HEROES OF THE WILD

heroesofwild
Originally uploaded by doctoraok.

Heroes of the Wild is a decent, old school kung fu film. Chen Sing plays the "hero" who kills an old kung fu master, as his son is flying a kite on the beach. After this, Chen takes the orphan as his pupil. "Train hard so you can take revenge on me" he says. To prove how cruel he is, Chen kills a stray dog (this scene is cut from the film, but the aftermath is shown). Following this scene, the movie veers into Spagetti Western territory (even stealing some epic Western music) as Chen and his pupil kick some butt. Somehow the two form a strange relationship, where they are constantly threatening to kill each other "for honor".

The fight scenes are choreographed by Corey Yuen and Yuen Biao, and have the great timing and action you expect from an old school kung fu film a la Shaw Brothers. The editing is a bit off earlier in the movie, but it improves as the fights get longer and more important. It's a good thing the DVD comes with a "right to the fight" feature that skips all that melodrama before the fights. There are also moments when you have unintenionally hilarious situations, for example, the longest, most overacted death scene I have ever witnessed in a kung fu movie. Filmed in slow motion with no sound, it practically begs the audience at home to insert your own "death scream".

The film presention is typical for those in the late '70's, with many scratchs, blotchy color stock and other hallmarks of cheapo chinese cinema. The typical English dubbing also lends itself to the "but still" drinking game (take a drink whenever a character says "but still"). So I will recommend this movie, but be sure to have a few beers to make it more enjoyable.

ICHI THE KILLER

Okay, this is not a kung fu film. But it has some kung fu in it. Ichi the Killer will have you cringing with disgust thoughout the picture, but like a car wreck, you will not be able to look away. Alot of the kung fu involves our anti-hero "Ichi" who wears a Guyver-like rubber superhero outfit, with blades on the end of his shoes. He slices and dices victims like a human blender. The gore flies in such quantity, it rivals the Peter Jackson zombie opus "Dead-Alive".

The film is a celebration of sadism and masochism to the extreme. Yazuka enforcer "Kakihara" vows to find out who killed his boss and will torture anyone along the way to find out. This includes himself. If you can look past all the gut wrenching violence here, there is a story about pain and how much people can endure it. Kakihara enjoys inflicting pain on himself and others. Ichi is aroused and horrified by the pain he can cause to others as well. These two sick and twisted individuals face off at the film's climax.

The film is stylishly directed by Takashi Miike, and is generally well acted. The special effects range from brutally realistic to CGI stylized gore. Although every Yazuka gangster has a loaded gun here, no one dies from a single bullet. It would be too neat in this messy blood soaked nightmare. This film has garnered a large cult following and will stand along side "Story of Ricky" as one of Asian Cinema's most extreme films. Reccomended, if you have a strong stomach.

INVINCIBLE ARMOUR

invincible
Originally uploaded by doctoraok.

This is a typical Joseph Kuo produced "old school" kung fu film with Carter Wong playing a bad guy not unlike "Born Invincible", where he is virtually indestructible. Incrediblely, there is no mention of any "Armour" in the movie. The early cinematography is pretty good with a good use of the widescreen cinemascope. There is even a Busby Burkley homage with some Chinese girls early in the film. Kuo also throws in some comic kung fu characters, for some cheap laughs. However, the editing is horrible. Maybe it was this particular copy of the film, but action sequences were often cut before they could end properly. Much of the decent choreography is ruined by the chop happy editing and the quality of camera work also goes downhill in the second half of the film, especially in a horrible forest battle sequence that was basically shot in the dark with crappy film stock. In fact, it looks like Kuo spent the entire film's budget in the first 15 minutes... after that we get crap.

Kuo got a large cast of extras here as Ming soldiers. However they act more like blind lemmings, marching into each other and marching off a cliff into the river. A big problem here is that many characters are introduced and then abandoned mid way through the "plot". Other than Wong as the evil kung fu warlord, we can't identitfy who the other people are. There is also a "hopping corpses" sequence complete with a Taoist and his hunchbacked "Igor" that doesn't really fit in the movie either. Lots of guys killed early in the movie come back to fight in the last battle. Eventually the "hero" who was killed in the first ten minutes of the film returns to fight Wong. My recommendation with this film is "just say no" to this bad "Buddha Bless You" mess of a film.

SHAOLIN VS. EVIL DEAD

shaolinevildead
Originally uploaded by doctoraok.

It's got hopping Vampires! Evil Spirits! Undead Warriors! Good Guys! Bad Guys! Romance! Little kids in cute kung fu outfts fighting each other on a giant chess board! This film tries it's best to add everything in one movie, and in the process ruins it for the rest of us. Gordon Liu is obviously slumming it here and doesn't do too much. If the above combination sounds good to you then you may try to rent or buy this one. Let me help you out here. Don't do it.

Let's start with what is good here. The sets and atmosphere are excellent. The actors all look pretty good too. Some nice costumes as well. The digital effects are used to enhance the story and not overhelm it. A few kung fu battles start out good, but end much to quickly. And as for film-making quality it stands with the best of them, with some great camera angles and cinematography. That's about it.

Now the bad. The plot is a real mess. The acting isn't that good. Most of the actors are in 2 categories: 1. sleeping (Gordon Liu) or 2. hamming it up (lead bad guy). It has absoultely nothing in common with Sam Raimi's Evil Dead. The child actors here are awful. The wire-fu isn't even that impressive and just when it seems that the movie's plot begins to get going... it ends in a cliffhanger and that will piss you off. If we had any other kind of ending I would have added a star. Avoid this turkey!

SHAOLIN VS. LAMA

ShaolinvsLama
Originally uploaded by doctoraok.

A very typical of your Kung Fu Movies, where a guy named Ting in search of a Kung Fu Master become the hero of this story. After befriending a young Shaolin Monk, he sneaks into the temple to "learn Kung Fu". Typically in these stories is a crotchety old master who tells young Ting that his Kung Fu stinks and he'll never teach again, because his last pupil became the leader of the Flying Eagle Gang (a really bad guy). The plot nicely comes along to give us the usual Kung Fu story conventions: 1. A montage of Kung Fu training, 2. A "You killed my master, and now I will get my revenge" fight at the end of the movie.

Unfortunately, the quailty of the film-making is pretty rotten. Filmed in TV aspect ratio and often cropped, the picture could really use a re-mastering treatment. Most of colors are washed out. Is it just me, or do the actors fill their mouths full of water, so when they get hit in slow motion, a huge spray of "spit" comes out of them? This takes away from the good choreography and "realism" a bit. The dubbing in English isn't that bad and a hilarious game of "keep away" with a roasted chicken is worth watching this alone.

The acting isn't bad, and the story moves along nicely. This is a decent film with some nice kung fu choreography, a bit of humor and no real surprises here. If you like these movies anyway it is reccommended.

WARRIORS TWO

Warriorstwo
Originally uploaded by doctoraok.

Warriors Two, a Sammo Hung film from 1978 is somewhat of a gold standard for 70's Kung Fu films of that era. The Wing Chun style never looked better and I cannot remember a better martial arts training sequence in a long time. The plot is pretty basic: "You killed my master, now I get revenge"-type of story. Sammo can't resist adding some great comedy bits in here and often resembles the John Belushi of Kung Fu. His fight with a goofy looking corrupt goverment officer is good for more than a few laughs. However, most of the movie is played straight and Sammo has many ways of making a fight interesting, never routine. The movie also has lots of red paint (oops, I mean "blood") and showcases lots of great fights. The acting is decent with just enough comedy relief thrown in. There are a few minor plot inconsistencies, (Like, why the bad guys who see Sammo pretending to be dead, let him escape) but I am willing to overlook most of them. If this film doesn't turn you into a big fan of Samo Hung, I don't know what will.

As far as film quality, this Fox/Fortune Star remastered print looks gorgeous in a wide screen format. Excellent colors and clarity make this a visual treat. Sammo also knew the best way to showcase the great choreography with excellent film composition. This is an excellent movie, not to be missed.