Mainland Old School Movies

A small update.

2012-02-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

From now on the blog will be updated only by myself. My bro is too busy and he doesnt want to help me anymore, so I m gonna be alone in this project.
I have already planned the next review and trailer.
So dont leave me... ahahah lol
Cheers

Rescued from desperation (绝处逢生)(1985)

2012-02-10T18:40:00.000-08:00

Rescued from desperation (绝处逢生)

Dir: Li Hongsheng

Cast: Li Bing, Cui Yi, Liang Guo, etc

Plot: Qing Dynasty, the emperor Yong Zheng charges the minister Niangeng Yao with false charge.

The leader of the army, Chang Yugang, admires the Niangeng Yao so he helped Yao’s family (Xia Fei, NianJi) to escape from the city. They go south; on the way Xia Fei fell down a hill and got lost so Chang Yugang brought Nianji to a shaolin temple (south) in order to become a monk. After 13 years the court of the empire gave order to kill Nianji and Xia Fei. The two will meet again and seek for vengeance..

Year: 1985

Country: Mainland China

Trailer (edit by us): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-y0SU4LBkw

Notes: The movie is not available in China on dvd or vcd. It was screened on tv though (as usual). If you are looking to own it on dvd there is the American release (double feature) under the name of Out Of Danger (English dub).

The director made another martial arts movie called Loyal Hero (侠骨风流), then nothing else according to Chinese websites. Yi Cui had roles in movies like The Disclple Of The Shaolin Temple (少林寺弟子)(1983) and Murky Shadows Over the Gorges (峡江疑影)(1985). Also Liang Guo had a brief career in the martial arts movie industry with flicks like Taiji Master (太极神功)(1985), Tai Chi Chun (太极拳)(1985) and Deadly Fury (武林志)(1983).

Personal opinion: Oh yeah, old school from Mainland China. It’s been ages since our last kung fu flick, but here we are again with another (maybe) unknown gem from the red land.

Gotta admit, the plot is nothing new so we will skip this part. The choreography of the fights is just marvellous, great pace ,great moves and … guys, you cant get bored on them. The action is soo good ( for our standards) that we ended up to watch some scenes more than once.

Excellent indeed!

Some snapshots :

Soon,,,

2012-02-02T00:47:00.000-08:00

...we will update this blog. We r planning to buy some new posters or lobbies once one of us get the salary lol
Along with the posters, a trailer for a mysterious movie will be uploaded as well... keep tuned.
Cheers

Happy New Year...again!

2012-01-21T03:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah! In a few days it`s going to be the new chinese year!

This time is dragon!

Wish you a happy new year dudes and gals!

QTKM (青铜狂魔)(1994) UPDATE

2012-01-08T17:48:00.000-08:00

Firstly.... happy new year guys!
Here the trailer for QTKM, a horror movie from China: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elSA58icbuw
Hope you enjoy it.
See ya for the next update (a poster? a review? a trailer? who knows..)

New entries!

2011-12-27T20:41:00.000-08:00

As we promised, here the 3 posters we finally got this morning.

Great Shanghai 1937 (大上海1937)(1986)

Murky Shadows Over The Gorges (峡江疑影)(1985)

The Candidate (候补队员)(1983)

Enjoy them :)

Merry Xmas folks!

2011-12-24T17:55:00.001-08:00

Today is Christmas.
Here it's pretty cold but what the hell, we love it!
Gotta some new posters for our collection and ... a vcd of a movie. Pity some fuckers stole it from us, so no more vcd.
Well, see ya next update with the pics of the new posters.
Cheers 'n beers

Merry Xmas

2011-12-14T19:22:00.000-08:00

It's still early for this but the time is against us. We have been really busy and as you can see the blog lacks of updates... cant do anything about that sorry.
We thought to give you 2 little Xmas presents, 1 trailer and 1 intro for two mainland flicks.
The trailer is for Zui gui Zhang San (醉鬼张三)(1990) also known as "Legend Of The Drunken Tiger), a co-production between China and HK (with Kara Hui).
The intro is for Flying Centipede (飞天蜈蚣)(1994).
Well, nothing else to say but the links:

Trailer Zui gui Zhang San (醉鬼张三)(1990): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnGDldVMomM
Intro Flying Centipede (飞天蜈蚣)(1994): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2QTKCsSbiU

Merry xmas folks!

The end

2011-10-19T18:22:00.000-07:00

Yeah the end! Dont worry, not the end of the blog (although we dont upload it so often.. too busy), but the end of the shop.
Damn yeah! Nobody ordered anything, so we decided we wont update it with anything new. We hoped to have some sales but none, so we decided not to continue with that thing.
Our offers are still opened, just drop us a mail or write on the blog.
Cheers & beers

NP: soon we will update the blog, stay tuned.

The Burning of Yuan Ming Yuan (火烧圆明园)(1983)

2011-09-15T05:06:00.000-07:00

The Burning of Yuan Ming Yuan (火烧圆明园)

Dir: Han Hsiang Li

Cast: Tony Leung Ka Fai, Xiaoqing Liu , Kun Xiang , Tielin Zhang, Jie Zhou, Ye Chen ,etc

Plot: Han Hsiang Li focuses on Empress Dowager Cixi (or Tzu Hsi), who seduced the Emperor and managed to rule from behind the throne through successive regimes. But before she became Empress, Cixi (played here by Liu Hsiao Chin) was simply Yu Lan, concubine to Emperor Xian Feng (Tony Leung Ka Fai). In her years at the Imperial Palace, Yu Lan would seduce the Emperor, bear him a son, and undergo turmoil at the hands of foreign invaders, who finally burnt down the Imperial Palace. (yesasia)

Year: 1983

Country: Mainland China / HK

Trailer (edit from our dvd): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vkzAUeGmso

Notes: The movie has been released in China by Gzbeauty. There are a lot of versions, ours had English subtitles. Anyway, it was released also in HK (vcd and dvd).The director was into historical drama with movies such as The Empress Dowager (一代妖后)(1989) and Reign behind the curtain (垂帘听政)(1983). This is Tony Leung Ka Fai’s second movie. Xiaoqing Liu starred also in the first mainland action movie Mysterious Buddha(神秘的大佛)(1980).

Personal opinion: Maybe you are asking yourself why we put here such movie, our answer is simple: it was pretty well received when it came out, so we thought it deserved a place here.We usually don't like historical drama, let’s say it.. they are quite boring if you are not interested in such matter. Talking about the movie, the intro is way too long, it’s really beautiful too watch but really damn boring also. And then another flaw: the battles. The one between the Chinese and the British/French is so annoying, boring, dull.. you choose.The foreigners are portrait like evil beings, ready to destroy everything and kill every Chinese. Maybe it is true, dunno. When the foreigners arrive in Beijing the massacre begins, women, men, children all dead, we gotta say that these scenes were pretty strong.Oh before we forget, if you can’t stand animal cruelty, do not buy this movie. There is a scene were a deer is being tortured because its blood is needed. The deer is real and the blood too.Overall the movie is gorgeous to watch, but boring as well (if you are not into this kind of movies). It’s up to you to decide if it’s the right movie for you.

Some snapshots (from the original dvd):

Shop updated!

2011-09-04T01:14:00.000-07:00

Hi folks!
We just updated our shop with some new entries:
-The Substitute (1983) (Poster A and B)
-Luo Cheng the Handsome Guy (1993) (Lobbies)
-Suo Ming Fei Dai (1991) (Lobbies)
and we uploaded some pics of the stuff we re selling directly on facebook.
We are open to requests (vcds,dvds,vhs,posters,books,lobbies,scripts,etc), if you are looking for something just drop a line, and we see if we can help you out.
Link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shop/264669523561569

Cheers!

ps: we will update the blog soon with another movie..stay tune!

Lucky 13 (侠十三妹)(1986)

2011-08-29T23:29:00.000-07:00

Lucky 13 (侠十三妹)

Dir: Qitian Yang || Toru Murakawa

Cast: Lan Ding, Bozhao Wang, Cunzhuang Ge, Qun Wang, Junfeng Li , Chongfei Shao ,Yongan Ma , Bangyu Zheng,Mei Yuan

Plot: Qing dynasty,He Yufeng (Lan Ding)'s family has been murdered. He Yufeng goes to train in the mountain in order to get vengeance. Here the master will give her the name of "十三妹" (Shisan Mei)..

Year: 1986

Country: Mainland China

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-8PD-1Rnw4

Notes: The movie is released in China on dvd by Gzbeauty (no subs at all). The movie was also released in Japan on Vhs . The main actress Lan Ding was really popular in China back then, she had roles in movies like "The Shaolin Temple (少林寺)(1982)", the famous Jet Li's movie. Well, her career also started with that flick. Then she got involved in movies like Disclple of shaolin temple (少林寺弟子)(1983) and Kids from Shaolin (少林小子)(1983) with Jet Li. Her popularity took her to have a role in the series The Dream Of Red Mansions. About the Chinese director he was also one of the writer.

Personal opinion: You know how much we like movies with heroines, right? It’s just love! We regret that it took us so long to watch this one. Our bad..
Well, let’s talk about the movie. The plot is always about vengeance, so nothing new. What about the choreography then? It’s awesome. Lan Ding is excellent in her role as heroine and her skills are pretty good. The wires are used for some jumps and in one particular scene: the temple’s.

Here we have the heroine against a lot of weird stuff: fire, water (!!), flying objects, flying weapons, acid, fireworks (eheh),etc. This is the only scene were the special effects have been used. The quality of them are so and so, but looking at the year of the movie and the country, well, they tried their best we guess.

Anyway, during the training sequences there is something that recall the Jet Li’s training in his famous “The Shaolin Temple”. Do you remember that in that movie you see Jet Li training during the 4 seasons, right? Well, in “Lucky 13” (awful translation..) you see our heroine who is training in the same way. You see her taking water in spring, autumn, winter and summer (if we are not mistaken, 3 seasons for sure though). A nice touch, don’t you think so?
But Lan Ding is not the only one good at kung fu, we have her friends who show us what kung fu is about, and of course the villains.

In conclusion, we just loved this movie. The actress was perfect in her role (and soooo cute, loved those eyes), the MA is pretty solid and the movie never get boring. Check it out if you have the chance.
Some snapshots (from the original dvd):

The shop is.... open!

2011-08-25T03:07:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah!
Here the link:
Mainland Movies Land
If there are any problems (for ex: the pics dont work,etc), please let us know.
It's just the beginning... trust us!
Cheers and add us on facebook!

Shop! Shop! Shop!

2011-08-23T05:33:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,
We decided to open a little online shop!
We will sell original posters and lobbies for mainland movies and coproductions (ex. china-tw, china-hk). Moreover we are thinking to make it more interesting: we won't sell just posters/lobbies but also those little books that we already shown you and vcds/dvds (original and cd-r/dvd-r for the movies that are not available on any legit release).
It will open on facebook, we just have to figure out how to make it possible.
Stay tune for the big opening!

PS: we are not dead, we are really busy so our updates are really slow.. sorry about that.

Death at the Carefree Mansion (索命逍遥楼)(1990)

2011-07-16T05:39:00.000-07:00

Death at the Carefree Mansion (索命逍遥楼)

Dir: Wenhua Li || Ni Li

Cast: Guoqiang Huang, Fengyi Yang, Chi Wang

Year: 1990

Country: Mainland China

Notes: The movie is released in China on dvd by GZ　Beauty (without subtitles). Amazon.com carries it. Fengyi Yang (the girl in the movie) just starred in this and in another kung fu flick (Loyal Hero (1992)). Guoqiang Huang starred in a lot of action flicks (for ex: Death Inn (1988), The Flying Ratman (1990)). Same goes for Chi Wang (The Magic Legs (1988), Disciples of Shaolin Temple (1985)).

Personal opinion: When we bought this movie we didn’t know anything about it. Was it a good flick? Was it awful? Didnt know back then. Last night we finally watched it and… damn if it was good. The action scenes were outstanding, with and without weapons (swords, flames, spikes, etc) the actors knew how to put a show. As far as the acting was corcerned, We must admit that the actors were pretty weak, they were not that good. Sometimes the impression was like they didn’t even want to be in the movie. The plot is pretty interesting and with a lot of surprises (We never expected that…… we will not spoil you anything), So: the story works, the martial arts scenes work.. what else could you ask for? Check it out!
Some snapshots (from the original dvd):

Rarities [Update]

2011-05-27T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hi guys/gals! Here the last update for May.
These images are from some magazines we bought here in China. The one about 南北少林 (1986) shows a rare "on set" pic. The article is about the movie of course. Source: Wu Hun 2/1984

The one about 三上五台山 shows 2 pics of the movie as long as a long description of the story. Source: Wu Hun 2/1984

Now let`s go with some other stuff.
Here's an "article" about the movie 黑匣喋血记 (1986). It shows some of the cast, with pics and names. Source: Shanghai Film 1985

Here's the last "article". It's about the movie 张衡
(1983), with pics, cast and plot. Source: Shanghai Film 1982

The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (五郎八卦棍)(1990)

2011-05-26T02:43:00.000-07:00

The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (五郎八卦棍)

Dir: Gangyu Du

Cast: Bruce Leung, Kwan Hoi, Kong Do, Jo-see Wong, Wong Hap

Plot: Song dynasty, Liao's soldiers invaded China. During an ambush Fifth brother (Bruce Leung) is separated from his brothers/sisters. Wounded, he got picked up by some monks and took to their monastery. Here he wants to improve his kung fu to get revenge on Liao..

Year: 1990

Country: Mainland China / HK

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZUsq3UGrug

Notes: The movie is released in China on dvd by Boing! (with English subs too). It stars the famous Hsiao Liang, Kwan Hoi, the mainlander Zongxiang Guan (Mysterious Buddha) and Jo-see Wong.

Personal opinion: Not to be confused with the SB classic, this HK/Mainland China co-production is a mix between fantasy and a kung fu flick. We have special effects (pretty basics), wire works, people who flies and such. We have also classic martial arts showcase. The monks training was awesome, to be honest it was the best part of the movie. The final showdown is really short and not really worth it in our opinion.One thing we really disliked was..the fights! Beside the normal ones, a lot of fights are speed up, too much speed up! This choice just ruined them..
Some snapshots (from the original dvd):

New entries

2011-05-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,
lately we've been really busy and didnt have time to watch movies or such.
This post is just to tell you that we're still alive, and still looking for some rares in China. Here what we recently bought:

A narrow escape (1990)

Tian Xia Di Yi Jian (1988)

Heroing Lu Sininang (1988)

and the original poster and stills for the north korean movie Hong Kil Dong (홍길동)(1986)

If the pics dont work, please let us know and we will fix it.

[UPDATE] Kung Fu Hero Wang Wu (大刀王五)(1985)

2011-04-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

Just a small update for the blog. We already reviewed the movie ( click here ) but ,today, we uploaded the intro on youtube so you can check it out.
The link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAm5NE_FBQE
Enjoy it.

Mysterious Buddha (神秘的大佛)(1980)

2011-04-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

Mysterious Buddha (神秘的大佛)

Dir: Huaxun Zhang

Cast: Xiaoqing Liu, Cunzhuang Ge, Gengchen Jiang, Zongxiang Guan, Shun Feng

Plot: It revolves around the story of a conspiracy to steal an ancient Buddhist treasure, and the strange figures surrounding this mysterious object

Year: 1980

Country: Mainland China

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGPQR6TSmvY

Notes: The movie is available on dvd in Mainland China by Gzbeauty (with english subtitles!).As it is stated on the back cover of the dvd, this is the first action movie to be shot in mainland China since the beginning of the reform and opening policy. The director kept directing action/martial arts movie within China, movies such as The Swordswoman in White (白衣侠女)(1992)(you can see the poster in our memorabilia's post),Sins in the Wutai Mountains (五台山奇情)(1989) and Zhu jian (铸剑)(1994). Xiaoqing Liu (the actress who played the heroine here) acted in the famous The Burning of Yuan Ming Yuan (火烧圆明园)(1983) and in others dramas.

Personal opinion: Although it is stated as the first action movie, the martial arts scenes are just a few, and especialy at the end of the flick. It's more a thriller than an action movie, most of the time there are just dialogues. As far as the martial arts are concered, we have some good stuff here but also some really dull ones. Wires are used for some jumps, but most of the time the action is slow paced (as in some old Shaw Brothers movies) and pretty simple (you can check some on the trailer we made). One of the best thing in the movie is the location, being filmed in Leshan (Sichuan Province) the movie shows breathtaking landscapes and,of course, the famous giant buddha.

