Recommend Martial Arts Movies

A lot of it was just like A History Of Violence but there's a One Armed Swordsman callback which is also maybe important or maybe just thrown in there. I don't recall there being a detective with a large part in A History Of Violence.

In the extras Donnie said the cows were literally people wearing dead cows from the butcher.

I keep having to remind myself just how long Donnie Yen has been in the game (since at least 1984), his first roles were starring roles in Yuen Woo Ping films but I haven't seen any of his 80s films. Similarly had to remind myself that Jet Li is old but I have seen Shaolin Temple from 1982.

Fearless Hyena - Jackie Chan's first directed film and I didnt really dig it much. The fighting is fine/good but almost everything about it seems like worn out tropes.

Young Master and Lucky Stars box set (3 films) announced.

I think I've seen two Lucky Stars films but I've never been sure what it was really about.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Stars

I've only seen My Lucky Stars, but the sexual politics, esp. the excruciatingly extended gang rape "comedy" bit, were completely ruinous imo, no way to enjoy the action after striking such a deeply sour note. And from what I've read the sequel goes back to the exact same well

I'm sure I've at least seen the third one and a lot of it was the gang of guys perving over Rosamund Kwan and it was uncomfortable.

It's weird, on forums I go to concerned with models/actresses I see tv/films clips from all over the world with the exact same sense of humor as 70s british comedy (Carry On, Window Cleaner, etc), 70s italian sex comedies and Lucky Stars.
Russia, Nigeria and Thailand are still making comedy EXACTLY the same but Hong Kong sex comedies seem to have moved on a bit at least.

tbh I probably could have shrugged off more subtle examples of mid-80s sexism or even misogyny, but the bit just felt like it went on *forever*, making you feel more and more bummed and complicit in it as it dragged on

It was similarly a series of scenes in the third film that escalated. And I bloody hate coy cheekiness.

Time And Tide and One Armed Boxer coming from Eureka

Yup, preordered those. I have very fond memories of Time and Tide, someone on the Criterion forums said the first hour is almost like a Wong Kar Wai film.

Possibly not the greatest showcase of martial arts, though certainly an action movie.

One of Hark's American films with Van Damme and Rodman came out too, is it possibly worth a look? Right now I don't fancy it.

The Master (Tsui Hark, Jet Li, Yuen Wah) is pretty good. It's about chinese and mexican immigrants in america, lots of language barrier/culture clash comedy. The fall off the skyscraper at the end is pretty spectacular.
Bonus interviews include Yuen Wah and John Kreng talking about near death experiences (I still want to know how many people have died making HK action films, everyone seems to nearly die).
Crystal Kwok became a director but still only has one film but it sounded interesting, she is chinese american, exactly what she plays in The Master.

Encounters Of The Spooky Kind coming on bluray!

good news to hear, i may actually pick it up this time

You just got a multiregion player?

If you haven't seen this yet please do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LISgv3LcenQ

Maybe if it comes to streaming...

Just finished the Lucky Stars trilogy set. As far as I could tell it was always about a group of small time criminals who work with the police. They all act like sex criminals too, there's a scene in the second film which is meant to be a joke but looks like a scene from Repulsion. Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao are secondary characters and work in some stunts, some of them really amazing (car jumping scene is preposterous). The extended version of the third film included a ton of stuff I didn't remember. Sex crime comedy aside, they're all good and I think the second film might be the best of them. Third film has Michelle Yeoh's first fight scene.

Richard Ng interview was interesting. Acted in the UK before any hong kong credits and even went back and made appearances in The Bill, Red Dwarf and River City (!!!). He said that Jackie Chan moved away from comedy for a time because Golden Harvest told him the japanese audience didn't get the comedy. John Sham (guy with glasses and wild hair) was in real life just like the protester he plays in the first film and he got on blacklists for his activism.

Richard Norton talked a lot about the rock bands he had been a bodyguard for and what exercises he taught them. I just looked up his credits and didn't know he was one of the Imperators in Fury Road.

Kinda tempted to watch commentaries, I like the trivia a bit too much

Young Master - I really like the long fight at the end, somebody in bonus features said this and Drunken Master 2 had the longest fights he knew of (I think he said about 18 minutes), I'd like to see someone try for longer. In this new release there are 3 versions of the film (but yet another exists), Jackie Chan originally wanted to release his 3 hour version of it and I'm really glad he didn't because it's a bit long as it is, so there was a lot of footage to make different versions from.

One Armed Boxer - Had a blast with this! Just a lot of pulpy comic book energy to it - the pan-Asian league of super villains, the silly special effects, the funky soundtrack featuring a repeated outright lifting of "Theme From Shaft". The camerawork is unusually dynamic for its time, and director/star Jimmy Wang Yu is invested in delivering the goods; the majority of the film is comprised of fights, and the recovery is dealt with not even through a montage but just by way of some still photographs. I understand the reservations concerning ppl who watch Asian films for their "zaniness", but sometimes awesome madness is awesome madness no matter where it comes from.

Haven't got that one yet but there's a whole slew of new stuff coming from 88Films, including Shaw films I've never heard of (Flag Of Iron, Disciples Of Shaolin) and some branching out in genres (Stephen Chow's Forbidden City Cop) and Chinese Boxer, Story Of Ricky and Robotrix. I've never been interested in Erotic Ghost Story but I've seen people insist recently that its nutty and genuinely good in parts, so I might.

are there any steven chow movies on a par with king fu hustle in terms of mass appeal?

