The Chinese Connection

 

(themoviedb.org)

FIST OF FURY-1972-Chen Zhen (Bruce Lee) seeks revenge for the death of his teacher. Within the first 20 minutes he beats a whole Japanese Bushido school. Unfortunately, the Japanese ransack Chen's school and beat everyone up. Chen is asked to leave Shanghai but instead becomes an elusive avenger, picking off the men responsible for his teacher's death. Suzuki (Riki Hashimoto), the evil Japanese master, wants Chen stopped. He hires a Russian strongman (Robert Baker; Lee's student and friend) but that doesn't work. Chen kills them all but not before most of his school is wiped out. 

Also with Lee's two THE BIG BOSS co-stars Maria Yi and James Tien and Nora Miao. In the US it was known as THE CHINESE CONNECTION and was once again written and directed by Lo Wei (who also appears as a police man). He and Lee didn't see eye to eye on everything and argued constantly. According to Jackie Chan who did some stunts for the film, he saw Lee and Wei nearly come to blows till Wei backed down. Raymond Chow again was the producer. 

FIST OF FURY was the highest grossing Hong Kong film ever, until it was topped by Lee's next film, THE WAY OF THE DRAGON.

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"This is What They Call Fate"

 

 (imdb)

ALONG COMES A TIGER-1977-Miracle Man (Tao Wong aka Don Wong who also produced), a mute Kung-Fu artist seeks revenge on The Black Dragon gang who murdered his father. Along the way he picks up a little kid (Kuang-Lung Chi) who's later captured by the Black Dragon leader (Tommy Lee; also the stunt coordinator). The last line of the movie is spoken by the mute. Directed by Wu Ma who was also an actor.

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Hopping Mad

 

 (hkcinema.ru)

ZOMBIE ATTACK-2017-Hopping zombie tale with two guys Tang Shun and Ding Xing accidentally releasing a zombie while robbing a tomb. Later they both fall in love with Liu Mei, a bar hostess. To battle the zombie, they get help from an older Taoist and his assistant Ping. Director Fang Yin-Hua made a sequel soon after.

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Infra-Man!

THE SUPER INFRA-MAN-1975-In the future, a demonic princess Elzebub returns to wreak havoc on the Earth (particularly China; this is after all a Shaw Brothers production). After burning a few cities, she summons up some crazy monsters to do her bidding. She’s also assisted by some scantily clad cuties who have long fingers and eyeballs on their palms! Meanwhile a professor and his team find out about the invasion. The evil princess sends two strutting laughing monsters to capture one of the professor's men. The professor turns one of his guys into “Infra-Man” (Danny Lee), an “Ultra-Man” like superhero who arrives just in time to defeat a tentacled monster attacking the lab. The captured team member is turned into a green eyed human zombie who steals the Infra-Man plans. He has a fight with Bruce Le and then battle some monsters single-handedly. A crazy orange monster shoots cocoons. When it grows gigantic so does Infra Man! 

This is one crazy enjoyable live action superhero vs. monsters movie (whether you see it dubbed, sub-titled or even un-dubbed without subtitles, as I saw it recently) that delivers with cheesy anything goes effects. I wish they were still making movies like this. And why didn't The Shaw Bros. make a sequel?

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Ho Time!

THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT-1988-Soloman, some over acting nut schemes to control the world’s food supply. Meanwhile a little girl Ting Ting plays with her pet snake Mozlar.  In a lab a doctor and his staff do an experiment on a frog that makes it grow larger. Solomon's men attack the lab and kill everyone except one scientist Lin who gets away with the formula. Her car crashes but she jumps out before. Later Ting Ting finds the container with the chemical that made the frog grow. She brings it home and puts her snake in it. It grows to an abnormally large size but obeys the child. They play catch and hide and seek but Solomon's thugs see them and figure the snake might have some connection to the formula (brilliant deduction!).

Meantime in another movie government agent Ted Fast (Pierre Henry) walks around, has gun battles and martial arts fights. A police inspector (Lee Hsiu Hsien aka Danny Lee from THE UNTOLD STORY) tries to protect Lin who was actually a spy for Solomon. His thugs kidnap Ting Ting and Mozlar comes to her rescue. They set a trap which is supposed to electrocute the snake but instead the electricity makes the snake grow much larger! When the thugs kidnap the girl again, Mozlar follows wrecking a train and killing the passengers. The snake kills many innocent people and wrecks lots of buildings. Occasionally scenes of Ted Kung-Fu fighting and talking on the phone are shown.The ending is so drawn out. And what should have been a poignant finale where the little girl cries for her pet gone wrong is ruined by her incessant whining. It all finally ends with Ted killing Solomon in a fight. 

This was originally made in Hong Kong in 1980 but wasn't released until many years later. By then infamous splicer/hack Geoffrey Ho got a hold of it and added the scenes with Henry to make it a confused mess.

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Bad Babies

THE DEMON'S BABY-1998-The Chinese army discovers an underground tomb full of buried treasure. Among the items they remove is a gold statue of Buddha which unbeknownst to them contains a demon. It falls into the possession of a general (Elvis Tsui) and his four concubines. When they become pregnant along with the ill treated maid Little Fish (Annie Wu) impregnated by Day Six (Emotion Cheung) the cook, the demon possesses them and their wombs become the homes for some demonic killer babies with sharp teeth. Day Six teams up with a very strange priest (Anthony Wong) to do battle against the demon women in a crazy finale directed by Kant Leung.

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Judo a Chop Chop Chop!

CHOP SOCKY: CINEMA HONG KONG-2003-This is an excellent documentary despite it's terrible title about the history of martial arts in the Hong Kong cinema. Besides interviews with Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Sammo Hung, John Woo, Dr. Ng Ho, Pei Pei Chang, Run Run Shaw, David Chiang and others it also talks about the real legendary hero Wong Fei Hung, the first martial art film star (showing scenes from his films which I'd like to see more of), ”The Burning of Red Lotus Monastery” (sometimes called the first martial arts film), the Peking Opera House, The Shaw brothers, directors King Woo & Chang Chen and the technique for filming fight scenes called “editing in the camera” and the influence of Japanese epics like the Zatochi series. Of course Bruce Lee is spotlighted for bring realism to the films and beginning “the Kung-Fu craze”. 

Many films are highlighted but some are skipped over. They should have done a whole series. 

Director Ian Taylor made two companion documentaries: THE BEAUTIES OF THE SHAW STUDIO and WU XIA.  

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Pre-Guns John Woo

LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY-1979-After his father is killed by a martial arts master Tsing Yi (Damian Lau) vows revenge. He hires two swordsmen Pray (Hark-on Fung) and Chan (Pai Wei) to help and they have several sword fights. However while the hired killers live by a code of honor that might not be so for Yi. 

 There's not that much hand to hand combat but the swordplay choreography is terrific in this early John Woo period piece (that he also co-produced and co-wrote) for Golden Harvest. Of course a few years later he traded in swords for guns with super action dramas like HARDBOILED and THE KILLER

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Super Chuck

FORCED VENGEANCE-1982-Josh Randall (Chuck Norris) is head of security for a gambling casino in China owned by his Jewish father (David Opatoshu) by adoption who's actually retired with the whole operation run by his real son (Frank Michael Liu). Josh lives on a boat with his girlfriend/school teacher Claire (Mary Louise Weller). The real son gets into trouble with some gangsters and he and dad are killed. Later Josh goes on the run with Claire and his half sister Joy (Camila Griggs) because a mob leader wants the casino. His friend LeRoy (Bob Minor) tries to help but is bear hugged to death by a huge henchman (Japanese pro-wrestler Seiji Sakaguchi) who also rapes and kills Claire. Josh puts on his Air Force uniform and gets revenge with a little help from an international agent (Lloyd Kino). Norris beats up a lot of guys in this violent, typical martial arts crime drama. It turns out that the real villain is an old Chinese gang lord and Josh has to fight his weird bastard son. In the finale he avenges Claire's death (a toilet bowl figures in the final fight). 

 The director James Fargo had previously directed Clint Eastwood in THE ENFORCER and EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE.

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DUEL TO DEATH-1983-This crazy violent period piece is essentially about the bad blood between Chinese Kung-Fu and Japanese "sword fighting". The Japanese look down on the "weak" monks and are clearly the aggressors while the Chinese are honorable and would rather live in peace but every ten years a tournament to the death is held between the two countries. Ching Wan (Damian Lau; THE HEROIC TRIO), known as "lord of the sword", is the Chinese contender while his main rival is Hashimoto (Norman Chu also in Tsui Hark's WE'RE GOING TO EAT YOU)), an intense Japanese swordsman who had to kill his own sensei as a final test. The two become friends when a plot to rig the tournament is discovered. This is full of good fights, blood, dismemberment, exploding ninjas and a severed head that talks.

Director Sio-Tung Ching also made A CHINESE GHOST STORY. The remastered DVD is called DUEL TO THE DEATH.

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Fatal Entry

FATAL CHASE-1992-This Hong Kong production is one of the most ineptly made low budget crime dramas I've seen. The dubbing and sound effects are so out of sync it almost seems no one cared if they matched at all!

The episodic story concerns two Hong Kong police officers (Robin Shou and Yukari Oshima) in The Philippines (where this was shot) hunting a crime boss named Torres (Dion Lam). Later after Oshima's character is killed the local chief of police (Waise Lee from A BETTER TOMORROW) helps out. The fights and direction are terrible but director Phillip Ko (who has a small role) did better with INTERPOL CONNECTION (also with Shou, Oshima and Lam).

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Your Kung-Fu's Good

THE SHAOLIN AVENGERS-1976-This Hong Kong produced martial arts period piece is based on the legend of Shaolin martial artists Fong Si Yu (Alexander Fu Sheng) and Hu Wei Chien (Kuan-Chung Chi). In flashbacks Fong is violently (and comically) trained by his mother (!) who beats him with a bamboo stick and dunks him in a vat of wine. Parts of it are very funny (a scene with a matchmaker is hysterical) and the Fong character does a lot of dumb things but basically the story is serious and violent. Director Cheh Chang made nearly 100 martial art movies including the classic FIVE DEADLY VENOMS.

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Kung-Fu!

HELL'S WIND STAFF-1979-A rapist has his eye gouged out. Then 2 guys fight over a chicken. Later a street performer trains 2 arrogant, stupid brothers Dragon (Hoi Mang) and Tiger (Yuen Man Meng). Four years later the one eyed guy seeks revenge on the teacher who took his eye. They have a fight but when it looks like the teacher is going to win, the one eyed guy's teacher interferes and the teacher and all his students are killed. All out fighting ensues as does atrocious dubbed dialogue. Dragon and Tiger hide an old man who knows "dragon fist"  style and he teaches it to them (then the movie seems to start over!). The duo really fuck up the one eyed guy and an excellent long out of control finale follows. This Hong Kong production was directed by Chin-Ku Lu who was also an actor.

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More Martial Arts

THE EIGHT ESCORTS-1979-Drama and comedy mix in this period piece Kung-Fu adventure. An "escort service" must deliver some "precious goods" to a bride to be. The "escort" owner is killed and his daughters and some martial arts cronies take over the business. It's mostly talky and boring but the violent finale is good! 

It features Wai-Man Chan (CHINESE HERCU-LES), Danny Lee (THE KILLER), Mien Fang (5 FINGERS OF DEATH) and Lily Li (SHATTER). Director Hsueh Li Pao also made BLOOD TREASURY FIGHT.

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Vampire Gangs of Hong Kong

VAMPIRE WARRIORS-2010-Young vampires (who are actually hundreds of years old) frolic in Hong Kong. Ar (Luxia Jiang) is a vampire hunter looking for her sister. There are good vampires who don't drink human blood, bad vampires who do and vampires who prey on other vampires. It turns out Ar's sis is the tormented ex-lover of "vampire eater" Mung (Wah Yuen from KUNG-FU HUSTLE and SUPERCOP). Ar becomes a vampire herself so she can beat the evil sadistic Mung. The fights are action packed and well choreographed but in between they vamps do a lot of wondering whether un-dead is good or not.

Director/writer Dennis Law also made TRIAD WARS and KING OF TRIADS using many of the same actors.

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More Kung-Fu Fighting

BLOOD TREASURY FIGHT-1979-This is an all star Hong Kong Kung-Fu outing about a mission undertaken by a disparate group including a death row inmate (David Chiang; LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES), a law officer, a female fighter (Chen Bi Feng) and others. The main villain (Wai Man Chan) wants a treasure map tattooed on Chiang's leg. Of course a lot of other characters and obstacles are introduced along the way leading up to the enviable but pretty amazing finale showdown: a very long fight and tragic (and ironic) ending in a collapsing mill. The same year director Hsueh Li Pao made THE EIGHT ESCORTS with most of the same actors.

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Drunk Mantis Dance Fever

DANCE OF THE DRUNK MANTIS-1979-Jackie Chan style martial arts comedy full of stupid characters, terrible dubbing and hackneyed editing but it's slapstick acrobatic fights are great! An old woman beats up a much younger money lender and two bullies cluck like a chicken and a duck when they fight. An old Kung-Fu master, Sam the Seed (Siu Tin Yuen also in SNAKE IN THE EAGLE'S SHADOW who died soon after this) teaches his adopted son Foggy (Shun-Yee Yuen  also in INFRA-MAN) "drunk fighting". They have a falling out but later get back together to fight the old man's white bearded former pupil Old Rubber Legs (Jang Lee Hwang also in BRUCE LEE: A DRAGON STORY). After getting beat the son meets his thought to be dead uncle who teaches him some new moves so he can destroy Rubber Legs. 

Director Woo-ping Yuen (Siu Tin Yuen's son) directed several movies with Jackie Chan and was stunt coordinator on many more.

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Bad Movie Ho!

ANGEL'S MISSION (aka BORN TO BE BAD)-1990-A policewoman Cynthia (Yukaro Oshima/Cynthia Luster) goes to Hong Kong to visit her mother who's boss is a gang leader. It's very anti-Japanese  and a guy gives a ranting speech about how all kidnapped women (from Japan) must be checked for AIDS. Later Cynthia is recruited by the local authorities to smash the crime ring which her mother is connected to. This is another incoherent martial arts bundle of ineptitude by Godfrey Ho (MANHATTAN CHASE). Some of the fights are very well done though.

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More Fu

LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF CHINA-1982-A martial arts "society" that practices magic decides to do way with Gung, a rival martial artist. The group do a lot of crazy stunts while preparing for the kill. This is  a weird confusing movie with strange battles, a guy controlled by a voodoo like doll, comical fights and violence. In the final fight some of the "legendary weapons" come into play and the name of the weapon is flashed on the screen. Unfortunately, the names are in Chinese. Director Chia-Liang Liu was also a stunt coordinator on many films and later made THE LEGEND OF THE DRUNKEN MASTER with Jackie Chan.

Hong Kong

DRAGON ON FIRE (THE DRAGON, THE HERO)-1979-Wow! I was so confused by this typical old school '70's martial arts movie made in Hong Kong. There were a lot of characters and they all fought each other in various styles. I think it had to do with two fighters who become enemies. One fighter is actually a spy sent to infiltrate a smuggling ring. There's a pasty faced Asian bad guy Tang (Tino Wong) and a non-Asian villain (Jim Jones) too.  Dragon Lee/Bruce Lei is in it imitating his hero. Mostly it's fights and fighters laughing. Much of the dubbed voices are ridiculous even for a Kung Fu movie! A very dark scene of a guy eating food and fondling a woman and an attempted rape where the rapist is castrated by a dog (!) seem to be from another movie. This shouldn't come as a surprise since DRAGON was directed by Godfrey Ho (MANHATTAN CHASE), a prolific B-director known for his "paste up" jobs (the Al Adamson of Hong Kong?). The finale goes on for ever where in one of the fights the pasty face guy turns into some kind of zombie (with green skin and blue hair) and fights Lei. Occasionally the music lapses into a cover of the SHAFT theme! Most reviews say Bolo Yeung has a cameo but I think it was cut out of the version I saw.



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