Recommend Martial Arts Movies

Note the one I'm talking about has Tony Jaa and Jin Zhang (fun actor who was recently the antagonists of The Grandmaster and Ip Man 3), and Louis Koo in really weird makeup. Simon Yam and Jing Wu "return" from the original Kill Zone in completely different roles, apparently.

Just saw Headshot at the the cinema, featuring The Raid stars Iko Uwais and Julie Estelle. It's not bad. The directors previously done horror films and it shows in the violence which is pretty nasty for a martial arts film (or maybe this is becoming normal?). Rather than saving the violence for a few shock moments, it's pretty violent throughout.

Call of Heroes and Once Upon a Time in Shanghai are both fun.

BESOURO/THE ASSAILANT

Brazilian historical fantasy film about a legendary Capoeirista in a time after slavery was officially over but black people were still treated like slaves. It's very nicely shot, has a touch of psychedelia and there's quite a lot of African mythology. Very unusual and pretty good.

DRAGONS FOREVER

Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah. Chan and Hung are dishonest creeps to begin with, Biao just has mental problems. It's a romantic comedy crossed with drug crime and martial arts. Contains offensive bits. Yuen Wah is really good with the physical comedy, I'm growing pretty fond of him. There's some funny deleted scenes they really should have left in that focus on Biao.

MILLIONAIRE EXPRESS

Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and a large cast of familiar faces. It's kind of a western with lots of chases, funny mix-ups, railway action, Japanese ninjas with swords and Cynthia Rothrock. They pack so much into it and Yuen Biao is great in it. One of the best Hong Kong action comedies I've seen.

Looks like Warner Bros didn't go any further with those Golden Harvest releases?

Most of the martial arts dvds I get are from the Hong Kong Legends label. Here's a list challenge.

http://www.listchallenges.com/list-of-hong-kong-legends-films-released-on-dvd

I just scored 22 of 101.

I seen the trailer for Scorpion King. It looks so odd, the star looks like he's from the early Human League days.

CHOCOLATE

Jeeja Yanin plays a heavily autistic girl who learns to fight from watching films, she even fights a boy with tourettes whose style revolves around his unpredictably (the film is dedicated to "special children").
Quite an amateurish film in some respects but it makes up for it in the fight scenes, particularly the ending, which looked really dangerous and indeed people got hurt making it. Yanin uses her knees, elbows and flips quite a lot, so I thought her moves were quite distinctive (but maybe this is more normal in Thai films?).

THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR

Story is dime a dozen fluff but it's a great looking film (especially the pool scenes), there's quite a bunch of these Hong Kong films from the early 90s: drenched in blue light, quite misty, characters gliding across the screen a lot (which I like but it can get tiresome easily, seeming like a substitute type of action for actors who aren't martial arts specialists), sometimes there's a romance and supernatural elements.
Not a lot of them on western disc releases and when they are they can be very poor quality prints. This is the worst Tartan dvd I've ever seen, for some reason it's a windowboxed/postage stamp small screen which is incredibly difficult to get along with or change the ratio to make it more watchable. I'm avoiding the sequel from Tartan in case it's also windowboxed. Would be nice to see some of this subgenre on Bluray because they really are some of the prettiest films, I guess Ashes Of Time might be my only option right now.

RAINING IN THE MOUNTAIN

My fourth King Hu, with even less fight scenes than the others (Come Drink With Me, Dragon Inn, Touch Of Zen). This is more focused on Buddhism, scheming, thievery and stealth. It's pretty good but there's not as many standout moments as the others.

Didn't plan to but I coincidently seen two films about Chinese vs Japanese warriors: Five Element Ninjas and Duel To Death. They're only a year, maybe months apart (1982-1983) but the latter is way way more modern, much better looking, with cool theme music and a level of over-the-topness that seems ahead of its time, which is fun but Five Element Ninjas is more satisfying overall, with a good ending.

Five Element Ninjas is fuckin' awesome. I've heard good things about Duel to the Death and have been meaning to see it

i haven't watched duel to the death for a long time but i remember digging it

i'll have to check out five element ninjas

THE BANQUET/LEGEND OF THE BLACK SCORPION

The best looking modern wuxia film I've seen, although I haven't cared to see many after the trailers.

The excessive slow motion is still there but this pulls it off way better than most, apart from a rape scene that looks troublingly graceful and the rape victim ends up happy after the really nasty part is not shown.

There's not any really noticeable cgi apart from a short cityscape scene.

I wasn't very intrigued by the story but the ending is good.

Lots of Zhang Ziyi and Zhou Xun whispering.

Might regret it but I bought Chinese Ghost Story (2011), Painted Skin (2008) and Painted Skin: Resurrection. They're very cgi heavy and I doubt the action is much fun but there's still some cool looking stuff in there.

I've seen all of the original Chinese Ghost Story trilogy (they're patchy but well worth seeing) but never seen King Hu's Painted Skin.

If you want to watch the really original Chinese Ghost Story, check out Li Han-hsiang's The Enchanted Shadow. It's very early Shaw Brothers. I'd wager Tsui Hark's version could probably be better.

I saw the trailer for it a few months ago. I thought 88 Films might release it but I'd probably have to go for the Celestial dvd.

It's worth subscribing to Celestial Pictures Limited youtube channel, they have hundreds of trailers and clips of the best Shaw fight scenes.

Might want to see ZhongKui: Snow Girl And The Dark Crystal too.

I fear these films will probably be really bad but even with all the cgi there's some outlandish designs I can still appreciate. I might see Valerian for this reason. The wonderful clothes and pretty people are real though.

Fox Lover has some amazing real landscapes and gardens but also these cgi mountain landscapes which are still quite impressive.

I have no memory of Dragon Blade or Forbidden Kingdom coming out on cinemas. These must have been made for an international audience. Unless John Cusack is huge in China.

PAINTED SKIN (2008)
PAINTED SKIN 2: THE RESURRECTION/DEMON HUNTER: THE RESURRECTION

Still want to see the 90s King Hu version of this, might buy it soon.

First film in this newer version is romance/fantasy/martial arts with Donnie Yen. Second film drops the martial arts (no Donnie Yen either) and becomes romance/epic fantasy.

First film has 3 total babes, second film has 4 total babes. Zhao Wei and Zhou Xun star in both with Chen Kun the boyfriend in both.

First film is boring but picks up slightly in the second half. Music is oddly cheap but pleasant like a JRPG soundtrack. There's too much cutting and closeups for the fight scenes to be any good.

The sequel has the biggest upgrade I've ever seen. There's a ton of companies and producers behind it, the story is on a much bigger scale. You'd think it would just be more bloated but it's way more lively and colourful than the previous film. Despite being the same story it's different enough that I understand why it was retitled on UK DVD.
Yoshitaka Amano supplied the concept art. It's loaded with cgi (previous film had quite a lot already) but it doesn't completely destroy the film for me, there's a lot of lovely images in here and that's all I was hoping for really. Despite the awfully fake giant bear it's one of the prettier cgi epics I've seen.
Seems like they're trying to see how close they can get towards lesbian scenes without actually doing them. Not unlike the whispery scenes in The Banquet.
I won't go as far to call this a good film but I'll take this prettiness over most better scripted American cgi blockbusters.

A CHINESE GHOST STORY (2011)

Nice set design. Some bad cgi. Uses magic tricks I didn't see in the earlier films. Has the same theme song as the Ching Siu-Tung/Tsui Hark trilogy. Not as good as the films in that trilogy but it's okay.

xp these guys need to watch THE HANDMAIDEN, stat

Maybe they have. Is it a myth that homosexuality is pretty taboo in south Korea? Memento Mori was supposed to be very controversial in 1999 South Korea for its lesbian content. Maybe because it was schoolgirls? Maybe they've moved on a lot since then?
Probably a good few years before a mainstream Chinese film can do lesbian stuff? Zhao Wei has been accused of corrupting the Chinese youth, good on her.

I'm really fond of that Chinese Ghost Story theme song but I've never really looked into that sort of Chinese pop.

Liked Villainess, it's very twisty and must have been very complicated to shoot the fight scenes. Maybe Japan has just changed but South Korea is still making the sort of films that Tartan churned out on disc?

nice, i've been looking forward to that one

Also a scene in this a lot like the noose hanging one in the trailer for Atomic Blonde.

Kung Fu: Trailers Of Fury is an odd release. It's just a collection of trailers found in an old English cinema, but it's made worthwhile by the audio commentary and the main documentary (both of which feature Ric Meyers, who I'd guess is America's foremost expert on Chinese martial arts films).

The documentary frustratingly doesn't spend much time on the 80s or 90s and doesn't really go any further.

Unfortunately there's a lot of Brucesploitation trailers, but also a few interesting obscurities in there too. Lo Lieh is in more of the trailers than anyone else.

