My video store got Drunken Monkey!
So I watched it. Or most of it, anyway. It was a little scratched toward the start (fu(kin' irresponsible renters) so I had to skip a little way ahead - I don't think I missed much, but I definitely missed a bit.
It's about 85% of a really classic Shaw Bros/Lau Kar Leung flick. There are at least four really memorable, extended fight scenes - like 5 minutes long or longer. There's some really cool training scenes. The opening credits even have the cast doing sets (both solo and team) in among giant gold-leafed sculptures of chinese calligraphy.
The plot is the usual nonsense involving filial betrayal, opium smuggling, patriotism, searching for a master, blah blah blah. I'm not convinced any of it made a lick of sense, but who cares anyway? They didn't spend a lot of time or effort on it, so neither will I.
There was, however, a lot of time and effort spent on the wacky physical comedy stuff, especially in the middle third of the film. When this stuff is done well, I like it a lot, but the zany hijinx in this flick were pretty subpar. I kind of got the feeling that a lot of it was specifically shot to give the two younger leads lots of close-ups and hence attract chick money to the movie. I guess the guys were pretty handsome, but this strategy didn't do much for me. Get on with the kungfu!
Fortunately the kungfu is pretty great and there's plenty of it. There is a pretty considerable amount of wire work in it, and maybe some overcranking, but both are fairly subtly utilized, and the generally speaking, the cinematography of the fight scenes provides enough distance and duration to the shots to really see what the actors and stuntmen are doing, and I didn't see anything that made me think 'CGI.'
I'd probably give this movie a B if it didn't have Lau Kar Leung and Gordon Liu in it, but their presence (and moves and charisma) boosts it up to an A from me.
Go see it.
All my fight strategy is based on deliberately injuring my opponents. -
Crippled Avenger
"It is the same in all wars; the soldiers do the fighting, the journalists do the shouting, and no true patriot ever get near a front-line trench, except on the briefest of propoganda visits...Perhaps when the next great war comes we may see that sight unprecendented in all history, a jingo with a bullet-hole in him."
First you get good, then you get fast, then you get good and fast.
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Originally Posted by Psycho Mantis
