Please tell me what your favourite films from the Shaw Brothers are and why: please give an in-depth opinion if you can.
Thank You
Your Favourite Shaw Brothers Movies
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Your Favourite Shaw Brothers Movies
by RGemmell » Sun Nov 14, 2004 11:17 pm
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by Marshall Crist » Sun Nov 14, 2004 11:42 pm
I only own about 20 Shaw's so far, and my favorite is still the first one I picked up: CAVE OF SILKEN WEB. I am a big fan of the late '60's kitsch aesthetic, and this has it in spades. Seven cave-dwelling spider sisters in colorful outfits attempt to eat a monk to achieve immortality, and are thwarted by monkey man and pig man. It's all vaguely sexy, too. Definitely not your average chop socky, which is probably why no one else seems to like it.
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by MrBooth » Mon Nov 15, 2004 6:04 pm
Err, will this do? 
***** COME DRINK WITH ME: Undoubtedly a classic - seeing it again on the big screen gave me a new appreciation for the sophistication of the plot and depth of the characterisation. The action scenes aren't all that hot, despite some nice ideas - they're edited too much, in an attempt to suggest the almost supernatural powers of the fighters, but this means you often get "before and after" and have to imagine what happened inbetween. In todays films (err, ok, 90's films) there'd be a lot more shots edited together to construct a more coherent action narrative. Cheng Pei Pei is amazing in this film and rightfully became a legend. The villain Jade Face Tiger is equally charismatic though
***** TEMPLE OF THE RED LOTUS: I thought COME DRINK WITH ME was "the one that started it all", but this film showed that "it" was pretty much all in place a year earlier. I actually thought the action in TOTRL was better than in CDWM. A true classic.
***** THE TWELVE GOLD MEDALLIONS: I thought this one was a great wu xia story, and the wire-heavy action very impressive for the time.
***** CLANS OF INTRIGUE: My favourite Chor Yuen wu xia - intricate and intriguing plot that for once isn't over-complicated, and absolutely gorgeous visuals. One of the best wu xia pian I've seen.
***** THE TRAIL OF THE BROKEN BLADE - Early Chang Cheh film that's probably my favourite of his works. Much closer to the wu xia of King Hu than the kung fu that became his trademark, but I guess that suits me better.
***** HUMAN LANTERNS: I nearly passed this over because the Celestial disc is missing some of the gore scenes that made the film notorious, but thankfully there's so much more to the film than that it still comes out top class. A great story, and some of the best art direction and cinematography of any Shaws film I've seen - plus tons of superb fight scenes... and still a few stomach-turning moments left in too. A real masterpiece! Lo Lieh totally owns the film
****1/2 THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN: One of the most influential martial arts films of all time, with an epic plot that broke the mould and solid direction from Chang Cheh. I saw this one in the theatre but think it might have scored higher if I saw it on DVD without an audience that spent much of the first half laughing at some of the bad acting (of which there is a fair bit) and some of the dialogue/plot points, before eventually realising it was actually a good film and taking it more seriously. I don't understand why the face of the main villain was kept hidden until near the end - it didn't seem to be particularly meaningful when it was revealed (though I'd long since identified the actor by his voice). Anyway, definitely one of the must-see Shaws titles Really made me wish for a remaster of Tsui Hark's remake THE BLADE even more, too 
****1/2 NEW TALES OF THE FLYING FOX: Shaw Brothers may only have made one good film in 1984, but NTOTFF totally makes up for the rest - in 89 minutes it manages to squeeze in almost everything that's good about Shaws and wu xia. It feels a lot like one of Chor Yuen's 70's wu xia pian in a higher wired-up gear. It's a shame that classic Shaws actors like Chen Kuan Tai, Yueh Hua and Ti Lung weren't really around when it was made, but the cast of lesser known actors does a good enough job (and Kara Hui is fantastic). Great story, great production values and excellent action scenes - a total FUN experience.
****1/2 LEGEND OF THE BAT sequel to Clans Of Intrigue picks up pretty much where the first part left off, and is almost as good. Only some dodgy lighting keeps it from that last 1/2 star
****1/2 EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER: A ferocious martial arts film, incredibly intense from start to finish (partly because everyone seems to have been directed to shout all their lines). Gordon Liu proves once again that he is "the man". Fantastic pole fighting scenes - defang the wolf!
****1/2 THE BLOOD BROTHERS: The film that finally convinced my Chang Cheh really was a talented director. Great story, very well crafted.
****1/2 DRAGON SWAMP: Lo Wei was never a great director, but he was at least consistently mediocre with a knack for surrounding himself with real talent and imitating his superiors. DRAGON SWAMP is another attempt to borrow some of the success of King Hu's films with a bit of Chang Cheh influence as spice. Cheng Pei-Pei plays two roles in the film, and is adorable in both. Lo Lieh also gets one of his best early parts, and Yueh Hua's presence is always welcome even if this role isn't one of his best moments. The film is undoubtably the best Lo Wei work I've seen so far - though this has little to do with his direction, which is pedestrian, and everything to do with the strong story, great cast and beautiful production design. And it has real dragons!
****1/2 GOLDEN SWALLOW: Nominal sequel to Come Drink With Me, with Chang Cheh infusing his own bloody style with that of King Hu's work from the previous year to create a rather wonderful beast. Much more melodramatic and violent (the body count is quite staggering) but very beautifully and creatively shot. There's some very innovative camera work, including some handheld camera work in fight scenes that was years ahead of its time. Sometimes it must be admitted that their ambitions exceeded their abilities somewhat (and some shots are just plain out of focus :p ), but full marks for trying. Almost a 5 star film.
****1/2 THE SUPER INFRAMAN: Before watching this film I'd never considered the question "Is it possible for a single film to be both the best and the worst film in the world?". Whilst it's probably over-generous to suppose that director Hua Shan set out to answer this question in 1975, THE SUPER INFRAMAN is definitely a candidate for the award. Ultimately, though, THE SUPER INFRAMAN is neither the best nor the worst film in the world, but it's a hugely entertaining piece of trash that is guaranteed to bring a smile to the viewer's face.
****1/2 THE THUNDERING SWORD: Near-classic melodrama cum wu xia film with a seminal storyline and wonderful performance from Cheng Pei Pei.
****1/2 INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF A CHINESE COURTISAN: Beautifully made, a wonderful balance of wu xia and exploitation and an unforgettable Betty Tei Pei all make this a favourite. The only problem is it's much too short to develop its characters and plot as well as it should.
**** THE FIVE VENOMS: A classic storyline and characters, and pretty good direction, though the film looks a little "cheap", as with many of Chang Cheh's later films. The Celestial DVD quality is fantastic though.
**** THE SPIRIT OF THE SWORD: Another in the Chor Yuen/Gu Long series of films, this time one of the later ones - which usually isn't a good sign, but in this case it seems that Shaws decided to pull out all the stops and the film features one of the most incredible production designs of all these films. The sets alone are fantastic, huge, intricate, colourful and beautiful. The story is another Agatha Christie in the Jiang Hu tale of competing clans and intrigue, betrayal and lots of fighting. The fights are well done, with lots of wirework and fancy stances and effects - 3 action directors are credited, but only in Chinese. Lead actor Liu Yung isn't one of my favourites, but he's good enough for the part. The real star is the production design though, which is like crack for the eyes. Recommended!
**** WEB OF DEATH: Another winner from Chor Yuen, with Yueh Hua filling Ti Lung's shoes pretty well, though the film belongs to Ching Li. The "deadly spider" is comically non-threatening of course, and the action isn't that great - but the story, production values and "fun factor" all score very high.
**** SHAOLIN MANTIS: David Chiang in a Lau Kar Leung-directed film somehow seems wrong to me, despite the fact Lau had directed Chiang in countless action scenes for Chang Cheh... so my expectations for this film were not very high. Surprised, I was, then - because it's great! Probably David Chiang's best film and as good as any of Lau Kar Leung's films. A strong story, good direction and acting and some great fight scenes make for a solid kung fu film. Lau Kar Wing is particularly good here (why was he never a bigger star?), and Huang Hsing-hsiu is quite delicious and spunky, and Lily Li makes a very fetching mother! Nothing revelationary but all very solid example of the genre. Don't be misled by the fact Gordon Liu dominates the DVD sleeve - he's only in it for a few minutes at the start.
**** THE CHINESE BOXER: Jimmy Wang Yu's directorial debut is generally reckoned to be the first real "kung fu" film (though not sure if this is ignoring the Wong Fei Hung films). It definitely set the standard for much of the 70's, and was a most notable influence on Bruce Lee's FIST OF FURY. The fight scenes do feature some fanciful wires in places, but for the most part focus on pretty brutal, realistic fighting styles. They're quite intense, especially thanks to the performances of Lo Lieh and Jimmy himself (finally having cleared up his constipation, it seems).The plot is a pretty straightforward "master dead, learn a new style, take revenge" affair - as would be the case for at least half the kung fu films that followed it At 85 minutes it could have done with being a bit longer, perhaps, but it's enough to get the job done. Unfortunately, Celestial have seen fit to "improve" the film by adding new sound effects and music, which are really badly done. It doesn't wreck the film, but makes it harder to appreciate. I'll probably replace the DVD with the VCD, which ought to have the original sound mix.
**** SHAOLIN PRINCE: The directorial debut of one of the greatest martial arts choreographers of all time, Tang Chia, is a manic comedy wire-fu extravaganza in the same vein as Buddha's Palm or Zu Warriors (etc), featuring lots of inventive fight scenes and some goofy special effects. The comedy is often rather goofy, but I found it quite pleasing in this film - and it's nice to see Ti Lung get a relatively comedic role for a change. He's quite charming as the goofy good-natured monk who doesn't know that he's actually the heir to an usurped throne (yeah, it's one of those stories). Derek Yee gives a straighter but equally satisfying performance as his younger brother.
**** RETURN OF THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN: Chang Cheh directs a "proper" sequel (as in "same characters, plot follows on somewhat logically") to his seminal film of the previous year, though the film has somewhat less of the epic romantic quality and a more "traditional" martial arts plot of an evil cult seeking supremacy over the jiang hu. I'm not sure how "traditional" such a plot was in 1968 though - it is rather reminiscent of a Chor Yuen/Gu Long film, but with Chang Cheh's grittier gallons-of-blood style. A pretty worthy film, and probably quite ground-breaking at the time, but not as good as its predecessor.
**** THE NEW ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN: Not a sequel to the Jimmy Wang Yu films, but a whole new story about a swordsman with one arm. David Chiang is master of twin sword style, but after being defeated by Ku Feng he chops off his own arm and retires from the martial arts world, but when injustice is served he unretires himself and strikes back. A good enough story with very high production values (that huge outdoor set they also used in Water Margin surely wasn't custom built by Shaws?) and some fun action. Solid martial arts film, if not as grand or creative as the first two parts. The major omission, for me, was that the film never covers David Chiang training to adapt to his one-armedness (as Jimmy Wang Yu adapted by training his speed). He just seems naturally invincible with one arm or two
**** THE MAGIC BLADE: I've enjoyed nearly all of Chor Yuen's films, though I didn't find this one as memorable as some of the others.
**** KILLER CLANS: Another intricate (i.e. overcomplicated) wu xia drama that's beautiful to look at.
**** HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD: A mind-bending piece of wu xia fantasy that never once stops to catch its breath in 85 minutes. Full of crazy characters, goofy special effects and tons and tons of wire stunts... a huge amount of fun, but one for those who can take the excesses of HK wuxia only!
**** HAVE SWORD, WILL TRAVEL: Chang Cheh in a more typically wu-xia mode appeals to me far more than his later films, and I liked this a lot. Echoes of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
**** THE SHADOW BOXING (aka Spiritual Boxer II). I guess this was the first HK film to feature hopping vampires? It pretty much sets the template for the Mr Vampire series/genre, and is very nearly as good - in some ways better. An excellent film that for the time was certainly a very novel direction to take a martial arts film in. I recommend watching in Cantonese.
**** ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS: Another big budget epic that continues the tale of the Outlaws Of The Marsh from The Water Margin. A simpler story that cuts pretty much straight to the chase, and spends a large percentage of the running time on bloody fight scenes. Great production values and lots of fun
**** CHINATOWN KID: Those that have seen the longer version may want to skip the Celestial DVD, but if you're a chinatown virgin then this is a great piece of 70's modern day kung fu. Excellent story and cast, and nice fight scenes that are unfortunately heavily edited compared to other prints of the film. Fu Sheng manages to be not annoying (he definitely works much better in modern day films than period films), but he's still upstaged by the Venom Mob, making their first appearance together.
**** HEROES OF SUNG - a great little wu xia piece with some very bloody action scenes.
**** THE MONKEY GOES WEST: I enjoyed this one a lot - the special effects were impressive, the sets stunning and Yueh Hua always charismatic. The action was pretty good too.
**** HONG KONG NOCTURNE: Wonderfully enjoyable musical tale, carried along by the energy and beauty of the 3 leads. I must see more of this genre!
**** THE SHADOW WHIP: Cheng Pei Pei and Yueh Hua together again, with more intrigue in an inn... i.e. Lo Wei does King Hu - not as well as King Hu did, but still better than most of his (Lo Wei's) films. Tons of well choreographed action, with lots of wires. Unfortunately whips are too unwieldly to make really great action scenes, but their use does distinguish the film, and they are used inventively. Cheng Pei Pei is of course cute as a button
And Yueh Hua too, I guess :p
**** THE JADE TIGER: Another Chor Yuen/Gu Long/Ti Lung collaboration, this one enjoyably dark and down-beat. Production values luscious as always, with some simply gorgeous scenery. A bit less fantastic than some of Chor Yuen's sentimental swordsman films, which marks it down slightly, but still very enjoyable, though not one I'd pick to introduce somebody to the style of film.
**** TO KILL A JAGUAR: Crime epic set in Shanghai's underworld of the 1930's, directed by versatile director Hua Shan. A great story full of twists and turns, hampered a little by the length of the film and some bad editing (the Celestial disc appears to be cut in places). Great performance from Chung Wa as Jaguar, and decent fight scenes.
**** DUEL OF THE CENTURY: Based on the same source as CLAN OF AMAZONS, with many of the same characters (played by different actors). The plot is typical Gu Long - waaaay too many characters and more twists and intrigues than Agatha Christie's entire output, but somehow I managed to follow everything that was happening and enjoyed the film a lot. The rooftop duel referred to in the title is also referenced in Stephen Chiau's FORBIDDEN CITY COP and Andrew Lau's THE DUEL - which I might have to watch again to see if it's actually a remake of DOTC. Recommended for fans of the CY/GL collaborations. The film has more comedy than other films from the duo.
**** TEMPTRESS OF 1000 FACES: This film isn't getting 4 stars for being a *good* film, but for being tremendously entertaining and for the grand effort (and bust) Tina Chin Fei puts into the film. It's a super-thief/crime caper in the cheesiest of 60's styles - very silly, almost incomprehensible and in many ways badly made, but somehow this only makes it more enjoyable. They don't make 'em like this anymore, and probably couldn't even if they tried - screw Austin Powers and Charlies New Angels, go to the source!
**** MAD MONKEY KUNG FU: The story is pretty basic kung fu comedy stuff, perhaps a little better than average. However, the film is enlivened significantly by the great fight choreography. Very fast, intricate and inventive. Hsiao Hao is a great acrobat and very likeable, and director Lau Kar Leung shows even more impressive skills.
**** MY YOUNG AUNTIE: An above average storyline is bogged down a little by some slightly irritating characters and occasionally embarrassing costumes/wigs, but then entirely brought back up by the numerous fight scenes. The last 40 minutes is almost non-stop fighting, with exceptional choreography and skill from the performers - kung fu doesn't get much better than this
***1/2 CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS: I think this was the first film to portray a young Wong Fei Hung? As such, a big influence on Drunken Master and Once Upon A Time In China, and through them... everything :p Great film, though Chen Kuan Tai's wig was terribly fit and for some reason I had to watch it in 4 sittings because I kept falling asleep :p
***1/2 THE SEXY KILLER: Well directed piece of gritty urban cinema that never misses a chance to show us the actresses' breasts. Some decent action (err, the fighting kind) scenes too, especially when Chen Ping gets her hands on a shotgun and goes into major payback mode
***1/2 BOXER FROM SHANTUNG: I previously only knew this film from the 1997 Cory Yuen remake, which it turns out is really very different. Although the direction in BFS is much better, I thought that the story, production values and some of the action in HERO were better. However, BFS has Chen Kuan Tai ("Introducing Chen Kuan Tai" no less - I thought he'd been around for longer than that), and he is infinitely cooler than Takeshi Kaneshiro. Generally a good film, with a great, long and very bloody final fight.
***1/2 THE WATER MARGIN: Very big budget epic that covers just a few chapters of the famous book. Spends the first 15 minutes introducing character after character, played by many of Shaws biggest stars, which had me worried the plot would be incomprehensible... thankfully, once introduced most of them disappear completely until the last 10 minutes Good story, great production values, decent action for the time. A winner.
***1/2 BAT WITHOUT WINGS: Another Chor Yuen/Gu Long work, this time a little more gothic and macabre than most of the others (reminding one of Human Lanterns at times), but not adding much else that's new... still, if it ain't broke don't fix it, as they say, and the formula for these wuxia detective fantasies is pretty unbreakable anyway. The film loses some marks for overusing coloured lighting, smoke and cheap special effects that sometimes make it look more amateurish than most of Chor Yuen's martial arts films. And for not having Ti Lung or Yueh Hua in it
***1/2 THE FLYING GUILLOTINE: You can never go too far wrong with Chen Kuan Tai in the lead role, and TFG features a solid story (a little reminiscent of Lone Wolf & Cub) and good production values, with decent action. It's lacking a certain polish that keeps it from being a bona fide classic though. Felt like the Celestial disc might be missing some gore?
***1/2 EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN: I guess this is considered a classic, but I thought it was just pretty good. The story was a bit perfunctory, and didn't carry much emotional impact for me - plus Wang Yu was annoying (and looked like a girl). The ending was very anticlimactic - in fact, nothing in the film managed to live up to the superb opening scene with Gordon Liu. Lo Lieh as Pai Mei was a great character though. I'm sure the martial arts were very authentic and the hard core kung-fu fans will cream themselves over that fact, but I didn't think the styles on display were particularly exciting to watch or aesthetically pleasing. So there :p From what I remember, the Lo Lieh-directed remake CLAN OF THE WHITE LOTUS was better, but it was one of the first Shaws films I saw so maybe I'll say different when the Celestial remaster eventually comes out.
***1/2 THE SPIRITUAL BOXER: Lau Kar Leung's directorial debut was apparently the first film that could be classed as a "Kung Fu Comedy", and was clearly an influence on Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung (particularly Drunken Master and Encounters of the Spooky Kind), but fails to be as enjoyable as those two classics for whatever reason. Well, the main reason is that Wang Yu doesn't have the charisma or comedic ability of either of the Golden Harvest luminaries - and the fact that the film is in Mandarin doesn't help him (the language is simply not as well suited to broad comedy as Cantonese, IMO). He's a good enough martial artist though, and the film is most enjoyable when he's being possessed by various spirits and fighting in their styles. In between it's good enough, but not "classic" level.
***1/2 THE SENTIMENTAL SWORDSMAN: Perhaps the experience was spoilt a little by watching it with an audience who couldn't resist pointing out illogical actions from the characters etc, but I wasn't as impressed by this one as I'd expected to be, given that it's sometimes said to be the definitive Chor Yuen/Gu Long/Ti Lung film. Still very beautiful and quite enjoyable though.
***1/2 DEATH DUEL: Relatively forgettable Chor Yuen wu xia with good action, but waaaay too many characters and not enough focus.
***1/2 THE MAGNIFICENT TRIO: Solid piece of film-making from Chang Cheh.
***1/2 PRINCESS IRON FAN Slightly less enjoyable sequel to THE MONKEY GOES WEST, but Yueh Hua is still a great Monkey King and there's lots of cute babes in the film, including Cheng Pei Pei Great visuals and special effects.
***1/2 CAVE OF SILKEN WEB: Another visually stunning entry in the Shaw's Monkey series, with even more cute babes (definitely the prettiest Spider Goblins I've ever seen) and a fun story with lots of twists, betrayals and body swapping.
***1/2 THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN: I dunno, maybe it's the hype, but I've never really understood why this film is so widely revered. Gordon Liu is a god, but the film's story is pretty inconsequential, and the training sequences brushed over waay too quickly.
***1/2 SHAOLIN TEMPLE Shaolin, Shaolin... the progenitor of those training sequence type films? Pretty good, with a fantastic action filled last 1/2 hour, but this one did little to dissuade me that Chang Cheh was not a master director or story teller.
*** POLICE FORCE: Fu Sheng's acting debut, though he's only in it for 10 mins or so. Another of Chang Cheh's "co-directed" works that he probably had little involvement with, though his regular collaborators I Kuang, Tang Chia and Liu Chia Liang are all there. Another gritty 70's drama with a very good story, and a great lead role from Wang Chung. Loses its way a bit towards the end, but mostly very good. If it were set a few hundred years earlier and filmed on the Shaws sound stages, it might even get 5 stars
*** AN AMOROUS WOMAN OF TANG DYNASTY: Apparently the full version of this film is near 3 hours long, but the Celestial dvd presents us wit*** LITTLE DRAGON MAIDEN: Early Leslie Cheung film, and one of the few real fantasy films I've seen from the 80's. Not as wild or wonderful as Tsui Hark's Zu, but features some really great wirework - I still don't know who the action director was, but it looks like Ching Siu Tung's touch? I liked this more than BUDDHA'S PALM.
h a 97 minute cut - which presumably explains why the plot seems to leap tall buildings between scenes and lack a certain amount of coherency. It seems to be a rather feminist tale dressed in lots of female nudity, a paradox that puts it in the company of INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF A CHINESE COURTESAN, with which it also shares some lucious set design and cinematography. The film actually looks, sounds and feels more like a japanese film than a HK film in many places. I wish Celestial had managed to dig up the full length cut, as there's no doubt the film loses a lot from being so severely shortened. It's probably an excellent film in its full length. The Celestial DVD also has disappointing picture quality - lots of grain and some distracting brightness fluctuations in some scenes. They probably figured people only wanted to see it for the nudity anyway...
*** FIVE SHAOLIN MASTERS Pure Chang Cheh - i.e not much of a story or character development, and tons of slow motion death scenes and... too much fighting! Not often you'll hear me say that. The first hour is pretty weak, but once the 5 disciples realise they have to master different styles to beat their foes it gives all the fighting more purpose, and the film improves significantly.
*** THE KILLER SNAKES: Gritty as they come, a wonderfully bleak vision of then-modern urban life. Some unpleasant treatment of animals (snakes, naturally) seems shocking by modern/western standards.
*** VENGEFUL BEAUTY: Sequel to FLYING GUILLOTINE that starts off kind of bad (crap writing and direction), but ultimately becomes very enjoyable thanks to some imaginative weapons and fights, and some amusing plot twists and dialogue. Oh, and Chen Ping and Shaw Yin Yin both "get them out for the lads", as a bonus :p
*** FLYING GUILLOTINE 2: More remote decapitation fun, with the introduction of the Flying Guillotine Mk II and the Female Flying Guillotine squad led by Shih Szu. Ti Lung takes over Chen Kuan Tai's role, but doesn't have all that much to do. Quite enjoyable, but not a classic by any means. Features some strangely enthusiastic camera work - panning, zooming and dollying rather inappropriately over all the place. This peaks in last scene, which gets all ASHES OF TIME and is quite cool.
*** HEROES SHED NO TEARS: Another Chor Yuen interpretation of a Gu Long story, with Fu Sheng taking the place typically reserved for Ti Lung as the lead - which is the film's weakness. Great (complex) story and stunning set designs and costumes, but Fu Sheng looks like a dick in his costume/wig and doesn't fit the character - or look too hot with a sword. Thankfully, there's Yueh Hua and Derek Yee to raise the bar, and the film generally goes much better when Fu Sheng isn't on screen. I guess Ti Lung was on vacation or something...
*** BLACK MAGIC: Decent enough horror/exploitation film that loses momentum for a while before a great finale. Never really scary (HK films rarely are) but some nice gross out moments - these films seem to date worse than other genres though. Could have done with more nudity :p
*** SECRET SERVICE OF THE IMPERIAL COURT: Takes quite a while to get going, but the last half hour or so is a lot of fun carnage. Leung Kar Yan has done better.
*** THE MASTER - Great to see Yuen Tak in a substantial role for once. Obviously Shaws attempt to emulate the success of Jackie + Sammo's kf comedies, but unfortunately Yuen Tak doesn't have the charisma to make the bumbling fool character loveable like they both did - he's not helped by some very annoying supporting players that make Dean Shek look charming. HOWEVER, the fight scenes are just amazing - Yuen Tak is at least Jackie's equal in kung fu and acrobatics, and Chen Kuan Tai looks great too.
*** NA CHA THE GREAT - Another fantasy film riding on the "new wave", this time with Chang Cheh in charge. The first time Fu Sheng didn't annoy me
*** THE LIZARD - Fairly lightweight crime caper film, made enjoyable by Chor Yuen's solid direction and a good cast.
*** THE BASTARD: I liked this one - I loved the exploration of the idea of a master martial artist trained in seclusion from birth - a common enough character - and the realisation that such a person would be completely ignorant about anything else in life. The lead actor/character *was* rather annoyingly dorky though.
*** THE KNIGHT OF KNIGHTS: I don't remember too much about it, but I liked it.
*** IRON BODYGUARD: Not too memorable, but enjoyable enough.
*** CLAN OF AMAZONS: One of the weakest Chor Yuen/Gu Long collaborations - though the "Embroidery Bandit" who "Embroiders The Blind" was kind of cool, and the film looked nice, the plot just meandered into incoherence and didn't deliver the usual level of satisfaction these films do.
*** VENGEANCE: A really stripped down piece of cinema, very focussed and all the more effective for it. I doubt Chang Cheh had much real involvement.
*** DISCIPLES OF 36TH CHAMBER too much goofing around, but some absolutely fantastic action scenes.
*** RETURN TO THE 36th CHAMBER: Largely misconceived sequel that has Gordon Liu playing a charlatan pretending to be a Shaolin Monk, and rather an asshole... but around about the 1 hour mark it shifts into training mode, Gordon gets to show his skills at last and the film gets better and better until a blistering final fight scene that gets the film most of its 3 stars.
*** ENCHANTING SHADOW - A Chinese Ghost Story 1959 style is a far cry from the Tsui Hark/Ching Siu Tung version. Rather restrained in fact, but beautiful production values. The ending was a let-down though, being far too abrupt.
*** SOUL OF THE SWORD - Below average wu xia starring Ti Lung in his quest to become the King Of Swordplay, whatever the cost. Pretty nice looking, decent action, but the characters aren't terribly engaging.
*** THE DELINQUENT: The difference between 70's HK cinema and Y2K HK cinema is so striking. 70's films were seemingly either outright fantasy or very much working class urban films, full of poverty and squalor. Can you imagine Sammi Cheng or Louis Koo having had any sort of a career in the 70's?
*** HEROES TWO: The start of the Shaolin cycle? Found the characters rather hard to like - it was the first time I'd seen a Fu Sheng film, and I found him irritating. I've warmed to him since.
*** BUDDHA'S PALM: Perhaps too campy and unfocussed?
*** THE SHADOW BOXER Exceedingly basic story in the mould of "The Big Boss", which tries to bring a little of the philosophy of Tai Chi to the screen, before throwing it out of the window and showing how the art can be turned to revenge. Star Chen Wo Fu has plenty of charisma and could have maybe have done great things had he not died. Shih Szu almost steals the show though.
*** THE TEAHOUSE: Overly melodramatic and grim, but enjoyable piece of pro-vigilanteism (sp?)
*** HEAVEN AND HELL Quite deranged and bizarre martial arts take on the Japanese film Jigoku. I love the very stylised sets and action scenes on earth.
**1/2 THAT FIERY GIRL - Mostly awful Swordplay film from 1968 with Cheng Pei Pei that feels like a school play on the Shaw Brothers sets, and seems to have completely missed the advances in the genre that had been made in the previous few years... up until the last 20-30 minutes, when it suddenly gets a lot more interesting, dramatic and violent. It felt like a different director had taken over - like Chang Cheh had, in fact. Anybody know if there's a story there?
**1/2 THE RESCUE - Much the same cast and crew that made HEROES OF SUNG, which I enjoyed a lot, but for some reason THE RESCUE didn't do much for me. I'm not quite sure why - the story is ok, it has Shih Szu and Lo Lieh and even more outrageously bloody fight scenes (they must have used enough red paint to cover every post box in England)... there's some ambitious but poorly executed wirework, and some of the acting is awful (Shih Szu is great at the silent and deadly type, but is embarrassing when she tries to express emotion here). I guess for 1971 it wasn't a bad effort - maybe I just wasn't in quite the right mood for it tonight.
**1/2 THE EMPEROR AND HIS BROTHER - One of the weaker Chor Yuen wu xia films, dragged down by too many characters and a convoluted plot. Also by far the worst looking DVD Celestial have released.
**1/2 SHAOLIN HANDLOCK - Rather stupid story, though it could have worked well with better direction - actually it felt like it would have made a good Bruce Lee film. David Chiang is passable as the lead, and the Tang Chia directed fight scenes are good.
**1/2 KISS OF DEATH: Another gritty piece of urban cinema, hampered by simplistic plot and weak action scenes.
**1/2 INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN: Reckoned to be one of the best Venoms films? Well, guess I'm not much of a Venoms fan. Rather generic Shaolin film, with rivalries between North and South Shaolin engineered by the court. Lots of training scenes and some good acrobatics in the fights, but... not all that interesting, and the leads lack the charisma of Gordon Liu, Ti Lung or Yueh Hua for instance. Kuo Chui and Chiang Shiang are the only venoms I can actually identify by sight in fact.
** ANGEL WITH THE IRON FISTS: It's basically a James Bond knock-off with Lily Ho as agent "009" infiltrating a gang of master criminals. Lo Wei directs without any style or substance as usual, but the film is probably fun to watch with an audience that appreciates 60's camp. The totally fucked up new sound effects on the Celestial DVD distracted me so badly I couldn't get into it though, and ended up fast-forwarding a pretty large chunk. I'm not ordering any more Celestial DVDs until they sort this out.
** DUEL OF FISTS: Pretty basic.
** TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN: In most respects a quite terrible film, somewhat redeemed by some excellent fight scenes and one great moment of drama just before the end. Suffers mostly from some terrible acting, and... well, a really ugly cast! Maybe it was the makeup. There's no denying that by 1980, Chang Cheh's films were a lot cheaper looking and more primitive than they were a decade earlier.
** THE GOLDEN BUDDHA: Fun enough, but the lead is no James Bond. The fight scenes are quite awful.
** THE RAT CATCHER: Total opposite of the gritty urban films of the 70's, being rather naive and twee. Starts off embarrasingly sweet, and really only picks up because of Tanny's charisma and enthusiasm.
** DANGER HAS TWO FACES: The first half of the film is SERIOUSLY hurt by some terrible acting and comedy, and lack of focus - then it shifts gear, to an admittedly pretty basic story but at least tackled seriously. Some moments of nasty gore.
** THE LOVE ETERNE: Enough to convince me that I don't need to see another Huangmei Opera. The two leads squeal and screech at each other in a tuneless fashion, leading one to wonder, hope and then pray that they'll annoy each other so much they spend the rest of the film in a bloody fight to the death (which, unfortunately, they don't).
** TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR: Cantonese comedy can sometimes be hard to appreciate without knowing the language and the culture intimately, and this film didn't help to break down those barriers.
** BIG BROTHER CHENG: There is no plot to speak of, just a sequence of highly conservative and reactionary mini-plots. The ethics espoused here seemed far more callous and naive than in the original TEAHOUSE (or maybe I was just feeling less tolerant of intolerance when I watched it)
** THE HEROIC ONES: The first Celestial Shaws film I saw, and a great disappointment - I found it rather dull, the story badly told and the action crude.
** LION VS. LION: Some good fights (and Lion dancing) don't make up for the banal story and the painful "Funny faces" comedy. Wang Yu is very annoying. Lo Meng and Wang Lung Wei are both very good, but look like they're wondering how they ended up in this film. Shaws should never have tried to join the martial arts comedy bandwagon!
** LUST FOR LOVE OF A CHINESE COURTESAN - I don't know why Chor Yuen felt the need to do a trashier remake of his classic INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF A CHINESE COURTESAN with a weaker cast, less coherent plot and sloppier production values, but apparently he did. Perhaps he wanted to counter the delicious cynicism of the original with... vacuousness (vacuity?). Typically nice Chor Yuen sets and cinematography, but illustrates as well as anything else how much Shaws films had declined by 1984.
*1/2 JOURNEY OF THE DOOMED - Shaws were really on the way out when this made, and it shows. Totally lacks the gorgeous production values of their better years, and pretty much anything else.
* THE HOUSE OF 72 TENANTS: Popular and influential it may have been, but I found the schmalz and overacting unbearable, and the comedy way too crude. Yueh Hua is great as always though.
* PASSING FLICKERS - I was hoping for a real insight into the movie-making world of Shaws studios, but instead it's a series of rather insipid little tales of jealousy and lust. Lots of nudity, but nothing that approached enjoyment.
***** COME DRINK WITH ME: Undoubtedly a classic - seeing it again on the big screen gave me a new appreciation for the sophistication of the plot and depth of the characterisation. The action scenes aren't all that hot, despite some nice ideas - they're edited too much, in an attempt to suggest the almost supernatural powers of the fighters, but this means you often get "before and after" and have to imagine what happened inbetween. In todays films (err, ok, 90's films) there'd be a lot more shots edited together to construct a more coherent action narrative. Cheng Pei Pei is amazing in this film and rightfully became a legend. The villain Jade Face Tiger is equally charismatic though
***** TEMPLE OF THE RED LOTUS: I thought COME DRINK WITH ME was "the one that started it all", but this film showed that "it" was pretty much all in place a year earlier. I actually thought the action in TOTRL was better than in CDWM. A true classic.
***** THE TWELVE GOLD MEDALLIONS: I thought this one was a great wu xia story, and the wire-heavy action very impressive for the time.
***** CLANS OF INTRIGUE: My favourite Chor Yuen wu xia - intricate and intriguing plot that for once isn't over-complicated, and absolutely gorgeous visuals. One of the best wu xia pian I've seen.
***** THE TRAIL OF THE BROKEN BLADE - Early Chang Cheh film that's probably my favourite of his works. Much closer to the wu xia of King Hu than the kung fu that became his trademark, but I guess that suits me better.
***** HUMAN LANTERNS: I nearly passed this over because the Celestial disc is missing some of the gore scenes that made the film notorious, but thankfully there's so much more to the film than that it still comes out top class. A great story, and some of the best art direction and cinematography of any Shaws film I've seen - plus tons of superb fight scenes... and still a few stomach-turning moments left in too. A real masterpiece! Lo Lieh totally owns the film
****1/2 THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN: One of the most influential martial arts films of all time, with an epic plot that broke the mould and solid direction from Chang Cheh. I saw this one in the theatre but think it might have scored higher if I saw it on DVD without an audience that spent much of the first half laughing at some of the bad acting (of which there is a fair bit) and some of the dialogue/plot points, before eventually realising it was actually a good film and taking it more seriously. I don't understand why the face of the main villain was kept hidden until near the end - it didn't seem to be particularly meaningful when it was revealed (though I'd long since identified the actor by his voice). Anyway, definitely one of the must-see Shaws titles
Really made me wish for a remaster of Tsui Hark's remake THE BLADE even more, too
****1/2 NEW TALES OF THE FLYING FOX: Shaw Brothers may only have made one good film in 1984, but NTOTFF totally makes up for the rest - in 89 minutes it manages to squeeze in almost everything that's good about Shaws and wu xia. It feels a lot like one of Chor Yuen's 70's wu xia pian in a higher wired-up gear. It's a shame that classic Shaws actors like Chen Kuan Tai, Yueh Hua and Ti Lung weren't really around when it was made, but the cast of lesser known actors does a good enough job (and Kara Hui is fantastic). Great story, great production values and excellent action scenes - a total FUN experience.
****1/2 LEGEND OF THE BAT sequel to Clans Of Intrigue picks up pretty much where the first part left off, and is almost as good. Only some dodgy lighting keeps it from that last 1/2 star
****1/2 EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER: A ferocious martial arts film, incredibly intense from start to finish (partly because everyone seems to have been directed to shout all their lines). Gordon Liu proves once again that he is "the man". Fantastic pole fighting scenes - defang the wolf!
****1/2 THE BLOOD BROTHERS: The film that finally convinced my Chang Cheh really was a talented director. Great story, very well crafted.
****1/2 DRAGON SWAMP: Lo Wei was never a great director, but he was at least consistently mediocre with a knack for surrounding himself with real talent and imitating his superiors. DRAGON SWAMP is another attempt to borrow some of the success of King Hu's films with a bit of Chang Cheh influence as spice. Cheng Pei-Pei plays two roles in the film, and is adorable in both. Lo Lieh also gets one of his best early parts, and Yueh Hua's presence is always welcome even if this role isn't one of his best moments. The film is undoubtably the best Lo Wei work I've seen so far - though this has little to do with his direction, which is pedestrian, and everything to do with the strong story, great cast and beautiful production design. And it has real dragons!
