stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow!
Archive Page 2
i am going to really try to turn this into one of the best blogs on the net, and I am looking for all kinds of content, so if you have articles, reviews, links or anything else you want to share, just email me at kungfuaddict@rocketmail.com or make a post.
thanks!
DIRECTOR
• Lo Lieh
CAST
• Gordon Liu
• Johnny Wang
• Lo Lieh
• Kara Hui
• Lin Hui-huang
• Hsiao Hou
• Sheng Hsien
• Ching Chu
• Ching Miao
• Yeung Ching-ching
Background: For me this is one of the all time classics. The first time I saw this film was actually alot later than I saw many of the other classic Shaw Brothers movies. While I saw most of the classics in the 80’s, this one I didn’t see for the fist time until 1996. At that time I was in a desperate search for kung fu movies and they were simply not available where I lived.
I got the bright idea to just take whatever few kung fu movies that were at the video store and write to the address of the company on them. No one replied except one. I forget the name of the company but they emailed me a catolog that to me was a gold mine. Fists of the white lotus was the first dvd I ordered. It came on a very low quality VHS. Nevertheless it was one of the best kung fu movies I ever saw.
It has one of my all time favorite openings, using alot of slow motion and freeze frame.
Pros: A lot of great action scenes using a variety of bare fists and weapons. Great characters, especially the villian played by Lo Lieh (who also directed) who played one of the all time greatest kung fu villians. Gordon Liu the master killer himself with one of his all time best preformances. And the nice looking chick Yeung Jing-jing who whips some ass.
Of course Johnny Wang who is the bad guy is every movie ever made it seems. Johnny Wang vs Gordon Liu:
Cons: A little corny at some parts. The whole “Embroidery kung fu” training sequence was a bit corny, but executed well in the end fight. Could have cut out about 5-10 minutes of slow parts.
Bottom Line: All time classic, must own.
Feedback: What is your view? If this is not a must own for you, what is?
Here is the original trailer:
12
Sep
08
Why do you like Kung fu movies?
I was asked this question the other day so I took the time to think about it. Each person is going to have a different answer.
For me I guess a substantial part of it is nostalgia from when I was a kid. I remember watching black belt theatre on Saturday afternoon in the 80’s. I always enjoy finding things like movies that I watched as a kid and watching them now to see if they give me the same rush or feeling.
While many things do not carry over into adulthood, I find kung fu movies do very well. I guess that is because of the other substantial part of them and that is the absolutely kick a** action. For movies that are 30-40 years old, they hold up quite well even in 2008 when it comes to action. Kung fu movies are the roots of alot of the modern action films. Some of the greatest action directors of all time like John Woo got their start in kung fu movies.
Another thing about kung fu movies is that they have cache up the ying yang. I don’t know what it is about the whole dubbing thing, but what on the surface is corny, I think is actually pretty cool. I find that I like to watch modern foreign movies in their original language, and I thought I would like to with old school kung fu movies. But I think I prefer the English dubbing and I think its because of nostalgia.
While I don’t dislike original language with English subs, I find its just a lot different. One of the reasons Kid with the Golden Arm is one of my all time favorites has to do with the horrible dubbing. Don’t ask me to make sense of it, it just is what it is.
Original language just does not portray the same thing as when you see a chinese dude say “Damn you, you bastard!” in an English accent. That’s priceless. Its so priceless that some DJ’s have made skratch records with some of these samples, so i am not the only one.
Well thats me. What about you, why do you like kung fu movies?
If you are trying to track down your favorite movies from back in the day, I have some ideas that will hopefully help you in your journey. Fortunately for you this is the best time in the history of kung fu movies as far as what is available on the market.
If you have been a fan for a number of years you will remember the days of tape trading, or having to tape your favorite movies off the tv if and when they came on. There were years when having a phat collection of kung fu movies was an unattainable dream. Now that can be possible. I can say that because for the most part the majority of kung fu movies from yesteryear have been released on DVD. In fact some have been remastered and look better than ever. If you have never seen a remastered kung fu movie, you are in for the shock of your life.
So how can you go about finding all your favorites? The first thing I recommend is making a list of the titles you can remember. Even if you dont remember the entire title, if you write down your best recollection, you may be able to either email a dvd seller or post your information on a blog or forum to get your answer. Feel free to post any on my blog.
Now what if you cant remember the title at all? Well, in that case, as funny as it may sound, you can just write what you remember from the movie. I have many times emailed sellers or posted on web forums something like “hey, anyone remember a movie where this guy got his butt kicked by a white haired old kung fu master, and then met an old man who trained him and made him tie a boulder to his back and do push ups? And also would not let him eat rice until he completed his training for the day? And then got good enough to get revenge?”
You’d be surprised how if you ask enough people, someone will likely know what movie you are talking about. I would say that I have found every movie I can remember as a kid so its possible to get the ones that you just have a faint memory of.
You can also look to see if any of the dvd sellers on the net have trailers included in their listings. Also, a great resource is youtube. If you just type in “shaw brothers” you will come up with a bunch of stuff that cool people have uploaded and shared with us.
Another way is to look at the various dvd sellers on the internet and see if they have trailer compilations. That is a dvd with a bunch of different movie trailers of old school kung fu movies. Another resource is if you look on the internet to the various fan sites that review kung fu movies. It might be overwhelming to try to read all the different reviews, so in that case you might prefer youtube or the asking method.
Whatever you decide to do I wish you luck in your search. Feel free to ask me any questions about the titles you are looking for and I will be happy to help you try to figure out what movie are are trying to identify.
27
Oct
07
Hall of Fame: Avenging Eagles
i wouldn’t argue with you if you proclaimed this to be the greatest kung fu movie of all time
be honest, the first time you saw Hard Boiled you wanted to see this two fight again, even if Lo Meng was in it for a minute and got owned.
27
Oct
07
Classic Ending: Brave Archer 3
this may be one of the best endings of all time
10
Oct
07
Ti Lung in his most bad ass roll
He was a badass in Duel of the Iron Fist, but I think if they had a fight, the Convict Killer would win.
Kung Fu Addict 