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Who likes Kungfu flicks?

direstraits

Well-Known Member
What are you favourite kungfu/fighting flicks? You've seen them, I'm sure, but which ones really kicked (your) butt?

Mine are:
Iron Monkey - stars Donnie Yen. Wonderful flick with beautiful cheography. One of Donnie's best films
Once upon a time in China I, II & III - stars Jet Li. It is my opinion that he makes the best kungfu flicks - while he was still in Hongkong, that is. This trilogy is a prime example of high-flying action.
Fong Sai Yuk I & II - stars Jet Li. Hilarious.
Meal on Wheels - stars Jackie Chan and his kungfu pals, Yuen Biao and Samo Hung. I love it when these 3 get together.
Police Story 5 - Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh. On site in Malaysia!
Fist of Fury - Bruce 'The Man' Lee. What else to say? I also liked the update by Jet Li. But then again, I like almost everything by Jet.

Let's hear it!

ds
 
I think I must be completely into the cheese factor. I like:

Five Deadly Venoms
Magnificent Ruffians
Daredevils
Dirty Kung Fu
Snake in the Monkey's Shadow
Magnificent Butcher
Five Shaolin Masters
Executioners from Shaolin
Drunken Master
Buddhist Fist
Born Invincible

I don't know if Dragon Inn qualifies as "kung fu" or not. It's one of the few "wire-fu" movies that I like.
 
i just know bruce's movies and the bad knock-offs. i really liked the blind swordsman series and movies from japan, about zatoichi. but those are samurai movies.
 
how about just martial arts flics? kung fu the series, fists of the white lotus, shaolin master killer, five fingers of death, street fighter & the return of street fighter, all the bruce lee films (especially enter the dragon... that's my fav), and executioners of shaolin. some of the american kung fu cinema from the '80s is pretty cewl, like the last dragon. I find all the slang words they use hilarious. like twenty per sentence. sho 'nuff, the shogun of harlem is one of my favorite characters ever. but my all-time favorite is the american ninja. I don't mean to imply he's as badass as bruce lee or sonny chiba. those guys would waste him. gordon liu, too. and he doesn't have a particularly cool voice, either... but the one thing the american ninja does have that none of those other guys do is, he always fights fair.
 
bobbyburns said:
how about just martial arts flics? kung fu the series,
I have the first season DVD box set. I always loved that show. Bruce Lee was considered for the series but they didn't feel he fit the role. I would agree.
 
the martial arts in kung fu weren't the greatest, but, yeah, david carradine fit the role of caine perfectly. I like the way he really squinted his eyes to look chinese in the first season. it was cewl. I think he still did it to a lesser degree in the second and third seasons, just not quite as much.
 
In the interview for the series DVDs I am sure he stated that he did not actually have any martial arts training. In another interview, for Kill Bill I think, he states that he didn't know Asian martial arts.

He played the role of Caine perfectly. I don't think Bruce Lee could have come across so meek and humble.
 
Oh yeah, bobby, you've got it right. I suppose martial arts flicks is what I meant - kungfu is a little too limiting.

I didn't really see a lot of Kungfu the series, but I remember not liking it very much. I also remember it was scheduled on TV just before a cartoon series I always watched, and I can't wait for Kungfu to get on with it so that I can watch my cartoon.

I always thought that stuff like shaolin master killer and master executioner shaolin is so not in the spirit of the shaolin, as the monks were all about peace in mind and soul, and martial arts as a form of mental discipline and less of a weapon.

american ninja stars that michael something chap, isn't it?

How about The Best of the Best movies? The first one is actually one of the best non-Asian made martial arts flick I've seen. The later ones are just a show of wanton violence, with cracking bones rupturing through skin and all that stuff.

Ebolamonkey, Taichi Master was also good, a simple derivitive of a Jet Li formula that works. Michelle Yeoh was good in that one.

Jenn, what other samurai movies out there that you think warrants attention?

Didn't anyone here see Iron Monkey? It was released in the States dubbed not too long ago, I believe, and topped the charts.

ds
 
I actually didn't like Iorn Moneky! I know LOTS of people love that movie and I am sure it's a good one, but it just didn't do it for me. I tend to like my martial arts movies a bit more different.

