A heroine in melon-shed (瓜棚女杰)(1985)

A heroine in melon-shed (瓜棚女杰)

Dir:  Wang Yi

Cast: Lin Quan ,Zhang Jiumei ,Xu Dongfang ,Yan Bici ,Niu Shijun

Plot: 30s, Liushao Qing (Niu Shijun) and her daughter Mei Zi are chivalrous people.
Mei Zi (Lin Quan) has always been very skilled in martial arts. She likes Wu Lian (Xu Dongfang),the school teacher of her village, but she doesn't want to express her feelings because she's afraid of the consequences. She wears around her neck a copper lock with an inscription on it "The fire avoid water". She's fire, he's water..Once she discovered a human trafficking boat where she rescued a beautiful girl named Hua Sanchun (Zhang Jiumei). Keeping her love for herself, Mei Zi arranged the wedding between Hua Sanchun and Wu Lian..

Year: 1985

Country: Mainland China 

Notes: This movie has not been released in China on any legit format (and as far as we know, the same goes for western countries). The director made two other kung fu flicks: Robbers in Bailin (巴陵窃贼)(1987) and On the escort road (少侠奇缘)(1988). It seems that none of the cast made other action flicks (Xu Dongfang was involved with some war movies, no worth mentioning).

Personal opinion: This unknown movie from China is more a drama than a action film. From what we saw on the net, the main focus of the movie is the story between Mei Zi and Wu Lian. Dont get us wrong, there are some martial art scenes and pretty well made too (some wires are involved though),but dont expect a 90min of just pure action or u will be dissapointed. The final shodown is awesome.

Some snapshots (source: cctv):

 

Merry Christmas everybody!

We've been pretty busy lately, so we didn't post a lot like we used to.
Hope it will change after xmas, well you 'll see eheh
Meanwhile merry xmas and happy holidays!
大家圣诞快乐!

Cross the river (过江)(1988)

Cross the river (过江)

Dir:  Chang Cheh

Cast:  Dong Zhi Hua , Xiaojian Xu , Yiwen Sun , Wenlin Zhou, Yuming Du, Lixin Mu, Xiangwei Wang

Plot: 1936, the japanese are allied with the Kuomintang member called Liu Shaoji, during a Sichuan Opera he saw the beautiful Hua Yunfang, and he decided that he wants her. But thanks to the opera troupe members he failed. Liu Shaoji's desire doesnt stop and he tries many way to get her, Mu Xiaolou (a beijing opera actor) and the Sichuan troupe decide to protect her against the evil thoughts of Liu Shaoji..

Year: 1988

Country: Mainland China / HK
Trailer (Edit by us (source Official Mainland dvd): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAslIC-sDao

Notes: This movie has been released in China on dvd by Boing! (it doesnt carry english subs, only chinese s. or t.). If you want an english-friendly edition go (if u can still find it) for the HK vcd. This is not the first movie that Chang Cheh directed in China, he made 3 more movies there: Shanghai 1937, Slaughter In Xian,and Hidden Hero. Dong Zhi Hua had a role in all of them, Xiaojian Xu's career consists of movies like Laugh at Life (a 1994's kung fu flick), The Swordsman and the General (another fu flick) and the mainland Chang Cheh movies. Yiwen Sun (the girl who plays Hua Yungfang in this movie) ,after "Cross the river" didnt do anything else. If u have more infos pls feel free to share em with us. The film is known also as: The Dragon Through The River (过江龙)
Personal opinion: Who doesnt know Chang Cheh? Well, if you dont know who he was, well, go and check some of his shaw brothers movies! Maybe not a lot of people knows that he made some mainland flicks since in a lot of websites those movies are stated only as HK which is not true. "Cross the river" is one example. It is a coproduction between HK and China. It has a lot of opera, most all of the martial arts scenes are during opera performances, just awesome. We really like this kind of thing. Don't worry, there are some street fighting especially when Mu Xiaolou (Dong Zhi Hua) is involved. The only thing we didnt like was the last fight, too short in our opinion (and too many fireworks involved).
Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd):

Dr.li and the Mummy (李阿毛与僵尸)(1940)

Dr.li and the Mummy (李阿毛与僵尸)

Dir: Xiaoqiu Zhen

Cast: Manhua Zhou, Huang Feng,Jianong Gong,Na Meng,Guangzhao You

Plot: During a night, Miss Tang ,while playing outside in the hotel garden, runs into a vampire (jiangshi), Mr. Li tries to find out if it's real or not. Then he finally found out the truth, originally that place was a gold mine..

