Enter the Fat Dragon (1978) July 16, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 1970s films , add a commentDirector: Sammo Hung Main Cast: Sammo Hung; Peter Yang; Luk Chu-Sek; Leung Kar-Yan; Lee Hoi-Sang; Lam Kin-Ming; Ankie Lau Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Fung Ming Motion Picture Co.
Rotund swine-handler, country bumpkin and Bruce Lee fanatic Lung (Sammo Hung) comes to Hong Kong to help out at his uncle’s street cafe, where he inadvertently causes more trouble than he’s worth. Throw in a counterfeiting gang, a disturbed Mr Big with some issues of his own and a trio of “international” fighter bodyguards and you have Enter the Fat Dragon.
The only real criticism you can make of Enter the Fat Dragon is that it could have been even more fun if a little more effort had been put into it. The plot is a little random, but everything else is so much fun it’s positively infectious. In an age where Bruceploitation movies were still being churned out on a production line, this parody is a breath of fresh air.
Actually, parody is not quite the right word – it’s not a straight send up of Lee’s movies (although most are referenced at some point) but rather a loving homage. Sammo’s facial expressions are spot on as he imitates the Little Dragon throughout the film and ironically does some of the best impressions I’ve seen of the man. The character of Lung is one of Sammo’s more likeable creations; a country bumpkin who tries not to be gullible but always ends up being taken advantage of.
The humour for the most part is some of the best you’ll find in Hong Kong films from this period, and there are many comic set pieces that deliver the chuckles. Straight-faced Roy Chow is an obvious highlight, as well as a bizarre turn by Peter Kwan as the villainous but troubled Professor Pai. The usual sight gags and misunderstandings are all here but delivered in such a way as to be entertaining despite the predictability of it all. One memorable gag sees Kao (Luk Chu-Sek), after being lured into the underworld, take Sammo on a taxi ride. However, Sammo doesn’t get in the car and has to chase the cab on foot, periodically catching up with Kao who is oblivious to the situation and keeps up a steady steam of dialogue with the increasingly out of breath Sammo. Another highlight occurs when Sammo takes on a “real” Bruce Lee-alike in a film studio – an unusually surreal scene as two men take the guise of Lee to fight each other.
Sammo’s fight choreography is perhaps not as polished as it would become in the 80s but the film does not suffer as a result and there are many highlights. Frequent Sammo collaborator Leung Kar-Yan appears as a henchman as does a blacked-up Jim Kelly-esque Lee Hoi-Sang. The appearance of an actor in black face is sure to raise eyebrows these days but I think the motives were pretty sound here and there doesn’t seem to be any obvious negative stereotyping. In reality, it wouldn’t fool anyone and is actually pretty funny. Also look out for an appearance by Yuen Biao, Mars and Mang Hoi as stuntmen in the opening sequence.
Enter the Fat Dragon is one of the increasing number of Sammo’s films that are difficult, if not impossible, to get hold of these days. Although not as obvious a career highlight as films like Millionaire’s Express, Pedicab Driver or Wheels on Meals, it is still a hell of a lot of fun and should be seen by anyone with a fondness for the portly pugilist. Oh, and if you can track down the original English dub, that’s worth looking at too if only for one deadpan line delivered on behalf of Roy Chow that had me laughing out loud with its dryness.
Sister Street Fighter: Hanging By a Thread (1974) July 2, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Action, 1970s films , add a commentDirector: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi Main Cast: Etsuko Shihomi, Masashi Ishibashi, Yasuaki Kurata Territory: Japan Production Company: Toei
The next Sister Street Fighter film off the Toei production line is Sister Street Fighter: Hanging By a Thread (a title that doesn’t seem to have any real relevance, incidentally). Already, you can see the formula: beloved relation/friend of Koryu kidnapped or working against their will, heinously evil crime lord with crazy henchmen, fights galore and sexploitation. What sets Koryu off this time is the murder of a police detective in Hong Kong, who kept evidence in a role of microfilm in his false eye (no, seriously!).
