Rarities [Update]

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)

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

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)

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)

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)

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!

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!