recent purchases

[Jimbo]

Since I read a post on kungfucinema.com that the older Image/Celestial releases are going out of print, I decided to get The Shadow Whip now, in case. I'll try to watch it tonight, I always thought Cheng Pei-Pei was a good leading actress, and of course, she is the original cinematic kung fu queen. Though it is a Lo Wei film, so I'm not sure what I'll make of that.

By the way, I also post over there as Kungfood.

[jethro]

My only problem with Shadow Whip is that it is too short. But it is still a good movie.

[Jimbo]

Well, I watched Shadow Whip the other night. Not bad, it was good to see a Shaw movie filmed in a unique snowy setting (probably Korea). However, I think it would probably have been better if Lo Wei hadn't directed it. He seemed to like speeding up the film whenever one fighter was fighting multiple assailants; he did the same thing to parts of Bruce's dojo fight in The Fist of Fury, a.k.a., Chinese Connection. I liked the Ku Feng character, esp. the parts when he was first introduced. He was menacing, and was cool when he left no footprints in the snow. I did not like Yueh Hua's performance; he looked woefully inept in the fights.

BTW, jethro:
Did you notice that one of the three bullies/baddies who accompanied Ku Feng is the same guy who portrayed the cruel Japanese karate expert, Kurata's student, in Legend of a Fighter? He also was a non-fighting villain/manager of Tong Po in Van Damme's Kickboxer. In real life, he's a Goju-Ryu karate instructor in Hong Kong; I don't know his name, though.

[jethro]

I liked the fighting quite a lot, but the undercranking did bug the hell out of me too. THat guy is Lee Ka Ting. Some of his better roles were in Dragons forever and Little Superman (Bruce Leung). He was in countless movies. And I remember him from Kickboxer. Wicked sounding voice. Other than Legend of a Fighter, my favorite role from him was in East is Red. he has a really cool part in that movie.



I got a bunch of good movies recently.

Life Gamble
House of Traps
Fortune Code (kinda sucky, but cool to see Chen Kuan Tai, Gordon Liu, Frankie Chan, Paio Paio and sammo all fighting in a modern day movie)
Hero of Shanghai
counter Attack aka Chinese Stuntman
Duel at the Supreme Gate
Horse Boxing Killer/Against Kung fu Rascals 2-pack
Horse Boxing Killer was great

[Jimbo]

Picked up D.O.A. for no other reason than Jaime Pressly.
Sooooo....other than the cheesey, straight-to-DVD quality CGI, and other silliness, there was still Jaime Pressly.

[doug maverick]

she actually was the on thing watching in that film

[Jimbo]

Yeah. I confess, I was also curious to see Kane Kosugi; I hadn't seen him in a film since his appearance in one or two of his dad's films, as a little kid. I'd heard good stuff about him on kungfucinema, but other than some good kicking I didn't see anything special about him in particular. At least in this film, I found his character's stereotyped, extreme submissiveness very annoying. That submissiveness did NOT match well with his fighting.

Besides Jaime, the other reason I got it was I liked Cory Yuen's So Close. However, that was a HK film, and this being an American m.a. film wasn't going to come anywhere close. With So Close, it seemed Cory Yuen was becoming a better, more mature director, but since then, he's directed some cr@p Stateside, IMO.
Shoulda known, this one being based on a videogame.

[doug maverick]

corey yuen has a hit once in a blue moon. and its mostly girl power flicks. but with this he failed. he needs to be smacked in the head with yes madam and wake the hell up. that was the last chance he's gonna get to direct an american film.

[jethro]

I really liked Kane Kosugi's 2 fights. Not his best work, but still pertty good. I also liked Jamie Pressley's fight against the black guy. I would like to see him in more movies. But other than the women and those 3 fights, I hated DOA. The movie is so goddam stupid, and I felt ripped off by the Eric roberts Collin Chou fight.

[banditshaw]

Just got and watched ''Showdown at the cotton mill''.
Good Kung Fu but really bad plot.
The quality of the print was terrible and the sound was poor.

The packaging was nice and thought it to be some kind of remaster. But it looked to be ripped from someones VCR almost

[jethro]

The only version that was available prior to the Rarescope release had about 70% of the picture cut out. Completely unwatchable. if you know of a better print than rarescope's then let me know. I didn't think it was too bad for that rare of a film.

[banditshaw]

Yep Rarescope is the version I have.

[doug maverick]

Just got and watched ''Showdown at the cotton mill''.
Good Kung Fu but really bad plot.
The quality of the print was terrible and the sound was poor.

The packaging was nice and thought it to be some kind of remaster. But it looked to be ripped from someones VCR almost

well you gotta remember or know that they thought this movie was lost until it was found in taiwan and it wasn't preserved so the print is all ****ted out.

[Jimbo]

I don't think you will ever find a remaster of Showdown at the Cotton Mill at the level of a Dragon Dynasty release, simply because I doubt such a master print of it exists. Rarescope's version may not be perfect, but one thing I appreciate about them is that they are at least honest and mention on the cover that the film is not in perfect condition. Believe me, I've seen DVD releases that were far worse than that.

A lot of the older movies in Taiwan were not taken care of at all, obviously not put into temperature-controlled vaults like the Shaw or Golden Harvest films probably were. And having spent most of my 20s living in Taiwan, I know for a fact that the humidity and atmosphere in general over there will screw up about anything that's just been sitting around.

[jethro]

I don't think you will ever find a remaster of Showdown at the Cotton Mill at the level of a Dragon Dynasty release, simply because I doubt such a master print of it exists. Rarescope's version may not be perfect, but one thing I appreciate about them is that they are at least honest and mention on the cover that the film is not in perfect condition. Believe me, I've seen DVD releases that were far worse than that.

A lot of the older movies in Taiwan were not taken care of at all, obviously not put into temperature-controlled vaults like the Shaw or Golden Harvest films probably were. And having spent most of my 20s living in Taiwan, I know for a fact that the humidity and atmosphere in general over there will screw up about anything that's just been sitting around.

Its nowhere near perfect, but its widescreened, and it costs 7 bucks at best Buy. AND it has an exclusive interview with Chi Kuan Chun and Ching Kuo Chung.