Anyway, the flick itself is not really a masterpiece for martial arts fans, but for the chinese cinema is surely an interesting starting point (we talk about the cinema after mao's death) that brought us more and more worthy movies (The Shaolin Temple anyone?).

Some snapshots (from the original dvd):

Go West to Subdue Demons (西行平妖)(1991)

2011-03-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Go West to Subdue Demons (西行平妖)

Dir: Chang Cheh

Cast: Jiming Chen, Lixin Mu, Yongquan Jia,Yuming Du

Plot: Based on the famous "Journey to the west" story, the movie follows the adventure to the west of a buddhist monk, the monkey king, the pig, the river ogre and of course the monk.

Year: 1991

Country: Mainland China / HK

Intro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzXJevGj5Fw

Notes: The movie is available on dvd in Mainland China by Gzbeauty (with english subtitles!). Chang Cheh is not new with his mainland movies, movies such as Cross the river (过江) and Shanghai 1937 are just few examples. The movie is also knows as "Journey to the west".

Personal opinion: To be honest we didnt know it was a Chang Cheh's movie until we checked on the net. This fantasy is just awesome. It has everything you can ask from a movie of this genre: wires, magic, kung fu, weird characters.. it has all of that. The costumes are quite simple sometimes but they work. The best thing of this flick are the martial arts scenes. Beside the long (and sometime boring) battle between the good guys and "Red guy", the others were amazing. The actors knew what they were doing, especially the monkey king and the river ogre.. but the best out of all was the monkey king. There is a little bit of opera in it (especialy during the fight between the monkey king and a guy dressed like a opera artist (sorry forgot the name)), one our favourite part of the movie. Do you a favor and get this flick, you won't be dissapointed (unless you dont like fantasy movies..).

Some snapshots (from the original dvd):

We're (kinda of) back!

2011-02-21T23:04:00.000-08:00

Hi guys and gals!
We'r writing from China! Now we can surf the net again! The updates are still in hold though, once we settle everything here, we will start writing again ^_^
See ya soon!

Farewell's Post

2011-01-29T00:54:00.000-08:00

Guys...this is our last post in here for a long time (more or less 1 month) since we will be leaving for China in a couple of days. When we 'll arrive there we won't have internet so the blog is gonna die for at least the first month. For this last post, we just want to share with you some posters and stills of mainland movies just to say thank You for following us till now.
If anyone is interested in buying some of these stuff (and lots more!! trust us!) just drop a line here or by email ( masterpiece85@gmail.com ) and we ll get back to you as soon as possible...

..here we are with some cool stuff:

See ya in 1 month!

The Young Hero Of Shaolin 2 (新方世玉续集)(1986)

2011-01-25T04:19:00.000-08:00

The Young Hero Of Shaolin 2 (新方世玉续集)

Dir: Wei Hui Feng

Cast: Baohua Shi , Hongmei Zhang , Zhizhou Li , Yongxia Chen, Lam Chuen , Kejuan Xie , Gongjin Zhou, Qin Xiao , Weiming He, Mingyuan Cai , Shuren Lv, Jielin Ma, Biji Chen , Xiangsheng Chen, Yuwen Li , Jialin Ji , Feng Gao

Plot: Fong Sze Yu is back in action, and in one of the most incredible martial lion dances ever to be screened, he thwarts the enemies of Shaolin. (sorry but this time the story is taken from the web)

Year: 1986

Country: Mainland China / HK

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNPvhPynNwk

Lobby cards: check our memorabilia post

Notes: The movie is available on dvd in the UK by Soulblade. The print is remastered but the language is wrong, the movie should have been in mandarin and not in cantonese (as a matter of fact, there is a scene where they sing that it's still in mandarin). Wei Hui Feng directed a lot of kung fu movies so he's not new to the genre fans. Baohua Shi (the guy who plays as Fang Shiyu) didnt make it in the film industry. On the other hand Yongxia Chen (Miao Cuizhen in the movie) had a long career in the mainland kung fu film industry with movies like Golden Dart Hero (金镖黄天)(1987) and Godly Beggar (神丐)(1987).

Personal opinion: We don't own the first movie of "The Young Hero Of Shaolin", so we don't know how is the prequel, but this "Young hero of shaolin 2" is just priceless! The training and fighting sequences are amazing, all the cast's performance were really good. We are sure that this flick is known among kung fu fans (thx to the release in the West), but for us was a great surprise. The scenes involving the "golden formation" are awesome, we've never seen such a battle (although a little bit confusing).

You gotta have this in your collection!

Some snapshots:

Zhong ming han shan si (钟鸣寒山寺)(1991)

2011-01-15T07:32:00.000-08:00

Zhong ming han shan si (钟鸣寒山寺)

Dir: Yanlin Tang

Cast: Lifeng Gong , Jing Liu ,Zhongliang Wang, Lisa Lu

Plot: The story takes place during the end of the Ming Dynasty. Wu Jiang, a county magistrate, has an alliance with some bandits, in order to share the loot they kill innocent people. During a robbery of a ancient treasure , he killed a couple of merchant (husband and wife), their daughter is rescued by a knight and ,after 10 years, decided to take revenge on the bandits and the corrupted magistrate.

Year: 1991

Country: Mainland China

Small clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy6CpCd75p0

Notes: This movie has not been released in China in any legit format. We dunno if it was released in any western country, but we doubt it. A year before this movie, the director directed another martial arts flick called Five Heroes of Tianqiao (五虎闯天桥),then nothing else worth mentioning. About the cast, it seems that nobody make it through the martial arts films industry.

Personal opinion: Unfortunately we still have to watch the full movie, but it 's already in our wishlist once land in China. We got interested in this movie after watching some clips on the net. Moreover ,the fu scenes seem to be really well made (some wires are still involved). The story is still about revenge, but, frankly speaking, who cares? Although the story sounds quite typical, it's not a problem for us.After all, the story is not that important in such movie.

Some snapshots:

Jiang hu ba mian feng (江湖八面风)(1991)

2011-01-07T03:31:00.000-08:00

Jiang hu ba mian feng (江湖八面风)

Dir: Mei Hu

Cast: Xiaoyi Chen ,Yue Che ,Bide Yan , Qing Tao,Hou Liansheng, Hou Shuang

Plot: The story is about southern Ming king Zhu Youlang, after succeed to the throne,encountered numerous Qing dinasty's armies so he was forced to escape. Hong in order to protect Zhu got seriously wounded, Zhu abandoned him to his destiny. His daughter, Hong Su Mei, in order to get revenge begins her journey to kill Zhu. Wu Sanli and Xia Laohu also want to arrest Zhu because of a reward on his head. Unfortunately, Zhu succeed to escape from Hong Su Mei and Xia Laohu attack. After few years Zhu meet Wu Sanli again..

Year: 1991

Country: Mainland China

Small clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLl6HEnaTmY

Notes: This movie has been released on vcd from Gzbeauty in Mainland China (no subs). No other releases are available.The director ,this time is not a man but a woman. She directed the new movie about Confucius (孔子)(2010) with Chow Yun Fat, but before that she directed another action movie called Gunshot in the city (都市枪手)(1992). Yue Che just starred in some movies but the only martial arts related is this one. Hou Shuang started her career here, luckily she made another kungfu flick (already reviewed here) called Suo ming fei dao (索命飞刀)(1991). About Hou Liansheng, his first martial arts flick was Sins in the wutal mountains (五台山奇情)(1989).

Personal opinion: Another flick about revenge. Well, revenge is more or less the main key of each martial arts movie, so nothing new. The ma scenes are really well made both with weapons (swords) and with just bare hands/kicks. We couldnt watch the entire movie yet, but as far as we saw,we won't be disappointed (come on, a heroine in a movie? surely worth our time!).

Some snapshots (source: cctv):

A heroine in melon-shed (瓜棚女杰)(1985)

2010-12-29T02:04:00.000-08:00

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!

2010-12-24T23:29:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-12-14T01:44:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-12-10T02:48:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-12-07T00:51:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-12-06T03:15:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-11-29T03:23:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-11-24T02:48:00.000-08:00

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):

Red Revenge (红姑寨恩仇记) (1988)

2010-11-21T01:36:00.000-08:00

Red Revenge (红姑寨恩仇记)

Dir: Ji-shun Duan

Cast: Mingming Zhang, Hua Zhu, Dahua Xiong, Min Tian, Xiujie Liu, Jian Li, Ruolei Liu, Zongluo Huang, Gengchen Jiang

Plot:At the end of the Ming dynasty,the government authorities were corrupt, the people have no means of livelihood. Hong Gu (Mingming Zhang) at the Guo Jia acrobatics center finds out the her grandfather has been chased to kill, fortunately the kind heart son of an high official rescue him from danger. But the danger is still there,waiting to strike against them again....

