recent purchases

[Jimbo]

I only ever got into Batman mildly. My favorite superheroes were the Hulk and Spiderman in the early '70s; also the early-to-mid-'70s Tomb of Dracua, Werewolf by Night, and The Man-Thing, all by Marvel. All those comics touched on some very dark and sensitive subjects at that time, and the last three would even be considered adult and very dark today. All those comics touched on things that simply have not been touched upon, or at least as skillfully, since. Another great one was the mid-'70s Howard the Duck; forget the "movie", the comic was outstanding for a short while.

Well, a little used-items shop opened next door to one of my workplaces, and I found two used DVDs for cheap there; Top Fighter 2: Deadly China Dolls; and a Japanese horror thriller, Dead Waves. I got TF2 for under $4.

If you're familiar with the first Top Fighter, as well as Cinema of Vengeance, this sequel is another Toby Russell documentary on the (mostly) Asian martial arts film industry. Obviously, this one features the female stars. What really sets Toby Russell's productions apart is his ability and willingness to track down very rare interviews with even stars that are lesser-known in the West. The interviews include: Angela Mao, Judy Lee (aka, Chia Ling), Moon Lee, Yukari Oshima, Michiko Nishiwaki, Kara Hui Ying-Hung, Yang Pan-Pan, Sophie Crawford, Kathy Long, Cynthia Rothrock, Michelle Yeoh, Elaine Lui, etc. Also shown in clips are Cheng Pei-Pei, Hsu Feng, etc. Unfortunately, he did neglect to show Hsia Kuang-Li (The Woman Avenger, The Leg Fighters).

To be truthful, I already owned this on VHS from Xenon. But at the price I decided to get it. It's released on DVD by Fortune 5 (Videoasia) but the picture quality is about the same as the VHS version; some parts are like 2nd-gen videotape, and some are quite clear. Aside from about 4 or 5 brief screen "pauses" which was probably a result of the transfer process, it was fine. This is one of those Fortune 5 releases no longer in general circulation in the stores.

The other DVD was Dead Waves. This is another very dark take on the typical Japanese ghost thriller. It starts off fairly interesting, then drags off into a slow pace. About a TV producer of a show called Spirit Sightings, whose broadcasts of the show cause evil spirits to travel through TV signals and infect viewers. I know, it's one more of a thousand Japanese ghost movies. But if they have anything, the Japanese understand atmosphere. This movie overall has a creepy atmosphere to it, which makes it more effective a horror film than most of the overblown American horror films or remakes of Japanese horror. Since I paid less than $10 for it, and it retails for lots more, it was a decent buy.

[jethro]

I never read comics, except 1 which was Spiderman. Batman the Animated series is special to me for 2 reasons, I used to watch it every day when I got home from school, and the other reason is that it is without a doubt one of my top 5 favorite TV shows of all time. My other 4 favorites are Taxi, Newsradio, The Office and Ninja Turtles. I am probably forgetting one...

[Zenshiite]

I just got done watching the first 6 episodes of volume 4 of Batman the Animated Series. I don't know why I bought the first 3 volumes and held off on buying this for so long. This show is so fvcking dark!! In episode 6 Batman tries to kill a guy and Robin (the new Robin) has to stop him. This show was not meant for kids, but I loved it when I was a kid! Dare I say it, volume 4 is probably the best out of the 4 volumes. I will have to watch the other 18 episodes before making a final judgement on that. Such an awesome show!

Volume 4 is way darker. The budget of the show dropped, the designs got even more stylized and it was definitely darker. This was the time when they did an adaptation of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and it was F-ing awesome!

I need to buy volumes 2-4, I'm still watching volume 1. What I like about Justice League and Justice League Unlimited is that they give Batman the darker, no yellow, costume design while maintaining the higher quality animation of the first 3 volumes of Batman TAS.

Jethro, the newer TMNT show that started 4 or 5 years ago is vastly superior to our classic TMNT. Darker, grittier, and more like the original comics with the comic value and Saturday morning sensibilities mixed in to make it marketable to kids. I enjoy it way more than the old school stuff. Unfortunately they've gotten into this TMNT Fast Forward crap with the turtles like 2 centuries in the future and it sucks hard.

[doug maverick]

Jethro, the newer TMNT show that started 4 or 5 years ago is vastly superior to our classic TMNT. Darker, grittier, and more like the original comics with the comic value and Saturday morning sensibilities mixed in to make it marketable to kids. I enjoy it way more than the old school stuff. Unfortunately they've gotten into this TMNT Fast Forward crap with the turtles like 2 centuries in the future and it sucks hard.

you mean the one where they run around in the future with some little kid. thats darker are serious

[Zenshiite]

^No way dude, that's all brilliantly colored and more slapsticky than the first 4 seasons of TMNT that came right before it. That stuff was classic.

[jethro]

Kid From Kwangtung- really crappy movie. Good stuff from Hwang and Yen Shi Kwan, but nothing else really to speak about. VERY stupid humor. Just before the freeze frame ending they do the stupidest joke with Yen Shi Kwan's dead body. I wanted to take a pis on the DVD after seeing that.

What Price Honesty- really awesome movie with Sun Chien and Jason Pai Paio. Starts out like it is going to be only a decent movie but just keeps getting better and better as it goes along. One hell of an ending.

Killer Constable- I just got the remastered version of my favorite Shaw movie of all time, and with the picture cleaned up I now realize this is probably the most beautifully shot Shaw movie ever. One of the best movies ever made, period.

[jethro]

I just got 3:10 to Yuma and Son of the Swordsman. Looks like it has the brother and sister from Joseph Kuo's King of Kings. And Kuo directed Son of the Swordsman. I can't wait to see this.

[Jimbo]

I'm hearing that "Mediablasters" is releasing a fully high-quality release of Heroes Two, but I don't know anything about that company(?). Do they release in regular outlets, or is it just another internet company? I hope they release the great old Shaw classics that so far are hard to find, and certainly Image and DD are apparently not going to release.

I know it's been said before, but why did Image/Celestial release a number of mediocre films and hold back on the really good ones? Then there is talk of them not selling well. Gee, I wonder why??

Jethro:
Sorry to hear you didn't like Kid From Kwangtung. Really, what makes the film are Hwang and Ren. I loved the choreography given to them; it's great to see Hwang able to do his thing on the Shaw sets in Shawscope. Ghosts Galore also has Hwang but is a far lesser movie, kind of a copy of Sammo's Encounter of the Spooky King (Spooky Encounters). Oh yeah, the ending of KFK really is one of the weirdest and tasteless in movies; I remember them using Ren's body to slap Wang Yu in the face or something before it freeze-frames. Totally bizarre, and did not fit. But then, I saw it only in theaters, so my image of seeing the film may be colored by that; it's a different feeling between seeing such a movie in a loud, full, boisterous theater and watching it at home. I may feel different about it if I see it again now.

[jethro]

Media Blasters puts out for Tokyo Shock, which means their new releases may end up in Best Buy. At least I hope so.

And I agree it was really nice to see Hwang in a Shaws role, but I didn't like the movie. I only liked his fights and the couple of fights that Ren had. And I didn't like the final fight too much. The whole incense thing didn't work for me. But at least it wasn't as stupid as the way that Hwang ususally dies, like in Where's Officer Tuba, Duel of Ultimate weapons, and many other movies.

EDIT- btw- DD is releasing Come Drink with me and Heroes of the east on April 22nd.

[Jimbo]

Glad to hear that Mediablasters is with Tokyo Shock. I really liked TS's released of 7 Grand Masters and Riki-Oh.

I agree that Hwang's characters often died stupid deaths at the hands of a lot of movie heroes, many of whom clearly could not carry his jockstrap. After Hwang dominates the action of the entire fight, these hero characters would usually pull some totally ridiculous move out of the blue and beat him very suddenly. That after taking longer and far more serious punishment that Hwang had dished out to them.

Another one of his worst movies was 36 Deadly Styles, where he fights Cheung Lik.

[jethro]

Yeah 7 Grandmasters and Riki-oh were great releases.

And I lOVED 36 Deadly Styles, but the end was pretty stupid. You are right he always dominates the whole movie and then gets defeated too easily. The guys he gets beat by in Duel of Ultimate Weapons and Eagle vs Silver Fox were probably the weakest looking guys. And he gets defeated in a pretty funny way in Ninja Terminator. It has to do with his shoes being too heavy

[Jimbo]

I'm not sure if this is one Ninja Terminator, but I've seen one where Dragon Lee and another guy team up against Hwang, and there are bowling-ball-sized iron balls or something that get used during the fight. It's a Korean film, and in truth, the final fight is actually pretty decent. Again, though, Hwang dominates.

Dual of Ultimate Weapons and Eagle vs. Silver Fox are also Korean movies, and those guys WERE super-weak looking, I agree.

I think only a very few guys could really hang with Hwang in a final fight. That doesn't mean others couldn't co-create a great fight; only that IMO, these few could at least hang well with or not necessarily be dominated in the action by him:
Jackie Chan
John Liu
Phillip Ko
Wang Tao (would have been interesting to see him face Hwang in more than just Secret Rivals).
Tino Wong (surprisingly).

