Another attempt at a Shaw Brothers thread

[Brian N]

"Chen Ping is amazing, as she was in THE SEXY KILLER--does anything else in her body of work measure up?"

You might want to give Vengeful Beauty a shot - its a period martial arts piece so its missing the loving modern sleazy mindset of The Sexy Killer and Kiss of Death - but its still reasonable fun - basic revenge motif - not syphlis - just a dead husband this time - but she does get to duel a topless Yum Yum Shaw! I think the only two other films I have seen her in are Call Girls and The Girlie Bar - both so-so exploitation films without any of the gleeful mania of the previous ones mentioned.

[Don Guarisco]

THE DELINQUENT (1972) - ****

Another raging slice of stylized urban squalor from Kuei Chih Hung. This time, a troubled kid from the slums (Wang Chung) is caught between pleasing his tempramental dad (Lo Dik) and the promises of the high life offered by a high rolling gangster (Tung Lam) who has the worst intentions for our naive hero. The plot is predictable (also strangely reminscent of the Elvis vehicle KING CREOLE) and the film couldve been shortened by a good 5 to 10 minutes but the style and action overpower any such criticisms. Kuei Chih Hung trots out every crazy visual device he can think of and employs some fast cut editing worth of Giulio Questi, thus turning the prefab plot into an eye-popping succession of larger than life comic book imagery. Better yet, the street brawl-style fighting is exciting stuff (choreographers - Tong Gaai and Lau Kar Leung) and the film climaxes with a trio of brawls whose ever-increasing savagery and frenzied emotion will leave your jaw on the floor.

[Wostry Ferenc]

Originally Posted by Marshall Crist

WTF? You mean to tell me that they are actually going back and releasing a DVD of a VCD-only title?

nonono, what I meant was that they released it in sometimes in january-february (on vcd only).

[Mike T]

Originally Posted by Andras Hernadi

"it has become without a doubt one of THE most tedious, and useless, Asian themed forums on the 'net"

respect man, respect! Frankly, if You show me a better forum on HK-dvds I will pay your DDDHouse bills for two years.

In my own words...meh! Though there is the occasional infinitesimal granule of mildly diverting information imparted there, there is next to nothing there for me personally to generate much excitement over. But I've said it once before and I'll say it again: one man's trash is another man's treasure. In turn, each to own.

To be honest, I don't really feel there's any decent specialist HK, or Asian for that matter, DVD (or film) forums out there these days...they're all either mountains of poppycock populated by anal retentives and net nerds, largely with slim to negligible knowledge/understanding of the industry they're consistently criticising, or straddled with lost souls hopelessly pining for eras long past that will never return...

But that's just me and those are the reasons I no longer post on any of those forums. You obviously find worth there, and I won't knock You for that...afterall, it's a free medium...

[Marshall Crist]

Originally Posted by Brian N

"Chen Ping is amazing, as she was in THE SEXY KILLER--does anything else in her body of work measure up?"

You might want to give Vengeful Beauty a shot - its a period martial arts piece so its missing the loving modern sleazy mindset of The Sexy Killer and Kiss of Death - but its still reasonable fun - basic revenge motif - not syphlis - just a dead husband this time - but she does get to duel a topless Yum Yum Shaw! I think the only two other films I have seen her in are Call Girls and The Girlie Bar - both so-so exploitation films without any of the gleeful mania of the previous ones mentioned.

Thanks, but check this out. I did a search to see which of her Shaw films Celestial has released so far, and saw the title VENGEFUL BEAUTY--which I own and enjoyed. Just didn't make the connection as it was the first of her films I'd seen. Duh.

[Wostry Ferenc]

Cheng Ping is the sexiest Shaw starlet - the only one that looks like you can GRAB something on her! Like her face too, very hot.

Now then:

TALE OF A EUNUCH ** (out of 5)

Ouch. Other people will probably rate this film even lower, but I'm such a fan of DUKE OF MOUNT DEER, the novel, and the main protagonist, Wai Siu Bo, that I can't write off even a lesser adaptation like this one completely.

Now the most incoherent film I have ever seen is THREE SWORDSMEN (the new wave wuxia), but this comes close to that one. I can't even imagine how somebody unfamiliar with the DofMD novel will understand this. Whole chapters are over and done with in a minute. Wang Yu is not a great Wai Siu Bo, in fact, not even a good one - his performance is without intelligence, but WSB is a schemer, an extreme opportunist underdog, but you can't feel anything of that in Wang Yu's performance. Also, the filmmakers took HUUUUGE liberties in adapting the novel - it's a funny novel, but the adaptation is sometimes worse than a Wong Jing farce (and I like Wong Jing farces! - actually he made a very decent adaptation for TV called Duke of Mount Deer 2000 (and Dicky Cheung (yes, Dicky Cheung!) was excellent as Wai Siu Bo)) Fuggedaboutit...

[John Short]

What can you guys tell me about BAT WITHOUT WINGS? I've heard interesting things...plus the Gene Simmons looking dude on the cover seems kinda cool.

Btw, regarding KILLER CONSTABLE: I recently bought the dvd HEX and listed in the directors credits is KC, which is marked as available from Celestial. Hmmm...

[Marshall Crist]

Originally Posted by John Short

What can you guys tell me about BAT WITHOUT WINGS?

Have you seen the review at kungfucinema.com?

On April 12th Celestial is supposed to release something called INTRIGUE IN NYLONS. Well, I'M intrigued! Anyone know anything about this film?

[Wostry Ferenc]

Originally Posted by Marshall Crist

Have you seen the review at kungfucinema.com?

Well, as usual, I find kungfucinema's rating a bit too high... Bat Without Wings is a wuxia with horror elements, and as the case is with the Chu Yuan directed novel adaptations usually, it's adapted dreadfully. Seriously, after 2 years of Shaw releases, I find no joy in these tiring, confusing (and I'm a very clever guy! ), awfully scripted novel adaptations by Chu Yuan. They look great, but... you know... it's just bad storytelling. Those long-ass novels are just not fit to be told in an hour and a half - at least not like this.

(If the guy is working from a non-novel source, he can't be beaten, see Intimate Confessions..., for example.)

Also, I'm not sure any wuxia tale is benefitting from the "there's no fucking way you'll shoot outside this studio"-attitude... (the new wave did at least this right...)

[Ian Jane]

I'm going to make this one sticky so it doesn't drift away like the other ones have.

Watched Crippled Avengers the other day via the R3 Celestial disc, glad to see their audio remastering isn't as noticeable as it was on The Chinese Boxer which I also watched recently. The prints look gorgeous!

[Wostry Ferenc]

Cheers Ian.

[Ian Jane]

Sure thing. I'm still tempted by the cover art on Bat Without Wings.... I might need to place a DDD House order soon.

[Wostry Ferenc]

I'll just transport over my earlier reviews from the old threads:

* -worst
***** - best

DRAGON SWAMP ****

Surprisingly well directed wuxia (it's surprising because the director is Lo Wei), with an albeit sometimes silly, but very adventurous story, great swordfights, super sets and everybody's favorite Cheng Pei Pei. Day-by-day I start to love these 60s wuxias more and more (after a few Chu Yuan-Gu Long adaptations I had enough of the "double-crosses-for-the-sake-of-double-crosses" kind of wuxias).

THE FLYING GUILLOTINE 2 *****

While the first film was a very good (****) action film with an earnest subtext (how power corrupts men on every level, and how they deal with it - I especially liked how Ku Feng's character, the middle ranking official to the Emperor was not painted as a mindless brute at all, but as somebody who has problems with his conscience regarding the evil things he is ordered to do - the problematics of stress in a Shaw Bros film, who would have thought? ), the second film is an action inferno. This doesn't mean it lacks a story, on the contrary, it's quite a well written little tale of the Han underground against the usual evil Ching Emperor (played excellently by the ever present Ku Feng).

Literally, there is not a boring minute in the whole film, even the dialogue scenes are directed with the camera constantly moving, "attacking" the actors. It's like a 70s Michael Bay film! Hundreds of people die via swordfights, brawls and flying guillotine attacks - decapitations, mutilations galore -, and the blood flows like a river. A very-very intense film, with a furious finale!

And as usual with the best Shaw Bros films, only a few people know about it, or bothered to buy it.

(I have here the unofficial 3. part of the Flying Guillotine films, VENGEFUL BEAUTY, unopened (it's one of my x-mas gifts, see above one of my posts), and as I heard it's even more blood drenched (and sleazier!) then this one, so probably I'll like it even more!

THE VENGEFUL BEAUTY ***

I was expecting more. Based on some reviews/reports mentioning buckets of blood and tons of sleaze, a LOT more. This is a low budget, (granted) action packed, poorly choreographed, none the less entertaining sequel to the Flying Guillotine films, with a few memorable scenes (I can't recall another kungfu film with the heroine washing her bloody panties after a miscarriage, and there is half-naked swordfighting), but it's just not what I have been promised. Well, apparently kungfu fans and I have different ideas about the amount of gore and sleaze that really makes a film outrageous.

THE SWORD OF SWORDS *****

Best Shaw wuxia? Well, since there are several hundred films not releases yet, I can't say that, but is this the best of the released wuxias? Defenetly. Ching Siu Tung's dad is a master action director, the fights are Chang Cheh-bloody (but the film is *not* directed in the sloppy/goofy Chang Cheh way, thank god - some places note that this is a collaboration with him, but you can tell when he really *is* the director, and this is not one of those cases), and the characters are deeper than usual, my favorite is main villain Tien Feng, a fantastic actor who plays an obviously intelligent bad guy. Intimate Confessions... is still my favorite Shaw, but this comes a close second (well, it's a tie with Eight Diagram Pole Fighter).

[John Short]

Originally Posted by Marshall Crist

Have you seen the review at kungfucinema.com?

Thanks for pointing the way! I'll check them out.

[Wostry Ferenc]

The next few batches are going to be quite interesting actually for a wuxia/horror lover like myself: altough with time I grew tired of the Chu Yuan-Gu Long adaptations (because of bad writing and tiring, "double-crosses-for-the-sake-of-double-crosses" storylines), I curious about HEAVEN SWORD AND DRAGON SABRE 1-2 (april 17) because 1, it's Jin Yong adaptation, not Gu Long, 2, I'm a sucker for wuxia epics you can really dig yourself into. We'll see... The indoor sets really hurt these wuxias, they make them pretty claustrophobic actually, but I hope for the best.

March 31st's DEADLY SECRET is a wuxia by the director of MEN BEHIND THE SUN! Wow! Makes you curious also, especially that everyone's favorite Ric Meyers wrote this about it: "Director Mou Tun-fei came to international attention as director of the controversial Man Behind The Sun in 1988. But years prior, he was known for this unremitting tale of kung-fu sadism. Yueh Hua, co-star of Clan Of Amazons and Clans Of Intrigue, tears up the screen as a corrupt magistrate, so obsessed with finding a hidden treasure that he buries his daughter alive, setting off a frenzy of destruction."

FINGER OF DOOM comes out also on march 31st, "Pao Hsueh-li, the director of such popular pure kung-fu films as The Boxer From Shantung, created this critically acclaimed tale of the supernatural as well as swordplay. From its very first moment, when umbrella makers track a zombie burial party carrying a red coffin filled with a living dead heroine, you know you're in for something special. Mystery thrills, horror chills, and kung-fu spills await anyone fighting villainous Madame Kung Sun's "Finger of Doom." I wonder if this is as good as Ric is trying to sell it...