MARTIAL ARTS MOVIES

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Finished Killer Constable yesterday. Great movie. Brutal, and sad (for the bandit's blind daughter). Taking a short break to watch some other stuff, but will likely watch another film in about 2 weeks
 
Yesterday, I watched The Fate of the Swordsman and 14 Blades. And I fell asleep while watching Bloodfighter (with Bolo Yeoung) and wondering whether it is an attempt to recreate Bloodsport 1 from the POV of Chong-Li, or something else entirely... :grin:

Given how long it has been since I last watched a movie, maybe I should post this in the thread "The Upside of Coronavirus". Then again, I feel like it really belongs here:shade:.
 
I also watched a funny Chinese movie set in the Ming era. Three female assassins (using a sabre, a bow, and "deer horn knives") are sent by their eunuch "handler"/vizier Wei Whoever It Was to bring him a secret letter with compromising materials. The letter is of course in an inn, in the possession of two Imperial Guardsmen, one of them the head of the Imperial Guard...and the landlady and the waiter at the "Champion Inn/Number One Inn" are also trained martial artists and don't like people who mess with their paying customers!
Not to mention, some of the assassins are rivals, and some just might see some already familiar faces! What's the whole story, here?

Not gonna spoil you...and in fact, I couldn't. For some reason, while I remember the movie, I've forgotten the title:grin:!
 
If I had known I was going to be watching this many Yukari Oshima movies, I would have opted for shutdown of non-essential businesses a lot sooner.
 
Just finished this 1967 film The Assassin on Prime. This Cheng Cheh film starring Jimmy Wang Yu, made in the same year as their seminal One-Armed Swordsman. Like One-Armed Swordsman and other martial arts films of the late 60s, this film is much more focused on character, romance, politics and brotherhood rather than combat, with only a few fights at the beginning and a spectacular final battle.

I thought I knew where the ending was heading but was shocked by how it actually resolved. It is excellent but not one for those who demand an 80s-action-film amount of combat in their films. Only detriment was that the Prime version only includes an English dub and while it is pretty well done for a film so focused on the actors I'd have preferred a Chinese language dub.

 
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Just finished this 1967 film The Assassin on Prime. This Cheng Cheh film starring Jimmy Wang Yu, made in the same year as their seminal One-Armed Swordsman. Like One-Armed Swordsman and other martial arts films of the late 60s, this film is much more focused on character, romance, politics and brotherhood rather than combat, with only a few fights at the beginning and a spectacular final battle.

I thought I knew where the ending was heading but was shocked by how it actually resolved. It is excellent but not one for those who want demand an 80s-action-film amount of combat in their films. Only detriment was that the Prime version only includes an English dub and while it is pretty well done for a film so focused on the actors I'd have preferred a Chinese language dub.



I adore this movie. Both the cathartic ending and how well it balances all the different story elements. I think this is one of the best Chang Cheh films in terms of telling a story, particularly with its full treatment of the romance and how it handles history.
 
Finished Killer Constable yesterday. Great movie. Brutal, and sad (for the bandit's blind daughter). Taking a short break to watch some other stuff, but will likely watch another film in about 2 weeks

One of the great things about this genre of movie in my opinion is you never know if they will be happy or sad endings. It is very hard to predict and that makes it a bit more exciting.
 
One of the great things about this genre of movie in my opinion is you never know if they will be happy or sad endings. It is very hard to predict and that makes it a bit more exciting.

True. Growing up, I remember a few where basically no one lives of the main cast, so I'm fine with them not surviving. When I saw how the Constable didn't keep his word because bringing the minister to justice was more important to him, I thought "What a dick!". Which is a real life bias for me, as I feel keeping your word is very important
 
Yeah, martial arts movies had me well-prepared for GRRM! I just kept not understanding what's the big fuss is about when characters die, which went about as well as you could expect on some forums...:devil:
Then again, I'd started reading similar stories since the Illiad when I was about 8, and there were no martial arts movies available. Or maybe there were, but I didn't have VHS:shade:!

And yeah, keeping your word is important. But the constable was an obvious Legalist:thumbsup:!
Damn it, now I want to play a Legalist Xia:grin:!
 
Hey, where are y'all buying/streaming your Asian flicks? Hard to find stuff?

Here is a site I just discovered. Getting ready to order from them, not sure what to expect.


As urbwar urbwar says you can find a lot of stuff on Prime but when it comes to picking my favourites up on blu I used to use HKFlix, they had great selection of blus and DVDs not available in North America and good shipping rates but they shutdown a number of years ago and I haven't been able to find a good replacement besides Amazon.ca for R1 blus of classics.

I recently rewatched Golden Swallow on Prime and while it is far from a bad film I did feel that it seemed a transitional film for Cheh Chang where he starts to move from the more elegant classical film style of the great King Hu to the ultraviolent and more roughhewn style he became well known for and I'm not sure it worked as well for me as it would have if King Hu had just directed this sequel to his masterpiece Come Drink with Me. Still worth seeing though for fans of either director or the cast, I mean this film does have Pei-Pei Cheng, Jimmy Wang and Lieh Lo in it.

 
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Watched Kung Fu Zombie. It was very silly, in an enjoyable way.
 
Watched Kung Fu Zombie. It was very silly, in an enjoyable way.
With such a name, I suppose it might be an inspiration for Enter the Zombie. No matter, I tend to avoid all movies that are "Kung Fu (Something Unrelated)".
One Kung-Fu Soccer is too much in my book:devil:!
 
With such a name, I suppose it might be an inspiration for Enter the Zombie. No matter, I tend to avoid all movies that are "Kung Fu (Something Unrelated)".
One Kung-Fu Soccer is too much in my book:devil:!

It's from 1981, so well before the 2000s-era zombie craze.

Summary from Wikipedia (I would say "spoilers," but c'mon, is anyone really watching Kung Fu Zombie for the plot?):

"Pang, a martial artist, foils a robbery and sends thug Lu Dai to jail. Desiring revenge, Lu returns to the town and hires Wu Lung, a Taoist priest, to raise several zombies to fight Pang. The plan backfires when Lu is killed by his own trap. His ghost then haunts the priest and demands to be resurrected. Kwan Wei Long, a serial killer, enters the town looking to duel with Pang and is seemingly killed by him. Happy to find a suitable corpse, Wu Lung attempts to put Lu Dai's spirit into Long's body. Long, however, is so evil that he is reanimated as a free-willed vampire. When Pang's father dies, the priest uses his corpse to host Lu's spirit, but the ceremony is interrupted, and the thug and Pang's father share control of the body. Pang must now defeat the vampire and his father's possessed corpse."
 
There are a number of these martial artists commenting on movies videos on YT but I find this one of the best and most interesting.

 
I have no idea why I hadn't heard of this film, The Vengeful Beauty, starring Chen Ping and directed by Ho Meng-hua of The Flying Guillotines fame available on Prime.

It has everything in only 80 minutes. Chen Ping. Lo Lieh. A topless Chen Ping. A topless Susan Yam-Yam Shaw. Norman Chu. Our heroine on a kung fu path of revenge while pregnant. A bamboo forest battle. Flying guillotines. Fire. Clones. Dynamite. Tragedy. Betrayal. Love. Death. Classic abrupt ending.

See it. Love it. Live it.

 
I have no idea why I hadn't heard of this film, The Vengeful Beauty, starring Chen Ping and directed by Ho Meng-hua of The Flying Guillotines fame available on Prime.

It has everything in only 80 minutes. Chen Ping. Lo Lieh. A topless Chen Ping. A topless Susan Yam-Yam Shaw. Norman Chu. Our heroine on a kung fu path of revenge while pregnant. A bamboo forest battle. Flying guillotines. Fire. Clones. Dynamite. Tragedy. Betrayal. Love. Death. Classic abrupt ending.

See it. Love it. Live it.



This is a great film
 
Speaking of Michael Jai White, I'm dying to see Triple Threat. I only wish they had cast Marko Zaror as well, but then I guess the movie would only be viewable in Heaven...



I have to say, I think that last Never Back Down with MJW where the guy says "Case should have blown up. Just didn't want to play the game," or something to that effect had to be meta. I don't see how he's not a major star other than not wanting to play the game.
 
I realized recently that our translators of wuxia movies have been getting it something wrong. I'm now curious why.
I mean, you know how people in these movies address each other as "Big bro" and "Big sis"?
There are one-word equivalents to those that are in everyday use in Bulgarian. They have the same connotations of respect, and can be used towards people outside of your family. As an example, when I write with Shemek hiTankolel Shemek hiTankolel OOC, I can (and I do) easily address him as "bate", because he is older, male and I respect him well enough.

