DISCIPLES OF THE 36TH CHAMBER -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

 

Originally posted on 12/9/10

 

Not quite up to par with the previous entry in the Shaw Brothers' series, DISCIPLES OF THE 36TH CHAMBER (1985) still has a lot of exciting fight scenes amidst a barrage of slapstick comedy.

Hou Hsaiao stars as Fang Shiyu, an incorrigible class clown who's so averse to study that he must be tied to his two brothers during class.  He's so strong and sinewy that any blow directed at him is bounced back against his attacker, making him difficult to punish.  When a dour Manchurian education officer visits the school, Shiyu manages to offend him so grievously (in one of the film's funnier scenes) that the Manchus threaten to close the school. 

Things get even worse when Shiyu offends the entire membership of the Qing Imperial Gym and must seek sanctuary from the Imperial Court by becoming a secular pupil in the Shaolin Temple.  Even under the strict tutelage of Master San Te (Gordon Liu), Shiyu can't stay out of trouble and soon gets mixed up in a plot by the Manchu governor to destroy the Shaolin temple.

The opening titles sequence is fun, with a stylized presentation of how Shiyu gained fame by defeating the terrible Tiger Lei.  He then must take on the beautiful Li Xiahuan who seeks to avenge her husband, and whose skills are great.  Then Li Bashan shows up to avenge his son-in-law in a battle that takes place on upright log poles with steel spikes between them.  As in much of the film, the fight choreography here is intricate and rather dance-like at times, with an emphasis on humor and playfulness but always with an impressive degree of acrobatic skills.

The rivalry between the Hans and the Manchus provides the opportunity for several exciting fight scenes, in addition to the lively Shaolin training sequences.  All of this leads to an intense climactic battle between the Shaolin students and the Manchu governor and his men during a wedding, which becomes a furious free-for-all.  Hou Hsiao and Gordon Liu get to show off their martial arts abilities to the fullest, pulling out every trick in the book as the Shaolins bring all their extensive training to bear against their foes.

As Fang Shiyu, Hou Hsiao is a good comic performer whose acrobatic skills and boundless energy make for a wildly kinetic character.  Gordon Liu, who played San Te in the first film, THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN, and then the comedy lead in the sequel, returns to the role of San Te here and is appropriately monk-like.  Lily Li does a great job as Fong Sai-Yuk's mysterious mother, Miao Cuihua, who has had past experiences with San Te and the Shaolin monks and really shines in the big fight finale.  Chia-Liang Liu's punchy, hyperkinetic direction keeps things moving at an almost cartoonish pace at times.

The DVD from Dragon Dynasty is widescreen with Dolby 2.0 mono in Mandarin and English, and subtitles in English and Spanish.  The sole bonus feature is a commentary track by Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan, which, as usual, is exhaustively informative.

DISCIPLES OF THE 36TH CHAMBER is a fast-moving and comedic actionfest that should please Shaw Brothers fans. 




Read our review of RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER

DISCIPLES OF THE 36TH CHAMBER -- DVD Review by Porfle

RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

 

Originally posted on 2/15/10

 

 

It's not every day you get to watch a kung fu movie that's as much pure, hyperkinetic fun as RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER (1980), a thrilling fists 'n' feet comedy from the Shaw Brothers that's a sequel to the classic THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN.

The story opens with the shady boss of a fabric mill hiring some Manchurian thugs to intimidate his employees into working harder while giving them a pay cut. Horse-faced worker Chao (sporting a set of buck teeth that would embarrass Mortimer Snerd) enlists his con artist pal Chou Jen Chieh (Gordon Liu, who's most widely-known these days from the KILL BILL movies) to pose as revered Shaolin monk San Te in order to frighten Boss Wong and his men. The ruse works at first, but when the suspicious Wong challenges Chieh to demonstrate his skills, the result is a humiliating defeat that sends him fleeing for his life as the hapless workers are thrashed into submission.

Vowing to help his friends somehow, Chieh resolves to learn kung fu for real and bluffs his way into the Shaolin temple only to come face-to-face with the real San Te (Ching Chia, in the role originated by Gordon Liu himself in the first film). Thus begins the middle section of the film which is a non-stop slapstick delight, with Chien bumbling around like a dervish amidst the solemn monks and apprentices and comically mimicking their training.

 

When San Te orders him to construct bamboo scaffolding around the entire temple in preparation for its renovation, which will take years, Chien thinks he's being shunted aside. As he labors at his task he observes the trainees going through their paces and applies their movements to his own work, thereby eventually learning kung fu without even realizing it. This lengthy sequence is incredibly inventive and endlessly fun, and Gordon Liu displays a boundless energy and natural comic ability that's downright infectious.

His task completed, Chien is expelled from the temple and returns home in defeat, believing himself a failure. But it doesn't take long for him to realize that he's not only inadvertently learned kung fu but has also created his own variation--"Scaffolding Style"! His final confrontation with Mr. Wong and the Manchurians leads to a frenetic 20-minute action sequence that beats the hell out of MATRIX: RELOADED's CGI-laden "Burly Brawl", with no special effects and little or no wirework in sight. The action doesn't let up for a second and the fighting style is dazzlingly inventive, building to the final showdown between Chieh and Mr. Wong on--what else?--a scaffold.

 

The direction (by Liu Chia-Liang), camerawork, and editing are all first-rate for this kind of film, with fight choreography that doesn't always look totally realistic but is lots of fun anyway. The ways in which Chieh's "Scaffolding Style" is worked into the final battle is almost cartoonishly effective as he leaves his opponents hogtied to bamboo poles or wrapped together in bunches with lightning-fast moves. In some ways, the film is wonderfully cheesy and the castmembers overact their roles with abandon, which, in this case, is entirely appropriate.

With his amazing feats of dexterity and comedy timing, Gordon Liu carries the story with a full-throttle performance that never lets up. Pretending to be an experienced kung fu master, he blunders his way through one obstacle course with such artless abandon that one monk marvels, "Your kung fu is incredible! I could hardly follow it." Low comedy rears its head as he tricks another pupil into drinking some laxative-laced tea and then calls after him, "Better find a place to take a dump!" My favorite line, though, comes during the final battle with the evil boss, when Chieh brings things to a sudden halt and states magnanimously, "That's it, Mr. Wong. I will hurt you if we continue."

 

The single-disc DVD from Dragon Dynasty and Celestial Pictures is in widescreen with Mandarin, Cantonese, and English mono. Subtitles are in English and Spanish. With naught but a few trailers at the start, this is surprisingly barebones for a Dragon Dynasty release.

A fast-moving, fun, and colorful romp with lots of old-fashioned kung fu-movie charm, RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER is a must-see for Shaw Brothers fans and anyone else who's in the mood for a hefty dose of thrills and laughs. I had a ball watching it.

Read our review of  DISCIPLES OF THE 36TH CHAMBER

RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER -- DVD Review by Porfle

SHAOLIN MANTIS -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/9/10

 

Another one of those Shaw Brothers gems from the 70s, SHAOLIN MANTIS (1978) is an absorbing story with some nice atmosphere and lots of furious fight action from director Chia-Liang Liu of the 36TH CHAMBER series. 

