Recent Viewings

Martial Media, Culture and Other Arts Martial Media and Popular Culture
1

Hi all,

Thought this would be a good thread to offer opinions or reviews of stuff recently watched.

Last night I watched for the 1st time:

Jackie Chan’s, Police Story.

This was great! Kick azz! I like Jackie alot during this era. I really don’t like his newer US produced comedy stuff. This movie Police Story had just the right blend of comedy, and hard action, and great stunts, and a good story, and Jackie was a madman. I have the Media Asia DVD release with only English subs. Good release, decent subs and decent picture.

I also recently watched:

Sammo Hung’s, The Prodigal Son.

This was very good. Classic style Kung Fu, with great choreography, and good comedic elements, but also some hard action. I have the Fortune Star DVD release. Good pic and decent extras. I watched the dub version, which was very good. I prefer a dub IF is it good. That usually means real voice character acting with asian accents, and not a group of Seattle Freshmen kids reading the lines off, which is what all the newer dubs sound like to me. What I didn’t like about this release on a technical note was during the Opera scene songs, that was not dubbed, and the subs did not automatically pop up, but when I pushed subs, it did have the words of the songs. I also thought the ending could have been better, as while the SPOILER ALERT! main bad guy was beaten, all the other characters just seemed brushed off like Sammo’s character and his fat daughter. I think if the hero had come back to the house, it would have been a better closure ending.

I just started watching, Master of the Flying Guillotine.

All for now,

Chosen One

2

i freaking loved prodigal son and i think its in the top five greatest kung fu film of all time.

3

Hi,

I must say, that sometimes the way I watch a movie may not always be the best, and some movies I should watch again. I often put a movie on in the evening, and sometimes I get tired, sometimes even slipping off to sleep, so I stop it, and try to finish it the next day, though sometimes I may miss a day or more. Yeah I know it’s not the same as watching it straight through, but it seems my life schedule often has me doing it like this.

Today I watched(finished):

Jimmy Wang Yu’s, Master of the Flying Guillotine.

This was a fun classic style era Kung Fu movie. I liked it alot. It had the bad old bling monk with wild white hair. Some cool effects and scenes like the India Yogi guy. The dub was the good classic era style. One thing that I noticed and some may not if they arn’t fans of them, is most of the music in this was KRAFTWERK. The older pre-disco beat Kraftwerk, alot from the Ralf and Florian album, and the ending music was Morganspaziergang from the Autobahan album. Cool music, from Kraftwerks more experimental days, and cool full on Kung Fu madness, I can see why this called a classic.

Chosen One

4

[QUOTE=kungpowmaster;830703]Hi,

I must say, that sometimes the way I watch a movie may not always be the best, and some movies I should watch again. I often put a movie on in the evening, and sometimes I get tired, sometimes even slipping off to sleep, so I stop it, and try to finish it the next day, though sometimes I may miss a day or more. Yeah I know it’s not the same as watching it straight through, but it seems my life schedule often has me doing it like this.

Today I watched(finished):

Jimmy Wang Yu’s, Master of the Flying Guillotine.

This was a fun classic style era Kung Fu movie. I liked it alot. It had the bad old bling monk with wild white hair. Some cool effects and scenes like the India Yogi guy. The dub was the good classic era style. One thing that I noticed and some may not if they arn’t fans of them, is most of the music in this was KRAFTWERK. The older pre-disco beat Kraftwerk, alot from the Ralf and Florian album, and the ending music was Morganspaziergang from the Autobahan album. Cool music, from Kraftwerks more experimental days, and cool full on Kung Fu madness, I can see why this called a classic.

Chosen One[/QUOTE]

hey i watch movies the same way. to me its better like that because then i don’t miss anything cause once i start the movie its like i’m watching it from the beginning.