Year: 1988

Country: Mainland China

Notes: The movie has not been released on any legit dvd/vcds in Mainland China (only broadcasted on CCTV). As far as the director is concerned, He just directed this martial arts movie, his other works are just social dramas. The cast more or less is the same, Mingming Zhang just starred in this martial arts flick,her other works are nothing like it. For Hua Zhu, Red revenge is the only kungfu movie he starred in; Ruolei Liu starred in some war movies against he japanese. Overall none of them made through the martial arts film industry.
Personal opinion: Well since there is no legit release, we still have to watch it, but as soon as we get in China things will change (thx cctv!). From the really few informations we found on the net ,Red Revenge seems an ordinary martial arts flick. If you guys have some other infos feel free to post them!
Another official mainland poster:

A still found on the net:

The Ruthless Eunuch (东厂喋血)(1988)

2010-11-16T01:05:00.000-08:00

The Ruthless Eunuch (东厂喋血)

Dir: Mei Yu, Ren Ke
Cast: Du Yulu, Liang Boluo, Li Ying

Plot: End of the Ming dynasty, Wei Zhongxian takes over all the power. Yang Lian ( a scholar who represents the East forestry) accepts to take a journey to the south, but Wei Zhongxian hires "Black Monkey" as assassin in order to stop Yang Lian who is investigating about Wei Zhongxian's crimes. Deep in the night Yang Lian is assaulted but luckily he was saved by Shen Jianmei...

Year: 1988

Country: Mainland China

Notes: The movie has not been released on any legit dvd/vcds in Mainland China (only broadcasted on CCTV). For both directors this is the only and last martial arts movie they directed. The same goes for the cast.
Personal opinion: A really unknown martial arts flick. We came across this title while surfing the net and the poster caught our attention (we really like this kind of posters). So we began to search more infos as possible about this flick, unfortunately there is none. We hope that it will get a legit release soon because as far as we saw it s quite worth it.
Some snapshots:

The Disclple Of The Shaolin Temple (少林寺弟子)(1983)

2010-11-14T01:29:00.000-08:00

The Disclple Of The Shaolin Temple (少林寺弟子)

Dir: Jiyou Yang
Cast: Lan Ding, Hong Jin, Jianguo Nie, Yi Cui

Plot:The theatrical troupe of the Hong family ,which earns money thanks to their daughter Cai Yun,reach Kaifeng's temple in order to perform in front of the prime minister. Because of the beauty of the girl some troubles accured and the theatrical troupe's head gets wounded and a brutal attack begins...the girls got rescued by Li ZhongZhou, and took at the Shaolin Temple where the training and revenge begins...

Year: 1983

Country: Mainland China

Notes: The movie has not been released on any legit dvd/vcds in Mainland China but in the US has been released by Tai Seng on dvd (english dubbing only). On the "picture story-book" there are some english subs so we assume that the original movie has traditional chinese/english burned in subtitles. The director just made two flicks ,this and a war/drama movie called The Marquis Guan Yu (1989), nothing else. The cast in the other hand did some remarkable martial arts flicks: Lan Ding starred in Shaolin Temple (1982) and its sequel Kids from Shaolin (1983) and Lucky 13 (侠女十三妹)(1986); Jianguo Nie starred in Generals Of The Yang Family (1984), a war movie. Discipline Of has been shown on the chinese channel CCTV6, pity there is no legit edition available yet. The movie is also known as Shaolin Brothers.

Personal opinion: Since there is no mandarin language legit release (we don't like dubbed stuff) we still have to watch it, as soon as we catch this movie on CCTV we re definitely going to watch it. As far as we can see from the "picture story-books", the movie seems worth our time, the martial arts sequences seem pretty well-made..check it out if you have the chance.
Here the original Chinese 16mm:

Some scans from our books (they are more rare than stills/snapshots):

Deadly Fury (武林志)(1983)

2010-11-11T06:34:00.000-08:00

Deadly Fury (武林志)

Dir: Zhang Huaxun
Cast: Zhang Yungxi, Li Junfeng, Li Deyu

Plot: This movie is about China's martial arts, integrety, prestige but not violence. Dongfang Xu (Junfeng Li) has ambitions, he wants to protect chinese honor and he doesn't care about his life or his death. He will try everything to defeat the Russian wrestler.

Year: 1983

Country: Mainland China

Trailer (Edit by us (source Official Mainland dvd): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngEcuD0mHtQ

Notes: The movie has been released in China on dvd and vcd by GZ Beauty,both of them doesnt carry any subs. Like other movies from that period of time, also "Deadly Fury" was pubblished in some kind of books. These books are called Lianhuanhua, it can be translated as "picture story-book" and they tells the movie through pics (directly from the film) and a small text that describes the scenes. Especially for this flick there were a lot of versions, we have one of them (you can check some pics on our memorabilia post and below).

Personal opinion: We discovered this movie browsing randmonly on some chinese websites. Then we searched a lot on the web and we found out that it was available on dvd. We can tell that it's another little gem that must be discovered by every kung fu fan. The martial art scenes are very good and the story is interesting. Junfeng Li had a role in another kung fu flick called Lucky 13 (侠女十三妹)(1986). Everything works great here, and if you are like us and you want to see what Mainland Kung Fu movies were back in those days... check it out!

Some scans from our books (they are more rare than stills/snapshots):

Swordsman in the Royal Court (王府刀客)(1990)

2010-11-08T10:27:00.001-08:00

Swordsman in the Royal Court (王府刀客)

Dir: Shimin Ji, Zhongmin Liu

Cast: Yang Zhao, Qing Tao, Yao Lu , Tienan Hao, Weimin Jin, Yin Liang, Yuanguo Xu

Plot:At the end of the Ming dynasty, the young emperor, crafty and fawning in holding the power, is trying to collude and injure the good people, as result a massive revolt took place..

Year: 1990

Country: Mainland China

Trailer (Edit by us (source Official Mainland vcd): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqQq9wxDmww

Notes: The movie has been released in China on vcd by GZ Beauty.As far as the directors are concerned, they just made one more martial arts flick called Suo ming fei dao (索命飞刀)(1991). About the cast we can tell you that Yang Zhao starred in Swords Meet (天下第一剑)(1988), Qing Tao starred in Jiang hu ba mian feng (江湖八面风)(1991),Tienan Hao starred in Blood Stains on Qiufeng Tower (血溅秋风楼)(1989), and Yuanguo Xu also starred in some other martial arts movies, such as Godly Beggar (神丐)(1987) and On the escort road (少侠奇缘)(1988).

Personal opinion: We have not entirely watched the movie yet, but from what we saw the martial arts sequences are pretty good [female heroine inside!!! just love her] but be awared that wires work is pretty noticeable...you have to choose if they suit you or not, to us they are fine since we are used to wuxia movies & co. . We suggest you to watch the trailer we made, it might helps you choosing whether this movie fits you.

Some snapshots (source: official mainland vcd):

Taekwondo (跆拳道)(2003)

2010-11-08T03:23:00.000-08:00

Taekwondo (跆拳道)

Dir: Sai Fu, Lisi Mai

Cast: Tao Hung, Wu Di, Han Qing, Yu Cheng Hui

Plot: The movie tells the story of Liu (Tao Hung) and Yang Hui (Wu Di), two girls who grew up together since childhood A childhood spent in an old chinese village in the countryside,where they practised chinese martial arts with their old shifu (Yu Cheng Hui). To them martial arts wasn't just an hobby, it was something that they felt inside, and that's why they both joined the national Taekwondo team.The goal is the Sidney Olympics 2000..just one of them will reach it....

Year: 2003

Country: Mainland China

Trailer (Edit by us (source Official Mainland dvd): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSkwADNhkF8

Notes: The movie has been released in China with english subtitles [by GZbeauty], and in Taiwan (dvd and vcd) without english subs. Please pay attention on what you buy, because in China they released two version of the dvd, one with and one without eng subs. As far as the directors is concerned, Sai Fu directed the history-war movie called Going East To Native Land (东归英雄传)(1993) in which starred also the well-known martial artist Cheng-Hui Yu (于承惠).

Personal opinion:It's a mainstream movie about a special event occured in a specific moment [other examples are the korean movies "Forever the moment" and "Lifting Kingkong" and the chinese "Women Soccer Team"], where the main theme is sacrifices and frienship in order to achive something bigger. During the movie you will see heavy trainings [chinese martial arts (wushu) and taekwondo] really well-made in terms of coreography. Of course this movie has some flaws like the last match in Sidney..well..just pay attention at the 2 athletes ..there is something wrong.... but damn, that training on the iced lake is just priceless.. A good movie for a brainoff evening, nothing to scream about, just a decent movie. PS: this one is the last recent movie we're going to put on this blog.

Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd):

Sorry guys!

2010-11-07T22:53:00.000-08:00

These few days we have been too busy to update the blog...we will restart from today :) Today not just one but two movies will be uploaded in here..stay tune!

Kung Fu Hero Wang Wu (大刀王五)(1985)

2010-11-04T04:04:00.000-07:00

Kung Fu Hero Wang Wu (大刀王五)

Dir: Yu Lianqi

Cast: Ge Chunyan, Wang Xiaozhong, Zhao Changjun, Ji Qilin, Wang Hua

Plot: Last years of the Qing Dinasty, the fight between Ci Xi and Guang Xu becomes more fierce every day. The 5 broadsword kings (大刀王五) , former bodyguards, seek warriors for an uprising..

Year: 1985

Country: Mainland China

Notes: The movie is available on dvd in China with chinese subtitles. The dvd release comes along with a poster. Yu Lianqi directed only this kung fu movie, his other works are just dramas. Zhao Chang Jun is not new to this kind of movies, he also starred in New Fang Shiyu (新方世玉)(1984). Wang Xiaozhong starred in A Mysterious Heroine (奇情侠侣)(1988) and other kung fu/action flicks. The movie seems to be released in VHS in some western countries dubbed in English.

Personal opinion: Another movie that must be seen. From what we saw the movie offers everything a kung fu fan usually looks for: an interesting plot and great martial arts. This flick has both. And you won't be dissapointed by the cast, they know how to make a fight worth it. It's gonna be in our collection soon..
Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd):

Our memorabilia collection.

2010-11-03T01:52:00.000-07:00

Today no movies update,sorry.
We want to share with you all our collection of movie-books,posters and stills. We already shared them on some forums (dvdaddicted,kung fu cinema,cinehound), but we thought that it would have been nice to publish em also here.

Let's start....

See ya tomorrow for a movie...

Murky Shadows Over the Gorges (峡江疑影)(1985)

2010-11-02T03:12:00.000-07:00

Murky Shadows Over the Gorges (峡江疑影)

Dir: Li Qimin

Cast: Sun Jianming, Zhang Xiling, Wang Xiuping, Yu Dalu, Cui Yi

Plot: Set during the final years of the Qing Dinasty,the movie is about the Alliance Society (同盟会) which led the resistance...

Year: 1985

Country: Mainland China

Trailer (Edit by us (source Official Mainland vcd): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZBZ9uRmFtQ

Notes: The movie is available on vcd in China thanks to the GZ Beauty company. The movie was screened in West Germany back in those days. This is the only kung fu movie from direcotr Li Qimin. Sun Jianming starred in movies like Wu Dang (武当)(1983) and Legend of the nanling mountain (南岭传奇)(1988). Most of the cast starred in some mainland kung fu movies.

Personal opinion: What a movie! Truly a instant classic! The kung fu is top-notch both during training sessions and fights. You can't get bored by this flick. The final fight with the two girls and the bad guy is awesome. There are some wires involved (especially for some jumps) but nothing that ruins the realism of the scenes. Moreover the set is beautiful, the landscape is absolutely gorgeous. There is nothing that doesn't work here, the cast knows what to do (their filmographies talk for themself) both in acting and fighting. If you are really into martial arts movie, you ought to see this one.

Some snapshots (source: official mainland vcd):

Soccer Heroes (京都球侠)(1987)

2010-11-01T03:14:00.000-07:00

Soccer Heroes (京都球侠)

Dir: Xie Hong

Cast:Zhang Fengyi, Chen Peisi, Jiang Kun, Sun Min

Plot:The battle between Western and Chinese football team, for the proud and dignity of their own people, leads to an unexpected ending, where the victorious chinese team won't be that victorious anymore duo to the brutal royal repression.

Year: 1987

Country: Mainland China

Trailer (Edit by us (source Official Mainland dvd)): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v75p6nv0l78

Notes: The movie is available on dvd/vcd in China thanks to the GZ Beauty company. Like most of their releases, Soccer Heroes doesn't carry any subs. Some times ago Boing also distribuited this movie on dvd, and still no english subtitles. About the movie itself, Chen Peisi, won the Hundred Flowers Award for best male supporting role in 1988; besides that, he s quite famous in the Mainland and starred in a lot of comedie. The director is the one who directed the well-known mainland flick called Deadly Fury (武林志)(1983) and the barely known Mysterious Buddha (神秘的大佛)(1980).

Personal opinion: This barely known movie from China doesn't offer that much in regards of martial arts or action, Soccer Heroes is more a social movie about dignity and honor. Sure there is some kind of action (some little fights,soccer training,soccer matches) and arts (opera) sequences ,but still, the movie is not a martial art/action flick, so keep that in mind if you want to watch it. Diversity,dignity,honor and repression can be listed as the main themes of this movie. And guys...do not expect anything like to "The Champions" starring Yuen Biao, is not that kind of movie.

Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd [gzbeauty]):

Strange Love of a Ghost (幽魂奇恋) (1992)

2010-10-31T01:21:00.000-07:00

Strange Love of a Ghost (幽魂奇恋)

Dir: Qiu Lili

Cast: Dong Xiaoyan, Wang Zhigang, Xu Xiaojian

Plot:This love ghost story reflects the suffering of a ghost living in a world that doesn't belong to it, there is no evil,there is just ghosts... in an inn, where business is growing up day by day, something evil occured, a robbery and a murder..from that moment on the inn is won't be a peaceful place anymore..

Year: 1992

Country: Mainland China

Notes: The movie has not been released on any legit format in mainlad china, just broadcasting over and over on cctv6. The director also directed the war movie dated 1992 called "Generous Hero"(仗义英雄). As far as the cast in concerned, the only one who actually starred in other particular mainland production is Xiaojian Xu, who acted in movies like Slaughter In Xian (西安杀戮)(1987),The river dragon (过江龙)(1987)[we re going to review this one really soon [is available on official mainland dvd]] and in Da Shanghai 1937 (大上海1937)(1986).

Personal opinion: Unfortunately we just some clips on the internet taken from the television broadcast, and it seems a pretty good and interesting movie. It's quite rare to see something like this from China so we are really looking forward to see it...Since it's a rare mainland flick we bought the original chinese poster few months ago (you can see it above)..might not be "A chinese ghost story" but still, we think, worth our time.
Some snapshots (source: television broadcast):

The heroine of tianhu lake (天湖女侠)(1988)

2010-10-30T01:14:00.000-07:00

The heroine of tianhu lake (天湖女侠)

Dir: Zhao Weiheng, Qiao Keji

Cast: He Yan,Wang Jianjun, Qiu Yunsun,Chen Xiaolou, Liu Feng, Xu Xueli,Li Xuelin,Peng Wencong

Plot: At the end of the Qing dinasty, in order to protect a tresure from the foreigners, a girl will fight back..

Year: 1988

Country: Mainland China

Trailer (Edit by us (source Official Mainland vcd)): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-bcJz0E4V4

Notes: The movie has been released in China on vcd (gzbeauty) without english subtitles.The poster u see above is from our personal collection. About the cast, we couldnt fint anything on them, it seems that their last and only movie is this one. If you have some other info, pls share with us. Thank you.

Personal opinion: The flick is definitely worth your time. The story might not be really "new", but the fights are worth and the main actress is priceless. There is some wirework involved but who cares? Actors/actresses will show you their skill with or without them..