****1/2 GOLDEN SWALLOW: Nominal sequel to Come Drink With Me, with Chang Cheh infusing his own bloody style with that of King Hu's work from the previous year to create a rather wonderful beast. Much more melodramatic and violent (the body count is quite staggering) but very beautifully and creatively shot. There's some very innovative camera work, including some handheld camera work in fight scenes that was years ahead of its time. Sometimes it must be admitted that their ambitions exceeded their abilities somewhat (and some shots are just plain out of focus :p ), but full marks for trying. Almost a 5 star film.
****1/2 THE SUPER INFRAMAN: Before watching this film I'd never considered the question "Is it possible for a single film to be both the best and the worst film in the world?". Whilst it's probably over-generous to suppose that director Hua Shan set out to answer this question in 1975, THE SUPER INFRAMAN is definitely a candidate for the award. Ultimately, though, THE SUPER INFRAMAN is neither the best nor the worst film in the world, but it's a hugely entertaining piece of trash that is guaranteed to bring a smile to the viewer's face.
****1/2 THE THUNDERING SWORD: Near-classic melodrama cum wu xia film with a seminal storyline and wonderful performance from Cheng Pei Pei.
****1/2 INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF A CHINESE COURTISAN: Beautifully made, a wonderful balance of wu xia and exploitation and an unforgettable Betty Tei Pei all make this a favourite. The only problem is it's much too short to develop its characters and plot as well as it should.
**** THE FIVE VENOMS: A classic storyline and characters, and pretty good direction, though the film looks a little "cheap", as with many of Chang Cheh's later films. The Celestial DVD quality is fantastic though.
**** THE SPIRIT OF THE SWORD: Another in the Chor Yuen/Gu Long series of films, this time one of the later ones - which usually isn't a good sign, but in this case it seems that Shaws decided to pull out all the stops and the film features one of the most incredible production designs of all these films. The sets alone are fantastic, huge, intricate, colourful and beautiful. The story is another Agatha Christie in the Jiang Hu tale of competing clans and intrigue, betrayal and lots of fighting. The fights are well done, with lots of wirework and fancy stances and effects - 3 action directors are credited, but only in Chinese. Lead actor Liu Yung isn't one of my favourites, but he's good enough for the part. The real star is the production design though, which is like crack for the eyes. Recommended!
**** WEB OF DEATH: Another winner from Chor Yuen, with Yueh Hua filling Ti Lung's shoes pretty well, though the film belongs to Ching Li. The "deadly spider" is comically non-threatening of course, and the action isn't that great - but the story, production values and "fun factor" all score very high.
**** SHAOLIN MANTIS: David Chiang in a Lau Kar Leung-directed film somehow seems wrong to me, despite the fact Lau had directed Chiang in countless action scenes for Chang Cheh... so my expectations for this film were not very high. Surprised, I was, then - because it's great! Probably David Chiang's best film and as good as any of Lau Kar Leung's films. A strong story, good direction and acting and some great fight scenes make for a solid kung fu film. Lau Kar Wing is particularly good here (why was he never a bigger star?), and Huang Hsing-hsiu is quite delicious and spunky, and Lily Li makes a very fetching mother! Nothing revelationary but all very solid example of the genre. Don't be misled by the fact Gordon Liu dominates the DVD sleeve - he's only in it for a few minutes at the start.
**** THE CHINESE BOXER: Jimmy Wang Yu's directorial debut is generally reckoned to be the first real "kung fu" film (though not sure if this is ignoring the Wong Fei Hung films). It definitely set the standard for much of the 70's, and was a most notable influence on Bruce Lee's FIST OF FURY. The fight scenes do feature some fanciful wires in places, but for the most part focus on pretty brutal, realistic fighting styles. They're quite intense, especially thanks to the performances of Lo Lieh and Jimmy himself (finally having cleared up his constipation, it seems).The plot is a pretty straightforward "master dead, learn a new style, take revenge" affair - as would be the case for at least half the kung fu films that followed it
At 85 minutes it could have done with being a bit longer, perhaps, but it's enough to get the job done. Unfortunately, Celestial have seen fit to "improve" the film by adding new sound effects and music, which are really badly done. It doesn't wreck the film, but makes it harder to appreciate. I'll probably replace the DVD with the VCD, which ought to have the original sound mix.
**** SHAOLIN PRINCE: The directorial debut of one of the greatest martial arts choreographers of all time, Tang Chia, is a manic comedy wire-fu extravaganza in the same vein as Buddha's Palm or Zu Warriors (etc), featuring lots of inventive fight scenes and some goofy special effects. The comedy is often rather goofy, but I found it quite pleasing in this film - and it's nice to see Ti Lung get a relatively comedic role for a change. He's quite charming as the goofy good-natured monk who doesn't know that he's actually the heir to an usurped throne (yeah, it's one of those stories). Derek Yee gives a straighter but equally satisfying performance as his younger brother.
**** RETURN OF THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN: Chang Cheh directs a "proper" sequel (as in "same characters, plot follows on somewhat logically") to his seminal film of the previous year, though the film has somewhat less of the epic romantic quality and a more "traditional" martial arts plot of an evil cult seeking supremacy over the jiang hu. I'm not sure how "traditional" such a plot was in 1968 though - it is rather reminiscent of a Chor Yuen/Gu Long film, but with Chang Cheh's grittier gallons-of-blood style. A pretty worthy film, and probably quite ground-breaking at the time, but not as good as its predecessor.
**** THE NEW ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN: Not a sequel to the Jimmy Wang Yu films, but a whole new story about a swordsman with one arm. David Chiang is master of twin sword style, but after being defeated by Ku Feng he chops off his own arm and retires from the martial arts world, but when injustice is served he unretires himself and strikes back. A good enough story with very high production values (that huge outdoor set they also used in Water Margin surely wasn't custom built by Shaws?) and some fun action. Solid martial arts film, if not as grand or creative as the first two parts. The major omission, for me, was that the film never covers David Chiang training to adapt to his one-armedness (as Jimmy Wang Yu adapted by training his speed). He just seems naturally invincible with one arm or two
**** THE MAGIC BLADE: I've enjoyed nearly all of Chor Yuen's films, though I didn't find this one as memorable as some of the others.
**** KILLER CLANS: Another intricate (i.e. overcomplicated) wu xia drama that's beautiful to look at.
**** HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD: A mind-bending piece of wu xia fantasy that never once stops to catch its breath in 85 minutes. Full of crazy characters, goofy special effects and tons and tons of wire stunts... a huge amount of fun, but one for those who can take the excesses of HK wuxia only!
**** HAVE SWORD, WILL TRAVEL: Chang Cheh in a more typically wu-xia mode appeals to me far more than his later films, and I liked this a lot. Echoes of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
**** THE SHADOW BOXING (aka Spiritual Boxer II). I guess this was the first HK film to feature hopping vampires? It pretty much sets the template for the Mr Vampire series/genre, and is very nearly as good - in some ways better. An excellent film that for the time was certainly a very novel direction to take a martial arts film in. I recommend watching in Cantonese.
**** ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS: Another big budget epic that continues the tale of the Outlaws Of The Marsh from The Water Margin. A simpler story that cuts pretty much straight to the chase, and spends a large percentage of the running time on bloody fight scenes. Great production values and lots of fun
**** CHINATOWN KID: Those that have seen the longer version may want to skip the Celestial DVD, but if you're a chinatown virgin then this is a great piece of 70's modern day kung fu. Excellent story and cast, and nice fight scenes that are unfortunately heavily edited compared to other prints of the film. Fu Sheng manages to be not annoying (he definitely works much better in modern day films than period films), but he's still upstaged by the Venom Mob, making their first appearance together.
**** HEROES OF SUNG - a great little wu xia piece with some very bloody action scenes.
**** THE MONKEY GOES WEST: I enjoyed this one a lot - the special effects were impressive, the sets stunning and Yueh Hua always charismatic. The action was pretty good too.
**** HONG KONG NOCTURNE: Wonderfully enjoyable musical tale, carried along by the energy and beauty of the 3 leads. I must see more of this genre!
**** THE SHADOW WHIP: Cheng Pei Pei and Yueh Hua together again, with more intrigue in an inn... i.e. Lo Wei does King Hu - not as well as King Hu did, but still better than most of his (Lo Wei's) films. Tons of well choreographed action, with lots of wires. Unfortunately whips are too unwieldly to make really great action scenes, but their use does distinguish the film, and they are used inventively. Cheng Pei Pei is of course cute as a button
And Yueh Hua too, I guess :p
**** THE JADE TIGER: Another Chor Yuen/Gu Long/Ti Lung collaboration, this one enjoyably dark and down-beat. Production values luscious as always, with some simply gorgeous scenery. A bit less fantastic than some of Chor Yuen's sentimental swordsman films, which marks it down slightly, but still very enjoyable, though not one I'd pick to introduce somebody to the style of film.
**** TO KILL A JAGUAR: Crime epic set in Shanghai's underworld of the 1930's, directed by versatile director Hua Shan. A great story full of twists and turns, hampered a little by the length of the film and some bad editing (the Celestial disc appears to be cut in places). Great performance from Chung Wa as Jaguar, and decent fight scenes.
**** DUEL OF THE CENTURY: Based on the same source as CLAN OF AMAZONS, with many of the same characters (played by different actors). The plot is typical Gu Long - waaaay too many characters and more twists and intrigues than Agatha Christie's entire output, but somehow I managed to follow everything that was happening and enjoyed the film a lot. The rooftop duel referred to in the title is also referenced in Stephen Chiau's FORBIDDEN CITY COP and Andrew Lau's THE DUEL - which I might have to watch again to see if it's actually a remake of DOTC. Recommended for fans of the CY/GL collaborations. The film has more comedy than other films from the duo.
**** TEMPTRESS OF 1000 FACES: This film isn't getting 4 stars for being a *good* film, but for being tremendously entertaining and for the grand effort (and bust) Tina Chin Fei puts into the film. It's a super-thief/crime caper in the cheesiest of 60's styles - very silly, almost incomprehensible and in many ways badly made, but somehow this only makes it more enjoyable. They don't make 'em like this anymore, and probably couldn't even if they tried - screw Austin Powers and Charlies New Angels, go to the source!
**** MAD MONKEY KUNG FU: The story is pretty basic kung fu comedy stuff, perhaps a little better than average. However, the film is enlivened significantly by the great fight choreography. Very fast, intricate and inventive. Hsiao Hao is a great acrobat and very likeable, and director Lau Kar Leung shows even more impressive skills.
**** MY YOUNG AUNTIE: An above average storyline is bogged down a little by some slightly irritating characters and occasionally embarrassing costumes/wigs, but then entirely brought back up by the numerous fight scenes. The last 40 minutes is almost non-stop fighting, with exceptional choreography and skill from the performers - kung fu doesn't get much better than this
***1/2 CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS: I think this was the first film to portray a young Wong Fei Hung? As such, a big influence on Drunken Master and Once Upon A Time In China, and through them... everything :p Great film, though Chen Kuan Tai's wig was terribly fit and for some reason I had to watch it in 4 sittings because I kept falling asleep :p
***1/2 THE SEXY KILLER: Well directed piece of gritty urban cinema that never misses a chance to show us the actresses' breasts. Some decent action (err, the fighting kind) scenes too, especially when Chen Ping gets her hands on a shotgun and goes into major payback mode
***1/2 BOXER FROM SHANTUNG: I previously only knew this film from the 1997 Cory Yuen remake, which it turns out is really very different. Although the direction in BFS is much better, I thought that the story, production values and some of the action in HERO were better. However, BFS has Chen Kuan Tai ("Introducing Chen Kuan Tai" no less - I thought he'd been around for longer than that), and he is infinitely cooler than Takeshi Kaneshiro. Generally a good film, with a great, long and very bloody final fight.
***1/2 THE WATER MARGIN: Very big budget epic that covers just a few chapters of the famous book. Spends the first 15 minutes introducing character after character, played by many of Shaws biggest stars, which had me worried the plot would be incomprehensible... thankfully, once introduced most of them disappear completely until the last 10 minutes
Good story, great production values, decent action for the time. A winner.
***1/2 BAT WITHOUT WINGS: Another Chor Yuen/Gu Long work, this time a little more gothic and macabre than most of the others (reminding one of Human Lanterns at times), but not adding much else that's new... still, if it ain't broke don't fix it, as they say, and the formula for these wuxia detective fantasies is pretty unbreakable anyway. The film loses some marks for overusing coloured lighting, smoke and cheap special effects that sometimes make it look more amateurish than most of Chor Yuen's martial arts films. And for not having Ti Lung or Yueh Hua in it
***1/2 THE FLYING GUILLOTINE: You can never go too far wrong with Chen Kuan Tai in the lead role, and TFG features a solid story (a little reminiscent of Lone Wolf & Cub) and good production values, with decent action. It's lacking a certain polish that keeps it from being a bona fide classic though. Felt like the Celestial disc might be missing some gore?
***1/2 EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN: I guess this is considered a classic, but I thought it was just pretty good. The story was a bit perfunctory, and didn't carry much emotional impact for me - plus Wang Yu was annoying (and looked like a girl). The ending was very anticlimactic - in fact, nothing in the film managed to live up to the superb opening scene with Gordon Liu. Lo Lieh as Pai Mei was a great character though. I'm sure the martial arts were very authentic and the hard core kung-fu fans will cream themselves over that fact, but I didn't think the styles on display were particularly exciting to watch or aesthetically pleasing. So there :p From what I remember, the Lo Lieh-directed remake CLAN OF THE WHITE LOTUS was better, but it was one of the first Shaws films I saw so maybe I'll say different when the Celestial remaster eventually comes out.
***1/2 THE SPIRITUAL BOXER: Lau Kar Leung's directorial debut was apparently the first film that could be classed as a "Kung Fu Comedy", and was clearly an influence on Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung (particularly Drunken Master and Encounters of the Spooky Kind), but fails to be as enjoyable as those two classics for whatever reason. Well, the main reason is that Wang Yu doesn't have the charisma or comedic ability of either of the Golden Harvest luminaries - and the fact that the film is in Mandarin doesn't help him (the language is simply not as well suited to broad comedy as Cantonese, IMO). He's a good enough martial artist though, and the film is most enjoyable when he's being possessed by various spirits and fighting in their styles. In between it's good enough, but not "classic" level.
***1/2 THE SENTIMENTAL SWORDSMAN: Perhaps the experience was spoilt a little by watching it with an audience who couldn't resist pointing out illogical actions from the characters etc, but I wasn't as impressed by this one as I'd expected to be, given that it's sometimes said to be the definitive Chor Yuen/Gu Long/Ti Lung film. Still very beautiful and quite enjoyable though.
***1/2 DEATH DUEL: Relatively forgettable Chor Yuen wu xia with good action, but waaaay too many characters and not enough focus.
***1/2 THE MAGNIFICENT TRIO: Solid piece of film-making from Chang Cheh.
***1/2 PRINCESS IRON FAN Slightly less enjoyable sequel to THE MONKEY GOES WEST, but Yueh Hua is still a great Monkey King and there's lots of cute babes in the film, including Cheng Pei Pei
Great visuals and special effects.
***1/2 CAVE OF SILKEN WEB: Another visually stunning entry in the Shaw's Monkey series, with even more cute babes (definitely the prettiest Spider Goblins I've ever seen) and a fun story with lots of twists, betrayals and body swapping.
***1/2 THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN: I dunno, maybe it's the hype, but I've never really understood why this film is so widely revered. Gordon Liu is a god, but the film's story is pretty inconsequential, and the training sequences brushed over waay too quickly.
***1/2 SHAOLIN TEMPLE Shaolin, Shaolin... the progenitor of those training sequence type films? Pretty good, with a fantastic action filled last 1/2 hour, but this one did little to dissuade me that Chang Cheh was not a master director or story teller.
*** POLICE FORCE: Fu Sheng's acting debut, though he's only in it for 10 mins or so. Another of Chang Cheh's "co-directed" works that he probably had little involvement with, though his regular collaborators I Kuang, Tang Chia and Liu Chia Liang are all there. Another gritty 70's drama with a very good story, and a great lead role from Wang Chung. Loses its way a bit towards the end, but mostly very good. If it were set a few hundred years earlier and filmed on the Shaws sound stages, it might even get 5 stars
*** AN AMOROUS WOMAN OF TANG DYNASTY: Apparently the full version of this film is near 3 hours long, but the Celestial dvd presents us wit*** LITTLE DRAGON MAIDEN: Early Leslie Cheung film, and one of the few real fantasy films I've seen from the 80's. Not as wild or wonderful as Tsui Hark's Zu, but features some really great wirework - I still don't know who the action director was, but it looks like Ching Siu Tung's touch? I liked this more than BUDDHA'S PALM.
h a 97 minute cut - which presumably explains why the plot seems to leap tall buildings between scenes and lack a certain amount of coherency. It seems to be a rather feminist tale dressed in lots of female nudity, a paradox that puts it in the company of INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF A CHINESE COURTESAN, with which it also shares some lucious set design and cinematography. The film actually looks, sounds and feels more like a japanese film than a HK film in many places. I wish Celestial had managed to dig up the full length cut, as there's no doubt the film loses a lot from being so severely shortened. It's probably an excellent film in its full length. The Celestial DVD also has disappointing picture quality - lots of grain and some distracting brightness fluctuations in some scenes. They probably figured people only wanted to see it for the nudity anyway...
*** FIVE SHAOLIN MASTERS Pure Chang Cheh - i.e not much of a story or character development, and tons of slow motion death scenes and... too much fighting! Not often you'll hear me say that. The first hour is pretty weak, but once the 5 disciples realise they have to master different styles to beat their foes it gives all the fighting more purpose, and the film improves significantly.
*** THE KILLER SNAKES: Gritty as they come, a wonderfully bleak vision of then-modern urban life. Some unpleasant treatment of animals (snakes, naturally) seems shocking by modern/western standards.
*** VENGEFUL BEAUTY: Sequel to FLYING GUILLOTINE that starts off kind of bad (crap writing and direction), but ultimately becomes very enjoyable thanks to some imaginative weapons and fights, and some amusing plot twists and dialogue. Oh, and Chen Ping and Shaw Yin Yin both "get them out for the lads", as a bonus :p
*** FLYING GUILLOTINE 2: More remote decapitation fun, with the introduction of the Flying Guillotine Mk II and the Female Flying Guillotine squad led by Shih Szu. Ti Lung takes over Chen Kuan Tai's role, but doesn't have all that much to do. Quite enjoyable, but not a classic by any means. Features some strangely enthusiastic camera work - panning, zooming and dollying rather inappropriately over all the place. This peaks in last scene, which gets all ASHES OF TIME and is quite cool.
*** HEROES SHED NO TEARS: Another Chor Yuen interpretation of a Gu Long story, with Fu Sheng taking the place typically reserved for Ti Lung as the lead - which is the film's weakness. Great (complex) story and stunning set designs and costumes, but Fu Sheng looks like a dick in his costume/wig and doesn't fit the character - or look too hot with a sword. Thankfully, there's Yueh Hua and Derek Yee to raise the bar, and the film generally goes much better when Fu Sheng isn't on screen. I guess Ti Lung was on vacation or something...
*** BLACK MAGIC: Decent enough horror/exploitation film that loses momentum for a while before a great finale. Never really scary (HK films rarely are) but some nice gross out moments - these films seem to date worse than other genres though. Could have done with more nudity :p
*** SECRET SERVICE OF THE IMPERIAL COURT: Takes quite a while to get going, but the last half hour or so is a lot of fun carnage. Leung Kar Yan has done better.
*** THE MASTER - Great to see Yuen Tak in a substantial role for once. Obviously Shaws attempt to emulate the success of Jackie + Sammo's kf comedies, but unfortunately Yuen Tak doesn't have the charisma to make the bumbling fool character loveable like they both did - he's not helped by some very annoying supporting players that make Dean Shek look charming. HOWEVER, the fight scenes are just amazing - Yuen Tak is at least Jackie's equal in kung fu and acrobatics, and Chen Kuan Tai looks great too.
*** NA CHA THE GREAT - Another fantasy film riding on the "new wave", this time with Chang Cheh in charge. The first time Fu Sheng didn't annoy me
*** THE LIZARD - Fairly lightweight crime caper film, made enjoyable by Chor Yuen's solid direction and a good cast.
*** THE BASTARD: I liked this one - I loved the exploration of the idea of a master martial artist trained in seclusion from birth - a common enough character - and the realisation that such a person would be completely ignorant about anything else in life. The lead actor/character *was* rather annoyingly dorky though.
*** THE KNIGHT OF KNIGHTS: I don't remember too much about it, but I liked it.
*** IRON BODYGUARD: Not too memorable, but enjoyable enough.
*** CLAN OF AMAZONS: One of the weakest Chor Yuen/Gu Long collaborations - though the "Embroidery Bandit" who "Embroiders The Blind" was kind of cool, and the film looked nice, the plot just meandered into incoherence and didn't deliver the usual level of satisfaction these films do.
*** VENGEANCE: A really stripped down piece of cinema, very focussed and all the more effective for it. I doubt Chang Cheh had much real involvement.
*** DISCIPLES OF 36TH CHAMBER too much goofing around, but some absolutely fantastic action scenes.
*** RETURN TO THE 36th CHAMBER: Largely misconceived sequel that has Gordon Liu playing a charlatan pretending to be a Shaolin Monk, and rather an asshole... but around about the 1 hour mark it shifts into training mode, Gordon gets to show his skills at last and the film gets better and better until a blistering final fight scene that gets the film most of its 3 stars.
*** ENCHANTING SHADOW - A Chinese Ghost Story 1959 style is a far cry from the Tsui Hark/Ching Siu Tung version. Rather restrained in fact, but beautiful production values. The ending was a let-down though, being far too abrupt.
*** SOUL OF THE SWORD - Below average wu xia starring Ti Lung in his quest to become the King Of Swordplay, whatever the cost. Pretty nice looking, decent action, but the characters aren't terribly engaging.
*** THE DELINQUENT: The difference between 70's HK cinema and Y2K HK cinema is so striking. 70's films were seemingly either outright fantasy or very much working class urban films, full of poverty and squalor. Can you imagine Sammi Cheng or Louis Koo having had any sort of a career in the 70's?
*** HEROES TWO: The start of the Shaolin cycle? Found the characters rather hard to like - it was the first time I'd seen a Fu Sheng film, and I found him irritating. I've warmed to him since.
*** BUDDHA'S PALM: Perhaps too campy and unfocussed?
*** THE SHADOW BOXER Exceedingly basic story in the mould of "The Big Boss", which tries to bring a little of the philosophy of Tai Chi to the screen, before throwing it out of the window and showing how the art can be turned to revenge. Star Chen Wo Fu has plenty of charisma and could have maybe have done great things had he not died. Shih Szu almost steals the show though.
*** THE TEAHOUSE: Overly melodramatic and grim, but enjoyable piece of pro-vigilanteism (sp?)
*** HEAVEN AND HELL Quite deranged and bizarre martial arts take on the Japanese film Jigoku. I love the very stylised sets and action scenes on earth.
**1/2 THAT FIERY GIRL - Mostly awful Swordplay film from 1968 with Cheng Pei Pei that feels like a school play on the Shaw Brothers sets, and seems to have completely missed the advances in the genre that had been made in the previous few years... up until the last 20-30 minutes, when it suddenly gets a lot more interesting, dramatic and violent. It felt like a different director had taken over - like Chang Cheh had, in fact. Anybody know if there's a story there?
**1/2 THE RESCUE - Much the same cast and crew that made HEROES OF SUNG, which I enjoyed a lot, but for some reason THE RESCUE didn't do much for me. I'm not quite sure why - the story is ok, it has Shih Szu and Lo Lieh and even more outrageously bloody fight scenes (they must have used enough red paint to cover every post box in England)... there's some ambitious but poorly executed wirework, and some of the acting is awful (Shih Szu is great at the silent and deadly type, but is embarrassing when she tries to express emotion here). I guess for 1971 it wasn't a bad effort - maybe I just wasn't in quite the right mood for it tonight.
**1/2 THE EMPEROR AND HIS BROTHER - One of the weaker Chor Yuen wu xia films, dragged down by too many characters and a convoluted plot. Also by far the worst looking DVD Celestial have released.
**1/2 SHAOLIN HANDLOCK - Rather stupid story, though it could have worked well with better direction - actually it felt like it would have made a good Bruce Lee film. David Chiang is passable as the lead, and the Tang Chia directed fight scenes are good.
**1/2 KISS OF DEATH: Another gritty piece of urban cinema, hampered by simplistic plot and weak action scenes.
**1/2 INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN: Reckoned to be one of the best Venoms films? Well, guess I'm not much of a Venoms fan. Rather generic Shaolin film, with rivalries between North and South Shaolin engineered by the court. Lots of training scenes and some good acrobatics in the fights, but... not all that interesting, and the leads lack the charisma of Gordon Liu, Ti Lung or Yueh Hua for instance. Kuo Chui and Chiang Shiang are the only venoms I can actually identify by sight in fact.
** ANGEL WITH THE IRON FISTS: It's basically a James Bond knock-off with Lily Ho as agent "009" infiltrating a gang of master criminals. Lo Wei directs without any style or substance as usual, but the film is probably fun to watch with an audience that appreciates 60's camp. The totally fucked up new sound effects on the Celestial DVD distracted me so badly I couldn't get into it though, and ended up fast-forwarding a pretty large chunk. I'm not ordering any more Celestial DVDs until they sort this out.
** DUEL OF FISTS: Pretty basic.
** TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN: In most respects a quite terrible film, somewhat redeemed by some excellent fight scenes and one great moment of drama just before the end. Suffers mostly from some terrible acting, and... well, a really ugly cast! Maybe it was the makeup. There's no denying that by 1980, Chang Cheh's films were a lot cheaper looking and more primitive than they were a decade earlier.
** THE GOLDEN BUDDHA: Fun enough, but the lead is no James Bond. The fight scenes are quite awful.
** THE RAT CATCHER: Total opposite of the gritty urban films of the 70's, being rather naive and twee. Starts off embarrasingly sweet, and really only picks up because of Tanny's charisma and enthusiasm.
** DANGER HAS TWO FACES: The first half of the film is SERIOUSLY hurt by some terrible acting and comedy, and lack of focus - then it shifts gear, to an admittedly pretty basic story but at least tackled seriously. Some moments of nasty gore.
** THE LOVE ETERNE: Enough to convince me that I don't need to see another Huangmei Opera. The two leads squeal and screech at each other in a tuneless fashion, leading one to wonder, hope and then pray that they'll annoy each other so much they spend the rest of the film in a bloody fight to the death (which, unfortunately, they don't).
** TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR: Cantonese comedy can sometimes be hard to appreciate without knowing the language and the culture intimately, and this film didn't help to break down those barriers.
** BIG BROTHER CHENG: There is no plot to speak of, just a sequence of highly conservative and reactionary mini-plots. The ethics espoused here seemed far more callous and naive than in the original TEAHOUSE (or maybe I was just feeling less tolerant of intolerance when I watched it)
** THE HEROIC ONES: The first Celestial Shaws film I saw, and a great disappointment - I found it rather dull, the story badly told and the action crude.
** LION VS. LION: Some good fights (and Lion dancing) don't make up for the banal story and the painful "Funny faces" comedy. Wang Yu is very annoying. Lo Meng and Wang Lung Wei are both very good, but look like they're wondering how they ended up in this film. Shaws should never have tried to join the martial arts comedy bandwagon!
** LUST FOR LOVE OF A CHINESE COURTESAN - I don't know why Chor Yuen felt the need to do a trashier remake of his classic INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF A CHINESE COURTESAN with a weaker cast, less coherent plot and sloppier production values, but apparently he did. Perhaps he wanted to counter the delicious cynicism of the original with... vacuousness (vacuity?). Typically nice Chor Yuen sets and cinematography, but illustrates as well as anything else how much Shaws films had declined by 1984.
*1/2 JOURNEY OF THE DOOMED - Shaws were really on the way out when this made, and it shows. Totally lacks the gorgeous production values of their better years, and pretty much anything else.
* THE HOUSE OF 72 TENANTS: Popular and influential it may have been, but I found the schmalz and overacting unbearable, and the comedy way too crude. Yueh Hua is great as always though.
* PASSING FLICKERS - I was hoping for a real insight into the movie-making world of Shaws studios, but instead it's a series of rather insipid little tales of jealousy and lust. Lots of nudity, but nothing that approached enjoyment.
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MrBooth - HKMDB Immortal
- Posts: 2076
- Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2001 7:40 am
- Location: Thailand
by Marshall Crist » Sat Nov 20, 2004 1:07 am
Mr. Booth, I rise to your challenge. Ratings are from four stars.
THE CAVE OF SILKEN WEB **** As mentioned above, for me the perfect blend of action, humor and general strangeness.
THE KINGDOM AND THE BEAUTY ***1/2 Just about as fine a film as I've ever seen, and certainly the best Chinese opera film. Charming and funny first half, gut-wrenchingly dramatic and poignant second half.
HONG KONG NOCTURNE ***1/2 Musical melodrama successfully throws in everything but the kitchen sink. First (for Shaw) and best of many such films from Inoue Umetsugu.
THE LAND OF MANY PERFUMES ***1/2 Sadly, the last of the "Journey to the West" movies. Sort of like a fairy tale by way of Benny Hill.
THE LOTUS LAMP *** Only opera film I've seen so far with a supernatural bent. Very enjoyable. Linda Lin Dai plays mother and son.
PRINCESS IRON FAN *** Enjoyable sequel to MONKEY GOES WEST. Cheng Pei Pei and Lily Ho reteam from HONG KONG NOCTURNE. Piggy has some good songs with them.
THE 5 BILLION DOLLAR LEGACY *** Minor gear-shift for Inoue Umetsugu. Classic old dark house reading-of-the-will stuff, but sleazed up for the '70's.
GUESS WHO KILLED MY TWELVE LOVERS *** Scores major points for having so many assinine musical numbers. Supposedly an intentional comedy, but falls more in the hard to take seriously category. I'm not a fan of Jenny Hu, but that didn't ruin it for me.
APARTMENT FOR LADIES *** More Inoue. Girl moves into women-only apratment to search for missing sister. Decent enough.
THE LADY PROFESSIONAL *** A pleasant surprise. Lily Ho kicks everyone's butt in this attention-holding action film.
WE LOVE MILLIONAIRES *** Gold digger hijinks in Japan. Reminiscent of the Frankie and Annette movies.
THE MERRY WIFE *** Plot holes aplenty in this unfunny but rather watchable comedy.
INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF CHINESE COURTESAN *** Perhaps over-rated but still recommended. Lots of action and no fat.
LES BELLES **1/2 Nice dance numbers but ultimately somewhat tedious. First of several Linda Lin Dai movies in the Doris Day style.
THE GRAND SUBSTITUTION **1/2 Another well-made and engrossing opera film with Ivy Ling Po in drag.
THE MONKEY GOES WEST **1/2 So sue me, I liked the first Monkey movie least. It's still watchable, and has the most naked asses.
THE YELLOW MUFFLER **1/2 The trailer made this familiarly-themed Inoue Umetsugu movie look great; the film itself disappointed. Just not as intersting as others of its ilk.
BLACK MAGIC **1/2 Perhaps not up to the hype, but interesting contemporary witchcraft film. Could have been more outlandish.
THE VENUS' TEAR DIAMOND ** Ponderous heist/romance film with only Lily Ho to keep it from drifting into the unwatchable.
THE THREE SMILES *1/2 Death rattle of the Huangmei opera film; really boring.
THE CAVE OF SILKEN WEB **** As mentioned above, for me the perfect blend of action, humor and general strangeness.
THE KINGDOM AND THE BEAUTY ***1/2 Just about as fine a film as I've ever seen, and certainly the best Chinese opera film. Charming and funny first half, gut-wrenchingly dramatic and poignant second half.
HONG KONG NOCTURNE ***1/2 Musical melodrama successfully throws in everything but the kitchen sink. First (for Shaw) and best of many such films from Inoue Umetsugu.
THE LAND OF MANY PERFUMES ***1/2 Sadly, the last of the "Journey to the West" movies. Sort of like a fairy tale by way of Benny Hill.
THE LOTUS LAMP *** Only opera film I've seen so far with a supernatural bent. Very enjoyable. Linda Lin Dai plays mother and son.
PRINCESS IRON FAN *** Enjoyable sequel to MONKEY GOES WEST. Cheng Pei Pei and Lily Ho reteam from HONG KONG NOCTURNE. Piggy has some good songs with them.
THE 5 BILLION DOLLAR LEGACY *** Minor gear-shift for Inoue Umetsugu. Classic old dark house reading-of-the-will stuff, but sleazed up for the '70's.
GUESS WHO KILLED MY TWELVE LOVERS *** Scores major points for having so many assinine musical numbers. Supposedly an intentional comedy, but falls more in the hard to take seriously category. I'm not a fan of Jenny Hu, but that didn't ruin it for me.
APARTMENT FOR LADIES *** More Inoue. Girl moves into women-only apratment to search for missing sister. Decent enough.
THE LADY PROFESSIONAL *** A pleasant surprise. Lily Ho kicks everyone's butt in this attention-holding action film.
WE LOVE MILLIONAIRES *** Gold digger hijinks in Japan. Reminiscent of the Frankie and Annette movies.
THE MERRY WIFE *** Plot holes aplenty in this unfunny but rather watchable comedy.
INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF CHINESE COURTESAN *** Perhaps over-rated but still recommended. Lots of action and no fat.
LES BELLES **1/2 Nice dance numbers but ultimately somewhat tedious. First of several Linda Lin Dai movies in the Doris Day style.
THE GRAND SUBSTITUTION **1/2 Another well-made and engrossing opera film with Ivy Ling Po in drag.
THE MONKEY GOES WEST **1/2 So sue me, I liked the first Monkey movie least. It's still watchable, and has the most naked asses.
THE YELLOW MUFFLER **1/2 The trailer made this familiarly-themed Inoue Umetsugu movie look great; the film itself disappointed. Just not as intersting as others of its ilk.
BLACK MAGIC **1/2 Perhaps not up to the hype, but interesting contemporary witchcraft film. Could have been more outlandish.
THE VENUS' TEAR DIAMOND ** Ponderous heist/romance film with only Lily Ho to keep it from drifting into the unwatchable.
THE THREE SMILES *1/2 Death rattle of the Huangmei opera film; really boring.
- Marshall Crist
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2004 6:14 am
- Location: Los Angeles
by MrBooth » Sat Nov 20, 2004 11:42 pm
Cheers - nice to see somebody's covering the musicals. I've been avoiding the Huangmei operas since THE LOVE ETERNE left me wanting to put the leads in a sack and throw them in the river
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MrBooth - HKMDB Immortal
- Posts: 2076
- Joined: Wed Feb 07, 2001 7:40 am
- Location: Thailand
by Marshall Crist » Sun Nov 21, 2004 4:59 am
I can dig it. I think I'm allergic to Ivy Ling Po. LOVE ETERNE is supposed to be top notch, but I'll believe it when I see it.
- Marshall Crist
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2004 6:14 am
- Location: Los Angeles
by Marshall Crist » Thu Nov 25, 2004 6:52 pm
Actually I thought Ivy Ling Po was pretty good in THE GRAND SUBSTITUTION, and I am cautiously optimistic about THE LOVE ETERNE.
MERMAID sounds interesting. Any hint of a 2005 release schedule yet? If not, why not!? Some titles I'm hoping for are:
DIAU CHARN
THE VENGEANCE OF THE VAMPIRE
OPERATION LIPSTICK
THREE SWINGING GIRLS
THE BRAIN STEALERS
MINI-SKIRT GANG
LADY EXTERMINATOR
MERMAID sounds interesting. Any hint of a 2005 release schedule yet? If not, why not!? Some titles I'm hoping for are:
DIAU CHARN
THE VENGEANCE OF THE VAMPIRE
OPERATION LIPSTICK
THREE SWINGING GIRLS
THE BRAIN STEALERS
MINI-SKIRT GANG
LADY EXTERMINATOR
- Marshall Crist
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2004 6:14 am
- Location: Los Angeles
by Marshall Crist » Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:20 am
I just ordered SINGING THIEF (plus a bunch of other Shaw's--hooray!) and can't wait to see it. Hopefully it's really gay! I'm also looking forward to SINGING KILLER, as well as SINGING ESCORT, although I know zero about it.
- Marshall Crist
- Posts: 9
- Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2004 6:14 am
- Location: Los Angeles
by hoppingghost » Sun Jan 23, 2005 6:55 pm
I like the cheesey yet entertaining Shaw Horror 
like Black Magic, Revenge of the Zombies (Black Magic 2), Shadow Boxing (Spiritual Boxer 2), and those type. I have not seen the HEX films yet but may pick em up on dvd or vcd.
I of course also like the amazing classic Kung Fu flicks and Shaw sets from the older films.
like Black Magic, Revenge of the Zombies (Black Magic 2), Shadow Boxing (Spiritual Boxer 2), and those type. I have not seen the HEX films yet but may pick em up on dvd or vcd.
I of course also like the amazing classic Kung Fu flicks and Shaw sets from the older films.
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hoppingghost - Posts: 58
- Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2001 5:41 pm
- Location: BX-NYC , USA
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