Year: 1940

Country: Mainland China

Notes: This movie has not been released yet in any format in China (legit or not). Nothing is available on this movie but the poster above.
We think this is the first vampire (jiangshi, and if you don't know what a Jiangshi is..well shame on you and go check the famous Mr Vampire (HK) saga) from mainland China (and maybe in HK and TW as well). Unfortunately,as we said above, there is no chance to watch it. We dont know if the original film is still available in China, although some older movies have been released on dvd/vcd.
Maybe you are asking urself why we put this 40s movie here in this blog.. well, we love jiangshi movies and when we found out that in the 40s there was such a movie in China,we wanted to share it with you.
We dont know if it will be released any time soon, so we can just admire the poster...for now.
PS: this is not the only horror movie from China (pre-45)

Never Give Up (死不回头)(1992)

Never Give Up (死不回头)

Dir: Hao Pang

Cast: Wenying Dongfang, Shuchao Ma, Daijun Yu, Tiehai Zhou, Jin Zhang, Zhenrong Wang

Plot:A family company's storehouse blow up into ashes. As soon as the police woman officer (Fang Fang) arrived to the scene,she caught the guy (Zhang Wei Yan) who detonated the bomb and Fang Fang's young brother also arrived in order to be the on-the-spot reporter ...then the story begins... The company manager sells fake wine causing some death around the city and the ruin of the Wei Yan family fortune. Besides losing the fortune his younger sister got her face disfigured cause of an incident occured some times before. Zhang decided to take revenge...and lots of companies started to burn down into pieces...but the final result is just handcuffs..

Year: 1992

Country: Mainland China

Clip from youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItekT0bIkBQ

Notes: The movie has been released in China (GZ beauty) on vcd. As far as the cast and director are concerned, the director itself just directed this action movie; in the other hand Wenying dong Fang starred in a some kind of action flick called Revenge in the great world (复仇大世界)(1989) ; Shuchao Ma starred in a historical gunfight called Shooting from behind (枪，从背后打来)(1987); Daijun Yu instead starred in 2 more action/kung fu flicks, one called Bloody Brothers (欲霸天下)(1994) (HK/China) and the other one is called Shaolin Kung-Fu Kids (笑林老祖)(1995) (HK/Taiwan).
Personal opinion: Haven't watched it yet so we can just comment on what we saw on the internet. Seems a quite good movie,maybe nothing to scream about but most probably worth our time. Of course we're going to buy it since the vcd is available in the red land, no questions ask! If you have the chance to watch it ,or you already did that, please feel free to leave a comment!
Stills (Official Mainland):

Hei Xia Diexue Ji (黑匣喋血记)(1986)

 

 Hei Xia Diexue Ji (黑匣喋血记)

Dir: Shuhuang Zhong

Cast: Han Zhikai, Wen Xitai, Zhang Anji, Tang Junliang,Li Xiaoyan

Plot: During the 1911 Revolution's eve, the Qing dynasty carried on a brutal repression against the revolutionary political party. The Wuchang revolutionary political party send the martial artist master Jin Biao to Guangzhou to take back Sun Wen, who has the Huang Xing's plan for an armed uprising. Nan Guiying will protect Jin Biao during his journey..