5

Green Jade Statuette-

Pretty good story and plenty of fights. Tommy lee, Chi Kuan Chun and Meng fei are all in top form, and it was nice to see fighting cameos from Lung Fei, Leung Kar Yan and Shan Mao. There are tons of other recognizable faces as well, like Jimmy Lee, Phillip Ko, and Wang Kuan Hsiung. Great movie. 4/5

6

Secret of the Water Technique-

This movie is so stupid. It is incredibly boring, but has some good fight scenes mixed in. Roc Tien Peng and some big guy perform well, and Leung Kar Yan and Jason Pai Paio have good cameo fight scenes. Most of the fights are good. SPOILER ALERT- what is up with the alien that shows up at the end?

There is also a wheelchair fighter. Very weird movie, I just wish it made sense.

2/5

7

Another great thing about Master of the Flying Guillotine is that it was choreographed by Lau Kar-Leung and Lau Kar-Wing. I think Lau Kar-Wing even has a cameo as one of the fighters in the tournament, if I remember right. I also like the “Thai boxer” played by Chen Tsien-Po, who was normally only an extra or bit player in several films, notable Fist of Fury (Chinese Connection); Secret Rivals 2; Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth; and even appeared as recently as Drunken Master 2. Master of Flying Guillotine let him show that even an “extra” can shine if given a decent role.

8

Master of the Flying Guillotine is great.

I just watched Heroes Two.

9

Shaolin and Tai Chi- Eagle Han Ying plays his usual role as an evil government official, and he is looking for a golden seal. There is a subplot where Buddhists and Taoists hold a contest to see who has the best fighter, and the winner will keep the seal safe. The Buddhists win, and each side trains a pupil for their next contest. When they have their duel, ninjas steal the golden seal and the 2 pupils are sent to get it back.

I enjoyed this movie very much. There is an evil monk, a funny drunken monk, and ninjas. There are plenty of fights, and the finale doesn’t disappoint. The story is good, and so is the kung fu. Excellent kicking, punching and acrobatic skills on display. Eagle Han doesn’t do any fighting until the end, and he puts on one heck of a performance in the 9 minute final fight.

3.5/5

10

This isn’t a martial movie, but today I went and saw The Water Horse. It’s about the Loch Ness monster, a family movie but one that adults can like as well. To be truthful, if it were an American-made movie I probably wouldn’t have seen it, but it’s set it Scotland, filmed in New Zealand, and takes place during World War II. Good characters and acting. I’ll probably end up getting it in the future in DVD, when it becomes discounted.

11

Life of Ninja- stupid movie, good fights. Sun Jung Chi has a nice cameo, and the final 2 fights are definitely worth waiting around for. First up is some Japanese wrestler vs Chen Kuan Tai. The Japanese guy is ripped and he smashes everything in sight and throws Kuan Tai’s stunt double around like a rag doll. Amazing stuff. The final fight is also good. Nice and long. i love that monkey-birdlike style Kurata uses. Rating- 3/5

swordsman’s Adventure- lots of good fights with Adam Cheng in this one. Ching Siu Tung does the action so expect lots of spinning through the air. The final fight is pretty good, and alan Hsu has a good fight. Chang Shan has the highlight fight. I was a bit disappointed with Jack Long’s main fight. 3/5

No Guilty- this one starts off promising. David Lam Wei plays a cop and so does Alexander Lo Rei. Chang Shan does a great job playing the crazy mob boss rapist. The story starts out good, but the dialogue is terrible and the movie drags for most of the running time. Finally at the end Chang shan gets to throw down. The final fight is pretty good. The biggest disappointment is that the only fighting Lo Rei does is with Chang shan, and it lasts for about 2 seconds. 2.5/5

Crazy Girl Killers- I enjoyed this, but I was really mad that Chang Shan doesn’t get to fight until the end, and it isn’t a very good fight. Lo rei has a few fights. Nothing special, but it’s always nice to see him in action. There are a lot of gun fights which are ok. 2.5/5

Vampire Kid- really stupid kids movie with some awesome fights with Chang Shan. Jack Long also gets a couple good fights. 3/5