Some snapshots (source: official mainland vcd):

Where to buy

2010-10-28T00:56:00.000-07:00

Today we're not going to show you any movie, we want to spend this post to tell you where to buy legit releases from China.
We know that China provides lots and lots of bootlegs (just search on ebay and you will see), but you should know by now that China provides legit releases too (look on the right collumn of this blog).
The first, and the more famous website is ,of course, yesasia. Its catalogue is huge but mainland releases are overpriced. For example a dvd/vcd that costs 30yuan in China/HK (yes, you can find mainland releases also there), yesasia's price is sth like 10US$. On the other hand, buyoyo keeps low prices or at least reasonable.
Another website where you can find official mainland releases is amazon.com , here you can find some gzbeauty releases (only dvds) but their prices kill any deal. They ask sth like 17US$ for a dvd!! Please do not buy from them.
Besides these 3, we have also sensasian . We had some problem with this website but still, they have some chinese releases. Be aware of bootlegs though.
Now let's talk about chinese mainland websites. The mighty three are:
1- http://www.amazon.cn/
2- http://dangdang.com/
3- http://cnave.com/
The prices there are the current market's. So cheap prices and cheap shipping as well. The only problem is that you need to know/read chinese. We made a guide for amazon.cn some years ago (you can find it here: http://www.theimportforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13034 ), it mights help you.
As far as ebay is concerned, you need to be really careful. A lot of sellers from china (or america) sell just bootlegs or grey zone discs. So keep your eyes widely open, if you'r not sure about what u'r buying, don't buy it or at least first check the chinese websites we provided you.

Suo ming fei dao (索命飞刀)(1991)

2010-10-27T00:23:00.000-07:00

Suo ming fei dao (索命飞刀)

Dir: Shiming Ji , Zhongming Liu

Cast: Chen Qi, Kou Zhenhai, Wang Gang, Hou Shuang, Zhang Dehui

Plot: Dou Erdun's sister rely on her unique skill with knifes in order to get revenge over Huang Tianba, who killed her brother.

Year: 1991

Country: Mainland China

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

Notes: The movie has been released in China on vcd (gzbeauty) without english subtitles.

Personal opinion: We really like movies where the lead role is played by a girl/woman, it's been since "Come drink with me" (Shaw Brothers) that we're fond of this kind of flick. It's always a joy to see a girl who fights lots and lots of villains. This movie is not different, we have a lot of fights (some helped with wires for jumps and stuff) , a story of vengeance, nothing new nothing bad. Check it out if you have the chance.

Some snapshots (source: official mainland vcd):

Godly Beggar (神丐)(1987)

2010-10-26T01:27:00.000-07:00

Godly Beggar (神丐)

Dir: Gao Tianhong, Wang Dankui
Cast: Li Xida, Hu Yingjie, Wang Qun, Zhang Bin
Plot: Once upon a time there was young Yanglu Chan, degraded into slavery and robbery, who at last became the Yang Tai Chi master..this is his story

Year: 1987

Country: Mainland China

Notes: The movie has been released in China on dvd (gzbeauty) without english subtitles. The director Gao Tianhong also directed another kung fu movie called Magical Dragon Sword Warrioress Lu Siniang (神龙剑侠吕四娘)(1989), which is released by the same company in China, along with Heroing Lu siniang (风尘女侠吕四娘) (1988), which has not been released yet.

Personal opinion: A good entertaining kung fu movie from China, the story is quite interesting and the coreography (the most important part in a kung fu movie in our opinion) is worth your time. If you like oldschool kung fu movies from HK/TW you will love this mainland flick as well.

Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd):

Vicious Passageway (黑色走廊)(1990)

2010-10-25T01:41:00.000-07:00

Vicious Passageway (黑色走廊)

Dir: Wang Biao, Lu Xiaolong
Cast: Lu Xiaolong, Luo Xiou·Ba Ting, Ande Liegu, Yidi Fei Landu, Jie Pan
Plot: Wang Long, one of the primary smuggler who sell drugs to Europe, has been signed by the Interpol in order to follow the drug market as an undercover....

Year: 1990

Country: Mainland China, Hong Kong

Trailer (Edit by us (source Official Mainland dvd)): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5FOFaZXrfA

Notes: Lu Xiaolong starred in some Bruce Lee's exploitation like Enter the Game of Death and Bruce is loose, as well as in the Shaw Brothers movie called The Tea House (1974). Jie Pan starred in a kinda of spooky movie from China called The lonely spirit in an old building (1989) and in a movie adaption of the chinese fairy tale "Butterflies in Love" called Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai (1994). As far as Vicious Passageway is concerned, it has been released in China on dvd (no subs) by GZbeauty. The chinese title means Black Passageway.

Personal opinion: This is just one example of what China (and in this case, HK too) can offer to the viewers in terms of action: gun fights, martial arts, drugs, blood, corruption... nothing more nothing less, just pure old school intertainment...and yes we have the original poster at home :)°°

Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd):

Fate and Consequence (武僧)(2007)

2010-10-24T01:28:00.000-07:00

Fate and Consequence (武僧)

Dir: He Wei; Chow Jan-Wing
Cast: Fan Siu Wong, Mao Zhi-Qiang, Yuan Wen-Ting, Liang Feng,| Xu Caigen, Lam Wai
Plot: The son of the emperor has been rescued and sent to the Shaolin Temple. Ten years later, Yang Wu (Fan Siu Wong), is looking for him in order to get him back to the throne...unfortunately it won't be that easy..

Year: 2007

Country: Mainland China

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxGb_oouuXU

Notes: Action coreography by Yuen Bo (Angel Terminators 2 ,PTU). The only edition available is the mainland one which doesnt carry any subs, just simplified or traditional chinese.

Personal opinion: We know that this flick is a bit too new, and it might not fit in our blog "policy" but we really liked it and we think that it deserves its place in here. The fighting scenes are pure old school kungfu, there is really really really little of wires work, and a lot of skills from each actors. The star of the gory "The story of ricky" provides in this kungfu movie that he still knows how to kick ass (if you don't know,we're talking about Fan siu Wong). Don't worry from now on we will just write about 80/90s movies,this one,along with another one (in the next few days you will find out), is just a special event.

Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd):

Flying Centipede (飞天蜈蚣)(1994)

2010-10-23T02:17:00.000-07:00

Flying Centipede (飞天蜈蚣)

Dir: Sun Qingguo
Cast: Qu Ying, Wu Gang, Ge Sha
Plot: The police seemes not to be able to catch a group of robbers known as "Flying Centipede". Then the police put on the case the detective Ouyang Long to assist the police force. During the investigation, Ouyang Long realize that the whole police is involved....

Year: 1994

Country: Mainland China

Notes: The movie has been released on vcd (gzbeauty) in Mainland China, it doesn't carry any english subs.The chinese title means exactly Flying Centipede. The director just made 3 movies in his entire life, on the other hand,Qu Ying had some roles in movies like Fight For Justice (决战枭雄) (2004) and Zhang Yimou's Keep Cool (有话好好说)(1997).

Personal opinion: One of the few examples of "criminal wearing costumes" movie from China. You can see him/her fly all over the places, shoot while flying...we are sure that if you like this kind of movie ,you will like this flick as well.

Some snapshots:

QTKM (青铜狂魔)(1994)

2010-10-23T01:44:00.000-07:00

QTKM (青铜狂魔)

Dir: Gu Jing
Cast: Chu Zhibo, Dongfang Fangwen, Liu Zhibing
Plot:What`s the reason behind the transformation of a psychopathic archaeologist into a serial killer? An old relic could be the answer,along with an ancient myth..

Year: 1994

Country: Mainland China

Notes: The movie has been released on vcd (gzbeauty) in Mainland China, it doesn't carry any english subs.QTKM stands for 青铜狂魔 (Qingtong Kuang Mo),which letteraly means Crazy Bronze Demon.

Personal opinion: Even though we didn't actually watch the movie, after read the plot and then watched a brief clip on the internet, we sure want to see what this movie can offer. The plot seems interesting and really different from other mainland's flicks since it involves a demon and an ancient myth, something that you don't see very often in old chinese movie. We think this QTKM would be worth our and your time.

Some snapshots (source: vcd):

Adventures of the Little Monks (少林好小子)(1994)

2010-10-22T03:22:00.000-07:00

Adventures of the Little Monks (少林好小子)

Dir: Yuan Fang, Yuan Yingming
Cast: Li Meng, Zhu Yin, Guo Jinan, Li li li
Plot: Invited by the Americans, Shaolin martial artists and their Shifu , on the way to their destination forgot at the hotel the kiddo...and the research begins..