Year: 1986

Country: Mainland China
Some clips on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDIJytmMMw4 / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XHdwpz-EeM

Notes: The movie has not been released in China yet, just some screening on cctv et simila. It got a dvd released in Spain with the title "El Misterio de la Caja Negra" with spanish audio only. This is the only martial art flick from Shuhuang Zhong.  It's also the only movie for actress Li Xiaoyan. Wen Xitai had a role in another martial art flick called "Magic from Highland"( 少林达摩,1990). In our memorabilia post you can find another poster with more pics.
Personal opinion: Another traditional kung fu flick from the big red land. The martial art sequences are helped with some wired but nothing really annoying. We felled in love with the poster once surfing the web, we tried to find as many infos as we could but it wasnt that easy. We know that the movie was screened in west germany back when it was divided. We think it deserves a better release than the spanish one, it has everything a martial art fan can ask for. You won't be dissapointed.
Some snapshots (source: mainland screening):

Woman Anti-drug Fighter (缉毒少女)(1992)

 Woman Anti-drug Fighter (缉毒少女)

Dir: Shi Xian

Cast: Wang LiSha, Pang Yan, Yan Dake

Plot:Settled in the 30s, an ethnic minority leads are into smuggling opium, murderers and drugs. A military group decide to eradicate this group, so they started to burn down lots of opium and ambushed lots of criminals,but something goes wrong and revenge is the only result....

Year: 1992

Country: Mainland China 

Notes: The movie has not been released in China yet, just some screening on cctv et simila. As far as the director is concerned, Shi Xian made a martial arts flick 2years before Woman Anti-drug Fighter called  Tiger Fight (夺虎连环计), and some other flicks which are not worth mentioned. The cast is not that famous either..we have Wang LiSha who starred in Robber in Baling (巴陵窃贼)(1987) [martial arts], the other two mentioned in the credits just made some flicks that nobody is interested in.
Personal opinion: Another movie that didn't get released anywhere in the whole world, another movie we want to see so badly.Maybe just because it's so unknown and the story line seems qute interesting, but from what we saw on the internet would be worth our time.
Some snapshots (source: mainland screening):

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Revenge (报仇)(1993)

Revenge (报仇)(1993)

Dir:  Chong Yan Gin

Cast:  Zhang Feng Yi,Lau Shek Ming,Wong Hap,Choi Wang,Alexander Lo Rei,Teddy Yip Wing Cho,Tsui Man Wah,Cheung Kin Li

Plot: Chou Feng and Nie Fei are two good friends. They came to Shanghai to look for a new life, but during the trip they menaged to enter the Hong Men secret society. Nie Fei is hard working and in order to save a girl from being raped by a foreign, he kills the man. Although it was Nie Fei who killed the man, the man found guilty was his friend, Chou Feng. In order to pay the bail, Nie Fei will do anything, so he tries to get from a Japanese a stroll and sell it to the secret society. Unfortunately Nie Fei loses his life, and Chou Feng will seek for revenge..

Year: 1993

Country: Mainland China / Taiwan
Trailer (Edit by us (source Official Mainland dvd): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOXGHroCRY0

Notes: This movie got released in mainland China in two editions: dvd and vcd [by GZbeauty]. Both of them are in mandarin with no subs. It was released also in HK on vcd with the title Revanchist (the vcd is oop now). This version has only cantonese as soundtrack and eng/chi subtitles burned in. The director didnt make a lot of movies, but the cast is well known. Zhang Feng Yi acted in movies like Red Cliff (赤壁), Soccer Heroes (京都球侠), The Emperor and the Assassin (荆轲刺秦王). Lau Shek Ming had a good carrer in the HK film industry with movies like Zen Of Sword (俠女傳奇), The Black Morning Glory (疊影驚情). We also have the Taiwanese Choi Wang whose career in HK is remarkable with movies such as The Brave Archer (射鵰英雄傳) and The Shaolin Avengers (方世玉與胡惠乾).
Personal opinion: We bought this movie just because of the poster, we didnt even know what it was about. We saw a guy with a sword ,so we decided to get it. The movie is pure HK style, it doesn't seem from mainland China. More or less all the fights are helped with wires, expect some scenes at the end. If you like Yuen Woo-ping movies u will like this one as well. The only thing we didn't like about the wires was during the bullet ballet scenes. We must admit that we are not really fond of this kind of things, for us bullet ballet should be "realistic" , ok being extreme and such, but the wires (at least this time) were really too much. It's just us, maybe you guys will appreciate this.
The ending is easy to anticipate, but we won't spoil it to you.  Overall this flick is average, nothing special but give it a shot if u have the chance.
Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd):