I believe Gorgeous is a Lunar New Year film and from what I've heard those work with a very different logic from your usual action fare - they are entirely meant for local audiences and as such make no concessions to foreign taste in terms of their comedy and sentimentality. Also meant for the whole family, so not as action-focused.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 18 April 2023 09:37 (one year ago) link
It really did feel like a kids movie
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 18 April 2023 21:33 (one year ago) link
I had heard Mr Vampire 2 is awful and it mostly is despite all the talent involved. Not without merit but mostly bad.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 4 June 2023 15:51 (one year ago) link
Burning Paradise was great, was surprised to hear it was such a huge flop. Sleeve notes guess it was just too dark and violent (arguably a horror film) for such a big film even with the jokes quite jarringly lightening the tone. Might watch the commentary someday to find out more about this. I knew this was an all-timer for some HK action fans and I think it's fair to call it a must see if you like this kind of thing.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 5 June 2023 17:17 (one year ago) link
Duly noted! Was curious when VS put it out, but I have this in-built cynicism for post-'95 HK. Should give it a chance and some of the other titles they've put out over the last year.
― Nhex, Monday, 5 June 2023 17:46 (one year ago) link
It was 1994. I think it was mainland actors, I wonder if it was harder for them to make such an extreme film?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 5 June 2023 20:51 (one year ago) link
https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23745639/roundup-no-way-out-movie-review-ma-dong-seok-don-lee
I saw a poster advertising this outside a Korean restaurant the other day, doesn't often happen that you get this kind of grassroots advertising for Korean cinema, at least not in London.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 8 June 2023 15:59 (one year ago) link
it's playing at one of the theatres near me and it looks delicious
― the manwich horror (Neanderthal), Thursday, 8 June 2023 17:11 (one year ago) link
Oh I CANNOT wait for this to leave the festival circuit so I can see it.
https://gizmodo.com/enter-the-clones-of-bruce-lee-trailer-exclusive-debut-1850519638
My own favorite from this madness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-YSu810hFA
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 8 June 2023 23:30 (one year ago) link
yeahhh i don't get this subject
― Nhex, Thursday, 8 June 2023 23:39 (one year ago) link
Not a movie, but season 3 of the TV show Warrior is coming at the end of the month and if you've never seen it, you should catch up now, because it rules.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89dEEKEzglw
― but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 9 June 2023 01:19 (one year ago) link
I dunno, it's a decent in for an analysis of the many fly by night independent operators out of Hong Kong in the 70's, you can tie in the beginning of Jackie Chan's career, etc. Bruce Li has actually made some pretty great films, I watched The Iron Dragon Strikes Back and that's a crazy downbeat 70's film with so much footage of Hong Kong previous to its shiny 80's iteration, really worth watching.
The Severin brucesploitation box set that'll come with it tho is, as far as I've heard, one to avoid. Very boring selection of films apparently.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 9 June 2023 09:52 (one year ago) link
No Way Out was ok. Didn't go as balls out as I wanted, leaned more into comedy. Really no martial arts though, mostly conventional boxing/fighting techniques. Movie is devoid of guns, though, like MA films
― the manwich horror (Neanderthal), Friday, 9 June 2023 17:18 (one year ago) link
Man, we have different criteria for what we want out of our hopping vampire comedies. This has so much amazing slapstick acrobatics! That insane prolonged fight with everyone affected by the slowing serum. An amazing DO YOU SEE scene about Hong Kong bureaucracy featuring the police, the morgue and a museum squabbling over who gets to keep the vampire corpses. Small kids mistaking a hopping vampire kid for a refugee and befriending him, complete with montage set to a musical number about how great it is to have a vampire friend! Vamps hopping in rhythm over police vehicles! Great film, pure cinema.
Mr Vampire III is slightly less stellar (also, zero vampires), but worth it if you like your gory Boxer's Omen type stuff.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 29 June 2023 10:23 (eleven months ago) link
Tsui Hark’s The Blade (1995) is one of the most transcendent pieces of filmic art that I have ever seen. Very fortunate to have experienced it in 35mm some years ago
― beamish13, Thursday, 29 June 2023 15:06 (eleven months ago) link
i am definitely a fan of brucesploitation films... yes they can be terrible (the less said about _bruce lee vs. gay power_ the better), but as noted above, Ho Chung-tao, aka Bruce Li, was worth watching in his own right - _The Chinese Stuntman_, for which he was billed under his own name, is excellent. I've also heard good things about _Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth_, but I haven't seen it yet. and ok, it's maybe not great cinema, but some of the stranger brucesploitation films are...
Other films used his death as a plot element such as The Clones of Bruce Lee (where clones of Bruce Lee portrayed by some of the above actors are created by scientists) or The Dragon Lives Again (where Bruce Lee fights fictional characters such as James Bond, Clint Eastwood and Dracula in Hell and finds allies amongst others such as Popeye and Kwai Chang Caine).
it was interesting reading up on this to learn that brucesploitation started while bruce was still alive... it makes sense, just like the genre of "what if the nazis won world war ii" started, uh, during world war ii. a filipino man named Ramon Zamora was apparently the first bruce lee clone!
― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, 29 June 2023 19:56 (eleven months ago) link
oh, also, the director of that brucesploitation film, david "WRONG DUDE" gregory seems like an interesting fellow:
David Gregory is one of the international DVD industry's most in-demand Bonus Features providers. He has produced and directed more than 130 "making of" documentaries on films as diverse as Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Wicker Man, The Deer Hunter, Faster Pussycat, Don't Look Now, Heathers and Repulsion. As co-founder of the UK/US DVD labels Blue Underground and Severin, he has produced many of the industry's most widely acclaimed discs and collections, including The Final Countdown, The Alan Clarke Collection and The Mondo Cane Collection, which includes his feature-length documentary The Godfathers of Mondo.
― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, 29 June 2023 20:06 (eleven months ago) link
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 29 June 2023 11:23 (two days ago)
I liked this more, more of an action film and the shrieking warrior woman was good. Occasionally she reminded me of Chronicles Of The Ghost Cat/Haunted Castle, the Japanese film.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 1 July 2023 14:07 (eleven months ago) link
Magic Cop is pretty good. Very elaborate magic battle scenes, if you have some fatigue of those from 80s films, don't worry, this is a real step up. Michiko Nishikawa is very cool in it.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 31 July 2023 20:04 (ten months ago) link
Any opinions on Blue Jean Monster and Last Hero In China? I haven't heard of them.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 22 September 2023 20:38 (eight months ago) link
Just watched She Shoots Straight and its a shame Joyce Godenzi didn't make more films like this. She's a Jehovah's witness and said she regrets some of her films, partly because some featured "demonism", don't know what that means.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 24 September 2023 18:52 (eight months ago) link
Finished the Mr Vampire set (which features 2-4 and a spinoff, the series is actually bigger than this), I think the 3rd and 4th film's were the better ones but I didn't love any of them. But the 4th was quite creative with the slapstick. The last film was probably the worst and seeing a little bat's face wincing while being squeezed hard was more unpleasant for me than the snake and chicken deaths I've seen in hk films.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 23 October 2023 21:43 (seven months ago) link
Difficult to pin down what counts as the series, since there's no continuity and personnel also varies. There's a by all accounts terrible Mr.Vampire 1992, and the last one in the set wasn't released as a Mr.Vampire film originally.
Important Cinema Club did an episode on these recently and they mentioned there's some dour hopping vampire film from the 00's (I think?) that's not any good but does have the novelty factor of having a lot of the iconic actors from the series play down on their luck slobs in an apartment complex.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 24 October 2023 09:25 (seven months ago) link
are these martial arts films? I suppose. I've sung 2's praises before but the long scene where everyone pretends to be in slow motion is Buster Keaton-worthy.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 24 October 2023 09:26 (seven months ago) link
they mentioned there's some dour hopping vampire film from the 00's (I think?) that's not any good but does have the novelty factor of having a lot of the iconic actors from the series play down on their luck slobs in an apartment complex.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 24 October 2023 10:25 (yesterday)
That's Rigor Mortis and its generally considered good, I enjoyed it, a bit cgi heavy but not boring, worth a try for sure. The guy with the glasses from Mr Vampire 1 and 4 is in it and he hadn't been in movies since the early 90s. Kara Wai is good in it too.
I expected that the Mr Vampire box set would have one of the two The Gods Must Be Crazy crossovers, but neither is there. One of the stranger crossovers I've heard of, The Gods Must Be Crazy series was a big hit in Hong Kong, I tried the first film and I didn't get far, I found it extremely patronizing.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 25 October 2023 20:02 (seven months ago) link
Guy with the glasses is Anthony Chan Yau, he directed a film called My Americanized Wife, I've always found HK films quite funny when they portray Chinese people from America or England.https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/9L3hkB0vor8Yk8yGDTRFhuSd0dP.jpg
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 25 October 2023 20:11 (seven months ago) link
lol amazed both by the fact you thought they'd include a The Gods Must Be Crazy crossover and your generous assesment of it as "extremely patronizing"; just a total garbage franchise, omnipresent for a few years in my childhood.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 25 October 2023 21:39 (seven months ago) link
I thought that was the 4th and 5th film in the series. I watched like 20mins of The Gods Must Be Crazy before I turned it off. That might be the earliest I've abandoned a film that I sought out (on streaming admittedly). I had never heard of it until I read an hk horror film guide.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 25 October 2023 21:53 (seven months ago) link
I confused TGMBC with the George Burns "Oh, God" movies and was very confused for five minutes
― real warm grandpa (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 25 October 2023 22:19 (seven months ago) link
i gotta say i really loved watching this essay... anybody have any recommendations along these lines?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-tQUzZTVCw
― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, 16 November 2023 16:15 (six months ago) link
Inspector Wears Skirts was kind of okay but the poetry line "why do my hairy legs always walk towards you?" was inspired. Kara Wai looks glorious with that hair.
I didn't even finish Beach Of The War Gods but was amused how the trailer boasts about having an all-male cast. I thought the novelty value of male action heroes would have worn off by the early 70s.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 12 December 2023 19:55 (five months ago) link
Beach Of The War Gods rules. Hilariously ends with our intrepid heroes doing a war crime.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 14 December 2023 10:55 (five months ago) link
Can any of the heads or here help me out?Years ago (mid 90s?) I saw a kung fu flick (a hisorical setting) where the hero had a secret technique, but every time he used it, he got more feminine... it was mostly played for laughs, and by the end of the film his part was played by a woman... Can't remember the name... any ideas?
― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Thursday, 14 December 2023 11:24 (five months ago) link
at first i thought it was Clan of the White Lotus, but Gordon Liu's character was never played by a female at the end
― Formica Jordan (Neanderthal), Thursday, 14 December 2023 15:26 (five months ago) link
...that's not it, but that's a good one..
― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Thursday, 14 December 2023 15:35 (five months ago) link
ppl on a different forum suggest Swordsman II?
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 14 December 2023 15:49 (five months ago) link
....don't think that's it either... I think I would've remembered if it had Jet Li in it... looks like a good one though...
― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Friday, 15 December 2023 03:28 (five months ago) link
is it this one?
http://tarstarkas.net/2014/06/fight-for-survival-review/
― Honnest Brish Face (Noodle Vague), Friday, 15 December 2023 07:25 (five months ago) link
"In this film, Polly’s character Shih Pu Chuan sets out to recover 10 books stolen from the Shaolin Temple, each volume teaching one kung fu technique, and each technique has been mastered by the respective theif of that volume. But, if you only learn one of the kung fu skills, your body soon begins to modify itself based on that kung fu skill. Thus, the guy who learns to extend his arms has permanent long arms. The guy who stretched his legs looks like he’s walking around on stilts. The woman who stole the Positive Kung Fu book turns into a man, and the guy who stole the Negative Kung Fu book turns into a woman."
― Honnest Brish Face (Noodle Vague), Friday, 15 December 2023 07:26 (five months ago) link
Not it, but that sounds worth a watch...
― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Friday, 15 December 2023 10:22 (five months ago) link
Let's keep them coming folks, we're mapping out a subgenre here!
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 15 December 2023 10:24 (five months ago) link
...yeah, I had no idea there'd be this many (or any) near misses...
― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Friday, 15 December 2023 11:30 (five months ago) link
can't believe that wasn't it tbh i thought i'd nailed it, yes this is obv a genre
― Honnest Brish Face (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 16 December 2023 09:43 (five months ago) link
....anyone seen this "Fist of the Condor" flick from Chile?
― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Sunday, 7 January 2024 12:19 (five months ago) link
Korean Film Council just dropped this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg6_yPMn9Js
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 31 January 2024 11:46 (four months ago) link
ah well. it's Returned a Single-legged Man: 2, Korean martial arts cinema from the 70's.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 31 January 2024 11:47 (four months ago) link
So Close would have been a lot better if it wasn't striving to be so modern, it's a very post-Matrix film and (songs aside) the soundtrack is completely generic action movie stuff. Still kind of liked it, I had never seen Karen Mok in anything before, she is in an action trio with Shu Qi and Zhao Wei.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 11 March 2024 21:56 (two months ago) link
I don't tend to enjoy what little I sample of chinese pop stars but has anyone here heard much Karen Mok? She seems to be insanely popular, one of her concerts set a world record that I don't understand.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 11 March 2024 23:42 (two months ago) link
Shawscope Vol.3 announced.
https://www.arrowfilms.com/blu-ray/shawscope-vol.-3-limited-edition-blu-ray/15407476.htm
― Maresn3st, Friday, 7 June 2024 16:02 (three days ago) link
Also Arrow are doing Vol.2 for £60 as a tie in.
― Maresn3st, Friday, 7 June 2024 16:04 (three days ago) link