recent purchases

[jethro]

Well, as you can see, they are focusing less and less on the older movies. They must not be selling well. Unless they start releasing those Shaws, Shaolin Wooden Men and Snake and Crane Arts, Hapkido, Dreadnaught... I doubt you will see much more classic kung fu titles.

[Jimbo]

It's too bad if they're not selling well. If they aren't, I have a nagging feeling it could be in large part because since the mid-'90s, way too many of the cr@ppy kung fu movies have been given release. For many lay persons who may have otherwise been interested, that could have ruined it for them. Perfect examples are when an overseas star becomes famous in the U.S. (Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Tony Jaa, etc.), many companies exploit that by suddenly releasing loads of these stars' early movies, some of which are absolute cr@p, or even barely involves said star. Unfortunately, it's often the cr@p that people remember more than the real classics, as it's easy to remember when you get burned.

Well, I finally got both discs off the case, and they're great. Both Rodan and War of the Gargantuas have original uncut Japanese and English versions. Watching the original versions gives the films a different flavor from the English versions seen on TV back in the day. I like the cover art design a lot, but instead of putting the discs back in, I put them into spare CD cases. It took almost 40 minutes to coax both discs off the holders.

The special feature on the Rodan disc includes a 60+ minute documentary on the set designers, special effects people, directors, and the 3 generations of men in the Godzilla suits. It's a great insight into what went on in the Toho studios in the '50s to today. I always suspected but didn't really appreciate all that went into filming these things. It's really interesting, and in its own way, is almost reminiscent of many aspects of Shaw studios. I wouldn't be surprised if many details of the Shaw indoor sets were heavily inspired by many methods used in creating Toho studios' miniature sets.

[jethro]

lol glad to hear that you got you monster movies discs out. And I recently got the Pride 2003 Grand Prix box set. I'm a happy man

[Zenshiite]

I'd like to see DD get Kung Fu Cult Master/Evil Cult and release that. There's so many copies of it on the market right now, but they're all crap. Bad transfers, bad subtitles. Parts of it edited out, or bad dubbing. It's pretty corny, but I really like it.

[Jimbo]

I'll bet Kung Fu Cult Master will get another release, seeing that it stars Jet Li. I've not seen it, though. Even if DD doesn't do it, there's other good-quality companies out there like Tokyo Shock/Mediablasters, etc. I'd like to see Jet Li's Shaolin Temple get a good release. Not his best, but it was his first, and his 4-seasons training sequence was beautifully shot. Also, Martial Arts of Shaolin, his 3rd film, was directed by Lau Kar-Leung and I don't think it was ever released in the States.

Yesterday picked up:

House of Traps.

Hideo Gosha's The Wolves (a classic Yakuza film set in 1929).

[Egg fu young]

Let us know how you liked house of traps. I was thinking of getting that.

[jethro]

I'm not a big fan of House of Traps because I don't really like the story and there's not much fighting, but the fighting that's there is pretty awesome. I would give it a very small recommendation.

I was going to get Deadly Duo today, but Bushido volume 4 was calling my name. I couldn't pass it up.

[Jimbo]

Egg fu young:
I like House of Traps (HOT), but not as much as most of the other Venoms films. There are mixed views of it in general. As Jethro said, there's not much fighting (as these films go), but the fighting it does have is really good. In fact, if House of Traps' fight scenes were in any wuxia movie put out in recent years, they would be outstanding. There's a lot of talking in it, but then, IMO most of the Venoms films have a lot of talking. Even Invincible Shaolin. Flag of Iron probably has more talking, but I like it more than HOT. I'd say HOT's biggest crime is the total waste of Sun Chien, who plays a high official of some type, but doesn't fight at all. However, I would recommend it if you're a fan of the Venoms films.

Jethro:
I think my favorite Pride is Bushido Vol. 9: The Tournament.

[jethro]

Yeah Sun Chien not fighting made me really mad, but what made me equally mad was all the other actors that were wasted. Chiang Sheng, Ricky Tien, Chu Ko... there's like 6 great fighters there that get a total of 1 or 2 minutes total fight time. And Flag of Iron is my least favorite Venoms movie. I just found it very boring and dry. And you have awesom performers like Kwan Fung as the blind guy who get like a teeny 1 minute fight.

I haven't seen that volume 9 I don't think. I didn't know it went up that high. I saw the tournament one at Best Buy. Are there maybe 2 tournaments for Bushido? I've been buying those $9.99 and $6.99 Bushido volumes lately. But I am going to have to save up for that tournament. And I forget which volume had a match with Dean Lister but he won his first fight, and it was a 4 man tournament, but the next fight didn't take place because the other guy was injured. That was a bit disappointing.

[kungpowmaster]

I was at FYE today, usually they have a sale when you get used items, but they didn't today for some reason, but anyway, I bought a few things that seemed like it might be good. I haven't seen any of these so any comments are welcome:

Yojimbo(Criterion Collection) for $14.39
The Princess Blade(2 disc Special Edition) for $14.39
Ultimate Dragon Collection(Grindhouse Experience) for $10.79
Dragon 4 Pack(Bruce Lee clones, like above) for $8.09


These any good?

Chosen One

[Jimbo]

Kungpowmaster:
Yojimbo is an excellent movie, and I'm surprised that you found it for $14.39, as most Japanese movies, at least classic ones like that, tend to be quite expensive. If I remember right, Yojimbo is the Kurosawa movie that Sergio Leone remade as A Fistful of Dollars. Though except for the soundtrack, I think Yojimbo is a better film.

Is The Princess Blade the Japanese film with the sword-girl that came out a few years ago that was choreographed by Donnie Yen? I think it's the one that takes place after the fall of civilization...? If so, it's pretty good, but IMO not as great as a lot of reviewers made it out to be; kinda depressing, I thought, but good.

Jethro:
I hear you about the multiple wasted talents in HOT. But Chang Cheh often wasted his actors in tiny roles. Sometimes someone would have a major role, then in the next film is almost an extra. I thought even in the films Sun Chien got to fight in, he was never given the chance to shine as much as he could have. I keep thinking what if Sun had been able to appear in a major role in, say, one of Sammo Hung's early kung fu films. That would've been amazing. I do know that besides 5 Element Ninja, Chang Cheh also directed another film for Shaw Brothers starring Ricky Cheng Tien-Chi around that same time; I saw it but do not remember the title. I don't think it was a true Venoms film, because as I remember it, the other major Venoms were not in it. And Kuan Feng really got a chance to shine in 5 Superfighters as the villain.

So as great a director that Chang Cheh could be and was, in a lot of cases, he also heavily limited the chance to spread their wings for a lot of the actors under contract to him. Many of whom only got to shine (or shined better) after leaving him (Feng Ko-An, Leung Ka-Yan, Wang Lung-Wei, and D!ck Wei are examples).

I haven't bought any Prides for a few months now, but I got the Bushido Vol. 9 sometime ago. I also have Bushido 8. I'd have to check which others to know the order, but I don't have all of them. I was considering the possibility of picking up Asian Invasion; it's an all-female MMA DVD. Sometimes top female fighters perform better than a lot of the male fighters.

Today I picked up:
The Deadly Duo.
The Legend of Hell House.

[doug maverick]

today i fianlly picked up fatal move with jackie/jason wu jing and sammo hung and simon yam, gonna wath it tonight or tomorrow. review coming soon.

[jethro]

I saw that tournament you are talking about Jimbo. That must be the last volume, because I don't think I've seen a vol 10. I was about $5 short to get it today. Maybe next time. And I always thught that Wang Lung Wei and Leung Kar Yan got great roles in Cheng Cheh movies. Well maybe not great roles, but they were big roles. And Dikc Wei got wasted, yeah, but when he moved on to work with Sun Chung and other Shaw directors, he still didn't get to do much.


Kungpowmaster, Princess Blade is pretty good. Good dark action movie I thought. I haven't seen it in years. I have a feeling that the 4 movies in that Dragon 4 pack are in the Grindhouse 10-pack, but hopefully not. The only good movies I remember in that 10-pack are Kung Fu Superman aka Little Superman (AWESOME movie) and Dragon Lives Again. Dragon Lives again is a horrible movie, but I have a feeling that you will love it. I thought it was hilarious.


Oh yeah, I got She Shoots Straight today at CD Tradepost. They haven't had anything new in in months, so I snatched it up as fast as I could. I've always wanted to see it, and somehow I've managed to control myself over the years and not watch all the fights on youtube.

[kungpowmaster]

Well, I was a bit reluctant when I bought that Dragon 4 Pack, and that Ultimate Dragon Collection, as they are on the dreaded Videoasia label, and we all know we take a chance when buying them. And yes, their crappyness showed again, as I was watching the Dragon 4 Pack, which I got because I like Dragon Lee, and wanted to see Clones of Bruce Lee, and about 40 mins in, it started sticking, really bad, and pixilating, till it finally just froze, and I kept pushing the menu button and it didn't even go there, I had to manually push the open button, I put it back in, and tried the second the movie, Big Boss II on the same side, and it just made the menu freeze when I hit play for that, and again, I had to take it out manually by pushing the open button on the machine. Ugh... I have my reciept, and 30 days to return it. I get alot of bargain DVDs, but I can't understand why Videoasia's are often so badly manufactured? Well, I noticed they have a lot of new stuff out now, like that Ultimate Dragon set, Diagram Pole set, and Sammo Hung set(which looks good to me). Maybe they got a new manufacturer now? I hope. So far last night I did also watch a flick of the Grindhouse Dragon Collection, Kung Fu Superman, which was very good. Who is that scrawny guy with the bad teeth? Now it played fine, but the pictured kinda dragged at times, but it didn't seem like a DVD defect, but more of what was put on the DVD(if that makes sense). And yes, the films on the Grindhouse Dragon set are different than on the Dragon 4 Pack. If anyone is interested this Grindhouse set can be had for about a dollar on Amazon sellers. Of course I didn't know, as I bought it just on a browsing whim.
This Yojimbo will be the 1st Akira Kurosawa movie for me. This can be bought for $9.99 on Amazon sellers. I have not seen this. I am sure it's great. I have recently been getting a lot of the Zatoichi's, I have about 10 of them now I think. I've also been getting a lot of the Japanese Yakuza, and Pinky Violence movies too. Recent byings have been Lady Snowblood, Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs, Female Demon, Kanto Wanderer, and that Zatoichi box 1-4(which didn't have any of the poster or card inserts as the single bought dvds I have already), Kunoichi set(Deadlt Mirage is terrible, haven't seen Lady Ninja yet).
Just a comment on the poster who got the Rodan/War of the Gargantuas, I don't have that set, though I do have these movies in their US versions, but I have bought a few of these Classic Media Toho DVDs, and I agree, their cases are terrible, I almost broke my Terror of Mechagodzilla trying to get it out. I have the Gojira set(horrible subtitles, I could barely read), and Terror, and Ghidorah(Ghidrah). But yes, those cases are horrible.

All I have, comments welcome,
Chosen One

[jethro]

Yeah there is a slight delay on Kung Fu Superman, but it didn't affect the movie for me. After like 20 minutes into the movie I stopped noticing it. Is this the scrawny guy you are thinking of?- http://hkmdb.com/db/people/view.mhtm...isplay_set=eng

If you like that actor you should check out Iron Dragon Strikes BAck and Call Me Dragon. Both good movies, though I like Iron Dragon Strikes Back a lot more. You can get Call Me Dragon in that Martial arts Essentials volume 3. I've reviewed all 3 volumes on Amazon if you want to know more about them. I think you would like the volume 1. Some crazy movies on there I think are right up your alley. Taoism Drunkard, Dance of the Drunk MAntis, Born Invincible, even Kung Fu Massacre I think you might like. Kung Fu Massacre has hard hitting action (basher style) sort of similiar to the action in Kung Fu Superman.