Is Shaolin Soccer too obvious?

I thought he directed all his comedies but quite a bunch of them aren't

Shaolin Soccer is my fav. it starts smaller and then ramps up the absurdity more and more throughout until the ridiculous end, whereas KFH kinda of starts at 11 and then goes until the needle is off the page (not a knock - that's a feature not a bug)

Always enjoyed the pants on the face bit, seems like a parody of the humiliation heroes endure in martial arts films before they bounce back

Arrow just announced they're doing Shaw Brothers films and Eureka annunced Duel To The Death.

Of all these new blurays, Bride With The White Hair has the most new bonus features, hours of interviews. A lot of emphasis on Ronny Yu trying to make an epic on low budget with international appeal, oddly enough the sex/nudity was considered very daring at the time for star actors. It was the first dolby HK film and he had to fight to get HK cinemas to adapt to this and he got a superstar costume designer.

Lots of sleeve notes about Brigitte Lin, her early romance films pretty much unknown overseas but a big part of her reputation was built on them. Retired at 40 and has no interest in returning. Sad.

I've never seen any of the Swordsman trilogy but the notes got me excited for them. Please box set please.

Also didn't know Ronny Yu directed The 51st State

Lots of sleeve notes about Brigitte Lin, her early romance films pretty much unknown overseas but a big part of her reputation was built on them. Retired at 40 and has no interest in returning. Sad.

Nah man, good for her! Not like the careers of any other modern HK stars produced their best work after that age.

She did have the philosophy of quitting while she was on top. Maggie Cheung said she only acts when something attractive comes along. But it's been said that HK actresses tend to retire when they get married. Rosamund Kwan and Joey Wong retired in the 00s.

I've heard this was true of korean actresses too (anyone know???). Lee Yeong-ae stopped acting after Lady Vengeance but she came back, somebody said she retired but maybe it was just a break for her children?

When it's tied to marriage and probably looks, hard to feel okay about it. Didn't silent actresses retire early too? Mary Pickford said she didn't want to spoil her public image.

I know Bong Joon-ho made Mother as a vehicle for Kim Hye-ja, who plays a lot of maternal roles in South Korean film and TV, so there is a space in that country for older female actors, though the transition from starlet/idol to those roles I'm sure is tricky (in the West too!).

If Brigitte Lin retired due to ageism/getting married I agree that's sad but I guess I've always seen the story spun as "she retired at the height of her fame and hasn't returned despite numerous requests", so unless there's some other info I'm sticking with that.

In the sleeve notes for Bride With White Hair she said she got that advice early on and seemed to always keep it in mind. She said she barely slept in the 70s because she was always filming, I guess that probably contributed.

I knew Moon Lee became a dancer but some guy claiming to be her ex-husband has a super creepy blog about her.

She did the classic starlet "marry a billionaire and retire forever" move, but it actually worked out for her, unlike Michelle Yeoh or Scarlet Johansson.

Yeoh and Johansson never meant to retire did they?

Just on reading about Lin today there has been rumors for years about she and her husband cheating on each other and possibly divorcing but also denying this.

Scarlet probably didn't mean to retire... I thought Yeoh did though

so has anybody checked out the, uh....(can't believe it's called this)....Hi-YAH! channel on Amazon?

i only signed up to watch Flash Point for free but it's 2.99 a month. haven't seen what else is on there yet.

So was The Karateeee CHOP! Channel already taken or

wtf is with the audio quality on this, everybody's speaking voice sounds like John Wetton on a King Crimson album

reverb all over the place

I was having a lot of misgivings about it but I taken the plunge on the Shawscope and Cinematic Vengeance boxed sets. I'll just try and pace myself on it and hope there's lots of shirtless men.

I do worry about how collectory this stuff is becoming. Some of the 88 Films releases seem overly fancy. A slipcase almost always seems like a waste to me, do we really need posters, cards and booklets with thick paper? Most of the time all of these images and content could have been fit into a booklet with thinner paper inside the bluray cases.
I always ask this question about book publishers doing expensive collectors editions, is all this necessary to keep these releases coming?

On the bright side, only a few years ago I was complaining about how little old martial arts films were getting released/watched and now 3 film labels are righting that situation and bringing it to a new audience.

https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/shawscope-volume-one-limited-edition-blu-ray/FCD2076

https://eurekavideo.co.uk/movie/cinematic-vengeance-limited-edition-box-set-2000-copies/

Thank you for supporting the cause! I can't bring myself to drop that much money on 'em...

A couple of weeks ago I was convinced I couldn't be bothered, but the promise of twisting muscles and getting used to the idea that I can spread the viewing over months or years to suit my moods, then I felt better about it. I've let some books sit for 15 years so why not let some films wait a few years?

I do worry about how collectory this stuff is becoming.

Think it's been pretty collectory from the get-go. I don't care about posters, cards, etc either - just junk that I feel a slight guilt in throwing away - but there's clearly a subset of fans that do.

I think a certain amount of collector bait in the packaging is wise, in the form of design uniformity. But Robotrix and Erotic Ghost Story getting their prices bumped up by this extra stuff feels like a bad sign.

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