An elder scholar presents his son, Wei Feng (David Chiang, THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN), to the Qian dynasty emperor but lives to regret it when Wei is enlisted in the emperor's plan to infiltrate a rebel clan working to overthrow him.  Wei is given a three-part deadline for returning with evidence against the Tian clan: in three months, his father will lose his title; in six months, his family will be imprisoned; and in one year, they'll be executed.  Real peach of a guy, this emperor. 

Wei manages to enter the Tian household by becoming a teacher to the cute but extremely spoiled Zhizhi (Huang Hsing-hsiu), granddaughter to the Old Master (Chia Yung Liu).  Zhizhi falls in love with Wei and they marry, but he isn't allowed to leave the house after Old Master discovers that he's a Qian spy.  After finding some evidence which the emperor needs to arrest the Tians, Wei must then fight his way out by confronting Zhizhi's uncles in battle and finally facing the Old Master himself. 

The first action scene comes early on as the Qian emperor demands a demonstration of Wei's abilities.  He first defeats a Mongol warrior, then a monk played by Chia Hui Liu, aka Gordon Liu (RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER, KILL BILL), in a lively sequence with plenty of action. Later, when Wei begins teaching the unruly Zhizhi, the story gears down and becomes a romantic comedy for awhile as the young girl flirts with her handsome tutor and begins to fall for him.  The relationship is light and fun, carrying us through a mostly uneventful stretch as we wait for the other shoe to drop.
 

 

Things get serious again around the halfway point when Wei and Zhizhi decide to defy the Old Master and leave the house, at which point the film becomes an almost non-stop series of deadly battles.  Making their way from one room to the next, Wei and Zhizhi team up to fight her three uncles in turn (Huang Hsing-hsiu is impressive) as a myriad of exotic weaponry comes into play.  Each has a different fighting style which proves difficult to overcome.  Last in their gauntlet of foes is the Old Master himself, using his invincible Shadow style which brings the escape attempt to a disastrous conclusion for the young rebels. 

This middle section of the film is a feast for old-style martial arts fans, thanks in large part to Chia-Liang Liu's no-frills directing style which consists mainly of long, carefully-choreographed takes punctuated by a minimum of flashy directorial touches and quick editing.  The familiar whiplash pans and zooms are there but are unobtrusive, while the use of slow-motion is kept to a bare minimum.

After Wei's escape from Five Sun Manor comes my favorite part of the film, in which Wei inadvertently invents the Mantis fighting style while hiding out in the forest.  While toying with a fiesty preying mantis one day, he notices the grace and dexterity of its movements and begins to adapt them to his own fighting technique, which seems to be just the thing for combatting Old Master's seemingly unbeatable Shadow style.
 

 

There are some really beautiful shots of both Wei and the mantis sharing the frame as he prods it with his finger, observing its movements as it defends itself.  More amazing closeup shots of the mantis make it appear as though, like a wise old mentor, it is actually teaching Wei its moves as he imitates them.  This exquisitely shot-and-edited sequence is wonderfully captivating and unlike anything I've ever seen in this kind of film. 

Returning to Five Sun Manor, Wei plunges through the gauntlet with a renewed determination and skill in another series of bouts that culminates with a decisive Mantis-versus-Shadow rematch against the Old Master.  Chia-Liang Liu builds excitement and suspense with increasingly innovative moves which keep the long sequence from becoming monotonous.  Once again the scene is loaded with lengthy takes involving intricate choreography that is expertly performed. 

The DVD from Vivendi's Dragon Dynasty label is in 2.35:1 widescreen with Mandarin and English mono soundtracks.  Subtitles are in English and Spanish.  There are no extras.

SHAOLIN MANTIS is an involving story which invests us in the characters before thrusting them into a maelstrom of furious and thrilling martial arts battles.  I found it thoroughly enjoyable right up to its startling ending, which comes from right out of left field.  If you're like me, the final freeze-frame will leave you knee-deep in "WTF?"  

SHAOLIN MANTIS -- DVD Review by Porfle

PROTEGE -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 2/20/09

 

If you saw DONNIE BRASCO (or better yet, read the riveting book by Joe Pistone, who lived it), you'll already have an idea of the conflicting loyalties and constant fear of discovery experienced by undercover cop Nick (Daniel Wu) in the offbeat Hong Kong cop thriller PROTEGE, aka "Moon To" (2007).

For years Nick has been living as the trusted protege to Lin Quin (a makeup-aged Andy Lau), an ailing heroin kingpin who wishes to make a last big score so that his family will be set for life when he dies. Not the usual cartoon villain, Lau portrays Quin as a practical businessman who loves his family and rationalizes that his drugs only ruin the lives of weak-willed lowlifes. But when a botched drug raid indicates a rat within the organization with Nick as a suspect, Quin displays his ruthless and lethal side in a tense interrogation scene.

As Donnie Brasco developed warm feelings for his aging mob mentor Benjamin 'Lefty' Ruggiero over the years, so Nick finds himself caring for the dying Quin and his unsuspecting family. But the pain and suffering caused by Quin's heroin is brought home when Nick meets Fan (Zhang Jing Chu), a single mother living in his apartment building with her adorable three-year-old daughter. Fan is a wretched addict hiding from the abusive husband (Louis Koo) who got her hooked and who uses their own daughter to help him smuggle drugs. As Nick becomes more involved with Fan, trying his best to help her and her daughter, his inner conflicts slowly begin to reach a breaking point.

PROTEGE isn't your typical Hong Kong actioner--there isn't a single chop, kick, or really outlandish stunt--but the human drama is pretty intense. Just as you start to think it's going to be all about police vs. bad guys, the story goes in unexpected directions as Nick's relationships with Quin and Fan keep him in constant emotional turmoil.

The very first scene gives a good indication that we're in for something unusual. With brilliantly sunlit clouds swirling past outside, Fan shoots up in her crumbling apartment, then slowly sinks onto the couch, dead to the world. As harsh light shines through paper-patched windows and ragged curtains drift in the breeze, a bright red doll carriage rolls into the frame. Fan's daughter approaches her mother tentatively, plucks the needle from her arm, toddles over to the wastebasket, and daintily drops it in, as though she's done this countless times before. The scene is both horrible yet somehow dreamily ethereal, and a provocative way to start a movie.

Former Shaw Brothers actor Derek Yee's direction is sharp and imaginative yet remarkably unflamboyant, allowing him to emphasize certain scenes using only subtle stylistic changes. When he slowly rocks his camera from side to side during Nick and Fan's disturbing sex scene (Nick is awakened on the couch by a heroin-addled Fan and then frightened by her ecstatic convulsions during intercourse) it isn't merely to make the visuals more kinetic but to convey her disorientation from reality and his own confused feelings.

Certain moments related to Fan's shocking deterioration seem right out of a horror movie, while time-lapse shots of roiling clouds speeding past her slumlike apartment building (Yee photographs this location and its slovenly interiors beautifully) are unsettlingly surreal. Conversely, the film assumes a colorful travelogue look when Quin takes Nick to Thailand to meet the main man in the heroin chain. Beautiful country settings with hazy blue mountains and dazzling poppy fields serve as a stark contrast to the dark, miserable end result of such an endeavor.

Yee's screenplay is intended to enlighten us about the various aspects and consequences of heroin trafficking, and from this pastoral starting point (which sometimes has the bland instructional tone of an educational film) we're shown how the raw materials are refined in Quin's warehouse "kitchen" and turned into bricks of almost pure heroin for distribution. Early on, a mixup of ingredients that threatens to ruin an entire batch leads to a tense montage with Quin and his employees scrambling to salvage it. Yee and editor Kong Chi-Leung speed things up here and almost have us rooting for the bad guys to succeed, which gives us an idea of what Nick's daily life must be like.

The one really riveting action sequence in the film comes when a group of Customs officers, unaware that Nick is an undercover agent, apprehend him after he leaves the kitchen and brutally beat him until he leads them back to it. Suddenly all hell breaks loose as Quin's "cooks" dash to destroy the evidence while the Customs officers break down the steel door. Their leader is played by Liu Kai Chi, who was a renegade cop in 2005's KILL ZONE (aka "Saat po long") and is even more wonderfully out-of-control here. Graphic violence ensues, and a harrowing escape attempt from a window to a balcony below leads to one of the most realistic high-fall death scenes ever filmed. This sequence definitely got my heart pounding for awhile.

Daniel Wu brings a quiet strength and intensity to his role--we can see how Nick cares not only for Fan and her child but for the devastation Quin's family will endure when his crimes are exposed. Andy Lau is so likable as Quin that we can almost sympathize with him until he expresses his contemptuous disregard for the misery he causes. As Fan, Zhang Jing Chu does a remarkable job conveying a delicate waiflike quality one moment and then transforming into a mindless degenerate the next. (Described as a "cunning linguist" in Bey Logan's commentary, she had to learn Cantonese for the part.) Louis Koo comes off as a bit of a caricature as her no-good husband, yet he's interesting to watch and his eventual fate is nicely-played. Director Yee himself appears as Nick's boss on the police force. As for Liu Kai Chi, well, he's a wild man. I love the guy.

In 2.35:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital sound, the DVD looks and sounds fine. While this Dragon Dynasty release contains only one disc, there are the usual substantive extras, including the highly-informed and enthusiastic commentary we've come to expect from Hong Kong cinema expert Bey Logan. There's a well-produced "making of" featurette that lasts almost half an hour, followed by low-key, thoughtful interviews with Daniel Wu, Zhang Jing Chu, and producer Peter Chan. These indicate the depth of interest in the subject by all involved and how much research was done, particularly in talking to actual addicts and trying to discern what leads them to pursue heroin use at the cost of their own lives. The theatrical trailer is included, and the film can be watched in either the original Cantonese or the English dub with subtitles for the hard-of-hearing.

PROTEGE is that rare thriller that is so emotionally involving that it doesn't need to keep the viewer's interest stoked with a succession of fights and stunts. Rapid-fire editing and flashy camerawork are used sparingly (and are all the more effective for it in certain scenes), with the emphasis placed instead on rich characterizations, gripping suspense, and some images that are genuinely haunting. "Why do people take drugs?" Nick keeps asking himself throughout the story, and at the end, he finds out the hard way.

 

PROTEGE -- DVD Review by Porfle

RETURN OF KUNG FU TRAILERS OF FURY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 3/12/17

 

"My first two kung fu movies consisted of a double feature of super-cheap, super-obscure flicks at my local cinema one night back in the early 70s.  The titles have long receded into the sodden recesses of my memory but I wouldn't be surprised if their trailers appear somewhere on this disc."

My review of the previous kung fu trailer collection from Severin Films, KUNG FU TRAILERS OF FURY, began with this poignant moment of wistful nostalgia, and the same goes double for this new follow-up disc.

RETURN OF KUNG FU TRAILERS OF FURY, or "The Night the Kung Fu Trailers of Fury Came Home--Again", is more and more, and yet still more (35, to be exact)  gloriously goofy previews of all those cheapo kung fu flicks that were being churned out by the rickshaw-load in Hong Kong back in the 70s. 

 

Rest assured, this bursting-at-the-seams batch of fists 'n' feet potboilers contains no CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON-level epics.  It's all gloriously grade Z, as though Ed Wood himself had opened up a school for action directors in Hong Kong.

Often these condensed versions are better than the actual feature films, because they cut out all the boring exposition and lame character interplay and get right down to the pure, unadulterated chop-socky action. 

And that's what this non-stop parade of trailers is--just one furious clash after another, accompanied by some deathless dialogue and hilarious text exclamations such as "Intriguing story!" and "Good Actors From Many Nations Makes This Film Outstanding!"

 

The collection features about an equal ratio of contemporary urban dramas and historical tales with lots of flowing white hair and bushy eyebrows. Regardless of the technical quality of each individual film, the stuntwork and choreography are rarely short of amazing.

First up is THUNDERBOLT, and right off the bat there's some of that incredibly fake-looking wirework that we all love. YELLOW-FACED TIGER is yet another "new Bruce Lee" flick, this time offering Don Wong as the hero and none other than a young Chuck Norris as a formidable bad guy with an equally formidable moustache.

THE STORY OF CHINESE GODS, described as "China's first full-length color animation feature!" boasts a 3-eyed Bruce Lee character and some not-so-hot animated action.

 

Other titles include BRUCE AND THE IRON FINGER, SHAOLIN INVINCIBLE STICKS, INVISIBLE TERRORIST, REVENGE OF THE SHAOLIN KID, HELL’S WINDSTAFF, THUNDERING MANTIS, THE LEGENDARY STRIKE, KUNG FU KILLERS, CRAZY HORSE & INTELLIGENT MONKEY, THE AVENGING BOXER, and SNUFF-BOTTLE CONNECTION.  They add up to a full 134 minutes.

My favorite moment comes during the preview for a wacky comedy called KUNG FU MASTER NAMED DRUNKEN CAT, which, in addition to its distinct Benny Hill influence, makes this bold promise to potential viewers: "It's John Cheung vs. The Midget! Funny!"

It's interesting to see these trailers in Blu-ray since they're so wonderfully battered and scratched-up in the great grindhouse style.  Are we supposed to be happy that all the scratches and imperfections that make these old trailers so distinctive are now in high-def? 

Having grown up watching old movie prints in theaters and on late-night TV, I love that old beat-up look. These trailers have it in abundance, and it suits me just fine to see it so well-preserved here.  

The Blu-ray from Severin Films is widescreen with Dolby 2.0 sound and English subtitles.  The wall-to-wall commentary track is highly informative thanks to a panel of kung fu cinema experts including writer Ric Meyers ("Films of Fury"), Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival), Ric Stelow (Drunken Master Video), and martial arts instructor Greg Schiller. 

If you got a kick out of Severin's first volume of kung fu trailers, then RETURN OF KUNG FU TRAILERS OF FURY should strike your fancy as well.  It's solid entertainment for lovers of no-frills kung fu cinema. 

Buy it from Severin Films

RETURN OF KUNG FU TRAILERS OF FURY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE KILLER -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 3/24/10

 

I wasn't that impressed with THE KILLER (1989) the first time I saw it back in the 90s. Then again, I was watching a choppy pan-and-scan VHS copy that was badly-dubbed and looked awful. Plus, I'd just been blown away by HARD BOILED (still my favorite John Woo film), and THE KILLER seemed rather tame in comparison with that insanely action-packed epic. But with the new 2-disc Ultimate Edition of THE KILLER on the Dragon Dynasty label, I'm finally getting to see it in all its uncut pictorial glory and appreciate it as one of the finest action films ever made.

I think it was an episode of the great TV series "The Incredibly Strange Film Show" that first got me interested in the films of John Woo, Tsui Hark, and other hot Hong Kong directors. I found the innovative and extremely rapid-fire editing in the film clips to be a new and exhilarating visual experience. Just as the Beatles interpreted American rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues and played it back to us in exciting new ways, Hong Kong cinema was assimilating the methods of Sam Peckinpah and others and using this as a starting point for creating a super-charged cinematic style that would, in turn, have an overwhelming effect on the future of American action cinema.

Woo himself credits many influences, among them French director Jean-Pierre Melville, certain Japanese films, and classical American cinema. Unsurprisingly, Sam Peckinpah and Martin Scorcese are key figures in the development of his film style, in addition to the old Hollywood musicals. Woo calls THE KILLER an "action-musical", and it's easy to see how his shoot-em-up sequences are often inspired by the spirit of that genre's more dazzling and dynamic production numbers. (I'm guessing Woo is an admirer of Gene Kelly and films such as SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and ON THE TOWN.)


There's even a little bit of Charlie Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS, I think, in the relationship between ace hitman Ah Jong (the great Chow Yun-Fat) and Jennie (Sally Yeh), the pretty young cabaret singer who was blinded during one of his hits. The guilt-ridden Ah Jong befriends Jennie with the hope of helping her regain her eyesight with a cornea transplant, but to pay for the operation he will have to postpone his plans to retire and perform one last hit. Complicating matters is the fact that the evil Triad boss for whom he works has just put out the order for Ah Jong himself to be eliminated.

Meanwhile, Inspector Li Ying (Danny Lee), a renegade cop who has the same "hate-hate" relationship with his boss as countless other renegade cops before him, is hot on Ah Jong's trail and has traced him to Jennie. In a strange turn of events, cop and hitman become grudging allies as Li Ying sympathizes with Ah Jong's desire to help Jennie and decides to back him up when the Triad kill squad comes a-callin'. This leads to a blazing shoot-out in a church with the fate of our unlikely heroes in the balance.

Unlike the usual stoic, repressed action figure, Chow Yun Fat's character is a man of deep feelings whose code of killing only bad guys is compromised not only by Jennie's injury but by the shooting of a little girl during an exciting escape from the police. Ah Jong risks his freedom to race the girl to a hospital, where he and Li Ying have one of many Mexican standoffs (Woo really loves these) just a few feet away from where doctors are struggling to save the girl's life.

Here, and in Ah Jong's scenes with Jennie, Woo's penchant for melodrama and sentimentality come to the fore. Such unrestrained romanticism may be off-putting to more hardcore action fans who prefer their mayhem untainted by mush. Although it gets a little thick at times, I think this gives an interesting added dimension to Woo's passages of gun-blazing carnage, as does the underlying religious tone (Woo describes himself as a Christian) which makes Ah Jong such a conflicted character seeking redemption.


Also interesting is the fact that Li Ying begins to identify with and even admire him for his honorable qualities--Woo points out their similarities in a nice parallel-image sequence--as their mutual concern for Jennie has them pretending to be and eventually becoming friends. Woo's humor comes to the fore when they initially hold each other at gunpoint while assuring the blind Jenny that all is well, even giving each other affectionate nicknames "Small B" and "Shrimp Head" (or "Mickey Mouse" and "Dumbo" in the English dub). By the end of the movie, they're as close as brothers and willing to die for each other.

More than anything else, however, THE KILLER is a feast for action connoisseurs as Woo stages one astounding shoot-out after another. His trademarks are all here, from the rapid-fire two-gun approach (his heroes never seem to run out of bullets) which has since been adopted by, well, everybody, to the sliding-backward-on-the-floor-while firing method, to everything else in-between. Innovations abound, with Woo's distinctive use of slow-motion and freeze-frames mixed with the regular action as his artistic sensibility sees fit, all creatively edited into a barrage of explosive images that bombard the viewer in waves of kinetic visual sensation.

Some of the action borders on the surreal, with scores of bad guys swarming non-stop into the line of fire only to be mowed down in twisting, jerking, blood-spewing (yet strangely balletic) death throes. Echoes of the famous shoot-outs from Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH pervade the climactic battle in the church, while the melodrama of the story weaves its way through the hail of bullets and fiery explosions toward a starkly emotional conclusion. It bears noting that Woo improvised much of the story and dialogue on-set, shooting from a treatment rather than a finished script, yet considers this to be one of his most "complete" films.


The Dragon Dynasty DVD is in the original widescreen with Dolby Digital sound. Languages are Cantonese and dubbed English, both mono, with English and Spanish subtitles. The second disc includes an intimate interview with John Woo, two audience Q & A's with Woo which accompanied screenings of THE KILLER and HARD BOILED, a look at the locations of THE KILLER then and now, and a John Woo trailer gallery. Missing in action is a commentary track.

Whether you're a long-time fan or just seeing it for the first time, Dragon Dynasty's Ultimate Edition of THE KILLER is a great way to experience this dazzling Hong Kong action classic.

THE KILLER -- DVD Review by Porfle

SHOCK WAVE -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 12/21/17

 

Bomb squad and hostage crisis stories are always inherently tense to some degree, but SHOCK WAVE, aka "Chai dan zhuan jia" (Cinedigm, 2017), takes things to a whole new level.  It's one of those "through the wringer" experiences that just leaves you...well, wrung out.

Chinese action superstar Andy Lau (THE WARLORDS, BATTLE OF THE WARRIORS) plays veteran bomb defuser extraordinaire J.S. Cheung, whose nerves of steel don't keep him from having a warm heart, as his girlfriend Carmen Li (Jia Song, RED CLIFF) will attest.

They have a nice meet-cute under odd circumstances that lead to a deep relationship which might or might not lead to marriage.  What we're already certain of, if movies like this have taught us anything, is that if there's a big bomb crisis later on in the movie then eventually the girlfriend will get mixed up in it.

Naturally, there's a big bomb crisis later on in the movie, thanks to Cheung's mortal enemy and top bad-guy bomb expert Peng Hong (Wu Jiang), whose brother was sent to prison by Cheung during an undercover assignment. 

Nursing a big, festering grudge against Cheung, Peng Hong plans a massive attack in which Hong Kong's Cross-Harbor Tunnel is taken over and its thousands of hostages threatened with explosive doom unless the imprisoned brother is set free.

What sets SHOCK WAVE apart from most of the other hostage-crisis films is its scale--it looks as though the filmmakers have full use of an actual tunnel filled with automobiles, and the mayhem that occurs inside it will involve all manner of full-scale gun battles, car crashes, and explosions. 

This isn't just some direct-to-video yarn here, but epic, heart-pounding action that exploits every facet of bomb-defusing, hostage negotiating, and all-around shoot-em-up chaos while also exploring all the emotional human elements.  Hostages get killed as do brave cops, and Cheung's character must suffer every tragic loss while feeling partly responsible for it. 

The film begins with a sustained action sequence involving a bank robbery that ends badly.  That leads us into the drawn-out suspense of the tunnel situation which will take up the rest of the film. 

Things slow down in the second half to concentrate on the human side of Cheung's ordeal (including the "girlfriend" part that we knew was coming) as well as exploring other peripheral aspects of the situation, but this just gears us up for one of the most calamitous finales imaginable for a film like this.  I'm talking "intense" in the full sense of the word.

Andy Lau is great as the heroic, likable cop, while Wu Jiang makes an ideal non-cliche' bad guy who loves putting Cheung and the city of Hong Kong through hell.  The rest of the cast are fine as well.
 
Director Herman Yau (THE WOMAN KNIGHT OF MIRROR LAKE, THE LEGEND IS BORN: IP MAN) is in top form throughout, staging it all with brisk bravado and clearly aiming to knock our socks off.  My only complaint is the obvious use of CGI for many of the explosions, which had me yearning for the good old days when they just blew everything up for real. 

Still, SHOCK WAVE is mind-boggling in its mix of human drama with the most nail-biting suspense and explosive, car-crashing, bullet-spraying carnage one could ask for in an action flick.  And after all that, it ends on a note of genuine emotional resonance.  Well done.


SHOCK WAVE DVD BASICS              
Street Date:         January 2, 2018
Language:           Cantonese, Mandarin                      
Runtime:             119 minutes             
Rating:                Not Rated
Subtitles:            English
(Also available in Blu-Ray+DVD)

EXTRAS:
Making-of featurette
Trailer

SHOCK WAVE -- DVD Review by Porfle

SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION II -- DVD Review by Porfle

(Brothers Five/ Holy Flame of the Martial World/ Journey of the Doomed/ Brave Archer and His Mate)

Originally posted in 2010

More lightning fists, flying feet, and clanging blades collide in SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION II, a four-disc DVD set containing further fantastic adventures in the "Sword Masters" series. 


BROTHERS FIVE (1970), a raucous frenzy of clashing swords and impossible feats of derring-do, has just enough story to string together one blade brawl after another. We're back in ancient China again, where evil Long Zhen Feng (Feng Tien) and the villainous cutthroats of Flying Dragon villa keep the countryside in a state of terror.  Young swordsman Gao Wei (Yueh Hua) travels there to settle an old score with Long Zhen Feng, who murdered his father and took over the villa from him. 

On his way there, he meets beautiful Miss Yan (Cheng Pei Pei), who informs him that he has four brothers and that it was his father's dying wish that they someday reunite and avenge him.  Eventually the five brothers--Gao Wei, burly blacksmith Gao Hao, scholar Gao Zhi (Kao Yuan), dashing bandit Gao Xia (Lo Leih), and Security Bureau chief Gao Yong (Chang I)--join forces to take on the bad guys.

Once the exposition is taken care of, the story barely gets in the way of a succession of battle scenes that seem to crop up every few minutes or so.  Blacksmith Gao Hao settles an altercation in the street with the Flying Dragons by swinging his mighty hammer with deadly effect, while Shaolin-trained bookworm Gao Zhi has a nifty battle against two of them in a restaurant.  Gao Yong's Security Bureau men are ambushed and wiped out on an isolated road, and his assistant Chu, played by a very young Sammo Hung, is killed. 

Most of the fighting takes place in and around the Flying Dragon villa, with the brothers going up against impossible odds time after time.  The group choreography is excellent, with foreground fighters surrounded by several other fairly realistic battles going on all around them.  There's plenty of sword-clanging action and some pleasingly fake wirework, including one astounding shot in which kung fu mistress Miss Yan makes her escape by suddenly and inexplicably flying away like Superman.  The drawback here is that a monotonous sameness begins to set in after awhile, with one drawn-out clash beginning to pretty much resemble the next.  But it's all solidly directed by Wei Lo and expertly performed.

The topper comes after Miss Yan introduces the brothers to the special Five Tigers kung fu technique ("Five tigers, one heart") which requires five men with different skills to pull it off.  During their climactic free-for-all against a seemingly invincible Long Zhen Feng, they go into their rotating Five Tigers formation, which resembles one of those razzle-dazzle cheerleader formations and is pretty funny to look at.  The five brothers whirl around in this position for awhile, which seems to confuse Long Zhen Feng and leave him open to attack, so they start leaping at him.  I won't give away the exciting conclusion.

With nice period atmosphere, furious swordplay and martial arts mayhem, and likable characters (Miss Yan is particularly captivating and the brothers are a robust bunch), BROTHERS FIVE overcomes a tendency toward occasional monotony and is ultimately a pretty colorful and entertaining adventure. 

Making just about every other movie in the world seem slow-moving and mundane in comparison, HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD (1983) is about as close to a total cinematic freak-out as you could imagine. 

Wan Ching Chung and his wife are killed by white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed Grand Master Jing Yin (Leanne Lau) and her associate Monster Yu (Jason Pai Piao) after they're forced to reveal the location of the Creed of the Holy Flame.  The Phantom (Philip Kwok) swoops in and rescues the dead couple's baby boy Wan Tien Sau, pledging that in 18 years the boy will return to get revenge.  Jing Yin takes their baby girl Dan Fung and raises her as a warrior in the all-female Er Mei clan, telling her that the Phantom killed her parents. 

Eighteen years later, Wan Tien Sau (Max Mok) is sent off to seek the Holy Flame.  Along the way, he rescues the beautiful Juan Er (Mary Jean Reimer) from the evil Blood Sucking Clan and she inadvertently gains great power in her index finger after touching an enchanted snake's bladder.  Meanwhile, Jing Yin, who possesses a Yin version of the Holy Flame, sends Dan Fung to avenge herself against the Phantom and retrieve the Holy Flame's Yang counterpart, which will give Jing Yin great power.  This sets the stage for a series of battles like you wouldn't believe between Wan Tien Sau, Dan Fung, Jing Yin and Monster Yu, Monster Yu's impetuous young apprentice Duan, Golden Snake Boy, the wacky Eight Righteous Clans, and Juan Er's Mighty Finger.

I just don't know what to think about this movie.  It's like taking an acid trip on a rollercoaster.  I'd call it cartoonish, but I doubt if even Tex Avery ever made a cartoon with such a breakneck pace and rapid-fire editing, nor such a dizzying, non-stop bombardment of bizarre images.  Director Tony Liu Jun-guk couldn't be less concerned with how realistic the wirework is, which doesn't matter anyway because characters continuously zip around all over the place in fast-motion like a bunch of flying speed freaks.  In addition to this is the precision fight choreography that is quite impressive, and lots of colorful FX animation.

The characters also display a wonderful variety of super-powers.  The Phantom's main weapon is his "Ghostly Laugh"--he sits crosslegged and convulses with broad, forced laughter, creating a deadly cyclone all around him which terrifies Jing Yin and Monster Yu until they learn how to make their ears close up by themselves.  In return, they attack with the horrific Bone Incineration By Fire and Merry-Go-Round techniques.  Wan Tien Sau is able to make his Devil Sword fly around as though he were operating it with an invisible remote control. 

Blaring music and an endless cacophony of sound effects bombard the viewer along with the freakish visuals.  One of the best sequences is when a 1,000-year-old corpse, which Lam May Heung brought home from a trip out West, comes to life spouting English phrases such as "I KILL YOU!" and, sure enough, decides to kill him.  Another is Wan Tien Sau's search for the Holy Flame inside the Moon Cavern, where he's attacked by cool cartoon ghosts and giant Chinese text that pops off the floor and flies around trying to do him in. 