The villain in this instalment is a diamond smuggler, who uses young ladies to hide diamonds in their…well, let’s just say these ladies are sitting on a lot of money. He collects martial artists to do his dirty work, and employs them to eliminate Koryu when she starts to get too close to his operation. And if the bad guys weren’t weird enough in the original, the ante has been upped in this episode with the inclusion of an alcoholic parrot-wearing freak of a doctor who I couldn’t tell was wearing blackface or not.
Toei certainly liked to recycle their actors a lot, and a staple of this series seems to be recurring performers returning to play different roles. Masashi Ishibashi returns as lead thug in a role almost identical to the last movie. A real shot in the arm, though, is the inclusion of Yasuaki Kurata as a kind of rock star-styled thug for hire.
You are probably thinking it all sounds a little too similar to Sister Street Fighter, and you’d be absolutely right – and it suffers from much the same problems. The script is unengaging and derivative of its predecessor (most of the time, this feels like nothing more than a remake of the first film) and the same shaky camerawork gets in the way of the fight scenes. However, I enjoyed this sequel slightly more than the original and this is mainly down to Yasuaki Kurata’s involvement. His character is the only one to have any kind of depth (although I’m using the word “depth” very loosely) and his abilities are astounding. I’d go as far as to say he’s never looked better.
Etsuko Shihomi also has some great fight scenes, and again handles the nunchaku like a demon. Plus there’s more sleazy 70s sexploitation in this as well as some nasty gore and torture scenes. That, coupled with the bizarre plot of the film and the freaky characters makes me doubt the sanity of the makers of these films. But that’s always the appeal of these crazy 70s actioners.
Sister Street Fighter (1974) July 1, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Action, 1970s films , add a commentDirector: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi Main Cast: Etsuko Shihomi, Masashi Ishibashi, Emi Hayakawa, Sonny Chiba Territory: Japan Production Company: Toei Company
I’ve been quite looking forward to seeing this series of films since seeing Etsuko Shihomi in action in the relatively weak final entry of the Street Fighter series. She was, for me, easily the best thing in that film, and I was wondering how she’d fare given top billing.
The usual problem of poor scriptwriting get things off to an inauspicious start when we see a stock shot of Hong Kong followed by a cop telling Koryu Lee (Shihomi) that her brother has gone missing in action while investigating a drug lord’s island fortress. I really find these films that don’t have plotting “foreplay” a real grind. There’s no introduction of character, no preamble, and basically no way for the viewer to engage in the film. The first part of the film is a collection of scenes and fights without much cohesion or meaning.
This is more or less countered, however, by the craziness of events later on. It’s evident the scriptwriters were more than a little familiar with Enter the Dragon, and Sister Street Fighter is a wacked-out version of the Bruce Lee film with a plethora of screen crazies. It’s hard to decide to whom the title of weirdest character should go, but I’d have to settle for a whole team – the Quentin Tarantino-sounding Amazon 7, who wear leopard skins, boxing boots, fishnets and white masks (well, presumably if you go out dressed like that you’re not going to want people to know who you are). There must be something weird in the air at the moment throwing all these Amazon women at me (see Fantasy Mission Force), but I’ll tell you one thing for sure – one of this gang is definitely not a woman!
Street Fighter stalwart Masashi Ishibashi appears as does Sonny Chiba himself, although neither in their previous roles. Sonny Chiba’s appearance here seems mainly to endorse the new franchise, but his scenes are some of the best of the film. That’s not to say Shihomi can’t handle herself well, it’s just that some of the fight scenes are so badly shot it draws the attention away from the action. When the camera’s wobbling around so much, it’s hard to focus on what’s going on. However, there are some gems here, including a blistering nunchaku duel that ups the adrenaline level nicely. But this doesn’t seem to quite resolve itself as the scene ends rather abruptly and her foe doesn’t show up again.
When Koryu discovers her brother’s being used as a pharmaceutical guinea pig, along with the plan to smuggle drugs in wigs (and the less said about that the better), she decides to storm the drug lord’s fortress and this starts the big climax. Again, while competent (if a little bizarre and fragmented), the culmination isn’t quite as exciting as I’d hoped, with a very strange wirework finale. What I really loved though was the brilliant show-stopping back-to-front man (fans will know what I mean) that was hilariously sick.
It definitely gets more fun as it goes on, and the menagerie of weirdoes on display will ensure it will get an occasional viewing, but Sister Street Fighter is all surface and no depth, and feels every inch the speedy production it was.
Chokugeki! Jigoku-ken (The Executioner) (1974) June 12, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Comedy, Action, 1970s films , 3 commentsDirector: Teruo Ishii Cast: Sonny Chiba; Makoto Satô; Eiji Go; Yutaka Nakajima Territory: Japan Production Company: Toei Production Ltd
It’s been a long time since I’ve done a Sonny Chiba film on here. Although it seems like I’ve not been watching them, I have in fact been on a steady diet of Chiba since watching The Street Fighter way back on my first post for this blog. I’ve bought so many boxed sets of Chiba’s films that I now have no less than three copies of Killing Machine, two copies of Bullet Train, and two versions of Virus (which isn’t really a Sonny Chiba film but that doesn’t stop companies including it).
No, the reason I’ve not been writing about them is because so many of them (apart from the Street Fighter films) leave me completely cold. I think it’s something to do with the storylines and the scripts – something always feels a little “off” to me. Chokugeki! Jigoku-ken is no different – a disgraced police officer recruits a bunch of criminals to break up a drug ring – but at least it does have a certain flair.
Chiba is Ryuichi Koga, a trained ninja – although his “backstory” consists of a few short generic training sequences before we see him as a man, leaving his master. Along for the ride is a ruthless assassin (Makoto Satô), an overly horny murderer awaiting execution on death row (Eiji Go) and, to provide eye-candy, Street Fighter co-star Yutaka Nakajima.
The first indication that something’s slightly amiss is the introduction of Makoto’s character, which is borrowed almost directly from the introduction of Lee Van Cleef’s character in The Good the Bad and the Ugly. Well, if you’re going to borrow, I suppose you borrow from the best. However, Ryuichi then springs Eiji Go out of prison with the exact same chewing-gum-in-a-lock gag from obscure Hong Kong movie Interpol 009, which I just happened to have watched a few weeks ago. Odd.
Although the characters are strange (the horny ex-prisoner is particularly annoying and I’m still not sure why Yutaka Nakajima was in the film other than for her considerable beauty) and the story a little dull, it is a cut above a lot of similar fare as it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The comedy, although lowbrow, is actually pretty funny most of the time.
And then you’ve got the action sequences, which Chiba handles as well as you’d expect. They’re the highlight of the film, of course, and in that respect Chokugeki! Jigoku-ken is a winner, with fights breaking out on a regular basis. One pleasant surprise is the inclusion of Kurata Yasuaki, who will be instantly recognisable to every Hong Kong action film fan on the planet. Mr Kurata was the go-to guy for decades when Hong Kong filmmakers wanted a Japanese martial artist, and he even got to play non-villains once or twice. His place in Hong Kong cinematic history is secured with appearances in films such as Heroes of the East, Millionaire’s Express and Fist of Legend, and apparently he’s a really nice bloke too. I don’t know why, but I was actually surprised to see him in a Japanese film!
If you take away the fights, though, you can’t help but think this is all routine stuff. I know great scriptwriting isn’t the thing most people associate with action movies (especially from this part of the world) but it would have been nice to have something interesting to hang the fight sequences on other than some (admittedly funny) comic moments and quite a lot of gratuitous nudity.
This is definitely another example of a great film if you’re in a very undemanding mood. Just don’t expect cinematic gold. Oh, and by the way, does anyone want to buy a couple of copies of Killing Machine?
The Big Boss (1971) May 3, 2008
Posted by Cal in : 1970s films, Kung Fu , 4 commentsDirector: Lo Wei Cast: Bruce Lee; James Tien; Han Ying-Chieh Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Golden Harvest
Cheng Chiu On (Bruce Lee) goes to Thailand to help out in an ice factory. Trouble breaks out in the form of a labour dispute, but Cheng cannot retaliate because of a promise he made to his mother not to get involved in fights. The situation turns sinister, though, when Cheng realises that the ice-packing plant is actually a cover for a drug distribution operation.
Reviewing The Big Boss seems a bit pointless as, let’s face it, everyone’s already seen it. However, it’s been so damn long since I’ve seen the film that I felt compelled to write about it after seeing it again. There are numerous reasons why I don’t watch this one too often, but a couple of reasons stand out. The first is that there doesn’t seem to be a satisfactory version available. The Hong Kong Legends DVD of a few years back had a Cantonese track, which I thought was a step in the right direction, but gone was the funky theme tune and incidental music. In its place was something that seemed really out of place, including, in places, the use of a section of Pink Floyd’s Time. Now, don’t get me wrong, I really love Pink Floyd, but I don’t think it fits a Bruce Lee movie, especially seeing as how it was recorded a good couple of years after the film was shot. The other main reason is that, well, I just don’t like the movie very much.
To solve the audio conundrum, I did a thing you’ll probably never hear from me again – I watched the English dub. It was worth it to hear the theme tune and all the old music again, and I found listening to the corny voices a bit of a novelty – especially when the kindly old uncle slips out a “why, if I was ten years younger…!” when appraising young Mei Lin (Maria Yi). Lecherous old devil! Anyway, I’m not sure if this was the old dub that used to grace the old Rank videos as I seem to recall a place where James Tien was talking to the manager of the ice factory and their dialogue getting so muddled the voice actors ended up swapping characters. If you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean! And why does the Boss’s son ask to borrow 2,000 Yen from his father? I thought this film was set in Thailand, not Japan!
It is a bit like heresy criticising a Bruce Lee film, but The Big Boss has not aged very well. This is partly down to the curious mismatch of cinematic styles used in the movie. This was 1970, and Hong Kong action movies were undergoing a radical change away the Wuxia Pian style of action involving trampoline jumps and feats of superhuman agility towards a more realistic depiction of fighting. The Big Boss sits uncomfortably between two stools, still using some of the old cinematic tricks while building on the foundations laid by The Chinese Boxer and Vengeance! and the result occasionally looks messy and not a little silly.
The plot is not terribly interesting either. Basically, it involves a drug operation fronted by a ice manufacturing plant (until I watched this film, I had no idea some people actually made ice for a living!) and workers go missing periodically when they’re knocked off by the boss or his henchmen. Cue lots of concerned co-workers running about as one looking for their missing friends and so forth. The acting’s pretty atrocious, too – I love the twin gasps of shock when the manager explains to the two naive workers what the factory actually produces, and look out for a very young Lam Ching-Ying and his attempt at portraying “thoughtful contemplation” in one scene.
But the main problem is the fact that Bruce Lee does nothing for the first 43 minutes. Until then, this is really James Tien’s movie, and decent though the guy is (here his character seems to be a kind of saint-in-waiting), who really wants to see a James Tien movie? This is done partly to tease the audience. The hype over the first Bruce Lee movie was immense and so instead of saturating the movie with Bruce, he is dished out sparingly. Instead of rushing into fights, Lee looks mournfully at his mother’s pendant and remembers his promise to not get into trouble. Of course, the pendant eventually shatters and Lee feels this breaks his obligation to the promise – and he finally springs into action.
After Lee loses his pendant, it’s like the film loses a lead weight around its neck and things definitely take off. It’s just damn shame that it took so long, though. The film’s action is surprisingly brutal for the time, even compared to the glossier Shaw Brothers films. The tone and content is sometimes puzzling, though – even now I’m not sure if that part where Bruce knocks one of the gang through the wooden wall, leaving a perfect, cartoon-like outline behind is supposed to be funny or not.
