Chinese/HK martial arts movies

N

nagina_005

New member
Does anyone like these? :D I love some of the films of Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee etc :)

Last night I saw this film from Shaw Bros, the famous studio:

Opium and the Kung Fu Master (1984): 4.25/5

MA choreographer Tang Chia's last film. Very good film (can't decide if it's a 4.5/5), genuinely moving and effecting in places and the fights are great :D The reason I can't decide if its a 4.5/5 is despite the "Opium is evil" theme throughout the film, showing how it destroys lives, families etc, it has a standard ending where
Ti Lung avenges 2 people's deaths. I guess if he had lost twice it would have been too tragic

Anyone else seen some Shaws films?
 
I remember some sky channel had regular martial art movies, but they only seemed to show Jackie Chan movies and not even touched any of the Shaw Brothers or other older Kung Fu movies, the sky channel however no longer exists.

To watch various random clips of kung fu, I always use youtube
 
I can't really comment on the Shaw Brothers much, having not seen anything of theirs. Given the history of them and the fact that most of their films probably never reached these shores; I might have liked one or two of them.

Bruce Lee is over rated in my opinion, but then I think the 'punch - scream' style he had was what put me off.

I like most martial arts films, though I prefer the less serious style of Jackie Chan. The early days of Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao; were imo the best of HK martial arts. Actually it was pretty much the Seven Little Fortunes that broke HK martial arts into the West. Corey Yuen directed No Retreat, No Surrender (Van Damme), while Yeun Wah is more famous for TV, he also appeared as the landlord in Kung Fu Hustle.

One I think for the future is Tony Jaa, who starred in Ong Bak and the Warrior King. Very similar stunt aspect to Jackie Chan, but with less of the comedy aspect.
 
"Movies for Men 2" shows a lot of martial arts films now but most of these feature lesser-known actors. i remember when channel 4 used to have a jackie chan season back in the 1990s when a jackie chan movie would be shown every friday and i taped all of them such as Project A, Armour of God, Wheels on Meals, Police Story and many more.

I also like Bruce lee and Jet li's martial arts movies and Chow Yun-Fat's shootout movies which feature more gun battles than fighting
 
The only Shaw Brothers films I've seen are Shaolin Temple which was released by Warner Brothers here (and is a different film from the Jet Li film of the same name) which was quite good and also The 36th Chamber of Shaolin which was made famous by the Wu Tang Clan and is also good.

The best Shaw Brothers films are reckoned to be Five Deadly Venoms and Legendary Weapons of China. My favourite Kung fu film is Prodigal Son, regularly shown on BBC2, which has some amazing Wing Chun from Lam Ching Ying.

Also good:

Fist of Legend
Drunken Master
The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk
The Jet Li Shaolin Temple
The Magnificent Butcher
Chinese Ghost Story
A Touch of Zen
 
SPL(Kill Zone is its terrible American release name) has some rather brilliant fight sequences towarRAB the end. Also Flashpoint has some good fight scenes. Both movies with Donnie Yen.
 
Yeah thats the one, King Boxer is good. :)
Five Venoms is awesome and Eight Diagram Pole Fighter is also a cracker :D Also check out Come Drink With Me and A Touch Of Zen. ATOZ is long but surely worth seeing :)

Bruce Lee classics: Fist of Fury, Big Boss
Jackie Chan: Project A 1-2, Armour of God series, Police Story 1-3, Drunken Master 1-2, Heart of Dragon, Crime Story...

I also enjoyed the Sammo films Prodigal Son, Pedicab Driver, Magnificent Butcher and Iron Fisted Monk which have great fights :D
 
House of Flying daggers...that was Chinese, right?

Personally I prefer Fruit Chan films (dumplings, Hollywood Hong Kong) but I dont mind Jackie Chan (Police Story). I like his style. He's funny and doesn't have all the macho BS of American action stars like Bruce Willis/Sly Stallone.
 
House of Flying Daggers is Chinese yeah.
I've seen Hero and HOFD (both excellent) but not "Curse of the Golden Flower", "The Banquet" or "The WarlorRAB" yet.
 
If you liked Hero, and House then you might be disappointed with Curse of the Golden Flower. I liked it, but it was a disappointment for me compared to the director's past work.
 
Jet Li movies (HK ones) are usually excellent, stand out ones for me being Last Hero in China and as someone further up mentioned, Fist of Legend. Love the Meals on Wheels / Dragons Forever / Police Story era Jackie Chan movies too.

Prodigal Son is also superb (the dubbed version C4 showed a few years ago was hilarious), as is Heroic Trio. Although not HK movies, really enjoyed the movies with Tony Jaa in.

I also remember watching a movie with Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung in it a few years ago, the name escapes me though. Started out fairly traditional, normal fight scenes, and got weirder and weirder. One of the characters Sammo played used his eyebrows and moustache as weapons, which elongated out to seemingly impossible distances. I will remember the name later, I am sure.

Looking forward to The Forbidden Kingdom!!!! :)

http://www.forbiddenkingdommovie.com/
 
Mr Vampire is one of my favourite Chinese MA films, a classic! Just love the way they all start hopping around when they remove the paper from their forheaRAB :D

I'm a big fan of Chinese MA movies, been slowly building up a collection over the past few years. Some of my favourites are -
Mr Vampire
A Chinese Ghost Story
The Shaolin Temple
Magnificent Butcher
Bride With White Hair
 
Back
Top