Year: 1994

Country: Mainland China

Intro (Editing by us, Source Material: Television):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT6mYaakhG0

Notes: This movie has been released on vcd (gzbeauty) and dvd (boing!) in Mainland China, both of them doesn't carry any english subs.

Personal opinion: Have you ever watched a movie called "龍在少林"? A really bad HK-TW co-production features Yuan Biao, also known as Dragon from shaolin (1996)? Well, this 少林好小子 is more or less the same genre.. lots of fights, lots of shaolin monks, lots of kids, lots of humor... If you hated 龍在少林 as much as we did, you might give 少林好小子 a chance.
Some snapshots (source: cctv6):

The Magic Braid (神鞭)(1986)

2010-10-21T03:29:00.000-07:00

The Magic Braid (神鞭)

Dir: Zien Zhang
Cast: Baoguo Chen , Yawei Wang, Shouli Xu , Yan Zhang , Xing Zheng
Plot: During the late Qing Dynasty, thanks to his skills with his long braid Sha'er is a well known fighter all over the country. He will have to fight against the foreigners in order to defend his own country, China..

Year: 1986

Country: Mainland China

Trailer (Editing by us, Source Material: Original Mainland Dvd):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtH8d35e5PE

Notes: This movie is based on the novel by Ping Ji Cai (冯骥才). It's one of the few flick where you can see how to use a braid to defeat the opponents. It's set during the boxer rebellion. The poster above is from our personal collection. The movie is available on dvd from China (official release) with english subtitles.

Personal opinion: We must admit that the movie has some flaws such as a lot of dead moments. On the other hand it shows some really outstanding martial arts scenes, especially thanks to the skill of Yawei Wang.
When the movie arrives to the battle between the Chinese and the foreigners, the boredom arises. It's really way too long, we think that if they have shorted it a little bit ,the result would be much better. The only thing we appreciated of that was the music played as background.
Before the battle, there is a meeting/martial arts exhibition where you can see a guy that perform as the monkey king, just great!
Although with its flaws, the movie is worth your time both for the historical issue and for the martial art sequences that are top-notch.

Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd):

Little Heroes (自古英雄出少年)(1983)

2010-10-21T01:59:00.000-07:00

Little Heroes (自古英雄出少年)

Dir: Tun Fei Mou
Cast: Yong Hao, Hsiao Yen Chang, Yong Zhang, Changgui Xiong, etc
Plot: During the Qing dinasty, an anti-Qing group, called 天地会 (Heaven & Earth) settled in remote mountain village got attacked by the Qing guards...

Year: 1983
Country: Mainland China

Notes: Tun Fei Mou famous for the movie called Men Behind The Sun, in his early career made this movie for the mainland audience. It is said that the movie was supposed to be as violent as Chang Cheh's movies, but the mainland censorship didn't allow so. For more info about the director and his movies,we suggest you to check a documentary that will be released by Stuntman Jules of Kung Fu Cinema Forums ( Kung Fu Cinema Forum dedicated thread ).

Personal opinion: One of the best kung fu movie ever, not just because of the outstanding performances, but also duo to the magnificient scenary where the film was filmed. Although it's not turned out to be as the director wanted, we think that this fairy tale is just gorgeous in every details. Maybe the violence would have ruined the movie, in our opinion...

Some snapshots (source: official mainland Dvd):

Personal Opinion

2010-10-21T00:54:00.000-07:00

Some guys on two different forums told us that we should write something about our personal opinion on the movies...well,here we are...

Codename Cougar (代号美洲豹) (1988)

2010-10-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

Codename Cougar (代号美洲豹)

Dir: Yimou Zhang, Fengliang Yang
Cast: You Ge, Li Gong, Xiaoning Liu, Rongguang Yu, Xueqi Wang, Yazhou Yang
Plot: A plain, loaded with taiwanese businessmen has been hijacked by terrorists, landed in mainland China. An anti-terrorism squad is formed to save the hostages with the cooperation of Mainland China and Taiwan...

Year: 1988
Country: Mainland China

Notes: It was screened in Japan in the 11/11/1989, and most of the critics thought that this Code Name: Cugar is one of the worst movie ever made by Zhang Yimou. At the end, this little known Chinese flick seemes to pay a tribute to the American movie called Apocalypse Now. Furthermore, this movie provides a kinda of HK's bullet ballet feeling because of the amount of gun fights and killing involved.
Personal opinion: To tell the truth, we agree with the critics..the movie actually is not that good. It's not because of the actors or the plot theirselves but the whole thing just doesn't provides anything more than a blend bulletballet/terrorist movie. It's not a really soft movie either, there is some kind of politics issue in it ( duo to some sentences that You Ge (cant remember the name of the character on the movie) screams against the chinese (mainlanders) ) that gives you the feeling that this movie is not properly a mainland flick,but still..it is. Either you watch it or not,it won't change you life..
Some snapshots (source: official mainland Dvd):

Yamaha Fish Stall (雅马哈鱼档)(1984)

2010-10-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

Yamaha Fish Stall (雅马哈鱼档)

Dir: Liang Zhang
Cast: Tianxi Zhang, Zhijian Li, Liyi Yang, Ruiping Xu, Jian Shi, Jinshang Huang
Plot: The movie tells the story of 3 fellows who are trying to make a living in the early 80s. These guys who are not that good at business try their best in order to achive something from their life...but they are not alone..

Year: 1984
Country: Mainland China

Notes: A movie about everyday life in GuangZhou that doesn't differ to much from the same genre films from HK, where people could relate with the characters of the flick. Yamaha Fish Stall won ,at the 5th China Golden Rooster Award, the Best Art Award.
Personal opinion: We have the dvd (official mainland) but to tell the truth we still have to watch it, so we just can tell you from what we saw that the movie genre is kinda of "everyday life" . As soon as we watch the movie, we will add a better opinion
Some stills:

Warriors of China (中国勇士)(1990)

2010-10-20T04:58:00.000-07:00

Warriors of China (中国勇士)

Dir: Wang Xue Xin
Cast: Li Yun Juan, Geng Min Shan, Du Zhen Qing, Zheng Rong
Plot: a terrorist group kidnapped a nuclear physician with all his family, the chinese government sends some soldier to rescue them..

Year: 1990
Country: Mainland China

Intro (Source Material: Original Mainland VcD): : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwnbecyJtcA

Notes: It's kinda of filippino-guerrila movie with a lot of gunfights ,some martial arts sequences as well as some violence. It's set in an unknown country (probably Laos or Vietnam or whatever) and provides some native rituals that we have never seen before. About the cast, most of the actors are unknow,for instance Minshan Xing worked in a mainland movie called Inside an old grave (古墓荒斋)(1990), Zhenqing Du just worked in military movies, Yunjuan Li worked in movies such as Women Warriors (莽女追魂)(1990) and Ma suzhen takes reveenge (马素贞复仇记)(1988).As far as the director is concerned, he did another military flick called Devils and the Cross (十字架下的魔影)(1994). The movie is available only on vcd (no subs).
Personal Opinion: We re not big fans of this genre, so we didn't like this movie that much. Lot's of green,lot's of mercenaires/terrorists, lot's of jungle's gunfights..but thats it. If you like this kind of movie you might like this flick too, but if you don't, well just skip it.

Some snapshots (source: official mainland vcd):

Wrath of the dragon (省港狂龙)(1989)

2010-10-20T01:11:00.000-07:00

Wrath of the dragon (省港狂龙)

Dir: Hong Feng
Cast: Mozi Jiang, Zhang Qi, Xu Dongfang, Dong Yanbo, Xia Di
Plot: A story of gangsters and revenge set in between GuangZhou and Hong Kong where everything started because of a lost box of drugs and an innocent death...

Year: 1989
Country: Mainland China / Hong Kong
AKA: GuangZhou Warrior

Notes: As far as we know,the movie has not been released in any official format. The poster you can see at the top is the one from our collection [original chinese poster], in China at that time they also released another poster that you can see below:

Some snapshots (source: tv):

The Magic Legs (无敌鸳鸯腿)(1988)

2010-10-19T09:10:00.000-07:00

The Magic Legs (无敌鸳鸯腿)

Dir:Wenhua Li
Cast: Xiling Zhang, Chi Wang,Qun Wang, Qiufu Tao,Guang Li
Plot: During the Qing dinasty (Chao Zhou)Hei Sha Zhang (Chi Wang) and their buddies took over the NanZhu Temple where they abducted girls for selling purpose. One day, Wu Lao Die (Qiufu Tao) and his nephew Wu Jia Tai (Qun Wang) went to the temple and they caught the bastards. Unfortunately during the fight Wu Lao Die was killed by Hei Sha Zhang. Wu Jia Tai started to look for the killer and then he met Fen Lan (Xiling Zhang), and thanks to her help and her father's technique (Magic Legs) (Guang Li), they will succeed but at what price..