I'm looking forward to Kung Fu Hustle! Have you seen that one Dire? :)
 
Awww, the girl in the Iron Monkey is beautiful! (yeah, wonderful reasoning, I know). I loved the fight scenes in Iron Monkey - I consider the film one of the better martial arts movies.

There is a word we use for chinese martial arts flicks that is escaping me at present, but I will be back with it.

Nope, but my sis said it sucked. And since I thought Shaolin Soccer sucked too, I believe her.

Let me know how it goes for you if you catch it.

Anyone seen The Bride with the White Hair?

ds
 
The movies I like are the ones that are really over the top! I like people flying around, getting kicked through walls, shooting flame out of their fits. If they have a huge sword or weapon then even better!

Having said that, House of flying daggers and Hero are totally out of this world in any genre you like to think of!

Dire, what about "So Close" have you seen that? Although, that one is not over the top at all. It's about some female assassins!
 
Yeah, I've seen So Close. I love the girl who played the cop - she's an accomplished actress who sings charttoppers and speaks fluent English. Karen Mok.

The fight scenes in that movie is very cool, but the story is a little weak. I enjoyed it though.

You like wirefu? So you enjoyed Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon?

Lots of people here didn't like Hero - but I did. I liked the colour play and I really liked the cinematography. But the Jet vs Donnie Yen (the guy with the spear) fight scene was soooo disappointing! I had expected fireworks for that one...

I have House of Flying Daggers in my house now. I will watch it over the weekend, I think.

ds
 
People didn't like Hero there? That is very surprising :)

Yes, like Crouching Dragon! It's a really good movie.

The actress in So Close who plays the cop was damn good! I was really impressed by her. I haven't seen her before that movie!
 
I don't know of anyone here who really liked Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Those whom I've spoken to share what I myself felt, that Michelle and Chow Yun Fatt have acted in far better movies than this one, and for this to be a showcase of a martial arts flick to the western cinema felt a little strange. And the wire work was too irritating for me! :)

ds
 
Ok lol I kind of like Kung Fu movies, but not all.

Once Upon a Time in China are not bad.

I've been wanting to see 'Dragon Gate Inn' as the new look Wire-Fu kind of does it for me :)

Haven't seen Shaolin Soccer but Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow) is brilliantly funny.

Seven Swords is good but really needs the sequel.

14 Blades is also good.
 
Shaolin Soccer is ugh. Lots of people like it though. I thought it was just too nuts. Kungfu Hustle much better. In Hustle, most of the actors who played the inhabitants of the apartments were specifically cast - they are actually actors from old Hong Kong kungfu films. Much like Tarantino's casting of Gordon Liu in the Kill Bill films - Gordon was a bona fide kungfu actor back in the day.

Donnie Yen has a rash of films over the past several years, but the absolute best is SPL, and it's not even wuxia.
 
Shaolin Soccer is ugh. Lots of people like it though. I thought it was just too nuts. Kungfu Hustle much better. In Hustle, most of the actors who played the inhabitants of the apartments were specifically cast - they are actually actors from old Hong Kong kungfu films. Much like Tarantino's casting of Gordon Liu in the Kill Bill films - Gordon was a bona fide kungfu actor back in the day.

Donnie Yen has a rash of films over the past several years, but the absolute best is SPL, and it's not even wuxia.

You are talking to the informed LOL but yeah the information helps you appreciate the movie more.

Kung Fu Hustle has many odes to yesteryear in its tropes. The whole 'buddha palm' style and and and ... if you know what the references are, it makes it that much better.

Ditto with Kill Bill - things like the stairs at Shaolin that featured in SO many Kung Fu flicks - the scene is lost if you a. don't recognise them b. don't know where they are.
 
You *are* informed indeed! I'm beyond impressed. And I better not find out you stay in Hong Kong and are secretly laughing at me. You must start recommending me more stuff to watch.

I've not picked up any of the old kungfu classics, I must say, and the oldest I've done are the Drunken Master bits from Jackie Chan. Old Michelle Yeoh stuff where she kicked ass alongside Cynthia Rothrock, remember her? Those days my heroes were Jackie, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung. And country woman Yeoh, of course.
 
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