Synopsis: After leaving his Ninja Clan, Goemon (Raizo) continues in his assigment to assassinate the great warlord, Oda Nobunaga (Wakayama). The second part of the Ishikawa Goemon trilogy contains many more authentic Ninja tactics, and also paints a picture of the "Warring States" period in Japanese history.
Opinions: Another great example of how well Japanese movies are made. Outstanding action, with an intelligent story that brings one to the exciting era of the Ninja warrior! Once again Raizo, Tomisaburo, Daiei Film's top of the line stable of performer's and crew members, a badass "real deal" Ninpo Master as the consultant, and two of Japan's best Director's do the follow-up film "Ninja 2", (of 9!), and the actual history of spies and assassins in shadows known as Shinobi no mono, (Iga/Koge people), right and proud. A very intense scene with Goemon and his (very cute!) wife Maki's new baby being held over their cabin's open firepit by a demonic bad guy as he laughs his head off watching them plead and comply while begging him not to do what he's threatening to do, then he DOES IT still gives me the creeps every single time I see it, and I must have seen it 20 times! But the film series, (8 with Raizo), really does get even better with each entry. And it also makes me sad, like when I watch the Son Of The Black Mass series, or Sword Devil, or Destiny's Son, at the early loss of such a talented and consistently interesting actor and one of the very best "Jidai-Geki" stunt performer's ever to come out of the golden age of Japan's big time studio era, my top pick of the "Chambara Holy Trinity", and a man worthy of any film fan's discovering, Ichikawa Raizo-sama... Domo arigato.
Mad Monkey Kung Fu (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure I am STILL mad about what those bastards did to his monkey! Odd training sequences, (but of course), and crazy-ass jumping around by the "little monkey" dude make this way cool!
Hercules In The Haunted World (product link) Fantasy / Action/Adventure Better made because of Mario Bava, and whole a lot cooler because of Christopher Lee than most "Sword & Sandal" schlock from the 60's!
The Stranger And The Gunfighter (product link) Western / Martial Arts Not as good as some Lee Van Cleef "Spaghetti Westerns" or Lo Lieh "Chop Sockeys", and not as good as I had hoped or had heard. But it was good...
[Note: This review refers to the US DVD by AnimEigo.]
The reason that "SHINOBI NO MONO" (part 1 of 9!) might not have felt like "a movie" as such to my respected (and bloody good!) fellow Ninja Flix fan and amateur armchair critic known as "John" is because it was indeed an incomplete experience for him as presented here by the once cool, independant "little guys" turned greedy, self-serving "swine", AnimEigo! And it's been presented this way to most Westerners for years with only two volumes released in an ongoing, epic, and true story of the Iga and the Koga people, (aka "Ninja"), detailing in a fast-paced and entertaining way, Warlord Oda Nobunaga's and first Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu's use of, and fear of, and and attempted "genocide" of both mysterious tribes of "shadow warriors". It's all told by the same great actor, Raizo Ichikawa, with the help of many other greats from the DAIEI Studio, including LONE WOLF AND CUB's Tomisaburo Wakayama playing Lord Oda in "THE GOEMON TRILOGY" (SNM 1-3), and Shogun Ieyasu's enemy Lord Sanada in "SAIZO OF THE MIST" (SNM 4-5), and it's all done very fairly by showing the series from both sides of the story, and over generations of the "GOEMON/MIST SAIZO" heirs to their Ninja skills. It's the same story touched upon in nearly all of the recent "Ninja" films, (OWL CASTLE, SHINOBI: HEART UNDER BLADE), and the series influence can be seen clearly in the films of the "New Breed" of Chambara/Jidai-Geki filmmakers, as well as the O.G.'s, like Sonny Chiba's KAGE NO GUNDAN, even all the classic, coolest, and newest great "Anime", (BASILISK 1-6, NINJA SCROLL, ETC.)...
...This truly classic and great "Old School" HQ film series...really does get even better as it goes on, just like DAIEI's other series ZATOICHI and SON OF THE BLACK MASS! (Not "SLEEPY EYES OF DEATH" which the shmucks over there at AnimEigo "redubbed" before they screwed the first 6 (of 12) of those up too!) And even Steve McQueen's NEVADA SMITH and Corbucci's DJANGO! ripped off SNM 8! Not really, but it sounded kinda' cool to say that, didn't it?
Euro Horror Double Bill [2-Disc Set] (product link) Horror / Thriller Like all the Jess Franco flix I've ever seen this interesting looking rip off of several U.S. made classic horror tales like DR. CYCLOPS, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, ETC. started off good, then showed itself to be a very, very low budget Spanish exploitation of the classics it was inspired by, then came back strong for the 3rd, then just lost it all at the end. So, THE DIABOLICAL DR.Z gets 2 stars. However, THE MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN made up for its weak teammate by scoring a TKO early on with better than Bava lighting effects, a new twist with a better creep factor than its inspiration, HOUSE OF WAX, and was every bit as good as any Hammer Studios film in the 60's - So, it gets 4 stars for 3 total.
As a dilettante in the rare/cult aspects of the genre I was interested in seeing some of the "Spaghetti Westerns" starring a man with several names, including Tony Anthony, known also as "The Poor Man's Clint Eastwood". He was in dozens of 'em, but being limited to a Fistful Of Spaghetti that ran in theatres or on TV while growing up in the 70's I knew of the Leone films, the Trinity films, and not much more. So I got BLINDMAN and really dug the dudes style. And I knew that after re-imagining YOJIMBO, Clint wanted to do the same with Katsu's ZATOICHI character, but he said figuring out how a blind guy could be a gunfighter stumped him. So I got STRANGER'S GUNDOWN, which was said to be the 3rd in a series and was Clint's "inspiration" for his debut behind the camera on an American made SW, but the dude in this STRANGER film does not even slightly resemble Tony Anthony in BLINDMAN, and it sucked! I was confused. So I got this double-billed DVD of the first 2 STRANGER films to see if I was right, that a mistake was made, or someone else used his name, or the Cancer that eventually got him had changed his features drastically. Well, this was the Tony Anthony I knew from the first film I got with him. A sarcastic shit with a good sense of comedic timing less slapstick than Terence Hill, and less in-yo-face than Tomas Milian, and a "blondie" who still looks nothing at all like the dude in "Part 3" of "The STRANGER Trilogy". And the two films here were pretty good too! A good plot and interesting characters in the Good, Bad, and Ugly categories made these a good follow up sampling for me of Anthony's talent as Actor, Writer, and Producer. So, bottom line: This was a great deal on a pair of good SW's showcasing a terrific & unknown (in the States) old fashioned Movie Star.
The synopsis claimed that there were several references to Alexander Fu Sheng's death in the film, and maybe I was blinded by all of the fast and furious kung fu throughout, but I didn't see any of them. What I did see was a very different, yet familiar Sifu Liu Chia-Liang than I'd seen previously in THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN, HEROES OF THE EAST, or LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF CHINA. Gone was the old Buddhist code of never killing your enemies. And this time out he had the entire cast all cranked up to maximum levels of power, speed and anger whilst he returned to his old Sifu Chen Cheh's ways of showing the beauty, and the brutality, and the bloody ends that come with "Revenge, Chinese Style!" There's just one thing I've noticed about all the reviews and opinons of this all around truly great film though: it's that everyone was naturally praising the star Gordon Liu for a no holds barred, kick ass performance that actually does deserve to be known to us in the West by an infamous title like "Master Killer" (moreso than any of his other films!), but no one ever mentions the "Mama said knock you out" Kung Fu laid down with elegance and excellence by "The Martial Arts Movie Queen" Hui Ying-Hung (who makes my hui ying more hung everytime I see her, if you know what I mean-wink-wink-nudge-nudge)! She is awesome when she's (sort of) disguised as a dude and fights these other dudes off from on her horse, and on the ground, and all the way up their asses! And in the climax when she's tied up tight, so Gordon swings her up on his back, and then they... Well, all that I can say about this one is you better get it!
The Beatles: Help! (product link) Musical / Comedy "HELP! You need The Beatles - HELP! Not just any Beatle - HELP! I know you need this one - HELP!" With this fab/gear/famous DVD in your posession you could... dare I say it... RULE THE WORLD!
This is the film that (finally!) made me appreciate and enjoy the unique talents of an "international favorite" star, as well as one of Liu Chia-Liang's favorite pupils,
"Alexander" Fu Sheng. In just a few scenes he forced me to actually smile at some of his goofball antics, which usually make me want to kick in the T.V. screen! But he was pretty funny while pulling a street scam as an ostensibly powerful, Monkey King posessed spiritual boxer, then as an unwitting voodoo doll victim being manipulated into flailing and fighting while making about one hundred idiotic faces in the space of one minute. So this was a revelation for me as I was not at all impressed by "Chinatown Kid", which really was rather "gay" in some parts! And his face always seemed out of place to me in any of his many, many period films. But here it's just right. He looks like a con artist, and he plays one very well, so maybe he was one. I don't know, but he was talented and very funny and fun to watch in this film! He was sort of an "O.G." Sifu along with Bruce Lee for their ultimate offspring, Stephen Chow. Also, seeing Gordon Liu as a villainous monk really made this a treat and a shock, since I had bought this film expecting him to play the hero, as usual. (That shows how quickly I jumped on this DVD - I didn't even bother reading the synopsis or any reviews first!) And the scenes in the alleyway and up in the attic with Kara Hui and Hsiao Ho were at the same time amusing and amazing! Plus, all the non "legendary" gimmicks and gadgets used by all, like the iron cloak, hidden darts, leg blades and more, made it go far beyond some boring weapons class at your local dojo and provided great escapist viewing. And seeing the two "Lau-Kar" bro's get down together is very cool indeed. As a whole, this appears to be a string, ("stream of conciousness"), of various ideas that don't even need to fit together neatly. It's just so fun to watch!