Year: 1988
Country: Mainland China
Trailer (Editing by us, Source Material: Original Mainland Dvd):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvDcCUm3EOU
Notes: This movie has been released somewhere with english/chinese subtitles (maybe a taiwanese vcd). The original mainland release doesn't carry any subs. About the movie itself, besides martial arts it shows us a bit of chinese opera.
Personal opinion: If you like Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers kung fu movies, you will love this mainland's too. The film has the classic kungfu plot..vengeance.. a master gets killed and let's the vengeace begins! The real reason we enjoy gong fu movies is not because of their plots but duo to their stunts and martial arts scenes, and thanks god this "Magic Legs" provides the viewers with outstanding martial arts coreography and long well-made stunts; but of course it has some flawless, the first one is the soundtrack..it really doesn't fit the movie; the second is the director choice on filming the ending battle on two different beaches....anyhow, this movie is worth the viewers time.
Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd):

Chinese Police Women (中国霸王花)(1989)

2010-10-19T08:49:00.000-07:00

Chinese Police Women (中国霸王花)

Dir:Yiqun Gong, Xiaomin Wang
Cast: Jing Zhang, Yitian Zhou, Xia Li, Zhaohui Min
Plot: A bunch of girls join the Chinese military force in order to improve their martial arts skills and to protect the chinese population...becoming the "Tyrant Flower" (霸王花).
Year: 1989
Country: Mainland China
Trailer (Editing by us, Source Material: Original Mainland Dvd):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI7-ETVc0wI

Notes: The film actually has some communist propaganda stuff but the action is worth your time (Check the trailer). The movie mixes military training (male and female's) with some intensive martial arts training sequences. Moreover, this mainland flick provides the viewers with some kind of HK urban action. Chinese Police Women won the 1989-1990 Broadcast television ministry's for the outstanding film awards, furthermore it won the third price at the third Harbin Winter festivla (1991).
Personal Opinion: Besides to what we already told you on the notes, we want to add what are our thoughts regarding this movie. Since it's not a pure martial arts/urban action flick, most of the viewers could think that it's just a different communist film, well you are wrong. We do give you that there are some communist propaganda stuff in it, but if you can look over this you will find a movie about friendship,honor and suffering in order to achieve the status of "Tyrant Flower" (霸王花). We like it really much, we have never been annoyed or bored by the movie, moreover it was quite entertaining on watching the training sessions,the martial arts ones (really good coreography) and the urban actions ones... don't be afraid of the communist stuff, just focus on the movie and you will like it.
Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd):

Wu Dang (武当)(1983)

2010-10-19T06:24:00.000-07:00

Wu Dang (武当)

Dir: Sun Sha
Cast: Lam Chuen , Changjun Zhao , Yuwen Li , Zhenbang Ma , Yali Tang , Zhiguo Zang , YingHai Mao , Yong Yang , Qiurong Zhao ,Jianming Sun , Changwen Xu , Xiaozhong Wang
Year: 1983
Country: Mainland China
Plot:

Set in 19° century, China is invaded by the Japanese. In the town called Zhong Zhou, five samurais took over the entire city thanks to the corrupted natives and ,of course, thanks to their strength.
A lot of kung fu masters are killed, but the Japanese give another chance to the locals in a death match. Unfortunately, also this event was corrupted and the son of a master, who were seeking vengeance, got killed..
His sister Wu JingJIng (Yali Tang) and Si Ma Jian (Changjun Zhao) will try to achieve justice for the Chinese..

Notes: Changjun Zhao was a real martial artist and he was casting in some HK movies as well. Zhao was Jet Li's opponent in a lot of competitions and he was defeated twice by Jet Li (who was 2 years younger). In 1995 he was elected "Chinese Martial Arts Star" (中华武星) from the Chinese Wushu Association e the National Education Committee.
About Yali Tang, this one was her first and last movie.
Personal Opinion: Wu Dang was the second mainland movie we watched in our enitre life, the first one was Shaolin Temple. We were really impressed by Wu Dang , the coreography, the martial arts sequences, the actors..everything was over the top, there was nothing that we didn't enjoy. Looking back today, we still think that this kung fu movie should be in every kungfu fan collection because there is no excuses not to like a flick like this. We loved so much this movie that we also bought the original mainland poster because we think Wu Dang deserves more than an official unsubbed (luckly we speak a bit of chinese) mainland dvd.

Some snapshots (source: official mainland dvd) :

Introduction

2010-10-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

Our goal is to share all the info we have on this subject with you, we will write only in English/Chinese (although our first language is Italian).

Everybody knows HK and TW flicks, but how many of you actually know about the Mainland’s ones? A lot of people think that Mainland China’s movies are just pro-communist and maybe the only really famous kung fu movie from there is Shaolin Temple (少林寺) starring Jet Li…well they are wrong…

Mainland Old School Movies

A small update.

Rescued from desperation (绝处逢生)(1985)

Soon,,,

Happy New Year...again!

QTKM (青铜狂魔)(1994) **UPDATE**

New entries!

Merry Xmas folks!

Merry Xmas

The end

The Burning of Yuan Ming Yuan (火烧圆明园)(1983)

Shop updated!

Lucky 13 (侠十三妹)(1986)

The shop is.... open!

Shop! Shop! Shop!

Death at the Carefree Mansion (索命逍遥楼)(1990)

Rarities [Update]

The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (五郎八卦棍)(1990)

New entries

[UPDATE] Kung Fu Hero Wang Wu (大刀王五)(1985)

Mysterious Buddha (神秘的大佛)(1980)

Go West to Subdue Demons (西行平妖)(1991)

We're (kinda of) back!

Farewell's Post

The Young Hero Of Shaolin 2 (新方世玉 续集)(1986)

Zhong ming han shan si (钟鸣寒山寺)(1991)

Jiang hu ba mian feng (江湖八面风)(1991)

A heroine in melon-shed (瓜棚女杰)(1985)

Merry Christmas everybody!

Cross the river (过江)(1988)

Dr.li and the Mummy (李阿毛与僵尸)(1940)

Never Give Up (死不回头)(1992)

Hei Xia Diexue Ji (黑匣喋血记)(1986)

Woman Anti-drug Fighter (缉毒少女)(1992)

Revenge (报仇)(1993)

Red Revenge (红姑寨恩仇记) (1988)

The Ruthless Eunuch (东厂喋血)(1988)

The Disclple Of The Shaolin Temple (少林寺弟子)(1983)

Deadly Fury (武林志)(1983)

Swordsman in the Royal Court (王府刀客)(1990)

Taekwondo (跆拳道)(2003)

Sorry guys!

Kung Fu Hero Wang Wu (大刀王五)(1985)

Our memorabilia collection.

Murky Shadows Over the Gorges (峡江疑影)(1985)

Soccer Heroes (京都球侠)(1987)

Strange Love of a Ghost (幽魂奇恋) (1992)

The heroine of tianhu lake (天湖女侠)(1988)

Where to buy

Suo ming fei dao (索命飞刀)(1991)

Godly Beggar (神丐)(1987)

Vicious Passageway (黑色走廊)(1990)

Fate and Consequence (武僧)(2007)

Flying Centipede (飞天蜈蚣)(1994)

QTKM (青铜狂魔)(1994)

Adventures of the Little Monks (少林好小子)(1994)

The Magic Braid (神鞭)(1986)

Little Heroes (自古英雄出少年)(1983)

Personal Opinion

Codename Cougar (代号美洲豹) (1988)

Yamaha Fish Stall (雅马哈鱼档)(1984)

Warriors of China (中国勇士)(1990)

Wrath of the dragon (省港狂龙)(1989)

The Magic Legs (无敌鸳鸯腿)(1988)

Chinese Police Women (中国霸王花)(1989)

Wu Dang (武当)(1983)

Introduction

QTKM (青铜狂魔)(1994) UPDATE

The Young Hero Of Shaolin 2 (新方世玉续集)(1986)