Chinese Language + Martial Arts + Pre-dates 1984

[Chungking_Cash]

That's right -- it's time to list your old school favorites for no other purpose than to provide the author with ideas and possibly create some interesting dialogue.

Criteria: Chinese language; martial arts genre or subgenre; pre-dates 1984.

Here, I'll start:

36th Chamber of Shaolin (aka "Shaolin Master Killer")
Come Drink with Me
Crippled Avengers (aka "Return of the Five Deadly Venoms")
Dreadnought
Drunken Master
Fist of Fury (aka "The Chinese Connection")
Have Sword, Will Travel
King Boxer (aka "Five Fingers of Death")
Knockabout
Last Hurrah for Chivalry
The Magnificent Butcher
Master of the Flying Guillotine
One-Armed Swordsman
Project A
A Touch of Zen
The Way of the Dragon (aka "Return of the Dragon")
We're Going to Eat You
Zu: The Warriors from the Magic Mountain

[Masterofoneinchpunch]

36th Chamber of Shaolin (aka "Shaolin Master Killer")
Come Drink with Me
Crippled Avengers (aka "Return of the Five Deadly Venoms")
Dreadnought
Drunken Master
Fist of Fury (aka "The Chinese Connection")
Have Sword, Will Travel
King Boxer (aka "Five Fingers of Death")
Knockabout
Last Hurrah for Chivalry
The Magnificent Butcher
Master of the Flying Guillotine
One-Armed Swordsman
Project A
A Touch of Zen
The Way of the Dragon (aka "Return of the Dragon")
We're Going to Eat You
Zu: The Warriors from the Magic Mountain

I'll add a few:

Dirty Ho (1979)
Dragon Lord (1982)
Fearless Hyena (1979)
Goodbye, Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death (1975) hee hee, wait I mean watch it.
Legendary Weapons of China (1982)
My Young Auntie (1981)
Prodigal Son, The (1981)
7 Grand Masters (1978)
Warriors Two (1978)
Young Master (1980)

I'll think of more later.

[Chungking_Cash]

Dirty Ho (1979)

A gross oversight on my part.

Dragon Lord (1982)

The film that nearly derailed Jackie Chan's career just as it was soaring to the stars? One of Chan's worst post-Lo Wei films (in my opinion, mind you).

Goodbye, Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death (1975) hee hee, wait I mean watch it.

I've never seen a Bruceploitation film unless you count "The Game of Death" (1978) and that was enough to last me for this lifetime and the next.

Legendary Weapons of China (1982)

I've only seen an old English dub of this film on VHS. I thought it was decent. Image Entertainment picked it up so I'll be able to rent the original Mandarin print with English subtitles and give "Legendary Weapons of China" its day in court.

My Young Auntie (1981)

I've wanted to see this film for years. Now that it's sponsered by Dragon Dynasty I'll wait for a rainy day.

Prodigal Son, The (1981)

I enjoyed the gung fu but not the characters. As such "The Prodigal Son" has always come off as a little over-hyped in my opinion. That being said I still think it's worth a recommendation.

Warriors Two (1978)

Another oversight on my part. Good eye, good eye!

Young Master (1980)

I thought it was an improvement over "The Fearless Hyena" but paled in comparison to "Drunken Master."












[/quote]

[cal42]

Goodbye, Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death (1975) hee hee, wait I mean watch it.

Great thread! Long may it live!

Here are a couple of personal faves that might not necessarily be to everyone's taste:

Heroes of the East (surprised no one's mentioned that yet)
Blood Brothers (1973 Chang Cheh)
Boxer from Shantung
The Chinese Boxer (yes, I'm picking a Wang Yu film!)
Heroes Two
Snake in the Eagle's Shadow

As usual, I will defend Dragon Lord and I still think it's a really fun film. My Young Auntie is definitely worth tracking down, as is Legendary Weapons of China, which I also saw on dubbed on VHS. Frankly I thought it was a mess, but the IVL DVD seemed more coherent somehow.

[Chungking_Cash]

Heroes of the East (surprised no one's mentioned that yet)

I thought it was as cute as Mizuno Yuko but little else. Refreshing, nevertheless, to see a Shaw Bros gung fu flick without mortality.

Blood Brothers (1973 Chang Cheh)

I've always wanted to see this film and with the update ("The Warlords") just debuting I need to prioritize my purchase of the Celestial VCD.

Boxer from Shantung
The Chinese Boxer (yes, I'm picking a Wang Yu film!)
Heroes Two

Three more films that I've wanted to see and will eventually purchase on VCD. And there's nothing wrong with naming a Jimmy Wang Yu film: "Master of the Flying Guillotine" is an old school favorite of mine, as you can already see.

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow

Thanks to Columbia Tri-Star I finally was able to rent this film in Cantonese with English subtitles and that helped reshape my previous opinion of the film. As the predecessor to "Drunken Master" it's the weaker of the pair by a fairly large margin but in terms of scores that were seemingly inspired by porno flicks of this period it's peerless!

[Gaijin84]

Don't forget Martial Club (1981). In my eyes, an overlooked classic with some incredible fight choreography by Liu Chia-Liang and spectacular set-driven combat between Gordon Liu and Johnny Wang.

[cal42]

Secret Rivals - not great technically, but I'm a great fan of kickers .

[Masterofoneinchpunch]

... Three more films that I've wanted to see and will eventually purchase on VCD. And there's nothing wrong with naming a Jimmy Wang Yu film: "Master of the Flying Guillotine" is an old school favorite of mine, as you can already see.

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow

Thanks to Columbia Tri-Star I finally was able to rent this film in Cantonese with English subtitles and that helped reshape my previous opinion of the film. As the predecessor to "Drunken Master" it's the weaker of the pair by a fairly large margin ...

There are many of us that love "Master of the Flying Guillotine" -- My 1000 plus word review http://hkmdb.com/db/reviews/show_review.mhtml?id=12331

Cal's (and I) sagacious reviews on the "awesome" and inimitable "Goodbye Bruce Lee:" http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/reviews.mhtml?id=10118&display_set=eng

I also felt that "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" was not near "Drunken Master" so I did not mention it. I agree with Cal about Dragon Lord and found it a fun film. I absolutely like "Legendary Weapons of China" and the Celestial transfer is quite good (I have the Celestial/Image R1 release of that). If you have not seen 7 Grand Masters (1978) I found it one of the best earlier Taiwanese MA films.

[cal42]

Cal's (and I) sagacious reviews on the "awesome" and inimitable "Goodbye Bruce Lee

Your review makes me want to watch it again, strangely . What's even worse is I've seen this on sale and my finger's hovering over the "add to cart" button. Must..resist...buying...bad...films...

Anyway, it's been a while since I've seen Martial Club so I've decided to have another look at it tonight especially seeing as how I don't seem to have reviewed it anywhere. I could have sworn I had, though!

[Masterofoneinchpunch]

... Your review makes me want to watch it again, strangely . What's even worse is I've seen this on sale and my finger's hovering over the "add to cart" button. Must..resist...buying...bad...films...

Anyway, it's been a while since I've seen Martial Club so I've decided to have another look at it tonight especially seeing as how I don't seem to have reviewed it anywhere. I could have sworn I had, though!

Yes, must buy (I have a few Bruceplotation films to watch, but there are so many more out there) Actually those will be awhile since I have a few Dragon Dynasty titles to watch (Though did watch Robin-B-Hood this weekend) and Image/Celestial (anyone seen Killer Snakes? )

What is the best "Martial Club" DVD version available? Cal is this a must watch for you too? (obviously after you watch it )

[cal42]

What is the best "Martial Club" DVD version available? Cal is this a must watch for you too? (obviously after you watch it )

It's got to be the IVL disc I think. Martial Club really kicks up a gear for the last 40 minutes. Look out for a review soon, but yes, it's definitely worth watching.

I've just remembered two more Chang Cheh film that I really love, although these really are for the fans of the guy's style:

The Duel - quite fast moving for a Chang Cheh film from the period
Savage Five - kind of a Seven Samurai knock-off (only with five people instead of seven and with kung fu). Not as good as Seven Samurai, obviously (what is?), but a damn fine kung fu film from the 70's. It's a pity more people haven't seen it, but two of the three reviewers seem to rate it .

[wblaik]

I think Dragon Lord is one of Jackie's best! Admittedly, I never thought much of it til I saw the longer original cut on the new(ish) Joysales DVD.

Worth checking out if you haven't already seen it, the film was messed up in editing/post production. Apparently they swapped the scene order around and tacked on the newly shot (no joke intended) Cannon scene at the end.

My rating would be 4.5/5

[KMGor]

Eight Diagram Pole Fighter.
Return of the One-Armed Swordsman.
Heaven and Hell.
Boxer From Shantung.
The Singing Killer (I enjoyed it, shoot me).

[cal42]

Good list - can't believe I missed the mighty 8 Diagram Pole Fighter!

The only one I haven't seen on there is Heaven and Hell - is that the Fu Sheng thing?

I didn't think much of Singing Killer when I saw it, but I've since read a few people rated it. I'll give it another bash at some point!

[Teddy Wong]

Heaven and Hell is great!

Some that weren't mentioned yet:

Masked avengers
Treasure hunters
Shaolin intruders
Dragon lives again
Return of the bastard swordsman (1984 actually. does this count?)
Incredible kung fu master
Two wondrous tigers
Twelve gold medallions

[Chungking_Cash]

Return of the bastard swordsman (1984 actually. does this count?)

Nope, it doesn't pre-date 1984. Sorry.

Twelve gold medallions

I've heard good word-of-mouth on this one and might check it out sooner rather than later.

[cal42]

I think I've missed my chance with Masked Avengers - I was looking for it a few months ago but it seems to have gone OOP, sadly. No doubt it will turn up again at some point though.

Treasure Hunters is a good call - I always liked this as it was kind of a Jackie Chan film without Jackie Chan, if you know what I mean.

[scift]

Hi,

I don't think these were mentioned yet:

Encounter of the Spooky Kind
Duel to the Death

[cal42]

Encounters of the Spooky Kind is a film I can watch over and over again. I just love it!

Edit:
I went and ordered a few off the list:

Masked Avengers - only available on VCD though
Heaven and Hell
Twelve Gold Medallions

[Masterofoneinchpunch]

Encounters of the Spooky Kind is a film I can watch over and over again. I just love it!

Edit:
I went and ordered a few off the list:

Masked Avengers - only available on VCD though
Heaven and Hell
Twelve Gold Medallions

Agreed on Encounters of the Spooky Kind (currently seen it four times).

Heaven and Hell is a strange, strange film. Jigoku is it's biggest reference point though Guys and Dolls seems to a big influence on an early part of the film .

[Chungking_Cash]

Encounter of the Spooky Kind

Though I'm seemingly in a minority I vastly prefer "The Dead and the Deadly" but I still enjoyed "Encounter of the Spooky Kind" for what it was.

Duel to the Death

This is a fun one but it's not a personal favorite which is not to say I didn't love the ninjas!

[KMGor]

Encounters of the Spooky Kind is a film I can watch over and over again. I just love it!

Edit:
I went and ordered a few off the list:

Masked Avengers - only available on VCD though
Heaven and Hell
Twelve Gold Medallions

Heaven and Hell is a weird one. It's got kung fu, musical numbers, demons, gore, torture, modern day and ancient China, etc. I think you'll enjoy it. I have no idea why they picked it, but the Celestial release is one of the handful of Shaw films to be legitimately released in America (where I got my copy).

I'm going to be visiting Chinatown in Manhattan in March, and a bunch of films here, Encounters of the Spooky Kind included, have been added to my list of what to look for!