The Revenger- Ti Lung is great in this, just like he always is. Story is decent. Movie probably would have been better if Wong ching wasn’t the main villain. I like Wong Ching, but it would have been better if someone like Chan Wai Man was the main villain and Wong Ching played his henchman (like in The Heroes). 2.5/5

Black and White swordsman- boring story, decent fights, and some of the locations where the fights take place are really cool. 2/5

Magnum fist- Other than the opening fight and the long one vs many samurai fight, this movie is crap. 1.5/5

Iron Fisted Monk- good, just not as good as Sammo’s masterpieces like Prodigal son, Knockabout, The Victim and Warriors Two. Yen shi Kwan is one of my favorite actors so it was nice to see him get a lot of action. I was a bit disappointed that Chen Sing doesn’t get to show off his handwork too much. 3.5/5

Foul Hero- best scene is at the start where Chen Kuan Tai fights a bunch of people. Gets really boing from there. Ku Feng has a very small role. Only reason I kept watching is because one guy looks a lot like Rongguang Yu. At first I thought for sure it was him, but by the end of the movie I was convinced it wasn’t. Probably because his fighting skills suck. 1.5/5

Super Kung Fu fighter- This was a tough watch. The fights ar decent at best. Carter Wong looks bad. Story is tired as can be. Overall just a bad movie. 1/5

Shaolin Kids- this must have been written by a ten year old. Maybe it was just the English dub, but I was bored by this movie more and more as it went along. carter Wong looking cool with a beard is the best thing about this movie. The fights are good at times, but whenever a fight starts to get good, cliff Lok does this stupid thing where he jumps over a guy’s back and kills him. I hated this movie. with all the big stars on hand, I expected a lot more. 1./5

Boxer’s adventure- just watched this after not seeign it for 2 or 3 years. Just as good as I remember. Definitely my favorite role of Blacky Ko’s career. Meng Fei, Jack Long, Dorian Tan and Lung Tien Sheng are also great. The final fight is a bit disappointing, but overall it is a really good movie. Probably the best thing about the movie is that the crash DVD is good quality and the english dub is one of the best I have ever heard. “You’re dead? You die easy!” 4/5

12

Hmmm…Boxer’s Adventure sounds interesting. Haven’t seen that one out before, though.

Actually, the big wrestler in A Life of Ninja is actually a Taiwanese wrestler. A friend and I spoke with him for awhile in Taipei in the '80s. He ran a hard-core club that had a fighting team that entered the free-fight tournaments. We also watched a demo he put on in his school, but he himself seemed like he probably studied professional wrestling, Japanese style. I forgot his name, but you will probably also recognize him in other movies, such as in Fearless Hyena, Shaolin Chastity Kung Fu, and Drunken Tai Chi.

13

Oh yeah I remember that guy. With Peng Kong and probably Sun Jung Chi helping with the action they came up with a great scene. It drags once they go outside but its still a great fight.

14

Last week Friday I saw Meet the Spartans. I would strongly advise against it. Only a couple of funny parts, and even then, only good for a mild chuckle.

15

Ninja

Hi,

I recently watched Ninja Grand Masters of Death, on the 10 pack, Kung Fu Crusade.

I thought this was great! Reminded me of a Godfrey Ho and Lo Rei Ninja movie.

Hmmm,
I watched Sonny Chiba in Bullet Train, that was OK, but his role was very small, and it wasn’t MA.

Hmmm,
Trying to think of some MA I watched recently… I did see “A Better Tomorrow”, that was good.

Non MA, last thing I watched was Donnie Darko. I saw this long ago, and remember it being really odd, and it is, but really good too, I think.

Chosen One

16

I agree with everything you said (pretty much:p) A Better Tomorrow is my favorite John Woo movie, and Chow Yun Fat gives such a great performance. Ti Lung was also VERY good, but man oh man Chow was awesome. I give his acting performance in that movie an 11/10 (that guy from Spinal Tap knows what I’m saying:D).