From the moment this utterly kooky film bursts out of the gate it just doesn't stop, plunging headlong through a rapid-fire succession of breathtakingly off-the-wall scenes until the hilarious conclusion.  Possibly the downright nuttiest movie I've ever seen, ever, HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD is funny, exciting, stupefying, and wonderfully endearing.

After HOLY FLAME, 1985's JOURNEY OF THE DOOMED seems positively sedate.  Despite some comedy here and there, it's mainly a tale of tragic romance with intermittent swordplay and some surprisingly adult elements.

The madame of a classy brothel, Big Sister, gets in hot water with an evil client named Mr. Duan after he cruelly breaks in a new girl whose best friend, Shui-erh, an orphan whom Big Sister has raised since childhood, throws a snake at him.  Shui-erh is actually the illegitimate daughter of a prince who's next in line to become Emperor, and Big Sister figures that this scandalous information will be valuable to the second-in-line prince so she reveals it to him in return for squaring things with Duan.  Second Prince sends the Three Knights--Fei-hsia, Xi Ma Cross, and Swallow 13--to capture Shui-erh so he can show her to Dad, while First Brother sends bad warrior Shan and two murderous Black Dragon Order swordswomen, Spicy Double Wind Eel and Monkey Lin, to kill everyone in the brothel.

Shui-erh escapes into the woods and is helped by a handsome young fisherman whom she calls "Knight."  It turns out that he is the younger brother of Spicy Double Wind Eel, which complicates things a bit.  Shui-erh and Knight fall in love while living in the secluded beach shack of a kindly mute girl, but Shui-erh becomes jealous of her and runs away, falling into the hands of the Three Knights.  Fei-hsia, who is in love with Shan and under his hypnotic spell, makes off with Shui-erh before she can be taken to the palace and delivers her to Shan at the Mysterious Fire Village, where a fierce battle between Shan and the Knights takes place over the fate of the future princess.

Director Chuen-Yee Cha's JOURNEY OF THE DOOMED has few major action setpieces compared to most Shaw Brothers films, and there isn't a lot of effort put into making the characters' fighting skills look all that convincing.  The main emphasis is on the love story, which is less than riveting.  Much of the middle part of the film resembles one of those BLUE LAGOON-type flicks about young lovers cavorting in the wild, with Shui-erh's spoiled brattiness getting a bit trying after awhile.  The lack of chemistry between the two actors is obvious when they kiss--she keeps her lips pressed firmly together as though being forced to eat spinach, while he practically tries to suck her entire face into his mouth.

Still, leather-clad babe Monkey Lin is entertaining whether taking on a bunch of inept guys just for fun or having it out with Spicy Double Wind Eel when she tries to kill her brother.  Most startling is the sequence in which Monkey and Spicy slaughter the prostitutes of Big Sister's brothel, and the final battle at Mysterious Fire Village is impressively staged.  There isn't much wirework here and fantasy elements are kept to such a minimum that when animated light beams eminate from Shan's eyes as he hypnotizes Fei-hsia, it seems almost out of place.

What sets this film apart is the nudity and softcore sex.  An early scene with Big Sister and her brothel partner gettin' it on is totally gratuitous, but the fact that she's so gorgeous makes it my favorite part of the movie.  Mr. Duan's session with the virgin Xio Cai is considerably less romantic, as he whips and even brands her while roughly availing himself of her supple body.  Later, things get sappy during Shui-erh and Knight's idyllic wilderness interlude, which even includes one of those cutesy montages set to the tune of a bad 80s power ballad.  This entire sequence slows the movie down and it doesn't pick up again until we get to the Mysterious Fire Village.

After recently watching several Shaw Brothers films which are loaded with wall-to-wall action and fantasy, JOURNEY OF THE DOOMED comes as a letdown.  It does have its charming moments and a certain amount of excitement, but it isn't a film I'll feel compelled to revisit any time soon.

Probably the most frustrating movie in the collection is Chang Cheh's BRAVE ARCHER AND HIS MATE (1982), because while it features a generous amount of impressive hand-to-hand combat, acrobatics, and swordplay, the story is a cluttered patchwork that makes little sense.

I won't even begin to try and unravel the knotty plot with all of its superflous and dead-end elements except to say that it begins with hero Kuo Tsing (Philip Kwok) and his beloved wife Huang Yung (Gigi Wong) becoming the guardians of an orphaned baby boy named Yang Guo after a deadly encounter with the evil Ouyang Fung (Wong Lik) in Iron Spear Temple.  The baby grows up to become a flakey slacker (Alexander Fu Sheng) who gets picked on by his foster parents' other kung fu pupils until he discovers Ouyang Fung still living in the abandoned temple.  The crazed old man, who has lost his memory, desires a son and offers to teach Yang Guo his invincible Frog Skill kung fu if he'll call him "father." 

Still a goofball but now armed with the power of the Frog technique, Yang Guo is tricked into thinking that his real father, Yang Kang, was a hero who was murdered by Kuo Tsing and Huang Yung.  His ill-fated alliance with Ouyang Fung seems to set up the rest of the plot until the movie takes a sudden left turn and ends up in a monastery where Kuo Tsing takes Yang Guo and fellow pupil Wu Sau Man (Chin Siu-Ho) to be mentored by his former teachers.  There's a whole other subplot about suitors coming to the monastery in order to duel for the hand of a mysterious woman who lives in a tomb (it's a long story).  Between the ardent suitors and the hostile apprentices of the monks, Kuo Tsing and his two charges find themselves in one furious battle after another until the movie simply screeches to a halt as though the DVD had gotten stuck.

I haven't seen any of the other "Brave Archer" films (this is the fourth) but I assume that they must have some archery in them since this one doesn't.  There is, however, a lot of carefully-staged action that is worth wading through the muddled plot for.  The melodramatic early scenes in the Iron Spear Temple are overly laden with exposition but feature some good fights, while the climactic sequence in and around the Quanzhen Sect's monastery is non-stop sword-clanging and kung fu fun.  In between, the business with crazy old Ouyang Fung returning to make trouble leads to some good clashes as well.  What weighs the film down, however, is the fact that all of this action is unsupported by a coherent story.

Philip Kwok is always a welcome presence in these films and Gigi Wong is beautiful and appealing as Huang Yung, while Wen Hsueh-erh is cute as a button as their daughter, Guo Fu.  Unfortunately, her character disappears halfway through the movie.  Wong Lik is a lot of fun as Ouyang Fung but he also drops out long before the extended end sequence. 

Worst of all is Alexander Fu Sheng's supposedly funny Yang Guo, who would be more at home in a "Bill and Ted" movie than in this one.  The relentlessly unamusing Yang Guo gets harder to take as the story progresses, ultimately becoming rather repellent.  The film ends with a freeze-frame closeup of him mugging like an idiot while the story remains frustratingly unresolved.

It would be nice if BRAVE ARCHER AND HIS MATE had been about Brave Archer and his mate, instead of devoting so much of its running time to the painfully uninteresting and pointless Yang Guo character.  As it is, the film fails to weave a compelling story out of its various plot threads and is watchable mainly for its furious action scenes. 

