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!

Farewell's Post

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)

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)

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)

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)

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):