recent purchases

[jethro]

I just got a 3-pack of Korean movies at Best Buy for $12.99. No Blood No Tears, Public Enemy, and Guns and Talks. No Blood No Tears was good. There was this silent guy who is a really amazing screen fighter. If the other 2 movies in this 3-pack are this good it is going to be a really good deal for $12.99.

And I watched Kiss of Death. I thought it was a slightly above average movie. Lo LIeh was great as a brothel owner who has a limp. I always like to see handicapped people kick ass. The last 8 minutes of this movie is extremely violent. Not a great movie, but I enjoyed it

[Jimbo]

I finally got to watch Brothers 5. It's actually pretty good for a pre-Bruce Lee/Big Boss film by Lo Wei. Although the fights aren't necessarily 'great', they are pretty difficult and sophisticated for the time. There is no date on the Well Go USA box, but based on the look, I'm assuming it was made in 1970; no later than early '71. And there is a *lot* of fighting for such an early film.

Story-wise, it's really typical. I get bored with the over-emphasis on the over-done formality among wuxia/kung fu heroes.

I was a little bit surprised to see Sammo Hung in a bit part about 48 minutes in, as well as James Tien at the beginning. I knew Sammo and Jackie, etc., worked as stuntmen at Shaws but it's nice to see him here; Sammo should've been one of the brothers; his skill was evident even here.

Paul Tien Feng made a good villain. I suspect he really had some type of m.a. training. He was probably doubled a lot, because most of his fighting was done with his character's back to the camera, but sometimes you can still see that he could move pretty well. In Fist of Fury (Chinese Connection), he was the only Jing Wu member besides Bruce Lee who could fight with any coordination. Brothers 5 has some nice moves using the Kwan-Dao.

The film is not bad at all, and has a bunch of old-school performers in it which, in itself, makes it worthwhile. But I do hope that these companies (Image, DD, MB, and Wellgo) will release more of the really good k.f. movies that will probably end up selling much better as well. Example: Image has released some stuff that truthfully, would have been better if they'd released something "better" (IMO).

[Jimbo]

Oh, and also a couple small things, but Wellgo made a mistake on the subtitle feature. I clicked for English subtitles and they came up Chinese. I had to restart the dam n thing 3 times before I thought (duh) to press 'Chinese' to get the English. Though my Mandarin's rusty now, I could probably go without them and get by okay, but I still like the subtitles there anyway. And the English subtitles were not very good in Bros 5; like they were done by someone with so-so English. These subtitles were not up to the level of other Celestial remastered releases, IMO.

[jethro]

Hey Jimbo I'm glad you saw it. I thought the final fight was ok, but kind of a let down compared to some of the other fights. Chang Yi really impressed me in this movie. And it doesn't sound like you noticed the sound effects, which is a good thing because it came close to ruining the movie for me. I think their next release is Heroic Ones, and from what I've heard it's only a decent movie. I just hope they fix the sound effects.

[Jimbo]

Jethro:
Actually, I did notice the sound effects, and I do think they have an echoey, annoying, hollow sound. I noticed that a lot of early k.f. movie sound effects sounded like that and started to change to the better-sounding effects around '75 or '76. For example, Bruce Lee's Chinese films had those same effects, esp. The Big Boss.

I always liked Chang Yi. He comes across even this early as being trained, or at least better-trained than the others. He also looked good in Bells of Death. I think he started out in Peking Opera, like many others. Chang Yi's kicks and empty-hand moves got better a few years later, after he, Jackie Chan, Angela Mao, and Sammo Hung went to Korea and studied Hapkido for a while under Ji Han-Jae and Hwang In-Shik.

Speaking of sound effects and how they affect fight scenes, I watched my copy of House of Flying Daggers and though the fights seems better and more believable than any of the other wuxia made since Y2K, the sound of the strikes and kicks is very muted. Although the sounds are probably more realistic, they give the blows a "powder-puff" impression, even when they send someone flying 30 feet. I didn't notice it so much in the theater, but now on DVD, the difference between that and the older sound effects is striking (no pun intended). I really love the sound effects from around '76 on, esp. in the Shaws. Not realistic at all, but they sure do enhance the viewing experience, IMO.

I don't think I've seen Heroic Onces, but if it is just okay, I wish they would concentrate on first releasing better ones. Media Blasters seems to be concentrating on releasing some of the better ones so far. It just makes good business sense.

[jethro]

I could be wrong but those sound effects are a celestial remix. They added their own sound effects, and synth music unfortunately. I'd rather have those Godfrey Ho beeping sound effects. But, either the sound effects improved as the movie went on, or maybe I just enjoyed the action so much that I forgot about it. And glad to see you also have an appreciation for Chang Yi, even in his early years. Yueh Hua seemed like a pretty good athlete, but Chang Yi you can tell was way more skilled.