And yet the translators are using the literal translations of "big brother"and "big sister", which aren't wrong, but sound clumsy and would be assumed to be used between relatives only:shade:.

As stated before, I'm now you curious why they started translating it like that in the first place. Or rather, the first few might be a simple mistake, but why wouldn't anyone fix it:thumbsup:?
 
while not movies, I've noticed Amazon has added a lot of Wuxia and other series lately. There are a couple of versions of the Condor series, one based on Wong Fei Hung, as well as one of the series based on The Four. I think once I finish the sci-fi stuff I'm watching, I'm likely going to dive into the Condor series. They have the 2003 Legends and 2006 Return, but only the 2019 version of Heaven Sword.
 
while not movies, I've noticed Amazon has added a lot of Wuxia and other series lately. There are a couple of versions of the Condor series, one based on Wong Fei Hung, as well as one of the series based on The Four. I think once I finish the sci-fi stuff I'm watching, I'm likely going to dive into the Condor series. They have the 2003 Legends and 2006 Return, but only the 2019 version of Heaven Sword.
That's good to hear. I've watch the 2006 series of Return of the Condor Heroes, and it is a lot of fun. I'll have to take a look at the 2003 Legend series.
 
I just signed up with a service called iQIYI. They have quite of a bit of subtitled shows and films. While they have a VIP account, the free account looks to be ad supported. Besides the website, there is an app for android phones & tablets (probably Apple as well, but not sure). I set up a wishlist, and will be checking out some stuff. Some films have subtitles already; others they have subtitles you can activate. They have some martial arts films/dramas and a few that are more fantasy oriented
 
I just signed up with a service called iQIYI. They have quite of a bit of subtitled shows and films. While they have a VIP account, the free account looks to be ad supported. Besides the website, there is an app for android phones & tablets (probably Apple as well, but not sure). I set up a wishlist, and will be checking out some stuff. Some films have subtitles already; others they have subtitles you can activate. They have some martial arts films/dramas and a few that are more fantasy oriented
I need to make a new account, I guess!
 
So I've been considering buying various Shaw Brothers movies in digital format (since I don't do DVD's anymore). Since I have stuff linked to Movies Anywhere, if I buy from one linked source (like say, Youtube), it will show up in my Amazon account (normally). I see all four of the Brave Archer movies are for sale, subtitled, for 5.99 each. I've never seen any, and they are not on Amazon at all. Are they worth getting? I wanted to get The Five Venoms, but Amazon only has the dubbed version (which ticks me off to no end). Not sure about Kid with the Golden Arm though.
 
You want to keep collecting physical media, given all the modification of movies that's happening right now.

For example, Iron Man 1, Disney has removed parts of the opening scene with the female soldier, as well as CGI-ing Darryl Hannah's butt in Splash. If you want to see the movies in their original states, I recommend sticking to physical, as space consuming it might be.
 
You want to keep collecting physical media, given all the modification of movies that's happening right now.

For example, Iron Man 1, Disney has removed parts of the opening scene with the female soldier, as well as CGI-ing Darryl Hannah's butt in Splash. If you want to see the movies in their original states, I recommend sticking to physical, as space consuming it might be.

I don't own a DVD player (outside the drive on my laptop), and while I appreciate the advice, I do not have the room for physical media. I went digital over a decade ago, and I'm not turning back. Given I rarely buy films outside of backing some on kickstarter, it's not an issue for me. We're talking 70's martial arts films released by a company that simply remastered them (as that and distributing the remasters is the extent of their deal with the Shaw Brothers studios), so that is a non-issue in regards to the films I inquired about
 
I checked out iQIYI. Some of the subtitling is, odd, to say the least. It can not be made by anyone who has English as a first language, if it's done by humans at all. Fun, though.
 
I checked out iQIYI. Some of the subtitling is, odd, to say the least. It can not be made by anyone who has English as a first language, if it's done by humans at all. Fun, though.

