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Yay! I was looking for a thread like this. Surprised to see the legendary Jet Li's Shaolin Temple (1982) hasn't yet been mentioned (links to it are all over YouTube in various dubs/subs, watch it). This was a movie so seminal it made kids run away from home and turn up at the site of the old Shaolin Temple in China when it was released. (and still has this effect: I showed my own six year old son it, got shushed violently halfway through the movie, and as the end credits rolled he turned to me, dead-serious, and said 'Mom, I'm going to have to quit school and move to China.') Its supposedly part of the Shaolin Trilogy, which includes Shaolin Temple 2: Kids from Shaolin (1984), an inexplicably sweet movie that has a very Judy Garland/Andy Rooney 'I've got some costumes down in the barn let's put on a show!' backstory to it in that it was completely written, choreographed and acted by Jet Li and fellow members of his Wushu academy, including the woman who would become his first wife and seriously old school, genuine, 'wires? We couldn't even afford to eat' traditional kung fu styles. Also, Jet Li sings. Really not to be missed if you love hokey old kung fu movies (and actual traditional kung fu styles, including lion dancing), and the setting is really gorgeous. It too is all over YouTube in surprisingly good quality with subs and available through Netflix via DVD only. The third entry in the 'trilogy' (I use the term loosely because there's really no overarching unifying theme other than 'Jet Li and co do Shaolin kung fu among every other conceivable animal style on the planet') is 'Return to Shaolin Temple 3: Martials Arts of Shaolin' (1986). Released on DVD as Dragon Dynasty. The first two movies were primarily mainlander written and acted/directed. This one brought in bigshot Hong Kong director Lau Ka-leung which explains the much better quality. If you ever wanted to see Jet Li crossdress, this is your chance. Excellent fight scenes (and more lion dancing), ending is surprisingly bloody IIRC. Oracle fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Jan 13, 2014 |
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Jan 13, 2014 19:07
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Run Run Shaw lived through the invention of cinema and the fall and rise and fall and rise and fall (and rise again) of China... jesus, the history that man saw. And he was apparently still lucid til near the end (retiring at 104).quote:Dragons Forever also features a fight between Jackie and Benny, but the fight isn't as great as in Wheels on Meals. Benny also has some hilarious make-up, designed to look "intimidating", that is anything but. Dragons Forever is currently my favorite Jackie Chan movie, because it has all his old kung fu school brothers in it together and everyone in the drat movie is a kung fu master. Like, everyone. Seriously. Old lady walking her dog? Kung fu master. Screaming seemingly helpless damsel in distress? Kung-fu master. White guy with way too much eyeliner? Kung-fu master. Cigar-chomping skinny old bad guy? KUNG FU loving MASTER. It is awesome and insane and watching Jackie Chan pretend to be a lawyer is hilarious, as is the incredibly rampant over the top sexism and 80's hairstyles/clothing. Another fascinating little tidbit of kung-fu movies: Lau Kar-leung is a director/actor/stuntman who is a direct descendant, kung-fu family-wise, of Wong Fei-Hung. Lau was the third child of Lau Cham (Lau Jaam, 劉湛), a martial arts master who studied Hung Gar under Lam Sai-wing, a student of Wong Fei-hung. So when he's fighting Jackie Chan (who is playing the actual Wong fei-Hung) under that train in Drunken Master II, you are witnessing the son of a student of a student of the actual physical man the star is playing. You just don't get that in Western film, and its one of the reasons I love the genre. Relatedly, if you want to know a little of what it was really like at that Chinese opera school, see if you can find Painted Faces with Sammo Hung (again, its a rental on DVD only through Netflix, I believe, and very hard to find. If I could get hold of a laserdisc of this I would be a very happy person. There's a very poor copy available on youtube). Its a thinly-veiled biography of their time growing up in the opera school, only the abuse has been toned down because they didn't think modern audiences would believe it. That poo poo was barbaric. Western opera is nothing like Chinese opera. There's a story in Jackie Chan's biography My Life about how Yuen Biao, one of the more naturally physically gifted students, fell asleep in a handstand after having to hold it for several hours. They would regularly be beaten with a shattered rattan/bamboo stick, which was called 'getting a serving of spicy noodles.' So if you've ever wondered why they put up with so much physical abuse and dangerous situations in his movies, its because that was pretty much all he knew since the age of five.
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Jan 14, 2014 15:52
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So it turns out Jackie Chan's dad was a secret loving agent in nationalist China and he only just found this out in 2003. Also he has two older brothers and two older sisters. So of course he promptly made a documentary about it. Its on Netflix right now, called Traces of Dragon: Jackie Chan & Lost Family and it is fascinating (of course his dad knows kung fu too, he was one of Jackie's first teachers).
Oracle fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Mar 15, 2014 |
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Mar 15, 2014 04:34
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They weren't kidnapped, they were basically sold into indentured servitude to an opera master (not state supported, at least not in HK) for up to ten years, after which time they were free. The contracts were pretty harsh and included signing away your rights to your kids' lives to the teacher. Literally. Like one clause was the teacher could discipline them unto death and you had to say you were ok with that as a parent/guardian. The teacher also was to keep any profits from performances in exchange for providing room and board and instruction. Sammo was indeed Jackie Chan's 'older brother' at the same opera school, and by both accounts a bully towards him. Of course if you read Chan's biography it appears he suffered from some fairly serious ADHD as a kid and his parents just didn't know how to handle him, though they were by no means neglectful or abusive. In fact his mother used to carry bags of hot water for miles on the bus every weekend to bathe him because otherwise he'd have had to wash with cold water from the hose like the other kids. It might have partly been jealousy over this and other things (she'd bring him sweets and candy and such) that led to Sammo's being so hard on him (not that he was any easier on the other kids). Yuen Biao was another of their classmates, and the youngest, and was so naturally skilled in acrobatics he rapidly caught up to their skill level even though he was several years younger, and once actually fell asleep in a handstand (they did them leaning against the wall, sometimes for hours).
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May 1, 2014 15:18
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Yep. I wish I could find it on laserdisc (for less than the 50+ up they want on ebay). Ironically enough you can find it in its entirety on YouTube, its just a very lovely VHS copy, complete with wavering frames and static and all.
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May 1, 2014 15:31
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I just want it for the digitalness so I can transfer it to DVD  Otherwise I'll have to wait for Sammo to have a heart attack before they re-release any of that old crap.
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May 1, 2014 15:39
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I think he's more implying that the unique set of circumstances that led to the rise of stars like Sammo et al (e.g. the culture of Hong Kong pre-1997) no longer exists, for better or for worse.
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May 6, 2014 13:51
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quote:given that Jackie, Sammo, et al are in there playing instructors as such while child actors play themselves, I'm sure they all took lengths to accurately portray the crap they went through/inflicted upon one another Oracle fucked around with this message at 04:56 on May 7, 2014 |
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May 7, 2014 04:53
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El Gallinero Gros posted:
No, he's an arms dealer, and Jackie Chan is the world's least convincing lawyer. Also everyone is a kung fu master. EVERYONE.
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Jun 26, 2014 04:30
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Yeah iirc a lot of those studios folded and the distribution rights/ownership are up in the air, and copyright was a pretty fast and loose thing back then as it was.
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Aug 14, 2014 14:04
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And you can find and watch it in an obviously copied from VHS format complete with pretty crappy English subtitles on youtube. I don't even think its files, there's just no way of disentangling rights to it. I mean its up on YouTube for jah's take. The autobiography in question is called Jackie Chan: My Life and is a pretty standardly sanitized autobiography. My 8 year old loves to read the early chapters over and over again to the point the book is falling apart.
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Aug 18, 2014 04:30
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Not a classic, but an homage to the classics: Donnie Yen has a new movie coming out Kung Fu Killers Guess it came out in October in Hong Kong under the title Kung Fu Jungle. quote:Fans of Hong Kong martial arts will delight at the number of stars from past and present who litter the screen during Kung Fu Jungle. From contemporary fighting performers like Xing Yu and Fan Siu Wong, to past masters including Yuen Cheung Yan and even Lau Kar Leung (albeit on TV). But the film's desire to acknowledge and pay respect to the accomplished artists of Hong Kong Cinema extends way beyond martial artists, with everyone from Andrew Lau and Soi Cheang to Bruce Law and Derek Kwok popping up in blink-and-you'll-miss-em cameos throughout the film. And don't worry if you don't spot them all, as they are all name-checked - even those who failed to make the final cut - in the film's closing credits.
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Mar 27, 2015 21:51
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G-III posted:The most ridiculous example of Donnie playing too young for his age was Dragon Tiger Gate. Well... to be fair that whole movie was ridiculous.
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Mar 28, 2015 06:01
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Yaws posted:What are you talking about? Is his career over or something? In Thai buddhism, lots of guys will basically go on a pilgrimage of sorts and become a monk for some period of time, from two weeks to years, as a sort of penance/sabbatical/religious obligation type thing. Its not necessary but its considered good luck and auspicious and marks you as a good person to sacrifice like that, even temporarily. You have to shave your head, wear what they give you, go out asking for food from strangers, meditate, clean the temple, etc etc. In Tony Jaa's case I think he was kind of waiting for the heat to die down and using the monk thing as a way to do so without attracting undue speculation, which is also not exactly unheard of.
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Mar 29, 2015 05:26
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Tatum Girlparts posted:Either he pissed off some flavor of Asian mob or he pissed off his bosses in the film industry depending who you ask,
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Mar 29, 2015 19:23
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Huh. Jackie Chan's putting out an autobiography in April, and actually talks frankly about poo poo like all his extramarital affairs. Far as I know the only biography of him is My Life and is pretty dated (and sanitized) so this should be interesting.
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Mar 31, 2015 14:16
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LORD OF BUTT posted:I mean his son might be getting executed for weed, I think any hope of his image staying completely untarnished is pretty much gone so it makes sense for him to just own it and hope for the best.
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Apr 1, 2015 18:47
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LORD OF BUTT posted:Ah, he got let out? I remember the buzz was he was probably gonna die when I heard about it. Still, sort of beside the point- the PR mess probably shook Jackie up a little about this stuff.
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Apr 1, 2015 20:25
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G-III posted:If you want super powered kung fu, look no further than the Shaw Brothers' Chinese Fairy Wu Xia'ish adaptation of Superman: "Descendant of the Sun" (1983)
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Apr 21, 2015 18:57
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What about King of Beggars? I've seen the others (minus the Cookery one above) and the kids LOVED both Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle (Qiu Yuen has got to be my favorite Hong Kong actress like, ever).
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Dec 15, 2015 16:07
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Anonymous Robot posted:Probably the weirdest part, though, is that early in the film, the factory boss displays his martial prowess with something that happens to be at hand, a bench, lifting it with one foot, twirling it around and posing on it. Later, at the end of the film, it's made evident that this was not, in fact, an impromptu display, but rather that the bosses' gang have all mastered fighting with benches.
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Mar 9, 2016 18:39
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CroatianAlzheimers posted:I'll check it out. It's on my Netflix list anyway. Also my kids loved Kids from Shaolin (which you can find on Youtube) and features little girls of all ages doing some kickass kung fu (all the actors were members of Jet Li's wushu school so its all legit, too). I would third Supercop 3 with Michelle Yeoh. I'm wondering if any of the Cynthia Rothrock movies might be appropriate (Millionaire's Express?) Raging Phoenix maybe (haven't seen it but its typical martial arts violence).
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Mar 21, 2016 19:37
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CroatianAlzheimers posted:Wait, Kids from Shaolin? I've never heard of it, but that sounds right up her alley. She's six, but she watches Batman (both Brave and Bold and the old B:tAM), the new TMNT cartoon, and the Powerpuff Girls. She's also into Squirrel Girl and Teen Titans, so it's not like she's never seen a comic-booky fight before.
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Mar 21, 2016 21:39
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Man Dancer posted:: wikipedia posted:Having studied Taekwondo under Philip Tan on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, he later trained under Tao-liang Tan.[4] He worked as a stunt choreographer for X-Men[5] and The One as the assistant of renowned Hong Kong fight choreographer Corey Yuen.[3]
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Dec 4, 2016 05:08
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You are missing Dragons Forever, last movie with Yuen Biao, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, also features fight with Benny 'the Jet' Urquidez at the end that is NOT to be missed. Classic Jackie stunts that make you go 'fuckin OW that was awesome but GODDAMN' The plot is laughable (Jackie Chan plays a lawyer) but the action is fun as hell and almost non stop.
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Apr 6, 2017 05:01
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Lobok posted:And since the credits were done at the beginning of the film the movie is really and truly over right then and there. Lights up, everybody leave. Kind of felt like there was supposed to be no pretense. Here's a bad guy, and now he's done. What more do you want? Oh god that would make every movie like ROTK. Those poor poor people.
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Sep 6, 2017 15:33
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Remulak posted:I’ve been told that the incredible stunt work on late 20th-century Hong Kong was an interesting side effect of free high quality health care. More like an interesting side effect of the last gasp of traditional Chinese opera resulting in a bunch of classically (read: horrifically abused) trained young men with certain... unique skills and a terrible eating habit being desperate for any work they could get.
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Sep 12, 2018 21:03
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El Gallinero Gros posted:Is Dragons Forever the one where Sammo plays Jackie's developmentally disabled brother? It’s the one where Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao star together for the last time. Chan is a lawyer, Biao is some kind of mentally disturbed criminal and Hung is an arms dealer. They’re friends of Chan’s character who he recruits to try to smear the fishery owner suing a chemical plant that’s polluting the water where they fish (the chemical plant retains him to do this). Eventually they discover the chemical plant is a front for drug traffickers and turn on them.
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Jun 16, 2019 23:07
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El Gallinero Gros posted:Right, and one of them fights a squirrelly guy with a cigar and glasses at the end, right? And he slides down a railing in an evil fashion. It seemed like everybody in that movie was secretly a Kung fu master. (The squirrelly guy was Yuen Wah, who was Bruce Lee’s stunt double and also a member of the Chinese Opera School the Big Three attended).
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Jun 17, 2019 02:32
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Yeah but Buddhist swastika goes in the opposite direction of Nazi ones.
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Aug 7, 2021 21:17
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A giant has fallen  Jimmy Wang Yu of One-Armed Swordsman and Chinese Boxer fame, among other great films, died today.
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Apr 5, 2022 23:13
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Dr. Jerrold Coe posted:drat, I think he was poorly for awhile: Yeah he had a stroke, was pretty much paralyzed on his left side, did something like 4x the physical therapy they gave him, and got full use back though it was never as strong according to some obit or other I read.
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Apr 6, 2022 05:48
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Artelier posted:Want to ask, how do you guys feel about hitting the gym to practice martial arts? I did boxing a little bit just before the pandemic hit, and now I just feel so anxious to go back to my gym. Not sure if my fears of maybe getting covid in gyms are overblown or if playing it safe is the right call. My family in particular is immunocompromised so I've been very conservative about activities. Our martial arts teacher taught outdoors and when they couldn't be out made everyone wear masks, said it was good resistance training, heh. But he's hardcore. Try and find a place like that?
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Jun 15, 2022 17:27
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Sgt. Politeness posted:How did you watch it? Like is there a cost effective(free) way to watch these hong kong classics that aren't A surprising amount are on YouTube due to murky copyright.
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Jul 24, 2022 02:37
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Sgt. Politeness posted:Funny question but I remember a weapon referred to as "capital chopper" or something like that but I can't remember what movie or weapon it was. Pu Dao (horse chopper?)
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Sep 6, 2022 16:25
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Neo Rasa posted:Just want to confirm this movie owns Man I remember when you could only get stuff like this on poorly copied VHS in plastic cases with homemade labels at conventions.
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May 19, 2023 15:43
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