Some Interesting things from the commentary and documentary...

- Hong Kong films sometimes picked up unknown western actors and pretended they were a famous in the west. There's a really cute actress called Jennie Jones in the Death Blow trailer and I can't find anything else about her (her name is difficult to search because of the more famous Jenny Jones).
- Meyers says that despite Hong Kong film people putting so much passion into their work, they're frequently surprised anyone likes their work.
- How miserably these films paid actors sometimes.
- How normal it was for a Hong Kong film person to be an actor, choreographer, director, stunt person, camera crew and do hundreds of films.
- Oliver Stone's eagerness to talk to Meyers about Chinese actresses.

Snake In The Eagle's Shadow trailer shows you a cat vs snake fight I'm pretty sure wasn't in the version of the film I saw. Apparently they removed the snake's teeth so it couldn't properly hurt the cat. It's still quite alarming though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lMC-vk9it8

Not sure how this thread has gone on this long, without a mention of Ninja Thunderbolt!

Four Shaw Brothers films.

HOUSE OF TRAPS

Loved the architecture in this and the room of traps (not a whole house) is pretty cool. Shame about the ugly costumes.
I've never been attracted to Chang Cheh films but I'm starting to warm to them. They often have large male casts (I've seen Ang Lee and others remark that Cheh had no interest in women) and its not surprising there are queer studies of his films considering the relationships and costumes.

KILLER CONSTABLE

Probably the best of the 88 Films Shaw remasters so far, particularly in the cinematography. I liked fights in the rain and its far more morally complex than most old martial arts films.

MASKED AVENGERS

Another Chang Cheh. Even for martial arts films, his set pieces violate the laws of physics in a ridiculous way. I'm surprised some of these films are from the 80s, they look a lot older to me. It's quite fun, I'm getting to like Philip Kwok as an enigmatic oddball.
Animal cruelty warning: a chicken gets impaled by a spear.

THE FLYING GUILLOTINE

I had seen the more brutal knockoff Master Of The Flying Guillotine (better known than the original) years ago, this is way more handsome and puts more effort into the drama.
I've never understood how Golden Harvest are the more modern lively studio yet old fashioned conservative Shaw Brothers have more extreme sex and violence.

Saw a HOUSE OF TRAPS screening last year, fun stuff. Not Cheh's best, but definitely enough interesting elements to make it worthwhile. MASKED AVENGERS is still on my list.

It was only last year I actually knew who he was but just discovered last week he co-directed Seven Golden Vampires!

heh yes. that's such a strange one due to the co-production!
have you seen FIVE DEADLY VENOMS or FIVE ELEMENT NINJA (aka CHINESE SUPER NINJA) yet? Would also recommend SHAOLIN MARTIAL ARTS, KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM and of course ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN.

I've seen Five Element Ninjas and One Armed Swordsman (maybe the sequel too?)

I saw a godawful copy of Attack Of The Joyful Goddess for about 20 minutes but the picture quality of the dvd was so bad I had to stop. It's got some really nutty scenes in it though.

Been meaning to see Five Deadly Venoms (might have actually seen a bit of it but wasn't intrigued or in the mood at the time) but thanks for noting the others.

Crippled Avengers and Heaven & Hell are other fan favourites I hope to see.

Useful poll results. Imagine we were cool enough to do this poll.

http://www.shaolinchamber36.com/kungfufandom/index.php?/topic/7425-the-top-ten-must-own-shaws/

Shows much more than the top ten.

Heh, at least two people on that list saw The Magnificent Ruffians

I doubt these will be good but I'm impressed with the massive scope and some of the design.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLs6shM3t90
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRg8bbc22IU

This is awesome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJLavwjY4xQ

oh god, 2 wacky

Wolf Devil Woman - Pearl Cheung/Chang Ling (and many other variations of those names) writes, directs and stars in this shoestring budget fantasy/horror/martial arts film.
A couple flee from a group of monster men (one wearing what looks like a Halloween mask from a costume store, but this is supposed to be his actual face), to save their baby, they kill themselves and cover the baby in their blood to keep it warm then headbutt the snowy hill they're on to hide the baby under the avalanche. Wolves find the baby under the snow and bring her up in their ice cave.

I quite like this, its energy overcomes the budget at times and I thought the fight scenes worked quite well (lots of wire work), Pearl has a few really cool costumes (and her bird claw rope weapon), I'm always happy to see snowy mountains and the weaknesses are amusing but don't spoil it completely. I wish more trash films were this watchable.

I'm a bit troubled by the rabbit scene. It appears to get shot by an arrow but I wasn't sure if it was really shot or if they used some trickery, I kept rewinding and it didn't look bloody or react the way I'd imagine an arrow shot rabbit would. Who knows?

Pearl directed a few films in the early eighties and Matching Escort is supposed to be an enjoyable oddity too but I cant find any information about her later life.

Wolf Devil Woman is English dubbed and "free" if you're subscribed to Amazon prime but there's subtitled versions on youtube. I have no idea if any creators or copyright holders see money for the Amazon streaming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLg-lfaBbkY

Brave Archer - Another Chang Cheh film but this time an adaptation of a classic Jin Yong book series, so he didn't get to follow all his usual inclinations (there's a romance with a fun female lead). There is a main trilogy and an unofficial sequel Brave Archer And His Mate with the same director and star. There's only one brief scene of archery in the first film and I don't know if the later films feature more, so the title might seem misleading.

I've often found it hard to follow Chang Cheh films, but this time there's a relatively large sequence near the start introducing the very large cast (some posing and showing off moves), perhaps acknowledging it wont be easy to keep track of the characters? Some experts say Brave Archer is hard to follow and relied somewhat on the popularity of the novels, so I feel less bad about not keeping up.

There is some shoddiness (like the inconsistent eye injuries and some of the romantic dream scenes are bizarrely austere) and the absurd fairy tale logic wont work for everyone but I was engaged enough by the mythology. Two of the female characters were very enjoyable (one referred to as "Iron Corpse") which is apparently a real rarity for Chang Cheh and perhaps to please the fans of the books.

Fortunately the first volume of the source material (which Ashes Of Time and Eagle Shooting Heroes were also based on): Legends Of The Condor Heroes by Jin Yong is getting an English translation release in a few months. not many Jin Yong/Louis Cha books available in English but they're very important in the wuxia genre.

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There is an absolute ton of Shaw Brothers films available on subscription of Amazon Prime, no extra buying. This includes a lot of the films about to come out in the 88 Films Shaw series, so it seems like someone has been clumsy in allowing this (I'm committed to buying the series so it doesn't matter in my case). A great amount of them only have English dubbing as an option, so I'm wary of what I want to watch multiple times to hear the original audio.

thanks for the heads up, i never bother looking to see if there's anything good on Prime because there never usually is

I'd like to hear what you think about them, even if you don't like them at all.

Pretty much uncritically love the Shaws tbh, but let's see what's there

Well you'll have a great time, there's like over thirty Chang Cheh films and most of the classics.

The eccentric vagabond teacher in Brave Archer referred to as the Pope's brother. The commentary says it's a dig at the Vatican but I don't understand how this Song dynasty Chinese guy is supposed to be the pope's brother.

I would love it if the Shaw series films would comes out in box sets considering how many series there are like Brave Archer, Black Magic, Sentimental Swordsman, One Armed Swordsman, Bewitched/Boxer's Omen, Flying Guillotine and others.

On amazon prime there's also a couple of Sammo Hung, Leslie Cheung and Maggie Cheung films. Chang Ling and loads of cheap Taiwanese films. Tsui Hark's Butterfly Murders.

There's sooooo much good Shaw stuff on Amazon Prime, I just signed up and my mind boggles at it
Wish there was always the option to choose the original language, but since I grew up watching this stuff on TV with the cheesy dubs I'm kinda used to it

Wolf Devil Woman is actually playing near me this week (screened off VHS, lol), hopefully it lives up to your praise

Wow!

I wouldn't say praise but it's good by low budget trash standards.

Amazon Prime search engine is maybe the worst ever devised. have started to find the movies tho, might make a start tonight

Come Drink With Me is great of course, tho the last act feels a bit rushed and I think it's a shame when the focus moves away from Cheng Pei-pei. She's as cool as she is crushworthy and the villains are great fun. The fights, especially the big temple fight in the middle, are really well thought out, they explore the mechanics of space and emphasize the strategic struggle as much as flashy skills.

Did someone else take the lead at the end? I don't really remember.

Drunken Cat/Drunken Hero has to face off against his nemesis from school

Legend Of The Mountain is coming from Eureka soon. I've heard it's inferior to Raining In The Mountain but maybe not. I am bracing myself a bit because King Hu films can be really long.

http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/kung-fu-movies/53019/10-of-the-weirdest-kung-fu-movies-ever