[Jimbo]

And let's not forget Cheng Pei-Pei. I may have to watch the scene again, but the training sequence with Pei-Pei fighting all 5 of the brothers was pretty good, too. I forgot to mention that Bros 5 has what might be the first truly decent to good training sequence in a Chinese film. Even good ones in that time period just did not seem to have satisfactory training scenes like this one. Again, I'm not sure if she was heavily doubled, but she seemed to have done at least a good portion of that scene where she's wielding an oar or something to prepare the brothers to face Tien Feng's Kwan Dao.

Cheng Pei-Pei was a dancer, not a martial artist, though as I mentioned in an earlier post, she later moved to L.A. for a time, taught dance, and studied Tang Soo Do for a while under Chuck Norris when he had his studio there. Probably after seeing his work in Return (Way) of the Dragon. In around '74, she tried once again to break back into HK moves during the "kung fu era" but apparently wasn't very successful then. I don't think she returned again maybe until Lady Piranha (1982) which also featured Hsia Kuang-Li (Leg Fighters) and Peng Kang in roles.

[Jimbo]

Kiss of Death.

It's supposedly an inspiration for Tarantino's Kill Bill, but obviously it isn't the main one. The main inspiration is clearly Lady Snowblood, hands down; QT even includes Meiko Kaji's LS theme song and recreated some scenes from LS.

KOD was just watchable. Very much a stereotypical '70s exploitation film; unfortunately, Chen Ping's character never achieves the fierceness or intensity of Lady Snowblood. I mainly bought it because it's a Shaw release; I hate seeing women raped in movies. Fortunately, it's not too graphic or as prolonged as in many of these types of movies. Lo Lieh looked pretty good here. The most interesting thing for me was seeing Yuen Siu-Tin appearing as an old lecher.

KOD is much closer an inspiration for Body Weapon, though I think overall it's a somewhat better movie than BW.

[jethro]

Hey glad you liked it. I think I am reading that you liked it as much as Lady Snowblood, so that is saying quite a bit as I thought that Lady Snowblood was good. And you're **** right Lo Lieh looked good. I don't think he got hit a single time, lol

And Body Weapon is a rip off of Naked Killer. And I'm pretty sure Naked Killer was inspired by Intimate Confesstions of a Chinese Courtesan.

[Jimbo]

I liked it, but not as much as Lady Snowblood. And the first installment of LS is better than the sequel. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate LS (part 1) about 7.5 to 8. I'd give Kiss of Death about a 5 or so...decent but not great. IMO, the Japanese were much more adept at making the "bloody revenge female exploitation movies" than the HK filmmakers. Meiko Kaji comes across as cold and menacing compared to Chen Ping's character. Then again, their characters' experiences are different, too.

Still waiting for Best Buy to put Challenge of the Masters on their shelves. Sometimes this location is really slow to get the new Shaws. Sometimes I wonder if the people at BB think, "Here's that guy again." I'm there once, sometimes twice a week (paranoia).

[jethro]

Yeah I also like Lady Snowblood a lot. And I've been in Best Buy probably up to 4 times in a week. Starting tomorrow I'm going to start checking everywhere and seeing when they are getting Dragon Dynasty's Fist of Legend in. I like going to Suncoast because I can get it 4 or 5 days before the release date. I'm so excited for this release. I saw the info on the special features somewhere and it has an interview with Kurata and Chin Siu Ho.



EDIT- I just noticed that you said "just watchable" about Kiss of Death. But for some reason I read "just as watchable". Silly me

[Jimbo]

Ooohhh, I gotta get the DD Fist of Legend!
I have the Dimension(?) version, which pretty much sucks. They completely changed all the soundtrack/sound effects, which ruins it, though the picture quality is good. But when DD's comes out, I'm there. And I really want to see those interviews; I love seeing interviews with old-school stars that rarely if ever give interviews. Kurata and Chin Siu-Ho would be interesting.

Other stars I'd like to see appear in future DVD special features interviews:
Billy Chong
Yen Shi-Kuan
Hwang Jang-Lee
Hwang In-Shik
Kwon Young-Moon
Casanova Wong (I read somewhere that Casanova gained about 50 pounds and switched to working behind the cameras).
Wang Tao
Chang Yi
Lu Feng
John Liu (highly unlikely; I heard he was in Turkey and part of some type of cult).
Billy Chow

BTW, not long ago on youtube I saw a Chiang Tao (Kong Do) interview; he mostly talks about Chang Cheh, and comes off as very down-to-earth.

[jethro]

Yeah that would be nice to get interviews with those guys. That's why I was so excited when I saw that Billy Chow interview. What a great interview that was. And have you seen Along Comes a Tiger? The Rarescope DVD has a commentary with Wong Tao and Toby Russel. And if you want to see an interview with Cassanova Wong there is a Warriors Two Hong Kong Legends doc on youtube.

[Egg fu young]

I just ordered from HKflix......Fist of the White Lotus, Shaolin VS Lama and Dirty Ho.

[jethro]

You got some real classics there Egg Fu. Enjoy!