The Blade (product link) Swordplay/Sword(s) / Action/Adventure Awesome "re-imagining" that has very few things in common with the original film. And those elements that are the same look and feel so completely different that you forget you've seen it before. With the trademark of Tsui Hark's amped up action, cool set design and appropriately dirty/clean cinematography and Wing Zhao proving a worthy successor to Wang Yu, "The Blade" is a must have for any Fu-Fan that you will watch more than twice!
Kung Faux Vol. 1 (product link) Martial Arts / Comedy The funniest thing since "Kung Pao" with a razor sharp "MST3000" wryness of wit, but only funny if you have a grasp of big city attitudes and Hip-Hop/Rap/Urban music and slang. A rip-off/homage to Woody Allen's great, (essential DVD), "What's Up, Tiger Lily?", using the same over-dub techniques these old school Rappers and mutha f***ing funny comedian's transform cheeseball 80's Kung Fu flicks into works of art with comic book colors flashing and funky bottom tunes grooving, all mixed with cool blaxploitation style and a touch of caliente Latin flavor. This is the very best in a very good series!
Along with my fellow Los Angelino and 60's baby boomer Quentin Tarantino, I have vivid memories of seeing this fantastic oddity of a TV show on UHF while "surfing" through the ten channels available to us at that time, (we ARE the "old school", chump!) The very first thing that grabbed my attention was the ultra cool ninja garb that Chiba-san was wearing, (which is way cooler than the ultra gay "cruising" mesh and leather garb he wore in all the "Streetfighter" flicks). Then it was a fierce sword fight at night with Chiba going straight into this well guarded house with the intention of killing the guy being guarded and whoever came between him and his target! This was a new twist on the genre to me as the action scenes were the exact polar opposite of what I knew through my limited experiences of "Jidai-geki"* like "Shogun Assassin" and "Magic Serpent", where ninja's were the bad guys who always got mowed down in droves by the hero. This time it was a ninja doing the mowing, and he was amazingly quick and skillful at it, like "Lone Wolf", (but nobody compares to Wakayama-sama!). I was totally blown away, not only by the awesome action, but by the high quality of this television production. The sets, and costumes, and cinematography all looked just like a movie. I also recall being a little bored during all the non-action scenes at the time because it was shown on the Asian channel with no subtitles and I didn't speak Japanese. But watching "Kage No Gundan" made me want to learn. So, thirty years later I got the DVD's of the entire first season of KNG, aka "Shadow Warriors" (from a shadowy source), and rediscovered how great the show truly was and how well they told each of the individual storylines. I also gained a great new appreciation for Sonny, (whom I used to call "Monkey Chiba" being the devout Bruce Lee fan and student I still am), and Henry Sanada, (who totally kicks ass in "Ninja in the Dragon's Den", by the way). So, if ever there was a product that every Sonny Chiba, or Henry Sanada, or "KILL BILL" fan absolutely has to get - this is it!!!!! (*Useless Trivia: Jidai-geki is a term for a period costume drama or samurai/ninja film that George Lucas transformed into "Jedi" for his futuristic sword-wielding knights.)
Seven Swordsmen (product link) TV Shows/Movies / Martial Arts Since I hadn't seen the film "Seven Swords" that so many fans and critics found to be a crammed and confusing hodge-podge of a very looooooong story, I thought it would be much better to see the whole story that Tsui Hark wanted so passionately to tell. So, without any preconceived notions I was taken away on a magical mystery tour that's filled with epic heroes, beautiful scenery, dramatic relationships, cool swords & swordsmanship, and TOTALLY HOT BABES! (Ada Choi in red - OMFG!) And I can't believe the entire series on DVD-9 is so cheap! A great TV series at a great price... (And Ada looks GREAT in red!)
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I have to agree...it's makes the movie a bit easier to follow....a bit. Great production values and price make this a must have in your collection!
The Water Margin [1972] (product link) Martial Arts / Action/Adventure I, like other reviewers of this "epic" film, REALLY wanted to dig this flick - but found it a very dull, slow, and uninteresting 'cut and paste' version of this allegedly "great and revered" collection of heroic mythology. Seemed like just another "Fag-fest" with gay costumes for closeted Si Foo-foo Cheh to me! I'm starting to seriously doubt the tastes of Cheng Cheh lovers as well as the ancient Chinese literary buffs who love the book too!
The Bastard Swordsman Collection (product link) Martial Arts / Swordplay/Sword(s) "Man, you come straight out of a comic book." And that's what I loved about The Bastard Swordsman series! It's a live action comic book, (not "manga" - it's too colorful to be called that), and Norman Chu takes his role seriously, even when he's wearing a goofy white wig that keeps slightly slipping. This was my first, (but for sure not my last), movie by Tony Liu, and this guy must be on something! It's a freaky-fest all the way through, and a long, strange trip. Plus, the price for the boxset is unbeatable! Thanks HKFlix, you guys rock!
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