Poking around their site, it looks like subtitles are submitted by members. Some movies have hardcoded subs, and watching those alongside the uploaded subtitles was amusing on the one movie I've watched so far (a modern military film called Scorpion Task). Even funnier was there were people speaking English in the film, and even the hardcoded subs didn't spell out properly what the people were saying over half the times. I know some films I bought when I did buy DVD's had subtitles that were like the ones on the site. Still, there's quite a few movies I had never heard of before I want to check out. There are two called Fist of Legend, but they're not the same film (and the lead actor looks different) that I want to check out. Looks like one takes place when Chen Zen is going to school in Japan, and the other had him in the Kato get up Donnie Yen wore in Legend of the Fist when he played the character
 
You want to keep collecting physical media, given all the modification of movies that's happening right now.

For example, Iron Man 1, Disney has removed parts of the opening scene with the female soldier, as well as CGI-ing Darryl Hannah's butt in Splash. If you want to see the movies in their original states, I recommend sticking to physical, as space consuming it might be.

I haven't really seen any of this stuff with the Shaw Brothers movies. There are different cuts of the films from the time of release, and you might not get the cut you want, but I haven't seen them take out scenes like that or edit content. The biggest issue is they don't always come with the full options (like the dubbing/language thing urbwar mentioned). Also, physical media for old Shaw Brothers is getting harder and harder to come by. Movies I had no problem picking up just three years ago, are completely out of circulation. Bootlegs are not that hard to get though if you don't mind the image quality issues.

Another issue you may run into with physical media, which affected me, is if older DVDs don't play well on newer TVs. So you might have a DVD of Come Drink with Me that looks great on a TV you bought in 2009, but if you got a new TV in the last 5 years, many of the shots look pixelated. It may be that even newer models have resolved this issue. But my DVDs went from looking great to looking like total crap (still watch them, but it is annoying).

Urbwar, if you do have any need for physical media, and you are low on space, one thing I've done is use a DVD/Bluray peripheral on my laptop. The DVDs/Blurays themselves take up some space, but it might work if you find there is a movie you really want to see but can't find it in digital.
 
Another issue you may run into with physical media, which affected me, is if older DVDs don't play well on newer TVs. So you might have a DVD of Come Drink with Me that looks great on a TV you bought in 2009, but if you got a new TV in the last 5 years, many of the shots look pixelated. It may be that even newer models have resolved this issue. But my DVDs went from looking great to looking like total crap (still watch them, but it is annoying).

This is the reason I started ripping anything I absolutely wanted to keep the media for, and putting them on my NAS.
 
This is the reason I started ripping anything I absolutely wanted to keep the media for, and putting them on my NAS.

This really was an annoying problem. For me, the best thing I could do was watch them on my older laptop, or find them on bluray if they were available (I am love Chor Yuen movies, and was able to find Intimate confessions of a Chinese Courtesan on bluray----which looks incredible in that format---but could not find Duel For Gold---which is ashame because the movie looked great and loses something since I switched TVs)
 
It's really a problem with a static format that remains so while technology to view updates. If you have something on VHS, you're going to have a hard time watching it today. The same thing happens to digital formats, but the drift is a lot slower.
 
Urbwar, if you do have any need for physical media, and you are low on space, one thing I've done is use a DVD/Bluray peripheral on my laptop. The DVDs/Blurays themselves take up some space, but it might work if you find there is a movie you really want to see but can't find it in digital.

I don't buy much movies. I have a bunch of free ones I got when I joined Vudu, and a couple I got via Youtube. I have Amazon, Youtube, Vudu and something else linked to Movies Anywhere, so something I own in one shows up in all of them. Given the rental price is 2 or 3 dollars less, I figured just buying them would be better (since I can rewatch them whenever I want). Plus I can download them in Amazon to watch offline as well
 
I still mostly go with blu but I keep all my DVDs and they look fine on my current, older TV.

But whenever possible I try and see a film ahead of time on a streaming service so J'm only buxing fikms I really like, I used to use some invite-only torrent sites but so much is available legit now and I didn't like the tone of the 'communities' connected with them.

I used to have a software that allowed me to watch region blocked DVDs on my computer which was great but my computer doesn't have a drive for blus, I assume they exist but haven't looked into it.
 
Anyway, can anyone tell me about the Brave Archer movies? I've never seen them before, and I was wondering how good they are. I mean, I pretty much like everything I've seen by Shaw Brothers, but some are obviously better than others.
 
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