It’s things like that that definitely draw attention to Lo Wei’s abilities as a director. While there are moments of pure bone-headedness (remember the death of the prostitute, who evidently doesn’t see her assassin coming?), there are touches of subtlety you wouldn’t really associate with the director. I like the moment early in the movie when Bruce nonchalantly steals a glance at Maria Yi, only to find that she is already looking at him, leading him to look uncomfortably away. Also, the scene that juxtaposes Lee’s sumptuous meal with the boss and his apparent “selling out” with the simple fare of the honest workers is surprisingly good and probably allegorical of something I can’t quite put my finger upon. There are also some scenes of effective tension later on when Lee discovers the slaughter of his comrades.
I enjoyed The Big Boss a lot more than I expected this time around, and a lot of that is down to my choice of watching it with the original music. Watching it now, as a UK citizen, it’s ironic that the film seems the least “complete” of the Bruce Lee films now as it was by far the least censored in this territory in the bad old days when even muttering the word “nunchaku” was likely to result in a cut. While it is definitely not a great movie, I can at least understand why it was such an exciting moment in Hong Kong cinema. One thing I’ll never understand, though, is why the bad guys chop up the bodies of the workers and encase them in ice instead of just disposing of them so they can’t be found by a vengeful Bruce…
Heaven and Hell (1978) February 2, 2008
Posted by Cal in : Horror, 1970s films, Kung Fu, Wacko, Supernatural , 3 commentsDirector: Chang Cheh Cast: Lee I-Min, Sun Chien, Phillip Kwok, Chiang Sheng, Lo Meng, Fu Sheng Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
A man and woman are kicked out of the Court of Heaven on trumped up charges of bringing shame onto the Kingdom. Reincarnated as a taxi driver, Xin Ling (Lee I-Min) courageously takes on and kills a gangster harassing Chen Ding (Fu Sheng) and his sweetheart (Jenny Tseng), but is himself mortally wounded in the conflict. Now sent to hell, Xin Ling applies for leniency when the annual heavenly Buddha happens to appear pretty much as soon as he gets there. In another stroke of luck, the Venoms themselves are in hell and keen to get out, and the heavenly Buddha allows them all to fight their way out.
The more perceptive of my readership have probably noticed a leaning towards the “spooky” in my Hong Kong film viewings of late, and I’ve always had a bit of an interest in this film as it looked like a wacky bit of fun. The reality, though, is a film just a bit too out there for my tastes.
You can’t fault the film for being different. We start off in heaven in this three act film, a section which of course has a strong fantasy feel to it, and reminded me a little of the film Na Cha the Great. It soon becomes apparent that the first two sections of the film are just setting the scene for the “Hell” part as the “Heaven” section barely lasts ten minutes before switching to modern day Earth. The Mortal World is the most striking part of the film visually, which, for reasons unfathomable to me, is portrayed in a kind of theatrical way as a stage play complete with stylised sets and props (and a couple of musical numbers from Jenny Tseng which are surprisingly not too bad). Fu Sheng takes on a gang of dancers pretending to be thugs in a fight scene without sound effects of any kind and with visible lack of contact. It’s a very brave style choice, and definitely something I’ve not seen before. Unfortunately, I don’t think it really pays off. The film then confusingly switches to a more realistic, external setting for the encounter between Fu Sheng, Lee I-Min and the gang boss played by Kong Do.
The lion’s share of the screen time goes to the Hell sequence, but this is interspersed with flashbacks to various periods in the world’s history when the Venoms’ backstories are told. Hell itself is primarily made up of cheesy sets, cheesy costumes (Hell’s workers are kind of like human pigs) and ultra cheesy lighting. There are a few torture scenes and a little moralising along the way, but basically, the Hell sequence is just a prelude to the introduction of the Venoms and the film becomes a Kung Fu-fest from there on in. While the Venom stories are good, the whole film just descends into a fragmented mess and I couldn’t wait for the whole thing to finish.
You could walk in on Heaven and Hell at various points and think you’re watching a fantasy film, an avant-garde 70’s pop art piece, a comedy, a horror, a period Kung Fu flick, a modern day actioner and a musical variety show. With so many elements involved, it was sure to turn out badly, and Heaven and Hell was a real struggle for me to sit through. You’ll never see another film like it, but that’s meant more of a warning than a recommendation.
The Pirate (1973) November 21, 2007
Posted by Cal in : 1970s films, Kung Fu , 4 commentsDirector: Chang Cheh; Pao Hsueh-Li; Wu Ma Cast: Ti Lung; David Chiang; Tin Ching; Fan Mei-Sheng Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
Pirate Chang Pao-Chai (Ti Lung) springs a leak after an otherwise successful raid on a foreign ship. He goes ashore to get materials to patch his ship up, where he encounters corrupt Qing officials and poor, oppressed peasants. Being a good man at heart, he decides to help out and becomes an even bigger outlaw in the process.
Try and guess if you can spot what the problem with The Pirate is going to be from the plot synopsis above. No, I’m not saying it’s unimaginative and formulaic (although it is). That’s right – hardly any of it takes place at sea! Actually, I’d say there are fewer sea scenes than in that other pirate film that never was, Project A. Trouble is, though, that Project A didn’t suffer as a result. This does.
Things start off promisingly enough. There’s a battle between the pirates and a ship full of…erm…rather Chinese-looking Englishmen. The ships are great though, and there are some big explosions going on. However, land is always in sight, which does spoil the effect somewhat. It’s not piracy on the high seas so much as piracy in a bit of a bay somewhere. Never mind, I thought, maybe things will pick up later…
It’s always a welcome change to see Ti Lung take the starring role for once instead of David Chiang (who’s given a “guest starring” credit but does feature quite heavily). It seems like I’ve seen a million of these Ti Lung/David Chiang films, but in truth I’ve probably only seen about five-hundred-and-eighty-thousand or so. For this, Chang is “Jointly Director” (as it says in the credits) with Pao Hsueh-Li (who worked on many other Chang Cheh films in co-directing capacity) and jack-of-all-trades Wu Ma.
The three directors do not improve anything, and were probably only utilised to speed the process up to knock this out as quickly as possible. The story is a real letdown. Ti Lung as Chang is utterly unbelievable as a pirate when he comes ashore because he’s such a compassionate character and always looking out for the peasants, which seems totally at odds with the whole point of being a pirate. Things do improve toward the end when he starts beating up the bad guys, but it’s too little too late and can’t save the movie. When the film ends, we get a little epilogue which tells us that Chang Pao-Chai was a real person and what happened to him after the (highly fictionalised, I suspect) events depicted in the movie. Well, fancy that.
The only other notable element is Dean Shek. In one scene, he appears to be unaware he’s being filmed, and if you watch him later in the film he has a brief background action scene and it is blatantly obvious he hasn’t got a clue what he’s been asked to do and looks incredibly uncomfortable.
There are bucketfuls of historical epics from Chang Cheh during the early to mid 70’s, but I’d say this is probably the worst of the lot. For completists only.
Shaolin Wooden Men (1976) November 7, 2007
Posted by Cal in : 1970s films, Kung Fu , 4 commentsDirector: Chen Chi-Hwa Cast: Jackie Chan, Kam Kong, Doris Lung, Chiang Kam Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Lo Wei Motion Picture Co
A mute and underachieving Shaolin student (Jackie Chan) endures mistreatment and disdain by his contemporaries for his disability while the masters think he’s lazy and lacking in ability. He harbours a secret past: as a child, he saw his father assassinated, and has vowed to find the killer. One day, as he slaves away at the temple, he spots a secret cave within the grounds and investigates it to find a man chained to the walls. Living on scraps provided by the guards, the mute strikes up a friendship with the prisoner and trades extra food for Kung Fu lessons. He also gets some tuition from a Shaolin nun and a drunken monk, and soon he is skilful enough to take the ultimate graduation test – crossing a corridor lined with large wooden mechanical dummies that attempt to pummel the students back to the safety of the temple. Once released to the wide world the mute again meets his prisoner friend, who is now a free man, and seeks the killer of his father.
Back in the day when Hong Kong movies meant Jackie Chan movies and vice versa to me, I thought Shaolin Wooden Men was a pretty great film and certainly one of the best from his time with Lo Wei. A few hundred movies or so later, I have to admit my horizons have been broadened and the shine has been knocked off this particular nugget a little.
For a start, it’s a bit of a knock-off of 18 Bronzemen, which was released the same year and is quite a bit better than this even taking into account its own faults. Furthermore, well, it’s just a bit…naff. The villain (who I’m not going to reveal, just in case there is someone out there who can’t figure it out from my plot synopsis) is pure comic-book cliché and there’s a bizarre scene where a misunderstanding leads to him killing a family in front of Jackie and a restaurant worker (played by Chiang Kam, one of the few familiar faces amongst this nondescript cast). There’s an attitude of: “hey, you shouldn’t have done that. Oh well, never mind. Let’s bury them”. This odd behaviour runs throughout the film and everyone seems to be prone to it at one point or another.
The Shaolin Wooden Men of the title are but a minor part of the film and serve merely as a final test for each student to pass. There’s little sense of drama here, especially seeing as how Jackie takes the test mid way through the film and passes. Even if you’re not looking too carefully, you can see the head of one of the wooden “robots” lifting to give a glimpse of the performer beneath! I actually prefer the first half of the film, where Jackie is being tutored by the three very different masters. His relationship to the chained man is quite unusual for a film of this nature, and it’s a pity their ties to each other wasn’t explored more deeply. Jackie, in his only “silent” role, is surprisingly flexible without the dialogue and shows a decent range of facial expressions.
It’s the second half, where Jackie is let out into the world, that things get a bit haphazard. He is befriended by a family of restaurant workers (including the aforementioned Chiang Kam and Doris Lung, who would go on to feature in Half a Loaf of Kung Fu) and helps them out of a few scrapes with a gang of thugs (which includes a young Yuen Biao). From here on in, it’s a standard Kung Fu movie, and not a very memorable one at that. Jackie finds the killer of his father and the two duel to the death. The action choreography is passable and occasionally pretty good with Chan throwing in some flips and some other impressive acrobatics, but sadly there’s nothing to pump the adrenaline through the veins.
I find these days that I want to like Shaolin Wooden Men a lot more than I do. I guess I’m never going to think of it as fondly as I used to, but it still has a few things going for it. There’s a rousing score and the opening titles are really great. They show the Wooden Men in a series of still silhouettes (even though you can actually see them moving most of the time!), and the effect is quite striking. Maybe if they’d played more of a part in the film, it would have been better. There again, maybe not…
Daredevils (1979) October 28, 2007
Posted by Cal in : 1970s films, Kung Fu , 11 commentsThings have been a bit quiet here for a few weeks for a couple of reasons. I’ve been writing about some non-Hong Kong movies (such things do exist, apparently) and more recent HK releases over at Obsessed With Film. The other is a self-imposed abstention from Kung Fu films which has lasted a good three months. Such fasting is necessary sometimes to keep from becoming blasé about the subject, and it has built up my appetite for this particular film, which I’ve been looking forward to ever since seeing Crippled Avengers. Although I’m looking to get a more varied movie diet in the next few weeks (for example, I’m going to be looking at some more Johnny To films in the near future) I don’t want this blog to die completely and will continue to use it to promote Kung Fu films. So without further ado, I give you this evening’s feature presentation…
Director: Chang Cheh Cast: Phillip Kwok, Chiang Sheng, Wong Lik, Sun Chien, Lo Meng, Lu Feng Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
There’s a plot in here relating to an evil warlord that kills off one of our heroes’ family, but it’s all very strained and perfunctory. Actually, a lot of the movie is quite perfunctory and there’s a general half-arsedness (if that’s a real word) to it all.
A case in point is the whole middle section, which is flatter than an unusually flat pancake that’s been gone over by a steamroller. There’s an attempt at intrigue (I guess this was around the time the Chor Yuen films were popular) involving the sale of a non-existent weapons cache and it just falls on its face. And it seems to go on for months!
This is from the team behind the now legendary Five Venoms and the new love of my life, Crippled Avengers. The Venoms themselves are on fine form, and leap about with great aplomb. But Chang Cheh, as usual, shows he was utterly incapable of consistency. There’s also a worrying turn towards comedy (again, another film that was doing great box-office around this time was Drunken Master) with some of the routines and the Venoms doing comedy just doesn’t feel right at all.
There are high points. Oh yes, there are high points. For example, for connoisseurs of the nunchaku this film is a must-see. We have a couple of blazing scenes involving the weapon, including the best with Lo Meng (who will forever be remembered as the Toad from Five Venoms) who is simply stunning with them. As well as this, the last fifteen minutes are action packed and very compelling.
I am not the type of fan who demands action all the way through a film (and often complain when presented with such), but the unevenness of Daredevils is a hurdle that is simply insurmountable. Were it not for the truly horrid attempt at being a second-rate thriller (and failing) and the lacklustre approach to the story and characterisation (we simply do not know enough about the characters or why they seem to be bonded to each other) there would be much to enjoy. Sadly, though, Daredevils misfires far too often to be truly enjoyable.
The Big Holdup (1975) September 29, 2007
Posted by Cal in : Thriller, 1970s films , add a commentDirector: Chor Yuen Starring: Danny Lee, Chen Kuan-Tai, Tin Ching Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
A gang of young robbers steal HK$5,000,000 as it is being transferred from a bank and get promptly ratted on by their boss, Maiguang (Tin Ching). Maiguang then, just as promptly, gets knocked off by his boss. The youngsters, now fugitives from the law, try to piece together what went wrong as they evade the law.
The Big Holdup is meant to be a taut crime thriller from veteran director Chor Yuen. The first half hour typifies exactly why I love Hong Kong cinema yet sometimes find it so frustrating – the pace never lets up for a second, and packs in so much energy for a full-length film in its own right. Unfortunately, as is quite often the case, this results in one hell of a confusing mess, as characters are introduced with scarcely a line of dialogue, people are casually bumped-off and betrayals are heaped on betrayals.
Thankfully, the second half hour calms down considerably and the film gets a chance to breathe. We find that each of the five fugitives have a good reason to turn from the path of the righteous into a life of crime (we hitherto couldn’t care whether they lived or died – another failing of the earlier act of the film). We have Chen Kuan-Tai as Ma Rulong, who, in a rare non-action role, actually plays an action film star who has fallen on hard times (the scene where he gets screwed over by his film studio is probably not far from the truth), Danny Lee as Jiuzai who just wants to feed his siblings away from their father who is psychotically addicted to cigarettes (that’s what it says in the subtitles, anyway). Elsewhere, we have the former racing driver whose wife has just six months to life but longs for a world cruise and a pair of brothers in trouble with the Triads.
After the backstories have been told, we come back to the present day and rejoin the characters as they fight for survival. The final half hour deals with each member’s varying fate.
If you can make it past the first half hour of this film you might find some enjoyment here, but generally The Big Holdup feels rather predictable. Incidentally, there is no “holdup” in this film, which I found rather disappointing; I was expecting a kind of early People’s Hero (which I hear is finally getting a DVD release soon). The directorial style seems a bit hackneyed as well now, with a lot of interior shots with overhead lights swinging dramatically where they don’t really have a need to swing at all. In any event, it’s unlikely you’re going to stumble on this film by accident, so avoiding it shouldn’t be a problem. If you do want to seek it out, it’s probable that you already know exactly what you’re getting.