As with the first Shaw Brothers collection, each of the four DVDs in this set from Well Go USA, Inc. and Celestial Pictures is widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.  Soundtrack is in Mandarin with English and Chinese subtitles.  The theatrical trailer for each film is included.  SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION II is a mixed bag, containing two rousing and highly-entertaining adventures along with a couple of somewhat less successful efforts.  As with most SB films, all are worth watching, but you may not find them all worth re-watching.

SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION II -- DVD Review by Porfle

SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION -- DVD Review by Porfle

(THE HEROIC ONES/ THE BATTLE WIZARD/ THE DUEL OF THE CENTURY/ TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN)

 

Originally posted 5/6/2010

 

Here's something Hong Kong action fans will want to check out--the four-disc SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION, which contains four furious fight films from their "Sword Masters" series.

THE HEROIC ONES (1970) is a rousing tale of ancient China that's a feast for fans of sword and spear action done on a grand scale. As the Tang Dynasty wanes, warlords Li Ke Yong and Zhu Wen become allies in the fight against bandit leader Wang Chao, who has taken over the capital city of Changon. Li Ke Yong's thirteen generals, whom he has adopted and regards as sons, are fierce super-warriors who love a good battle as much as they love getting drunk and making whoopee. He chooses nine of them to be led by thirteenth son Chun Xiao in a mission to retake Changon and kill Wang. But fourth son Li Cun Xin is jealous of the young general and wants more glory for himself, which will lead to him and another son joining Zhu Wen in a bloody betrayal of Li Ke Yong and the other generals.

Cheh Chang's direction is old-style with lots of restless hand-held camera and whiplash zooms. But with a big budget to work with, he offers up an opulent display of elaborate sets and costumes with hundreds of extras. His battle scenes are often spectacular, featuring some impressive choreography involving numerous actors performing long, complicated bits of business. Swords and spears clash furiously as the generals take on waves of opponents and rack up body counts well into the hundreds. There's some less than convincing wirework as Chun Xiao and his brothers execute a few super-human moves here and there, but it's all part of the fun.

The battle for Changon is an early highlight which is surpassed later on when Li Ke Yong is kidnapped by Zhu Weng and is rescued by courageous general Ju Li, who must fight his way through dozens of soldiers on a bridge as the enemy stronghold goes up in flames. Throughout the film, the action is eye-filling and intense.

A lighthearted mood fills the early part of the story as we get to know the comically self-confident and cocky Heroic Ones, who revel in the fact that they can defeat just about anyone and have fun celebrating their invincibility with plenty of wine and women. As thirteenth son Chun Xiao, David Chiang does a good job taking his character from brash insouciance to wounded disillusionment as the story takes on tragic proportions. What happens in the latter half of the film is pretty heavy stuff, with the final confrontation between brothers carrying quite a lot of emotional weight along with the action.


I wasn't expecting an epic when I started watching THE HEROIC ONES, but it certainly does its best to resemble one. In addition to being an opulent historical piece, it also has elements of the Italian western and war films such as THE DIRTY DOZEN. And there's a gripping story to go along with all of that beautifully-staged carnage.


If you ever wondered what Hong Kong action flicks look like to crazy people, THE BATTLE WIZARD (1977) should give you a good idea. This is one seriously nutty flick that left me doubting my own sanity even more than usual.

As the film opens, the Emperor's brother Tuan Zhengchun is caught messing around with Hongmian, the wife of Yellow Robe Man, and when her husband attacks, Zhengchun defends himself by using "Yi Yang Finger", which he performs by making pretend shooting motions with his index fingers and firing destructor beams that sever Yellow Robe Man's legs. Yellow Robe Man swears revenge, and twenty years later we see him in his chintzy-looking cave lair with a new pair of telescoping robot bird legs, ordering his cackling monster henchman Canglong to kidnap Zhengchun's son, prince Tuan Yu.

This is just the set up. We then find that Tuan Yu has left the palace because he's a pacifist scholar who doesn't want to learn martial arts ("One could get hurt, and very sweaty," he fears) and wants to see if he can survive in the outside world without them. Needless to say, everyone within fifty miles starts attacking him and he is aided by an enchanted snake-handling girl named Ling-erh, who throws glowing green snakes at the leader of the Poisonous Moths Clan which burrow under his skin. Tuan Yu escapes and seeks help from the dreaded witch-woman Xiang Yaocha, who has sworn that if any man sees her veiled face she will either marry him or kill him. Tuan Yu sees her face, of course, and after they're betrothed he discovers that she is his half-sister, Wanqing, by his father and Hongmian.

All of this brings us to the film's free-for-all finale in which Yellow Robe Man conspires with another warlord to capture Tuan Yu and Wanqing so that Tuan Zhengchun and his wife will be lured to their doom. The young protagonists are hurled into a pit where they are attacked by a "giant gorilla", which is a man hopping around in one of the worst gorilla suits in film history. Tuan Yu, who now has super powers after drinking the blood of the Red Python and eating a glowing green frog (don't ask), takes on the various bad guys and their minions amidst a flurry of hyperkinetic editing, colorful animated special effects, and visuals that seem to have been conceived by a committee of schizophrenics. My favorite part of the whole thing is the sight of a wildly-emoting Yellow Robe Man stalking around on his metallic bird-leg stilts.


Hsueh Li Pao's direction and editing are all over the place in some scenes but that only contributes to the disorienting strangeness of this wacky cartoonish adventure. There are several fun setpieces including the fight with the Poisonous Moths Clan, Wanquing's frenetic battle with a group of bandits (in which she displays her great skill with the "bone-cutting sword" technique), and Tuan Yu and Wanquing's flight from a Tasmanian Devil-like Canglong. I don't know if John Carpenter ever saw this, but it's certainly the kind of movie that served as the inspiration for his BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA.

With its comically exaggerated acting and characters, hilariously melodramatic action, and "anything goes" special effects, THE BATTLE WIZARD is pure Shaw Brothers fun. It isn't often you'll see a movie that is this deliriously bizarre. I just had to sit there for a few minutes wondering what the heck I'd just watched.


Director Chu Yuan's THE DUEL OF THE CENTURY (1981) is much less fanciful than a cartoony romp like THE BATTLE WIZARD--no sorcery, no animated death rays shooting out of anybody's fingers, no diabolical creatures. While the impossible feats of skill performed by the characters still place it well into the fantasy realm, this is basically a mystery story with elements of "The Three Musketeers" and those old Westerns in which evenly-matched gunfighters faced each other in a final showdown.

The mystery begins when the two greatest martial arts champions in all of ancient China, Ye Gucheng and Shimen Chueishiue, challenge each other to a duel on the rooftops of the Forbidden City. Since the two fighters aren't enemies, a puzzled Lu Xiaofeng (Tony Liu) turns detective and tries to get to the bottom of things. Drawn into an ever-widening web of deception and intrigue which includes ninjas, monks, lamas, and flamboyantly gay eunuchs, Lu finally uncovers a dastardly plot that leads all the way to the throne. (This, along with the swashbuckling swordplay, is what reminded me of Dumas.)