Guys who beat Hwang's villains in movies, but seemed physically outclassed:
Sammo Hung
Dragon Lee
Cheung Lik
Ho Chung-Tao (Bruce Li).
Lau Kar-Yung (Nephew of Lau Kar-Leung).
Meng Hai
Meng Yuan-Wen
Yeh-something (star of Instant Kung Fu Man, was in Hell's Windstaff).
Kwon Young-Moon (in Young Hero; also lost to Hwang in other films. He could stand with Hwang easily, but the choreography seemed to dictate he generally be dominated by Hwang).
Wang Yu, Chiang Chin, Yang Pan-Pan (Kid From Kwangtung).
John Chang (Eagle's Killer).
Michelle Yeoh (Magnificent Warriors).
Cynthia Rothrock (No Retreat, No Surrender II: Rolling Thunder).
Cliff Lok
Yuen Wu (Yuen Mo).

That's all for now; sure there's more, but I'm tired.
Guess this thread got temporarity hijacked by HJL!!

[jethro]

Hijacking a thread with HJL talk is always a good thing

Those are a lot of good ones you brought up. The name of that Dragon lee movie is Secret Ninja, roaring Tiger. I liked that fight too. The bowling ball thing was probably taking from Ninja in the Dragon' Den.

Ninja Terminator is one you should see. Hwang only has one fight (a nice long one), but the lead actor Jack Lam puts on a great kicking display the whole movie. And where else will you find a line like this- "I don't usually smoke this brand, but I'll do it for you". Only in a Godfrey Ho dub job. Ninja Terminator is one of my favorite cheesy movies of all time. Richard Harrison uses a Garfield phone. And you have to see the robot that brings a message to Harrison from the bad guy. It is a little toy robot and it shows up with smoke effects. Godfrey Ho really wanted to show off his $5 budget.

And the end of Officer Tuba where David Chiang's ghost helps sammo really made me mad. i think they should have used the technique used in Hellz Windstaff and Dance of the Drunken Mantis where the hero just throwns his body into him. Anything would have been better than having Sammo fly up in the air to deliver a knockout kick.

Also, I hate the way he gets beat in Buddha assassinator where Chien Yuet Sang grabs his legs. That is probably my favorite fight EVER, and it is a shame they couldn't end it better. Ah well, at least we have movies like tiger Over Wall and Demon Strike where he dies in a really cool way.

[Jimbo]

Looks like I'll have to see Ninja Terminator! That's quite an accurate description of Godfrey Ho's greatest aspirations.

Hwang was in a poor movie starring Huang Kin-Lung (Bruce Le) that was partly filmed in Europe/Italy, designed to make Le an international star. The final fight takes part in the Roman Colloseum, like Way of the Dragon. It ends with Le stopping Hwang's heart, and showing a bad animated cartoon of Hwang's heart stopping. The same film also had Harold Sakata (Oddjob in Goldfinger) beating up on Casanova Wong. Neither seemed to have much importance to the story.

In Ninja in the Dragon's Den, I thought Hiroyuki Sanada, if given a good one-on-one against Hwang, could probably stand with him and not be overwhelmed, based on the skills he showed in that film.

Oh, and speaking of Kwon Young-Moon, I remember a Chinese movie filmed in New York, I believe it was titled Yellow Skin. It had to do with a crime family in Chinatown, two hitmen played by Kwon and Wang Lung-Wei, two "heroes" (Wang Kuan-Hsiung, a.k.a., Champ Wang and Phillip Ko), and several dirty white cops and black street gang members. Kwon was menacing as he stalked Champ Wang in the subway, and in the final fight against him and Ko. I believe it was made in '83, but have never seen it on video or DVD. One funny thing was they had all the black criminals in the film say "M-F-er!" almost every other word.

I also thought the finishing move against Hwang in Buddha Assassinator was weak. Little Meng Hai jumping up and landing butt-first in lotus position on him. If it were like Sammo Hung doing it, it might have had some credibility, but considering all the trip-hammer kicks Hwang had dealt out to Meng, it seems unlikely just being landed on by such a little guy would finish Hwang, while Meng was relatively unhurt. Hwang is already fairly small; he towered over Meng in their films together.

[jethro]

Man, Yellow Skin sounds AWESOME. Moon, Ko, and WLW?!?!?!!! And I love Wang Kuan-Hsiung. I always thought he was very underrated. He was great in Horse Boxing Killer, Chase Step by Step, and a few others. I am sure some collector on kungfufandom has this movie. I have to get it.