, youtube.
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Jun 13, 2014 16:30
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Yeah it's the movie Jimmy Wang Yu managed to snag Jackie for, because he protected him from the Triads and Jackie owed him. (I'm still not sure if that story is true or not.) Slowest someberest Camptown Races ever.
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Jun 13, 2014 18:24
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There is a metric ton of crazy poo poo happening in Fantasy Mission Force, all right. The un subbed-or-dubbed musical number does help ease you into the madness, at least. Meanwhile, being shown Buddha's Palm (Here's the trailer) without prior knowledge of the film, (as happened to me last night) should be considered a war crime. The "Nine-Red-Bulls-Before-Work" editing style alone messes with your head, let alone the Kung-Fu lightsabers, Giant Extend-O-Feet, a dragon puppet Jim Henson would have ordered burned at the stake and the nine million plot lines all fighting for your attention. I intend inflicting this on many, MANY people.
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Jun 14, 2014 10:45
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I get the impression that every movie in this genre is either absolutely perfect in every way or completely loving insane. 
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Jun 14, 2014 18:26
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Or both. How about some content? Godfrey Ho...I see some readers are gasping already. For the uninformed Godfrey (a/k/a Godfrey Hall, Benny Ho, Ho Chi-Mou, Ed Woo, Stanley Chan, Ho Fong, Ho Jeung Keung and God-Ho Yeung) is a producer of some of the most amazing crap that has ever been released. I say released not filmed, because his tactic was to buy up unfinished/unreleased films and splice them together with occasionally some extra footage shot to fill in the seams...usually not though. Then he would have the poo poo pile redubbed and distribute it. The results are ...transcendent. Here's an SA review of his masterwork Catman in Lethal Track And here's the whole thing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RTFqZnxUFo Cut and pasted the whole way. Between 1980 and 1995 he 'Directed' 111 'films'. That's an average of about 7.5 per year. Between 1986-1988 he 'directed' 55! That's one and half movies per month! He has to hold some kind of record for shovelware filmmaking. He started out at Shaw Brothers in the 70s his first film being a pretty decent one called Paris Killers. This was about the same time John Woo was working for Shaw actually. In the late 70s he met Joseph Lai and they formed ASSO Films which released the torrent of crap mentioned above. He did do some good work though with a pair of decent Cynthia Rothrock films in the early 90s (Honor and Glory and Undefeatable). Humbug Scoolbus fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Jun 14, 2014 18:53
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I love me some Godfrey Ho. The only trouble is, trying to remember if you've seen the flick before. I've gotten halfway through a flick, thinking I'd already watched it, then had the plot of whatever movie he was "enhancing" with Ninjas divert wildly. Only the recycled Ninja footage remains constant. Until I found an interview with him, I was actually convinced "Godfrey Ho" was just the Hong Kong equivalent of "Alan Smithee" for many years.
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Jun 14, 2014 21:46
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The Ho/Lai combo has broken many brains over the years.
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Jun 14, 2014 22:24
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There's a lengthy interview with the man himself at http://www.hkcinemagic.com/en/page.asp?aid=230&page=1. Highlights include his actor hiring policy. (Basically, go to where American and Australian tourists hang out in Hong Kong and say "Hey, wanna be in a movie?")  I assume that's where he discovered the phenomenal acting talent of Stuart Smith, the most Australian Ninja in Ninja History.
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Jun 15, 2014 12:45
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Are there any really good martial arts films that never got a release in the US or whose international version is considered superior to the US release? I picked up a region-free DVD player recently so I want to make use of it. I plan on picking up Wheels on Meals and Dragons Forever - two films I always wanted to see but never got a US release (as far as I know). I always wanted to see those two Jackie Chan films. Any other recommendations?
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Jun 20, 2014 03:41
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Jimbot posted:Are there any really good martial arts films that never got a release in the US or whose international version is considered superior to the US release? I picked up a region-free DVD player recently so I want to make use of it. I plan on picking up Wheels on Meals and Dragons Forever - two films I always wanted to see but never got a US release (as far as I know). I always wanted to see those two Jackie Chan films. Any other recommendations? I would say "the international version is superior to the US release" is a true statement for nearly all martial arts films that weren't part of the initial Dragon Dynasty releases, or now Well Go USA and I guess Media Blasters/FUNimation. See if you can track down the Hong Kong Legends DVD releases, and now the stuff released by Cine Asia. Those are PAL releases so there'll be a framerate discrepancy but everything else--picture/sound, extras, translation, being uncut, etc--is most likely way better than you'd see from any other release out there. When it comes to the older Hong Kong stuff that isn't Shaw Brothers, it's almost as though Bey Logan is literally the only person on the planet who cares about giving those movies good English language releases. edit: Humbug Scoolbus posted:There is a Region 2 Special Edition of Drive out there. Has the original soundtrack and a bunch of extra backstory. Absolutely. This is one I've talked up for years where it's essential you don't get the super edited US release. The special edition also has one of the greatest commentary tracks. I did a podcast on it several years ago. Daryl Surat fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Jun 20, 2014 |
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Jun 20, 2014 03:50
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Alright, thanks. I did manage to track down a copy of the international version of Iron Monkey not too long ago (ironically, it was after I asked about it in this thread) and I thought it was alright. Having the Once Upon a Time in China theme play for Wong Fei-Hung was a neat touch but overall I didn't really find it at all that superior to the US release. In fact, I thought the soundtrack was really well done in the US version and it was very understated and forgettable (aside from the Wong Fei-Hung theme) in the international version. But it did have some nice character moments that are absent in the US version.
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Jun 20, 2014 04:41
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There is a Region 2 Special Edition of Drive out there. Has the original soundtrack and a bunch of extra backstory. Drive is a Steve Wang film which is a US made HK action movie starring Mark Dacascos, Kadeem Hardison, John Pyper-Ferguson and Brittany Murphy. Even though it's a US film you really need to see it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipxCifEHS2M
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Jun 20, 2014 04:47
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IIRC, Drive was supposed to be a vehicle for Stallone and Chan.
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Jun 21, 2014 04:10
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