The story is so dense and talky that I eventually gave up trying to follow it after awhile and just enjoyed the fight scenes which crop up every five minutes or so. Lu is one of those warriors who is so infallible that he can afford to be relaxed and funny (some find him extremely annoying but I like him) while fighting off hordes of foes. One running gag I enjoyed is the way everyone recognizes him when he uses his famous finger technique, which consists of grabbing whatever blade is jabbed at him in a vise grip between his thumb and forefinger. "You're Lu Xiaofeng!" they shout as he feigns modesty.

Lu encounters a variety of hostile opponents with different techniques during several lively but somewhat repetitive sequences, cracking jokes like Spiderman while defeating them all. There are a few bursts of hand-to-hand combat here and there but mostly the fighting is done with clanging swords and various other blades. The fight in an elegant three-level restaurant is an early highlight, which begins with an army of geishas filling the air with rose petals and ends with Ye Gucheng applying his deadly "flying goddess" move to an unlucky opponent. Great sets and lots of atmosphere augment the action, along with an effective score composed of some recognizable library tracks.

Lu uncovers the real reason behind the duel but, lucky for us, is unable to keep it from taking place. While it would be hard for any fight to live up to all the build-up this one gets, it still delivers a fair amount of action and unbelievable displays of superhuman skill (although I didn't quite get why they were leaping through big circles of paper). Again, this is just the kind of stuff that inspired both BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and "The Powerpuff Girls", with warriors soaring through the air at each other as though flying or jumping straight up and fighting in midair for several seconds before coming back down. After watching all the tedious plot threads entwine around each other for an hour and a half, it's fun when these guys finally cut loose and get down to business.


Cheh Chang returns with his familiar directorial style in TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN (1978), moving the camera in a dizzying series of lightning-fast zooms and pans that give his action scenes their own unique vitality. And finally--some good old-fashioned fists 'n' feet kung fu!

You may want to take notes, because the first scene is loaded with exposition as "courageous but reckless" young Tong Qianjin (Lo Mang) graduates from training in the Shaolin temple (I guess he snatched the pebble) and is told by Master Zhishan that he must locate fellow student and master boxer Hu Huigan (Chiang Sheng) and wait until the time is right for them to move against the rival Wudang Clan. (The Wudangs are loyal to the Qing Court, which the Shaolins wish to overthrow in order to restore the Ming Dynasty.) All of this is just to get us to the point where the fighting between the Shaolins and the Wudangs begins, which is when the movie takes off.

Tong hasn't been in town for long before Wudang brother Dezong shows up and starts flinging boomerang knives at him, which are pretty cool. The wounded Tong seeks refuge with a sympathetic brother and sister, Jin Tailai and Jin Bier, who teach him how to fend off the dreaded Bloody Knife. The next time Tong and Dezong meet it's a quick and dirty hand-to-hand clash that breathes some life into the movie.

The Wudangs then challenge Tong and Hu to a public one-on-one fight that becomes the most sustained and exciting action setpiece yet, with excellent choreography and lots of quick and skillful moves. Hu fails to endear himself to the Wudangs when he rips the junk right off one of their best guys during a slow-motion leap. Not surprisingly, this ticks off the Wudangs to the point where they invade the wedding banquet of Tong and Bier and turn it into a massacre in another lively fight sequence.

Things get more complicated as we go along, with a young Wudang named Wei switching allegiance to the Shaolins just as a fearsome badass named Gao Jinzhong shows up with the Yuan brothers, experts in monkey boxing and monkey rod, to take up the Wudang banner against the Shaolins. Also adding to the unpredictability of the plot is the appearance of Dezong's daughter, Li Erhuna, who's out for revenge. All of this leads to a climax that's a bloody free-for-all in which nobody is safe--you never know who's going to buy the farm next in this movie. Despite its many comedic touches, TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN is filled with somber and downbeat moments that keep the viewer off-guard.


The only downside to this movie is the effort it takes to keep up with all of that exposition, plus a second half that tends to drag until the thrilling finale. At that point, however, the screen is filled with an extended flurry of bloody kung fu action in which you never know who's going to drop dead next. TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN is a rousing example of old-school martial arts mayhem, rounding out the collection in suitable style.

Each of the four DVDs in this set from Well Go USA, Inc. and Celestial Pictures is widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Soundtrack is in Mandarin and dubbed English, with English and Chinese subtitles. The theatrical trailer for each film is included. Whether you're a longtime Shaw Brothers fan or just getting into them, SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION should provide plenty of fun-filled entertainment.

Read our review of The Shaw Brothers Collection II.

 

SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION -- DVD Review by Porfle

EXTRAORDINARY MISSION -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 1/29/18

 

One of the most suspenseful plots I can think of is the straight-arrow cop going undercover as a bad guy and having to live the lifestyle 24 hours a day, with imminent discovery and death always a hair's breadth away. 

It's what made "Donnie Brasco" (the non-fiction book and the movie) so harrowing, and it's what gives the Hong Kong action extravaganza EXTRAORDINARY MISSION (Cinedigm, 2017) such a visceral and emotional charge.

Directors Alan Mak and Anthony Pun and writer Felix Chong (THE DEPARTED, INFERNAL AFFAIRS) wring all the nerve-stretching tension they can from the concept before blasting the doors off with a final act that's pure rocket-fueled action. 

Huang Xuan (THE INTERPRETER) plays Lin Kai, the incorruptible cop whose (mis)fortune it is to be chosen for the task of entering the world of high-stakes drug trafficking with the goal of finding the biggest fish and the pond he swims in. 

Naturally, in order to gain the trust of his criminal cohorts he must engage in highly dangerous and often deadly exploits, with his life on the line at every turn.

This leads to some early action sequences that get us stoked for what's to come. But the main gist of the film's first two-thirds or so is to show Lin Kai using his wits, along with sheer guts, to climb the ladder toward the higher levels of the drug trade. 

The higher up the food chain he goes, the farther down the rabbit hole he descends.  And every time you think you've finally met the biggest, baddest bad guy, there's always someone worse who he must answer to. 

When our hero finally reaches the heart of darkness, we're treated to some stunning twists and revelations that give Lin Kai's mission and everything about it a whole new, shockingly different perspective.  The story keeps the now-familiar "undercover mole" concept fresh by adding intriguing angles to it which give it zing.

But that's nothing compared to what happens when Lin Kai, the ultra-ruthless drug kingpin, and one or two other surprise participants all engage in one of the most furious, action-packed shoot-em-up chase sequences ever filmed. 

Once it starts you might as well buckle up because this is non-stop blazing action that doesn't let up until we've gone back and forth through the wringer at least half a dozen times. 

It's dead serious (no wisecracks or one-liners) with an emotional core that gives the story heft, plenty of suspense, and enough frantic, mind-numbing action coming at us in the last 20-30 minutes for three movies.  EXTRAORDINARY MISSION is one super-charged thrill ride.


EXTRAORDINARY MISSION BLU-RAY™                   
Price:                  $19.97

Street Date:         February 6, 2018
Language:           Mandarin                 
Runtime:             120 minutes             
Rating:                Not Rated
Subtitles:            English

EXTRAORDINARY MISSION DVD BASICS                
Price:                  $14.93

Street Date:         February 6, 2018
Language:           Mandarin                 
Runtime:             120 minutes             
Rating:                Not Rated
Subtitles:            English

Extras: Making-of featurette, trailer

EXTRAORDINARY MISSION -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle