THE FILM:
The evil Ching government has taken over and is out to rid the land of the remaining Ming rebel patriots, including the still surviving Ming Prince. Hot on the rebels trail is skunk-haired Ma Yuen Ning, a deadly fighter with weapons called the “bloody birds”- a three bladed spinning device that can cut down trees (which the filmmakers never miss an opportunity to show it doing). Unknowingly, the evil Ching Overlord and his men capture the incognito Prince and throw him in their jail. Cut to the Ming rebel sympathizing Shaolin Temple, where brother Fang Shao Chang and sister Fang Ping train for revenge against the corrupt Ching Overlord. Shao Chang is informed that he does not posses the patience to learn the 18th final form, a style so deadly, to use it wrong can kill you. Hearing word of the Princes capture, they mount a rescue effort to get the Prince before his identity is found out, but are thwarted by the booby trapped jail and a backstabbing Ching spy within their midst. Luckily, the Ming Rebels have a spy of their own, who helps them escape, and the Prince’s identity is not revealed, however now the Ching’s know one of their prisoners is important. In an attempt to lure out the rebels and destroy them, the Chings move all the prisoners, including the Prince, and attempt to ambush another rescue attempt. Eventually, the Ming rebels get the Prince back and move him to the temple, but they still have a spy within their group, and the evil Overlord, with his Invincible Iron Body Style, his men, and Yuen Ming with his “bloody birds” and his own secret agenda, all make their way to the temple for a final confrontation.

This film is really a lot of fun, and a great example of the more fantasy, pulp fictionesque, style of chop socky features. This isn’t a film about martial skill, as much as it is about crazy booby traps (both the Ching jail and the Temple have booby traps that would make mincemeat of Indiana Jones), and lots of neat weapons (the awesome “bloody birds”, lots of chain weapons- chains with daggers, chains with discs, chains with balls, chains with starfish shaped blades, swords, etc). Its all very quickly paced, and never boring. An interesting thing, is that there isn’t really a “star” of the film. Its relatively divided pretty equally between scenes with the bad guys and the good guys, with no one person really overshadowing anyone else in either group (except for maybe the bad guys, with the Ching Overlord chewing up the scenery quite menacingly). Usually the film is main credited to Carter Wong (a third tier HK action star at best, 18 Bronzemen, Magnificent Fist, Fatal Flying Guillotine) who plays Shao Chang, and is probably best known as Thunder, the “god who blows himself up”, in Big trouble in Little China. Its good, early entry into the outlandish, trampoline fu, HK action genre.

Speaking of Big Trouble in Little China... Shaolin Kung Fu Mystagogue is a good example of the kind of HK action films that inspired John Carpenter to make Big Trouble in Little China. But, where Big Trouble in Little China may have a budget and wit that the HK films inspiring it lacked, what it doest have quite right is the energy. The one thing Shaolin Kung Fu Mystagogue, and films like it, have in spades is relentless energy. And, sure, they may lack in budget, have thin plots, and no standout moments of acting, but they have a freshness and vigor, a pacing and inventiveness that more than makes up for any of their stumbles. Its the kind of energy that Hong Kong somehow had, but its imitators like Big Trouble in Little China couldnt quite duplicate.

SIGHT:
World Video presents a pretty worn print of the film, with all the characteristics one often finds in older kung fu films, from dirt, to graininess, muted color, and grayed tones in the black levels (especially in the night scenes). Unfortunately, in such a fast cutting film, the fullscreen presentation is a bit disorienting in the action scenes. But, well, these are the things one has to put up with when you are an old school fan, so that said, it is still a decent enough DVD of the film.

SOUND:
The 2.0 Mono sound is nice and loud, English dub only, with a little background distortion, but is overall clear and helps amplify the films rousing orchestral score (which I really liked). - It has a static menu with silly techno music playing, website address page, trailers for Jet Li’s Shaolin Kid, The Shaolin Temple, and Born to Defense.

EXTRAS:
The film has 8 Chapter selections, and glaringly pauses between each of them, as well as during the layer change. The disc itself has no artwork, and was upside down in the case, which lead me to put it in wrong and get a “DISC ERROR” warning my player- so look out for that. The box art is horrible, as is most World Video box art (hey guys, I got a D in high school Graphic Arts, but I can do way better). All in all, its got the flubs one is used to with old school kung fu transfers, but, if you are a fan, its a neat enough film to have and forgive its flaws.

The two are quite proud to have rescued the famous rebel leader, and they go on about their business while the Abbot heals himself in their mountain home. One day while in town, Shou Tung and Tai Pan run afoul of some local thugs, who are pestering the lovely (and secret rebel) Ms. Sheng. Although they prevent the thugs from taking advantage, that is, drugging and raping Ms. Sheng, the two are beat up and return home despondent over their lack of fighting skill. And, in a moment showing the films definite comic leanings, instead of,...oh, I don’t know...asking the Shaolin monk they have living with them to teach them?,... they begin to self train themselves in the front yard, awkwardly attacking each other until the monk finally offers to show them the true way of martial arts. A montage of scenes shows how the Manchu’s are terrorizing the countryside looking for the Abbot while Shou Tung and Tai Pan are being trained. Frustrated with doing nothing but training, the two agree to sneak off into the town, one at a time, to have some fun. Shou Tung is first, and once again, he arrives in the town only to defend Ms. Sheng, this time with his newly acquired martial skills. The thugs and Manchu soldiers recognize the Abbot’s ‘Low Hand Fist’ style being used by Shou Tung, and instantly expect his being allied with the monk. Knowing this, Eagle Claw draws closer, both Shou Tung and Tai Pan find their skills tested, and there are some rather tragic plot twists before the finale. Since the Low Hand Fist Style is no match, how will the Abbot and Shou Tung be able to defeat the dreaded Shaking Evil Claw style? Lets just say, the borrow a page from the Jimmy Wang Yu -“If you cant beat them with skill, beat them with booby traps”- Handbook, in a great ten minute fight scene finale.

18 Fatal Strikes (1980) is a really good classic kung fu movie. It has a decent story, villain, lead characters, and is well paced with numerous good fights and nice stuntwork. Stars, Tung Wei (who plays Shou Tung, actor in Incredible Kung Fu Mission & Golden Mask and action director of 18 Fatal Strikes as well as Twin Dragons, Peacock King, and Accidental Spy) and Shia Tein (who plays Tai Pan, a veteran character in tons of films like Drunken Master & Snake in the Eagles Shadow) are a amiable pair of leads, with Tung Wei being the handsome fighter, and Shia Tein the comedic fool... However, what keeps Fatal Strikes being just good instead of great are a few minor flaws. The film is primary comedic for about the first two-thirds, with the usual wacky HK facial grimacing, wordplay, and black humor (like how both Shou Tung and Tai Pan keep excitedly patting the wounded Abbot on the back, making him cough up blood). But, then, the film takes a strange turn and gets unexpectedly dark, violent, and dramatic for the remainder of the movie, which is just a very odd, jarring shift in tone. Also, this is one of those films that have the main guys train for about a day or a week, and suddenly they are kung fu masters. The training scenes are very short, not very elaborate, but in his next fight, Shou Tung is expertly handling double broadswords while taking on a group of spear wielding guards. All this, despite the fact that he had no weapons at the farm where the Abbot was training him. It is the kind of narrative error that makes you realize just how beautiful a film like The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is, with its lengthy training sequences establishing the character and skills. And, on one final note, the dubbing on Eagle Claw is ridiculously overdone, with perhaps the worst generic “WOOOO-AHHHH!!!” vocalizations I’ve ever heard in a kung fu film. Still, despite its flaws, it is an entertaining feature, just not perfect or a classic.

THE DVD:
The very first Ground Zero-Wu Tang DVD release, far from eye-popping, but acceptable for those who still remember the days of UHF Kung Fu Theater on TV and washed out vhs at the video store. Picture- The fullscreen picture shows your average amount of wear for an old kung fu film, particularly in some annoying horizontal white lines/scratches that pop up throughout most of the film. Overall though, the picture has strong color and sharpness, and at a budget price, should be a nice buy for the chop socky fan. Also, in the 48 min mark, the picture appears to drop-off (and I don’t mean layer change drop-off) into black for a few seconds before returning. Sound- 2.0 mono, English dub with some slight distortions, but overall nice, with the reverb heavy fight fx blaring through your speakers. Extras- One of Ground Zero-Wu Tang’s more barebones titles, before Ground Zeros Hidden Chambers Collection got rolling. 14 Chapters. Bonus Fight Scene, lasting 3 mins, film unspecified. Wu Tang music video. Rza film intro, and trailers to Gangstresses, Blazin’, and a commercial for Ground Zeros Kung Fu Classics.

Shu and his gang move on to Black Town, where they have hatched a plan to steal the riches of the wealthy but well guarded Kou family. However, hot on their trail are two men, Captain Siu, who has outfitted himself with a steel glove to replace his crippled hand, and the young and wily Ting (Meng Fei- Prodigal Boxer, 5 Masters of Shaolin) who wants the bounty on Shu’s head. Both use the same informant to try and find out where Shu is and what he is up to, and subsequently the two form an unsteady alliance, contrasted by the two personalities, one a blank vehicle of revenge, the other a happy-go-lucky bounty hunter. Shu finds out about the two and rather than have his plans spoiled, he sets up traps to try and kill them (such as, Ting fighting off several men throwing blinding powder at him), and when that fails, even attempts to take advantage of the profit seeking Ting by offering a bigger bounty for Captain Siu’s head. Eventually, the day of the robbery comes, and Captain Siu and Ting must deal with a pair of swordweilding assassins, before trying to stop the raid on the Kou family compound and defeat Shu and his wicked henchmen.

Basically, Shaolin King Boxer (1979, aka. Iron Fists) is the kung fu equivalent to Sergio Leone’s For Few Dollars More- a tale of two men after a villain, and the two having distinctly different motivations, one out of personal revenge, the other for pure profit. And, it is a classic structure of the kung fu revenge tale that goes all the way back to the genre defining One-Armed Swordsman(1967) and Five Fingers of Death(1972)- the crippling of the hero, leaving him to die or suffer, only to have him be motivated by his disability and fueled by it in his revenge. Chen Kuan Tai’s deadly cold, black hand is one of the best symbolic devices of angry revenge since William Devane’s hook in Rolling Thunder.

Director Karl Maka, best known for his silly HK comedies like Dirty Tiger, Crazy Frog, His name is Nobody and By Hook or by Crook, presents a well told, classic kung fu tale, with little hint to the goofier nature of his reputation. Shaolin King Boxer is typically violent and dark, filled with lots of motivation, and story, as well as fights (though they don’t really kick it into high gear until the end). The film features weapons like double daggers, spear, fan, and broadswords. The cast is who’s who of kung fu cinema, with Liu Chia Liang, Chen Kuan Tai, Wilson Tong, Leung Kar Yan, and Meng Fei all giving very good performances, particularly Lui Chai Liang’s standout role as the evil gang leader Shu. There are many simple, beautiful things in this world, snowfall on a full-moonlit night, water running over smooth river stones, the look on a woman’s face when she’s in ecstasy, and the way Liu Chia Liang can fight with two broadswords.

So far, for me, at least filmwise, this is probably the best film in the Ground Zero Wu Tang releases.

THE DVD:
Ground Zero presents another feature packed and budget minded addition to their superior Wu Tang Hidden Chambers collection of DVDs. Picture- Once again, like all their releases, another fullframe well worn print of the film, with typical washed out colors, softness, and dull blackness levels. It is acceptable, but unfortunately the only way Ground Zero goes wrong is in their picture presentation. But, fans know good sources are tricky to come by, and this is the best we can expect from tape masters. Sound- 2,0 mono, English dub (and not a great one) with some audio wear, but overall clear and distinct. Extras- Another fantastic, feature packed addition, including- Wu Tang Music video, interview, and audio interview sound bite. Temple of Knowledge breif interview with two kung fu practitioners. A Ground Zero commercial and weblink. And, the good stuff, 18 Fatal Previews, totaling around 20 mins of fight footage from various films (including Mysterious Footwork, Chess Boxing Vs Buddhist Fist, Shaolin Chastity Kung Fu, and Enter the Invincible Hero to name a few- this feature is the same on every Hidden Chamber release), and finally the fantastic Cast and Crew Bios with Bonus Fight Footage and, this time, Interviews with the stars- Wilson Tong (5 fights 10 ½ mins, and 2 1/2 min interview), Leung Kar Yan (5 fights 6 mins, and 1 min interview), Meng Fei (5 fights 8 mins, 1 ½ min interview), and Chen Kuan Tai (4 fights 61/2 mins). It is another Hidden Chambers DVD packed with enough extras to make a fan drool and priced so low it’s hard to pass up.

And basically, that is it... The film is really quite simple. You have two men, one good, one reprehensible, both of whom want the head of the villain. One man wants the villain gone for law and order (and some revenge); the other wants the bounty on the villains head. Both men have pupils, one man (the good) pits the villain against the other (the reprehensible). And, the bulk of the film, is the reprehensible master-pupil team fighting each killer that comes after them, one by one, eventually, after growing bored with waiting for them, going out ot find the remaining killers. While this is happening, the good master trains his pupil in martial arts, and eventually, when all that is left is the main villain, has his pupil finally enter the fray. Then the two pupils confront each other (and its a great fight by the way),...roll credits,... end of film.

This is what I typically call, a “ground” fighting kung fu film. That is to say, most of the fighting is hand to hand, framed wide, straightforward, ‘kick-punch-kick-punch’ fighting with not a lot of weapons work (well, a few weapons), wires, trampolines, acrobatics, or in general crazy fx. All the fights/fighters are fine (a special nod to the one fight, that when stuck in a headlock, Shao Lee just reaches behind himself, grabs and pops the guys testicles), the direction is kept pretty simple but, there is nothing really engrossing. For example-The fist five killers all have some kind of neat little characterization, a zombie/ghoul guy, a lazy-eyed, twitchy fortuneteller, a drunken monk, but then the rest of the killers are just kind of plain, no real quirks about them. If this were a Jimmy Wang Yu (Master of the Flying Guillotine, Chinese Professionals) movie, every one of the killers would have some kinky trait to them, whether it be their fighting style, weaponry, or looks, and then the viewer would have something to anticipate, and the fighters would have something unique to overcome each time.

Now, kung fu plots are a dime a dozen and usually pretty simplistic, but you still have to have something interesting, some kind of theme (revenge mainly), some kind of engaging movement in the story, and that is where 10 Magnificent Killers (1977) fails. 10 Magnificent Killers forgets the golden rule- It doesn’t matter how much action you have, you also have to have a heart. And, by heart I mean either emotional or physical- give me something to care about, or something exciting enough to break a sweat or spark my imagination. There is no payoff in the plot really, no bits of curiosity, so the fights are just fights, and end up being kind of dry. For instance, Lee Yu Wei is poisoned by a dagger and they say how “Only the Black Dragon pill can save you.”, but instead of tracking down the Black Dragon pill, he just ties the wound off and is perfectly fine. So, you wonder why they even mention it at all? It’s a shame the fighting is pretty good and frequent (and, once again, I can recommend you see the film just for the end fight alone), but there just isn’t a heart to back it up.

THE DVD:
Ground Zero Presents- another feature packed inexpensive addition to their superior Hidden Chambers Collection. Picture- Fairly good, slightly matted transfer, shows some wear and average amounts of aging and softness for an old kung fu film, but overall a nice picture with strong color, adequate detail, and framed well so you dont miss out on the action. Sound- Clear and relatively strong 2.0 mono, English dub devoid of any glaring defects. Extras- Wow, mediocre film yes, but with OVER 1 HOUR WORTH OF FIGHT FOOTAGE compiled from other films (spotty sources or not), this DVD is worth owning. First the Wu Tang back patting stuff- Wu Tang video (letterboxed Flintstones parody, with an attempt at some kung fu), a three minute interview, Lyrical Swords audio interview soundbite. Also, there is a Ground Zero Previews commercial and weblink, as well as Temple of Knowledge interviews with martial arts instructors (only 1 ½ mins, but neat). Now we get to the good stuff- 18 Fatal Previews, 20 mins of fight samples from 18 different films (including Shaolin Vs Lama, 18 Bronzegirls, Tiger Over a Wall, Shaolin Drunken Monkey, etc.). Cast and Crew Bios, with bonus fight footage for every person- San Kwai (7 mins of footage), Bolo Yueng (6 mins), Fong Yeh (6 ½ mins), Bia Sai Ngai (9 mins), and Cheung Nick (by far the best footage, 9 ½ mins), and if that wasn’t enough an additional 30 ½ mins of footage from ten various films. My only real complaint is that on the Cast and Crew and 10 bonus fight footage, there are no titles to the films, which would be nice and save someone from painfully researching (because there are so many incomplete filmographies for kung fu film stars) what film the footage was from. Still, the Hidden Chambers Collection series is a godsend to old school kung fu fans. Lets just hope Ground Zero keeps these releases going with variation on the extras and some decent feature titles.

This is a strange spot for me as a reviewer, as I have to give the actual film itself a “RENT IT” for most people, but based on the DVD extras and low price, a “RECOMMENDED” for die-hard kung fu fans.

Fury in the Shaolin Temple (1982) is one of those ill conceived kung fu movies of bits and pieces cobbled together. Obviously when they began, they didn’t have the film very well planned out and probably made it up as they went along, shooting fight scenes and then splicing some narrative together. You can tell just from the costuming alone this is the case, with Gordon Liu wearing two or three different outfits (monks weren’t exactly known for extensive wardrobes) varying from scene to scene; most likely they were outfits from some other movie he was making during the same time. And, it becomes glaringly obvious when they jump to the scene of Philip Ko taking on some assassins, not only is his outfit vastly different (a Bruce Lee looking garb instead of the previous traditional wear), but he has a totally different, short haircut, therefore we know the fight scene was from a completely different movie or filmed way later/way before. Director Godfrey Ho (The Dragon Hero, Angel Enforcers, Deadly Sword, Enter the Invincible Hero), king of the kung fu b movie, also had to shortcut by using the “jump into a different scene method”- that is, since the film was poorly planned, to piece together the fights with the narrative (both scenes shot in different locations), two opponents meet each other, say, in a courtyard, and before they begin to fight they jump in the air at each other, then the film cuts to them landing in a field and fighting, somehow transported to a different location. Not exactly a smooth transition, and it is this kind of sloppiness that really weakens what could have been a decent kung fu movie. It is still nice to see two superstars like Gordon Lui and Philip Ko in some okay fights or sequences, but there are certainly better films in their resume. As it is, Fury in the Shaolin Temple is a worthwhile move if you’ve already seen better films by the two stars and a horrible introduction to them if you haven’t.

On the plus side, it is always nice to see Gordon Liu in any kind of training sequence, and his bit in this film, training in the kitchen while washing pots, stoking the fire, hauling water and wood, is nice. Although Ground Zero makes the film out to be a Gordon Liu film, it is really more of a shared staring vehicle for both Lui and Philip Ko, who has just as many, if not more, scenes than Liu. As a matter of fact, in the final fight, Liu is actually doubled in the fight with the main villain. Philip’s best scene is probably the one I mentioned earlier, the scene taken from another film when Philip clearly looks different, in which he uses Drunken Eagle against a Drunken Mantis fighter. The film does come together quite nicely in the end, when Philip and Liu team up against the 18 Bronzemen in the Shaolin courtyard, but it is a brief bit. On a final unforgiving note, the 18 Bronzemen make two appearances in this film, and the two pretty much sum up the unevenness that hurts this film- In the first scene, they are just a bunch of guys in (and I’m not kidding) black and lavender leotards, making them look like some kind of ridiculous avant-garde dance troop. The second time we see them, in the finale, they look right, eerily painted from head to toe in gold and silver, like one is accustomed to seeing them. You take the good and the bad, put them together, and you get something watchable, but ugly.

THE DVD:
Another budget minded , feature packed presentation from Ground Zeros Hidden Chambers Collection. Picture-The fullscreen picture does show the average amounts of age one is used to with kung fu films, softness, grain, general wear and tear, but the real drawback is that the transfer is especially dark. It would have been nice if a brighter source could have been used, or maybe even a little tweaking of this print. Sound- 2.0 mono, English dub with no glaring defects or muddiness. Unfortunately it is a very bad English dub, one of the ones that gives kung fu movies a bad name, with awkward dialogue delivered by bad actors, really hampering many scenes in the film. Extras- The true saving grace, a gaggle of extras. First the usual Wu Tang stuff like music video interview and audio soundbite. Ground Zero commercial and weblink. Temple of Knowledge Q&A with two martial practitioners. 18 Fatal Previews, 20 mins of fight footage from eighteen films. And now the good stuff- A Gordon Liu bio, with 5 fight scene samples, totaling about 8mins, and a neat but brief 21/2min interview. 18 Shaolin fights, fight film clips from various, unspecified films, about 2mins each, and 18 Bronzemen, 5 fight scenes featuring the kung fu staple villains.

Not a great film, but the extras on the Hidden Chambers Collection DVDs, so far, are the best extras a kung fu fan can find. Considering most barebones kung fu DVDs are the exact same price, it is a welcome addition to any die-hard kung fu fans collection.

THE STORY:
The evil Nine Devils gang enters Sun Valley, and begin to rampage and kill the acrobats living in the remote town. The Nine Devils are, a guy with an eyepatch and chains around his legs, a strongman, a leopard skin clad spiked pole fighter, a guy who uses a chain with a steel hand on it, a mallet guy, an Iron head guy, a guy who uses studded gloves, and a fat tiger claw guy with Phantom of the Opera facepaint. The dashing Ah Tein (Alexander Lo-Rei- Wu Tang Vs Ninja, Shaolin Vs Lama) helps herd the children out of the town, but the Nine Devils want to leave no survivors so two of the Devils follow the pack of children into the hills. Luckily Shaolin monks Master Wisdom and his pupil were in the area and they save the children from certain death. With the bandits having taken over the town and guarding all exits, the monks and the children are stranded in the hills. Master Wisdom informs the children that he was in the area waiting on a Japanese fighter and his sons, in sort of a cultural exchange of martial arts, and that at one time, when he was healthier, Master Wisdom had defeated the Nine Devils leader, Golden Tiger and had him thrown in jail.

The Nine Devils mission is two fold, one they will wait for their leader, who is being transported through the town, and two, after rescuing their leader, wait to rob a cache of gold that is coming (for such a remote town, there sure is an awful lot going through it). With no recourse or hope of rescue, Master Wisdom decides to train the group of children in the Shaolin art of Tunch (sp?) Chi martial arts, or Shaolin Chastity Kung Fu- First, he has them sit in freezing water to toughen them up. Second, he builds their resistance by having their bodies slapped by hands, then poles, and then sandbags. Third, a regimen of heavy stretching to give them pliable bones. Fourth, he teaches them the art of toe jumping and “flying over the ground”. Fifth, punching water to give smooth strength. Sixth, the art of “catching claws”, withdrawing and tightening ones grip. And, finally, Sixth has them grab and twist reeds (which bloodies their hands) to round out their power.

But, after the Nine Devils rescue their leader, defeat the Japanese fighter, injure Ah Tein and use him as bait to lure the ailing Master Wisdom, ganging up and killing him, can the children take what they have learned and defeat the gang on their own? Well, you will find out, as the entire last third of the film, deals with the children taking on each Devil one by one, using the martial arts they have learned combined with their acrobatic skills.

CONCLUSION:
Shaolin Chastity Kung Fu (1981) is one of those odd in tone martial arts films. Despite all the children and lightheartedness in much of it, there is also plenty of grisly violence (Master Wisom’s head is crushed with a rock, the Iron Head guy headbutts a man in half), so you get these contrasting tones. From his time serving as Chang Cheh’s action director (on such films as Invincible Shaolin and the classic Five Deadly Venoms), director Robert Tai obviously learned a lot about pacing and sprinkling the action with outlandish violence and various weapons. The action and training sequences are all very entertaining, and it’s hard to complain about a film that has nothing but fighting in for the last thirty minutes. The very tan Alexander Lo-Rei is probably the biggest name star in the film, but its mainly the cast of double-jointed acrobatic children that really serve as the heroes. Even in the finale, when Lo-Rei cant win by himself, its all the children Vs Golden Tiger. I guess the most major complaint would be, that the costuming on the Nine Devils (multicolored capes, headbands, Tarzan and 80’s wrestler attire) has them all looking rather silly; and, Golden Tiger is a weak main villain because he never shows any great martial arts and looks like a Fat Elvis impersonator with a Rocky fedora hat. Overall though, it is a well paced, action filled, silly yet typically savage, b-grade kung fu film.

THE DVD:
Ground Zero presents a typically flawed old school transfer, but budget priced and worthwhile for interested kung fu fans. Picture- The fullscreen picture is not without its problems, worn, awkward light to dark scenes, grainy, but has fair color and sharpness. Though the flaws can be distracting, its nothing new to old school kung fu fans, and there certainly have been far worse transfers. Sound- The 2.0 mono English dub is strong and free of any glaring defects. Extras- One of Ground Zero/Wu Tangs earlier, more bare releases. 14 Chapters. Wu Tang music video. Wu Tang intro. Trailers for Gangstresses, Blazin’, and a Wu Tang-Kung Fu Classics commercial. Bonus Fight Scene (film unspecified) lasting 5 minutes.

PLOT AND CHARACTERS:
The story centers on a reclusive swordmaster named Lee Wai, who was legendary in the martial world, killing many, creating a lot of enemies, and then disappearing. One of Master Wai’s victims was David Chiang’s father, and David Chiang (aka. Disciple of the Sword) trained and now seeks to draw the reclusive Master Wai out by impersonating him. Far away in the Lunar World, the Moon Goddess mourns the loss of her lover, Invincible Golden Rings, whom Master Wai also killed. Moon Goddess (Flora Cheung) watches the impersonation from afar, hoping, likewise, that Master Wai will be drawn out. On the other end of the spectrum, there is the carefree, playboy, undefeated swordsman, The Lonely Winner (Yasuaki Kurata), who has problems of his own with a local lord, who wants him dead for ‘raping’ his wife.... At this point, it should be as obvious as a heart attack that the film is heavy in fantasy, like Zu Warriors or Swordsman 2, with everyone having some interesting moniker and skill....The curious fact is, that despite always hearing this was a David Chiang film and his seeming to be the title character, actually, Yasuaki Kurata’s Lonely Winner gets equal to more screen time, plot, and fights. The Lonely Winner struggles with boredom at being undefeated and has "love them and leave them" dalliances with the ladies. Disciple of the Blade struggles with his revenge being more important than settling down with his true love. And, the plot eventually steers the two toward each other as they make their way to the Tomb of the Heroes, fighting multiple villains along the way, the secretive Moon Goddess and Master Wai both watching it unravel from afar.

Convoluted? Yes. Dizzyingly Paced? Yes. Outlandish? Yes. Basically this is a great film, belonging in the short attention span theater swordplay/fantasy films like East is Red, Dragon Inn, The Sword, and the like. There are many, many fights, but they are very brief and don’t really stand out very much- but as a whole, combined with the frantic speed at which the film is paced, it actually is to their benefit that they are so short. Whereas something like Duel to the Death (which Ching Siu Tung would make his debut as a solo director a year later) has great fight scenes interspersed with some slow moments, every scene in Return of the Deadly Blade, whether it be plot, comedy, or fight, is so fast you hardly get a chance to blink. It is an interesting precursor to the new wave of fantasy films Ching Siu Tung would help create in the late 80’s, early 90’s- it’s fast paced, inventive, and rife with characters like, Disciple of the Blade, Lonely Winner, Moon Goddess, the brothers Invincible Hat and Shield of Ultimate Glory, Genius from the North, God of Fire, Invincible Golden Rings, and The Ninja Iga from Edo, and razor hats, fireballs, bending blades, spinning wheelchairs, poison darts, ninjas skimming across water, steel umbrellas, chains, whips, darts, and more.

THE DVD:
The picture is fullscreen, obviously mastered from vhs because there are some scattered millisecond second gray flashes of vhs tracking lines present, but not often or of any real hindrance. The picture is a little soft; good black levels because the night scenes are clear, and a handful of shots are washed out, while the rest are in good shape for an older film. Especially of interest, the color has been tweaked so it is gorgeously vibrant, so much so I had to turn the color down a little on my tv. The sound is okay, no real pops, hisses, or echo, with a decent balance between the dialogue, fx, and music. Dub only, no subs. Being a Hidden Chambers DVD, it has plentiful extras. Its got the obligatory Wu Tang back patting stuff like videos and such, but then there are the real extras...Under brief bios for the film stars, David Chiang, (king of the big kickers)Wong Jang Lee, Bruce Liang, Tsui Siu Kueng, Yatsuaki Kurata, and Lo Leih there are 4-5 fight scenes for each man, lasting between 3-5 mins. Varying in quality, some grainy, some clear, some dubbed, some in Cantonese or Mandarin with subs cut off at the bottom of the screen, but nonetheless Awesome! (My only complaint is that the don’t list the films the fights are from) Then there are the 18 Fatal Previews for SHAOLIN DRUNK MONKEY, SNAKE STRIKES BACK, TIGER OVER A WALL, STRIKE OF THE MANTIS FIST, ONE FOOT CRANE, EAGLE FIST, SHAOLIN VS LAMA, SHAOLIN VS NINJA, 18 BRONZE GIRLS, BEST OF SHAOLIN KUNG FU, 5 VENOMS VS WU TANG, 9 DEMONS, FIGHT AMOUNG THE SUPERS, GOOSE BOXER, MYSTERIOUS FOOTWORK, CHESS BOXING VS BUDDHIST FIST, SHAOLIN CHASTITY KUNG FU, and ENTER THE INVINCIBLE HERO. Now, they aren’t exactly proper previews, but kung fu video fans should recognize them. They are basically one minute worth of fighting from the films preceded by a title card, which is cheap and like sex without foreplay, but I appreciate the sheer number and having them on a less than $10 DVD is a godsend to the kung fu fan.

To help find the princess, the Chings have employed Shao Kang and his army of bandits who are spread throughout the countryside, and almost immediately Ti Long finds himself defending the princess from their attacks. He decides he needs a little more help, so they seek out his sister (Judy Lee- Queen Boxer, Lady Constable, Iron Monkey Strikes Back ), who is working at a restaurant in a nearby town. Unfortunately the restaurant owners, a former girlfriend of Ti Long and her new husband, a greed driven and underhanded couple, discover the secret of Ti Long’s companions. The Chings are alerted once again, and Ti Long, his sister, and the princess are on the run, with the added threat of the restaurant owners, aligned with the bandits and Chings. They devise an interesting way to hide the jewels (a way that will probably upset animal rights activists), and make their way to a teahouse in the middle of nowhere.

The teahouse is an ambush spot, where they are taken captive and eventually must escape the clutches of the evil pursuers, only to run into an army of Chings and the deadly Ching prince. It becomes an all out deadly melee between the opposing sides, Ti Long, his sister, and friend, (also getting a little help from a scruffy transient) trying to defend the future of the Ming rebels, the Ming Princess and fortune, against the bandits, the Chings and deadly Ching Prince.

THE FILM:
Revenge of the Patriots (1977, aka. The Ming Patriots, Bruce Lee’s Big Secret) is a solid, story driven kung fu film. It is not a flashy martial style movie, or a film that focuses on some form, stunts, or weaponry. It is not a Bruce Lee styled ‘invincible hero’ film. It’s not a Gordon Liu training film. Revenge of the Patriots is a desperate chase adventure, where every blow is deadly and painful, and the heroes do not come out of a battle unharmed. The heroes are beaten from location to location, barely slipping out of capture, their dogged enemies never giving up and around every turn. There are slight touches of humor and the seemingly unstoppable fighter, devices one is used to in kung fu films, but overall it is fairly devoid of many such clichés. While there may be no great spectacle to the action (choreographed by the legendary Lui brothers), it is a refreshing change of pace from the outlandish action, making Patriots sort of a more straightforward action film. There are touches of Spaghetti Western in the score, and the direction has some neat flourishes- like when the White Haired Fox is introduced, slowly dismounting his horse, casually removing his hat and cape while walking forward, never taking his eyes off his opponent, not the least bit intimidated, deadly cold and menacing. Usually it is the stars that make a film, but in this case the story and direction take the reigns and make this film an interesting adventure.

But, that is not to say they film doesn’t have its stars. No, it is filled with classic martial stars, from Carter Wong, to Chang Yi, Wai Man Chan, Judy Lee, and Bruce Li. Probably the two most interesting characters are the transient Ol’ Wheelie, who fights is a style I would call, Coward Fu, slipping punches, ducking, hiding, maneuvering his way out of danger, expertly, and able to attack if he wants to, all while looking frightened. But, perhaps best of all, Judy Lee gets to take a kick butt female role, something that was fairly rare in the classic days of kung fu. No wimpy or dainty kung fu for her, she is all dagger throwing, kicking- punching , badness. And, with a good set of villains, from the dumb but deadly bandits, to the greedy husband and wife, to the stock white haired main villain, to the virtuous heroes, it is a nice cast of characters all around.

I really enjoyed Revenge of the Patriots. Sure, it is nice to see the wacky wild chop socky films, the crazy weapon fighting, or the superhuman hero, but this very straightforward film was a welcome deviation. It may not have some of those wild or amazing moments that imprint themselves on your brain, but as a whole, it is so well executed and paced, it is a welcome addition to a kung fu fans film collection.

THE DVD:
Ground Zero presents another Region 0 addition to their extra packed and budget minded Hidden Chambers Collection. Revenge of the Patriots is a “lost” kung fu film, and this presentation marks the first time Ground Zero has tried their hand at restoration. Sadly, this is an amateurish and sloppy restoration job, full of many glaring problems, the least of which is sloppy editing.

PICTURE: Compiled from at least three sources I can see (a sharp, strong colored print, a print with severe blemishes, and a print that is well worn, very soft, and washed out) it switches between them quite obviously. It becomes an annoying distraction, as within one scene, you will go through several changes in quality, from a good looking shot, to one with decay all over it. An attempt was made to matte the picture in widescreen, but the ratio seems off, stretched and cramped, at times almost like a square tv print was crammed into widesceen. I never thought I would say ‘restoration’ is a bad word, but in this case, it is, because the people behind the restoration, and especially Ground Zero for approving it, have a long, long way to go and should perhaps rethink their restoration careers. It would have been far preferable, to maybe release two cuts of the film, find the two best sources, ones obviously differing from each other in content, and release it like that.

SOUND: Likewise, the English dub, 2.0 mono sound suffers severely, not only does the picture quality change from source to source, but so does the sound quality. It goes from muted quiet, to blasting loud between scenes, so obviously its like turning a cd player volume from 5 to 10. Overall, no matter which source, the sound has quite a bit of hiss and distortion to it, much to the detriment of the cool soundtrack and dialogue.

EXTRAS: Aside from the film, itself, being good, the extras help lessen the blow of the lackluster, amateur presentation. First the usual Wu Tang stuff, like music video, interview, and audio soundbite. Then the Temple of Knowledge section, a brief Q&A with two martial practitioners. Ground Zero commercial and weblink. 18 Fatal Previews , 20 mins of fight clips from eighteen films (including Snake Strikes Back, Shaolin Vs Lama, and Mysterious Footwork just to name a few) . And then, the good stuff- Cast and Crew bios, featuring bonus fight film footage (once again, unspeciafied what films, which is a major peeve) and interviews with the films stars- Bruce Li, 5 fights (roughly 9 mins) and a 2 min interview- Chang Yi, 5 fights (12 mins)- Judy Lee, 4 fights (9 mins) and 2 min interview- Chen Hui Min, 5 fights (10 mins) and a 5 min interview- and finally Carter Wong, 5 fights (around 8 mins) and a 2 ½ min interview in which he is wearing a Self Defense for Women t-shirt. Also, before the film begins you get two trailers, a first for Ground Zero, finally tacking on some trailers for the feature.

Once again, Ground Zero presents a strange problem. In terms of presentation, as a reviewer, I have to tell most people to skip this DVD. However, for die-hard, old school kung fu fans, because of the great extras and rarity of the film, they may want to pick it up, but be forewarned of the poor quality.

THE FILM:
Someone, has been killing members of the Tung Tik Group, a very successful crime family. The killer isn’t just some Ordinary Joe off the street, either, but someone with a right hand powerful enough to smash heads and stone. Booze swilling, embittered Officer Kwong (Simon Yam- Man Wanted, Bullet in the Head, Dr. Lamb) is instantly reminded of the mysterious woman who years prior he had seen assassinate the leader of Tung Tik Group and her image has haunted him since. Meanwhile, the lovelorn and airheaded Ko Kit (Anita Yuen- Last Hero in China, Chinese Feast, From Beijing with Love ) and her gang of professional thieves organize their own slight on the Tung Tik Group by setting out to steal the precious Emperor Diamond from the Tung Tik headquarters. This diamond is the supposed key to a hidden fortune worth half the money in the world. But, their robbery is nearly foiled by the appearance of the lovely, robot handed Wind (Cheung Man- Handsome Siblings, Fight Back to School, God of Gamblers Return), who also wants the diamond. Ko Kit escapes wiht the diamond, It isn’t very long before everyone is hot on her tail- Officer Kwong with arrest warrants, Wind lurking in the shadows, and Tung Tik Group sending out an assassin. Ko Kit tires to brace the Group for $700 million in exchange for the diamond, but the deal goes quite wrong, with everyone converging on the scene, Wind, Officer Kwong, and the Tung Tik’s motorcycle riding assassins. Officer Kwong escapes with the pair of lovelies, and back at police headquarters, they interrogate Ko Kit for the whereabouts of the diamond and Wind for the motivation behind her assassinating Tung Tik members. However, the Tung Tik Group just marches into the police station, Terminator style, and takes one of Ko Kit’s criminal cohorts hostage in exchange for the diamond. Will the strange triangle of Officer Kwong, Wind, and Ko Kit be able to take the evil crime family down? You’ll find the answer in a iron factory shoot-out, with Ko Kit trying to rescue her friend, Wind seeking revenge, and Officer Kwong sitting somewhere in the middle.

An obviously b-movie, direct to video action adventure, nothing quite pans out in terms of action or story. Crystal Fortune Run (1994), appears to be one of those quickly filmed affairs most of the actors probably made in their down time between more important films, though in prolific b-exploitation actor Simon Yam’s case, it was probably one of four movies he was making that particular month. Director Lee Kin Sang has a resume rife with working on forgettable stuff like Shanghai 1920, Malevolent Male, Fait Accompli. Here you get the same old clichés mined to death in countless movies, the hard drinking cop, the bubbly, wacky girl, the carbon copy bad guys, and the superpowered, robot-armed, orphan assassin (okay, maybe not the last one). Most of the action set pieces are your usual John Woo-ish gunplay and some James Bond gadgetry here and there, but nothing really jaw dropping or slick. In other words, it wants to be Mission Impossible: The Movie, but ends up looking like Mission Impossible: the TV Show. Sure, it does have that HK charm to it, the grab bag of styles and lack of logic (for instance, why does Wind have a robot arm? Frankly, because robot arms are cool, thats why.) HK action purists with their DVD Shelves crammed with films, or maybe some of you Simon Yam completists (you know you’re out there) may want to pick this one up, but anyone looking for more high quality productions had best stay away. It is probably an entertaining enough late night affair, maybe a nice double feature with Wonder Seven, but really nothing so spectacular or unique that its going to make any top ten lists...

Actually, given the costumes, period, and semi-political bent of the film, it seems to take Peking Opera Blues as a model more than the Drunken Master films, which is fine. The plot is a convoluted mix of royalty and revolution, with statements on foreigners and cults thrown in for good measure. While the story may be something of a mess, and the finale typically abrupt, the film is fun to watch, with a huge cast of charismatic Hong Kong stars. One particularly unusual fight finds one of the heroes fending off a gay challenger on a primitive, slow moving bus. Eventually he tries to counter with what can only be called "gay fu." Hardly politically correct, but certainly something I've never seen before.

VIDEO:
The widescreen video is ok, but far from great. A good deal of dirt and occasional video flaws mar the print, as does a general lack of sharpness and color. It could be worse, but it ain't great.

AUDIO:
The audio is also weak. Soundtracks are available in 2.0 Mandarin and 2.0 Cantonese, with burned in Chinese and English subtitles. Most of the sound is a bit muffled, although one track emphasizes treble while the other is more muted (don't ask me which is which).

EXTRAS:
There are no extras.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
While the title may have been a marketing ploy, Drunken Master III overcomes the inherent disappointment in it's not really being a Drunken Master film with wit, energy, and sense of fun.

However, the village has changed under the cruel and oppressive hands of the Japanese thugs. While the villagers have secretly tried to fight back, murdering one of the Japanese, they are no match for the gang, who take out their vengeance by hanging one of the fishermen in the town square as a warning. Chen finds it a difficult task to quell his temper in the face of such acts, fights off one of the Japanese easily, and cuts the body down. The Japanese leader, Taga (the great Yasuaki Kuarata) recognizes that they now have a serious fighter in town, and buys time by two-facingly smiling to Chen at every turn, insisting that his men were not acting on his orders. When the Japanese try to rape a girl, her boyfriend stands up to them, only to be captured and taken to their compound. Having none of this Chen storms in, but still wanting to end the matter without violence, he lets one of the Japanese hit him three times, and if he doesn’t fall, he can take the man away. In the face of taxes they in no way can afford, the villagers continue their uprising. The only real material items they own are their boats that they fish with; they sustain life, not profit from it. The Japanese insist they pay taxes or have their boats confiscated. Finally, with a secret invasion on the horizon, Taga makes a move against Chen, kidnapping his wife and Nephew, threatening to burn the boats, and attempting to ambush Chen. But, all this... just makes Chen mad.

It is an interesting film. Since Chen is the only good fighter on the Chinese side, and he is reluctant to fight, most of the combat is pretty minimal until he gets fed up. Until that point, most of the action is in the form of the Japanese beating and torturing the villagers (such as a blindfolded Taga taking a man and chaining him to a pole and whipping him with nunchuks). Its like if in Death Wish, Charles Bronson spent most of the movie steaming mad, before finally taking on street thugs in the last twenty minutes. And, even Chen’s fighting only seemed to be superior not because he knows some style that is better, but purely because he is just more pissed off than his opponents. That’s not to say that it makes the film boring, the build up makes the finale that much better, but those wanting your usual full tilt, action and training every five minutes will be disappointed.

Through his Season Films studio, director Ng See Yuen was a successful producer-director in the independent market, helming such films as Secret Rivals, Invincible Armor, and Tower of Death. Our hero, Chen Hsing, star of films like The Magnificent, Kung Fu Eight Drunkards, Fatal Flying Guillotine, and Triple Irons, was always a reliable martial actor, mostly used in third-second billed parts or bad guy roles, As a man who is slow to anger but deadly when provoked too far, he proves himself very well in this film. Basically all the role calls for, is some smiles and frowns at the beginning, and then temper to full on rage the rest of the film. Yasuaki Kuarata is one of the great old school stars of such films like Challenge of the Ninja, Prodigal Boxer, Ninja in a Deadly Trap, Return of the Deadly Blade, and he spent most of his career as “the Japanese bad guy” like he does here, playing a formidable, maniacal villain. When the two leads face each other at the end, is the films real fight payoff. The rest of the fights are pretty straightforward, but the final duel, they pull off a nice, furious villain-hero battle, between two angry men, practically frothing at the mouth to defeat/kill each other. Rage of the Wind is a modest affair, devoid of the spectacle of a Shaw Bros film, and like most independents, has to rely on its pacing and story, rather than outrageous grand battles and settings. In the long line of evil Japanese kung fu films, it works well, is an entertaining enough martial arts film, just not one that will particularly blow you away. It is a solid film, rather than an explosive one.

THE DVD:
World Video is to Criterion, what a high school paper is to the New York Times. Amazingly, not only do you get no disc artwork, but the menu is for an entirely different film, Shaolin Kung Fu Mystagogue (which I have also reviewed), right down to the scenes on the chapter selection. Luckily, I went ahead and played the film and found that Rage of the Wind was there.

PICTURE: Fullscreen, Region 0, transfer of a very worn print. Mediocre color and sharpness, but biggest flaw is that the film is very, very spotty. However, one doesn’t expect much out of older kung fu film transfers, and when compared to Ground Zero or Xenons transfers, its just about the same, so kung fu fans wont exactly cry over it (but they wont be jumping for joy either).

SOUND: 2.0 mono English dub, has the usual reverby, lo-fi defects one expects from such a film, but is fine overall, clear and audible. A side note, like many independent films of the time, Rage of the Wind borrows its score from other films, and ,very amusingly, some of the music is from Shaft, which had me giggling a lot.

EXTRAS: Not much. Trailers for Jet Li’s Shaolin Kid, The Shaolin Temple, and Born to Defense. A web address page. The film has 8 Chapter selections, and glaringly pauses between each of them, as well as during the layer change. In conclusion, a nice low key curiosity for kung fu fans (if they find it cheap), but another one of those less than spectacular films, with a really less than spectacular transfer.

THE STORY:
Assassin has a great premise, one of my favorites. A simple country man, Tong Po (Fengyi Zhang of Farewell to my Concubine) falls in love with a girl, Yiu (the always reliable Rosamund Kwan), who he is not allowed to marry. They try to run away together, but they are captured and he is thrown into a jail where his eyes are sewn shut. Before the film hits the ten-minute mark, his eyes are opened only to find himself and some fellow prisoners in a gladiatorial ring where its kill or be killed. This is a ‘survival of the fittest’ contest in which the winner gets to become an assassin for the evil (and of course supremely powerful) Eunuch Ngai. Tong Po wins, of course, and is renamed Tong Chop. Flash forward in time and Tong Chop has now become a deadly, cold killing machine (“I kill because I want to live.”), second in command of the barbaric assassins, and the idol of new young assassin Wong Kau, who Tong Chop takes under his wing. During one nighttime raid, Tong sees his beloved Yui and his past starts creeping back on him, so he defects and hides out with her in her village where she has tragically (for him, anyway) remarried and has a son. But, his old life as a prominent killer is not easily left behind, and both his protégé Wong Kau and the powerful eunuch (“Those who don’t follow me will become my ghosts”) are out for his blood, leading to the final conclusion.

Fengyi Zhang is good, but doesn’t quite have the charisma of an action star lead. I’ve always imagined that Xin Xin Xiong (Once Upon a Time in China 3, The Blade) would have been perfect, someone with the martial skill to appear dangerous, yet have the looks to appear sullen at the same time. Or, it could just be that Fengyi Zhang wears the worst wigs I’ve seen since a 60’s Viking picture...In my opinion, the two best cinematographers in Hong Kong are Christopher Doyle (Happy Together, Chunking Express) and Zhao Fei (Sweet and Lowdown, Raise the Red Lantern), of whom the latter did Assassin (though this is no Woody Allen or Zhang Yimou film, that’s for sure)...The plot moves quite briskly, and the action is pretty gruesome with planty of slow motion shots of decapitations, blood spurting, some heart ripping, and so forth. Very Category III, stuff, for sure.

CONCLUSION:
Its a pretty nice entry into the swordplay action pictures of the early 90’s. I’d say if you look at your DVD collection and see Duel to the Death, The Sword, Bride with White Hair, Stormriders, and maybe Butterfly and Sword and Swordsman 2, then you should definitely give Assassin a try, you most likely will not be disappointed. If you don’t own any of those films, get two or three of them and then give Assassin a chance. Its a good slice of action entertainment...

Renegade monk Pai Mei, has aligned himself with the Manchu’s, betrayed his fellow monks, destroyed the Shaolin temple, and sent its members fleeing into the hostile countryside. Chief among these men is Hung Sze Kwan, who was severely wounded in the attack. Sze Kwan makes his way to the Llama School, but is turned away because the schools master Chow Ching has also bowed to the Manchu’s power. Also, thrown out of the Llama School was student Chi Chai, who was the envy of his fellow classmates, and who found friends in Ah Chien and Ta Po, the three hanging out and training together. And it is the three of them that discover the badly wounded and castaway Sze Kwan, recognizing him as a Shaolin patriot, the kind of man they envy. They hide him away and try to gather the money for the much needed special medicine that will cure his wounds. While Sze Kwan heals, the Llama School and five deadly Machu warriors continue to hunt around and try to find Sze Kwan. The bad guys begin to close in, tracking the medicine to the three men, so it is a good thing that Sze Kwan is healing, training them, polishing their martial skills, and waiting for a fellow Shaolin compatriot to appear. The Manchu’s eventually find them, and after a narrow escape, the five men seek revenge on the Llama school, and hole up in a dye mill, awaiting the inevitable battle (involving so many weapons I cant begin to name them all- poles, spears, hammers, fork daggers, vases, iron rings, swords, etc.) with the deadly Manchu’s waiting outside.

THE FILM:
First, the obligatory part for those that don’t know- The Venoms are a team of martial arts stars that broke big when the five of them starred together in Chang Cheh’s Five Deadly Venoms. The film was a huge hit and subsequently attempts were made to team them up, whether it be all five, four, or three of them, in other films. While none of the films have any relation to Five Deadly Venoms other than the casting, the team was named the Venoms and the movies have become known as Venom films. Some of the Venoms films are: Crippled Avengers, Brave Archers, Chinese Super Ninjas, The Kid with the Golden Arm, Nine Demons, The Chinatown Kid, and Invincible Shaolin. The Venoms are- Lu Feng, Wei Pai, Sun Chien, Kuo Chui, and Lo Meng (as well as, sort of honorary Venom, Chiang Sheng).

In director Chang Cheh’s prime you could always count on him to deliver solid chop socky entertainment, and amoung his films with the Venoms, Avenging Warriors of Shaolin (aka. Shaolin Rescuers) is one of the greats, featuring everything you come to expect, pretty good plot, but most of all great action, athletic martial performances, training scenes, weapons, and of course, some good ol’ mean bloodshed. Not to mention, one of the all time great martial arts film finales. But, for me, why it dulls in comparison to Chinese Super Ninjas, Kid with the Golden Arm or the one that started it all, Five Deadly Venoms is that Avenging Warriors takes awhile to get going. There is an awful lot of clowning around by Ta Po and Ah Chien in the first 25 mins before the film makes any mention of the villains. Its almost like a kung fu episode of Bosom Buddies. Then it begins to get rolling, setting up the rest of the heroes, conflict, and bad guys, only to slow down a little as the guys try to make money for Hung Sze Kwan’s medicine. Its not horrible, the film doesn’t come to a dead stop, and the scenes are worthwhile, its just not the Slam!-Bang!, never stopping, roller coaster pacing that I am used to with a Chang Cheh film. The usually dark master decided to have a little comedy,... that does work, I guess, however it isn’t his usual forte. When I think the name- Chang Cheh, the last thing I think about is comedy. But, slow spots and minor goofiness aside, it is a really great Venoms film, and it all really pulls together in the breathtaking grand finale with all five good guys and all five bad guys going at each other with various styles and weapons. What more do you really need? Its brutal, they are skillful, and even the most ADD prone, sugar junky shouldn’t be able to take their eyes off the amazing combat. One of the best...

The movie: Detective Nishi (Kitano) is a silent man, a broken cop. While Nishi is away, by the side of his terminally ill wife, his partner is ruthlessly gunned down during a stakeout. The wounds leave his partner confined to a wheelchair and without the continued will to live. Nishi blames himself for not being there, and stoically determines to kill the punk responsible. And in the flick's most brutal scene, he does -- and then some -- emptying his service revolver into the kid's head. But there is no relief as ANOTHER officer is killed in this encounter, which Nishi also accepts blame. He quits the force to attend to his wife, his fallen comrade, and somehow manages to become indebted to gangster loansharks. It's how he chooses to deal with all these life crises that makes the story powerful -- both grim and hopeful -- explosive and tranquil.

Notables: No breasts. Nine corpses. Chopsticks to the eye socket. Rock skipping. Bank robbery. Gratuitous card trick scene. Vase to the brainpan. Multiple beatings.

Quotables: Nothing too amusing in the subtitles.

Time codes: Two guys in crazy wooden shoes play catch (5:17). Breath-taking gun fight in a shopping mall (33:00). Nishi doesn't like high-interest loans (1:23:30).

Audio/Video: Presented in its original widescreen (1.85:1) format. The print is clean, but there is a subtle flaw, as weird digital blurring sometimes occurs as actors move through scenes. Nice Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track -- however the film's strength is its LACK of sound during intensely violent scenes. In Japanese with English subtitles.

Extras: The scene selections are divided into five categories, each with an available interview segment with Kitano. All of the artwork featured in the film was created by the director, who discovered his talent while recovering from a devastating motorcycle accident, and the disc features a gallery of these works with their corresponding scenes and notes by Kitano. Behind-the-scenes featurette that stands in stark contrast to the flick's tone -- it's so strange to see the cast and crew laughing and having such a good time. Both the Japanese and American trailers.

Final thought: The art-house crowd's answer to a Chuck Bronson vengeance picture. Brutal AND sensitive -- maybe too introspective for some. Recommended.

THE FILM
Ostensibly As Tears Go By takes the Mean Streets blueprint, an older, gaining sensibility gangster looking out for a reckless and wild younger cohort, and turns the idea into a character study of low level Chinese gangsters and the pressures of being on the bottom rung in the criminal underworld. So, although both roughly share the same premise, they each reflect their own distinct culture- Mean Streets is very New York, As Tears Go By is very Chinese. And, like Scorsese’s film, Wong Kar Wai’s debut shows all the signs of a new director with style, flair, and vision. While many Chinese gangster films are usually pretty romantic about the underworld lifestyle , like A Better Tomorrow, As Tears Go By takes a more squalid, dirty, realistic approach.

Wong Kar Wai is one of the few directors whose expressive style does not overwhelm the actors. In his best films, like In the Mood for Love, Happy Together and Chunking Express, as explosively slick, dreamy, stylish, or frenetic as Wong’s camera work is, his actors are equally explosive internally with their emotions, and Wong usually keeps his actors comfortable in their characters skin. While this debut is not quite as effective and Wong had not developed his trademark ambiguous plotting and internal monologue that would help define his style an further enhance his characters, one can still see the balance. Witness the loose camerawork and neo-noir lighting of such sequences as Wah stumbling home drunk, or Fly frantically tying to escape some thugs he blatantly cheats in billiards, running through the pool hall and out into the crowded streets. As the ashamed “I don’t want to be nobody” little bother, Jacky Cheung does have some moments that are rather hammy, but Lau provides a calm and cool surface to counter Cheung’s scene chewing. Maggie Cheung has a somewhat thankless role- “the girl”. Despite the secondary nature of it, one does feel they know her character, and Maggie has always said that it was with this film that she actually learned what acting was.

Its not exactly a masterpiece (as many HK aficionados taut it), but it is an assured debut and a great sign of the things to come. There was an intense amount of speculation and hype even before the film was released, and Wong Kar Wai has proven to be one of HK’s most buzzworthy filmmakers. Certainly, I doubt many filmgoers can make it to the final moments without being emotionally invested and affected by the characters fates. Unfortunately one of the films drawbacks is that its score dates the film, effectively ruining any timelessness, and proving to be, for me, a distraction. The largely synth score is very 80’s, feeling as if it were plucked from a Miami Vice episode. Likewise it doesn’t help that a key song, played during Andy and Maggies revelation that they desire each other is none other than a Cantonese version of that overplayed 80’s classic “Take My Breathe Away”.

THE DVD
Media Asia. It's another in a long line of mediocre but acceptable HK film transfers. Picture- Anamorphic Widescreen (16 x 9 enhanced). Overall is a pretty average HK film transfer, not exactly jaw dropping, room for improvement, but fine for those who already have vast HK import libraries. There are some artifacts, spots of washed out, softer and grainier scenes, lessening the details. Color and contrast are good, and overall the film has good sharpness. Sound-Dolby Digital 5.1 Cantonese. Aside from the glaringly Phil Collins sounding soundtrack the audio mix is pretty good, clear, not extremely impressive, but free of any distortions. Optional, English, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian, Japanese, or Indonesian subs. The subtitle translation, on the other hand, is one of the worst I have seen. Its one thing to get rampant sub flaws on a lighthearted, mindless entertainment piece like Peacock King, but on a drama like As Tears go By it really hinders the film. Nearly every sentence is muddled or misspelled English. “If he is working for another, he have already died.”...”High, what a coincident.” It is really the only detriment that keeps me from instantly recommending everyone see this film (or this version). Those used to the world of awkward HK subtitling will probably be able to look past it, but those who hate subs or sub flaws will despise this disc. Extras- 9 Chapters--- Film synopsis and Cast Bios--Trailer for the film and Days of Being Wild.

CONCLUSION
While decent enough for die-hard fans, a more extra laced edition would be nice, so would a better picture, and so forth. Criterion, where are you? Mostly it is just, okay, with the horrible sub translation being a big sore spot consumers will want to consider before buying.

THE FILM
The Isle attempts to share the same cinematic space as Nagashi Oshimas In the Realm of the Senses and In the Realm of Passion or Shohei Imiamura’s The Eel, quiet studies of the more dysfunctional side of passion. In the Isles case we get a suicidal man and a primal force of a woman, both locked in a dreary state of living, who begin a tangled relationship of brutality, jealousy, as well as care and empathy. It takes a more abstract approach than the films I mentioned, leaving out characters names, giving no backstory to them, heavy uses of symbolic imagery. It is a love story in which two troubled people experience love as something both uplifting to the soul but equally abusive and lethal.

The Isle is a film that has been hurt by some heavy misconceptions surrounding it. And why?- Because of two scenes involving fishhooks. The first thing I read about The Isle was that when it was first seen at film festivals (particularly Sundance and Venice), critics were fainting, one well-known female distributor apparently ran out and barfed, and generally the film had a lot of audience walkouts based on those scenes. Then, this sensationalist reputation as some sort of gory shocker popped up, branding the movie forever. And, that is really quite unfortunate and pretty far from the truth. The darker, cynical side of me wants to say that it was just a Puritanical reaction, but realistically, I guess the scenes are rather unique and disturbing not because they are graphic (there have been far more graphic scenes in many rated R films) but because its not something most people would imagine, making it harder to take. In other words, for moviegoers, gunshots and explosions are common, but swallowing/inserting fishhooks in order to commit suicide is not... The real question is do the scenes have any merit? The answer is, yes. Although bizarre, the fishhook scenes are very significant and the exotic situation has heavy literal and metaphorical significance (the characters literally reel each other in). Perhaps its best to quote director Ki-Duk Kim who said of the film, “The Isle is destructive and vulgar, but I also wanted to give it intensity and beauty.”, and the film does find that balance. Nature is beautiful, but it is also cruel and brutal.

The film is sparse. There are maybe 15-20 lines of dialogue in the first twenty minutes. It is a film populated by scenes and images driving the bulk of the story, with no narrative between the two leads. It is through action that their feelings are conveyed, like the woman straddling the man after he is in pain from his attempt to kill himself. It is an act of sex that shows she cares for him, and, at that moment, the sex is the only way she knows how to comfort his pain. The most lasting image director Ki-Duk Kim conjures, is the village of floats, barely bigger than a doghouse, each colored in its own vibrant shade of yellow, or purple, or blue. These little patches of color, on the dreary lake as a morning mist floats across it will linger in the mind long after the film is over.

So, despite containing horrific acts, its not a horror like, Tell Me Something or Seven. Its a different animal altogether.

THE DVD
Universe, Region 3 encoded DVD. Picture- Widescreen, 1:77:1. Color and sharpness overall appears to be a little muted and drab, experiencing some wear and tear but this slightly improves sporadically from scene to scene. It is okay, but not as sharp or vibrant as it could be. Contrast is fine, even but not deep blacks, and there is very minimal dirt and spots. Sound- Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0, Korean with optional English and Chinese (traditional and simplified) subtitles. With simple, restrained audio fx and musical score, as well as sparse dialogue, there is absolutely no need for a booming DTS soundtrack, and the Dolby Stereo on the disc gets the job done. Extras- 9 Chapters--- Star Bios for Jung Sun (the woman), Yooh-Sook Kim (the man), and Ki-Duk Kim (the director)--- Trailer for the film and Happy End

CONCLUSION
The film is inteersting but a little stark. The transfer isn’t jaw dropping, but still a worthwhile buy for curious art film lovers.

Meanwhile, Iron Hand (Wong Tao- Eagle Claw, Secret Rivals, The Hot the Cool and the Vicious) a government agent undercover as an assassin living at the local brothel and receiving his hit list tattooed on the backs of prostitutes, finds that the men he is being sent after lead to this mysterious assassin. Soon, the identity of this killer is found out, but the killer has learned a deadly form of martial arts and it will take the combined efforts of Chen and Iron Hand to defeat him.

THE FILM
Director Joe Cheung’s second film is a marked improvement from his debut, and is a standard convoluted and serious kung fu tale with no hints of the comedy that would largely define Joe Cheung’s career with Pom Pom and Pom Pom and Hot Hot. His debut, Incredible Kung Fu Master was a standard kung fu comedy with gray, drab settings and locations. In Mask of Death (aka Shaolin Devil and Shaolin Angel, 1979) we get some fantastic sets and lavish costuming, involving vibrant color schemes, almost like a Seijun Suzuki movie. The film is full of color, including some great moments like the red drenched Hammer Horror lighting when Wan Yi Fei is learning the Ghost Stroke by dipping his hands into a razor tipped cauldron of hot pebbles. The action is great, various weapons work, very little speedup, lots of hand to hand and neat fx, which next to the eye-catching set design, is the films saving grace.

The different strands of convoluted plotting actually drag the film down because it isn’t entirely cohesive. A kung fu film like Chinese Super Ninjas or Fist of the White Lotus may have a far more simple plot, but at least their stories are constantly moving forward and clearly mapped. Mask of Death simply doesn’t know what it wants to be- A story about a mysterious, possibly otherworldly, killer attacking influential families?- A story about an undercover agent who works under the guise of an assassin?- A young man training so he can avenge his family?- Both men after this mysterious killer?- It all never quite congeals... The first half of the film is spent focusing on the Mask of Death, and then after he makes one grand attack, it is sort of dropped; it would have been better to keep that idea alive instead of having him be so successful he defeats everyone. The second part of the film focuses on Iron Hand a bit more, with some hackneyed backstory and love plotting, and his all too easy search down the trail of killers that leads to the Mask of Death. All the while, Chen trains with the Abbott. So in that sense, we dont even have a clearly defined lead. Both men are given almost equal backstory and motivation, but neither character takes control, and the chance to unite the contrasting characters, the rich son and the bitter agent, never materializes. Likewise, the conspiracy of who the killer is, unfortunately, falls apart because it is too obvious when you cast an actor like Chen Sing, who every time he appears as a wealthy kung fu lord he is a bad guy. Even if you are not into kung fu and don’t know who Chen Sing is, it ain’t no Agatha Christie Mystery so it is still pretty obvious because the film doesn’t open up to too many possible killers.

Stephen Tung Wei gets a chance to play something other than a normally comedic goofball, acrobatic, martial kid, and his character of a favorite son not interested in fighting driven by the death of his family to fighting seek revenge could have been better. His pacifism is dropped once he goes to train. Although the training scenes are some of the films highlights, his character is then largely absent until the final fight, like the character is an afterthought, just an extra person to include in the finale (admittedly, Tung Wei was also busy as the films fight choreographer so that helps account for this problem). Wong Tao was fairly unimpressive, his character given a heavy weight, a somber placid nature that his acting skills cannot bear, but luckily he does fight well, something Wong Tao needed to stick to in his films. Chen Sing, as always is a reliable second-third tier star, and when it come time for him to cut loose with maniacal rage he shines (although the cheesy dubbing hinders his performance).

THE DVD
First of all, Crash Cinema needs to be commended for their ‘letterbox only’ releases, putting them a notch above the other kung fu companies that settle on tape masters. But Crash also puts Yasuaki Kurata on the cover of Mask of Death and Yasuaki Kurata is not in the film. Picture- Letterbox 2.35.1. The color and contrast are great, bright hues and deep blacks, but unfortunately, as is the case with so many kung fu titles, there is severe damage to the print. There are some almost constant green lines, erosion, specks, flecks, dirt, some softness. Its a product of being a kung fu fan, looking past some of these marred prints, and at least being thankful we get the film uncut, in its correct ratio, at the very least with some good color and contrast. But still, the print has more crags in it than the face of Lance Henrikson. Sound- Dolby Digital Mono 2.0, English dub. Audio track is fairly low, and in spots exhibits the same kind of wear that the image does with some hiss, stutter, and pops. Still, dialogue is pretty clear and action and music scenes have the audio mix pumped up a little bit more. Extras-None, 12 Chapters, that is it.

CONCLUSION
A good effort, with weak plotting that can be overlooked thanks to some great sets, costuming, and good action. The barebones DVD print image and sound is rough, and may get nothing but grumbles from the none genre cult loving fans. But, for those that love the genre , a worthwhile purchase, an entertaining film.

THE FILM
Before seeing Soul Guardians (1998), I ran across three or four reviews that made it sound like Big Trouble in Little China meets Evil Dead 2 meets Prince of the Sun (The HK knockoff of The Golden Child). Oh, sure its a style blending b-fantasy movie, but it also isn’t jaw-droppingly fun like, say, The Seventh Curse. (And no, the irony isnt lost on me- I, a reviewer, compaining about misleading reviews). I was instantly reminded of another ambitious b-film, off the wall, sci-fi/fantasy genre blender that didn’t quite work, Tsui Hark’s Wicked City.

Basically it is a slick, comic book, anime influenced take on the old “Look out here comes the Devil!” plotlines you see in End of Days, Lost Souls or Canada's greatest export in the genre, Rock 'N' Roll Nightmare. In Soul Guardians, The Devil adheres to the tried and true rules of a low, growling, reverb drenched voice and red eye contacts when he possess someone, which always makes me wish he would run to a quickie mart and get some mentholated cough drops and Visene. It liberally borrows from Terminator (a possesed army soldier after Sueng-hee), Dragonball (the superpowers) and Legend (Sueng-hee possessed at the end looks like some kind of Mia Sara clone/an extra from Motley Crue’s “Shes Got Looks that Kill” video). And, dare I say it, when a bulldozer gets possessed and runs down a cult member, it had me reflecting back to good ol’ Clint Walker in Killdozer.

While it offers up small doses of gore, kung fu, and CGI, I cant really say pushes either, which is a negative. Playing up the gore or fights would have helped it. As it is, the editing is fast and choppy, the story barely lingers on any scene for more than two minutes which will greatly please the ADD crowd. At first, the film is crammed with so many characters it is all a bit dizzying. Eventually they intersect as the story comes together,... well, it doesnt really come together, it falls, smashes, and trips like lobotomized Three Stooges on a slip n' slide. For a while, it is fun, but then, after about an hour, I found myself eroded. The jumping from scene to scene grew tiresome, the narrative was sloppy, and a romantic plot begins to dominate the film, which was too serious and made it grow more silly. I wasnt expecting Lawrence of Arabia but I nearly jumped out of my skin when Father Park is chased to a church, dozens of SWAT officers behind him, sealing off the area, and he just easily walks out the unguarded back door! Then, it does the unforgivable, which is completely fall apart in the climax. There isn’t the dramatic, energetic action scene payoff you’ve been waiting for and wonder why you spent an hour and twenty minutes for such a dud of an ending. Imagine if in Evil Dead 2, at the finale, Ash just politely asked the demons to, “Please stop possessing everyone.”, and the demonic forces of darkness just said, “Okay, sorry to bother you.” Well, its not that bad,... but almost.

For all its flaws, Soul Guardians boasts an all-star cast of Korean film notables. The televangelist pompadoured, Father Park is played by Sung-kee Ahn from Nowhere to Hide. Sang Mu Chu from Say Yes plays Sueng-hee, the object of the Devils attention. And, with an unfortunate, almost Liza Minnelli-ish hairdo, Hyun Jun-Shin from Bichunmoo and Gingko Bed plays the heroic but haunted Hyun-am... As far as Korean films go: If you want a slick, modern action film, see Shiri. If you want standard horror, see Tell Me Something or Memento Mori. If you want fantasy, swordplay, melodrama, see Bichunmoo. If you want something a little dark and arty-farty, see The Isle. If you want comedy and action, see My Wife is a Gangster. If you want to see a b-movie fantasy mess, see Soul Guardians.

THE DVD
Winson Entertainment, All Region, NTSC Picture- Widescreen, but barely. The film was mainly shot at night with heavy shadows and stark, expressive lighting. Overall the image is very grainy and a little soft, but in a way it enhances the mood of the film. It is okay, but I doubt the filmmakers intended it to be quite as drab as the transfer. Sound- Good Dolby Digital Korean language with optional English and Chinese subtitles. The subs were pretty much free of errors, and the sound was crisp and clear, pumping out the music score and fx noise. Extras- 12 Chapters.

CONCLUSION
Pretty okay bubbegum b-movie, but its the kind of bubbegum that loses flavor pretty quickly. At least it was better than Bless the Child. Disc is barebones with fair/good picture and sound quality. Worth a rental to Asian b-film fans, or possibly a purchase to the very curious with more disposable income.

Marsahll Kao, is in fact not a traitor, but secretly he has hatched a plan to keep Shaolin alive. He is utterly alone, refusing to possibly spoil his ploy by revealing it to the rogue Ching Patriots or his fellow captured Shaolin brothers. Instead he plays the part of a turncoat, fighting his former friends for the Emperors amusement, and putting his brothers though various forms of torture while asking them to become members of the Ming Dynasty. But, the torture is his way of training his brothers, strengthening them, even though they curse at him and don’t realize his intentions. Marshal Kao’s scheme puts a heavy burden on his soul, and his sympathies do not go unnoticed by some members of the Ming inner circle. Will Kao be able to keep up his plan? And, as the rebels begin to make their move against the Mings, will either side ever see Kao’s true intentions and where his heart lies before it is too late?

THE FILM
The Heroes (1980, aka The Shaolin Heroes, Story of Chivalry and The Unforgiven of Shaolin) has one of the better plots in kung fu filmdom. A man alone, with a plan so secretive, he cannot even tell those he is trying to help, is looked upon as a traitor, and must act as a friend to an enemy he despises. Even as he witnesses his brothers being beaten and murdered, he has to constantly pretend he is ruthless, a backstabber, and hide any remorse or sympathy for his friends. The film shows his motivation, how he is able to keep up his ruse, by using flashbacks to his days in the Shaolin temple where the Abbot teaches them to hide their pain, take ridicule and scorn, and how “A hero is one how sacrifices himself for others.” And, that is something this martial melodrama tragedy does all too well.

In addition to its huge cast of noteworthy names, this is a pretty large scaled independent production, with big sets and colorful costumes. The film was directed by Wu Ma, who also co-stars as a prisoner, and is a classic figure in HK cinema history for his direction of such films as Shaolin Deadly Kicks, Dead and the Deadlyand Just Heroes as well as his large list of acting roles. The action direction was supervised by Robert Tai (Brave Archer, Invincible Shaolin, Thundering Mantis and Five Deadly Venoms). Ti Lung is probably best known for his breakthrough dramatic performance in A Better Tomorrow but this film is from his days as one of the best martial actors in the business, acting in such films as Duel of the Iron Fists, Seven Blows of the Dragon and Avenging Eagle. I have to say, this is one of my favorite Ti Lung performances, especially in the final scenes. Other notable names include big kicker Tien Tao Liang (Hand of Death, Duel of the Devils, Shaolin Invincibles) as a Shaolin Brother, Michael Chan (Mysterious Footworks, Revenge of the Patriots, Chinese Super Ninjas) as the Ming Emperor, and a small role for Danny Lee (The Killer, Dr. Lamb, Rich and Famous, Iron Bodyguards) as a Ching rebel.

Although there are some choppy editing stumbles, considering it is an independent and the fast production of these films, its expected and forgivable. The pacing of the actual story is very tight and includes some great sequences, particularly the assassination attempt by the rebels on Marshal Kao. It involves a celebration in which they have placed one of their assassins in a group of dancing girls, and as she dances she tries to kill Kao. As she and Kao fight, keeping it a secret from the others, its almost reminiscent of a James Bond sequence- trying to maintain the subterfuge that nothing is going on as she tries to stab him and he defends himself, making it all part of the dance sequence. The fighting is what I call “ground fighting” (meaning no crazy acrobatics, wire or trampoline work, or supernatural fu- just two guys, hand to hand, feet to feet). Ti Lung’s strong arm kung fu is put to good use, and its a real refreshing change of pace from all the modern fast editing, over the top fights. Sometimes its nice to pop in a movie like this and actually see every move two fighters are making, and not have their prowess amplified (or hidden) by editing tricks and other enhancement. Plus, the film has a great fifteen minute finale, culminating with Marshall Kao and the Emperor fighting the jail courtyard, while the Shaolin Brothers escape from their cells fighting their way out, and the Ching patriots attack the compound form the outside.

THE DVD
Tai Seng Video presents one of the better (dare I say “high class?”) films in their Martial Arts Theater line. Modestly priced with commentary.
Picture: Pretty fair Ocean Shores video master. There is the wear and tear kung fu fans would expect, with some softness, dirt, waviness, washed out color, and contrast problems, but overall its just your average run of the mill kung fu transfer. There are certainly far worse transfers out there, but this one wont leave you jumping for joy.
Sound: 2.0 Dolby Digital Mono English dub. Rather reverb heavy audio track. Particularly in the fights, which are loud and echo drenched like an old Ultraman episode, but apparently the film dub drops off in the fights, and we are hearing the original audio track, so it was intended to be that over the top.
Extras: 8 Chapters--- Tai Seng trailers for their Martial Arts Theater line, plus The Assassin, Deadful Melody, The Duel, Dragon Inn, Running Out of Time, Armageddon, Body Weapon, and Fist Power--- Commentary by Ric Meyers, of Inside Kung Fu magazine. Meyers does a pretty good job, and deserves credit for research (a daunting task in the world of kung fu film), even if he can get annoying in his delivery. He is up front about the Ocean Shores video master, pointing out the logo, and then, for those that don’t know, gives a nice rundown the story of kung fu distribution and Ocean Shores history with distributing kung fu films. Although it is a bit mannered, Meyers reads from notes telling us Ching Dynasty history, and gives background info on the numerous notable names on the film. Unfortunately, as he spouts the long family tree history of certain stars, Meyers often gets lost in his notes and loses his place in the film. Not surprisingly, at one point, Meyers acknowledges that he is lost and has gotten carried away listing filmographies of the stars (for example: he notes the producer was Kao Fei, who stared in, my favorite, Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, which gets him talking about Pole Fighters infamous finale). The other personal peeve I have is that, in a few spots, he jokingly points out flaws in the logic, or that a actor doesn’t know how to fight, or the cheap set design. This sort of mocking would be fine in a less serious feature like Miracle Fighters, Jade Claw, or Enter the Fat Dragon, but in Heroes it only damages the suspension of disbelief in a good, no-nonsense martial arts drama. It is an annoying contradiction that, early on in the track, Meyers points out how these films were derided by critics and looked down upon as cheap and silly, but then Meyers himself falls prey to the same (although, in his case its more innocent) behavior by taking jabs at the film. But, I guess personal peeves aside, Meyers does an fair job, and his commentary is an okay side benefit to a great kung fu film.

THE FILM
Over the past few years that the Korean film industry has opened up and begun a greater export. Allowing their films to trickle out, there comes an occasional gem, a film that wouldn’t be quite as relevant if it were made in any other country. JSA is one such film, and in these times of opposing countries who are close enough to rub shoulders and intermingle, with no end to thier fighting in sight... well, its all too touching a tale.

Basically, told in two parts, the flashback tale of how the soldiers become friends which takes up the middle section of the film, bookended by the actual investigation and the final reveal of how it all went wrong. And it is during the tale of how these men become friends that the film really shines. Basically while on night maneuvers, Sgt. Lee’s troupe gets lost and they find themselves on North Korean territory. The men fall back, except for Sgt. Lee, who has stepped on a land mine. He is unable to call out for help and risk alerting the North Koreans that he is there, but Sgt. Oh and Private Jeong appear anyway and find him stuck there. What ensues goes from tense to funny, as the contrasting soldiers first face off, only for Oh and Jeong to then walk off and Lee asks them to come back not leave him alone. It is a situation that both sides have been trained to treat as a conflict, a soldier on his enemies land, but each quickly realizes they have no desire to fight and instead lend a helping hand. What then unfolds is a very moving story of how the men become friends discovering what life is like on each side, and it is so well told, it makes the circumstances and the aftermath of the murder all the more heart wrenching.

The direction has some positively beautiful moments, a nice visual palette. The violence is gory, abrupt, and appropriately shocking. Likewise most of the film is in low light/nighttime conditions casting a pall over the proceedings which adds a nice counter to the whimsical scenes. Such moments include, a spitting contest during the day between the two soldiers as they are supposed to be stone faced, standing in font of each other on their respective sides, and the great scene when Sgt. Lee is trapped by the mine, standing in a field, wind sweeping through the tall grass. The conclusion of the film is incredibly bleak. Too bleak?, it is hard to say. The film was a smash, shattering the box office in Korea, leading one to assume it pinpoints how dire Koreans see their situation. The standout performances are by Byung-hun Lee as Sgt. Lee and Kang-ho Song as Sgt Oh. Byung-hun Lee gives Lee fitting a wide eyed, disillusioned, and easy going manner, while Kang-ho Song imbues Oh with a much more mature and stalwart appearance but a willingness, a charm, and open mindedness.

Unfortunatley all is not emotionally moving and perfect. In the English language scenes it is painfully obvious that English, or should I say ‘Engrish’, is not the actors strong suit. The film becomes a little too mired in the procedural investigation by including timecodes on the flashbacks, as if we need to be reminded that this is a flashback and a military investigation is underway. By far the films biggest drawback is Yeong-ae Lee as Major Sophie Lang. Her performance is wooden, and her character is given an unneeded backstory, a scene that although raises more political history (it even has stock footage), but it felt like an unnecessary addition to the narrative. The movie has enough message, that is at times hammered over our heads, without bringing up the fact that her father is an expatriate who refused to side with either Korean nation. And while it is a bit heavy-handed, bombastic, and preachy, it is a serious subject and the humanity of its characters far outweighs any overused symbolism, obvious foreshadowing, or plot clichés.

But, how may films can have a scene with two opposing armies on a hunt in a snow swept countryside bump into one another. The Communists in old standard, drab fatigues, carrying outdated AK-47’s, the opposing independent army in military garb, snow fatigues, holding new, sleek M 16’s. The two commanders walk over too each other, each breaking out a cigarette, the Communist fumbling with a match, his independent opposite taking out a wind resisant Zippo. There arent many countries that can produce that scene and it be so devastatingly relevant.

THE DVD
Available in barebones or a 2 disc (with mainly Korean friendly extras) edition. This review is of the barebones. Coded for Region One and Region Three.
Picture: Widescreen. One of the most expensive films made in Korea, and the first to use Super 35mm, the DVD image is not without its flaws. Much of the film takes place at night or in dimly lit surroundings which the contrast conveys nicely. Colors are strong, but the sharpness is a little lacking. There is some wear, minor spots, and two or three very brief scenes/shots where there is fading at the corners and top and bottom of the frame. Technical defects lie in some slight ghosting, artifacts ,and edge enhancement that will catch the eyes very observant DVD junkies, but overall the image does look okay and is acceptable.
Sound: Three audio options, Korean Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and DTS 5.1 Surround with optional Chinese or English subtitles. Sound is one of Korean films strongest assets, and here JSA’s mix proves this further. Great sound, from dialogue, to the music mix, to the fx.
Extras: A standard DVD keepcase is stored in an additional slipcase cover.--- 12 Chapters--- Trailer--- Music video “Song for a Private”

CONCLUSION
Tremendously affective movie, with its share of flaws, but overall , tight, moving, and important enough in its statements to forgive its story stumbles and pretentiousness. Likewise the DVD isn’t perfect and the image transfer could be better, but it is good enough to leave most viewers pleased.

Since it is such an already well known story, I wont go into much detail about it. Suffice to say, if you are reading this and haven’t seen either the Bruce Lee or Jet Li versions of this story (Fist if Fury, aka. in the US Chinese Connection and Fist of Legend, respectively), then please see them first. But, for those that don’t know or need a refresher, the basic story is- 1930’s Shanghai. Martial arts student Jun Chen returns home to find turmoil. The Japanese are in control and their martial schools have begun to usurp the Chinese schools. Jun Chens’s master tries to rally the Chinese schools together, and in his efforts to prove Chinese styles superiority (the Japanese call them the “Sick Men of Asia”), he is poisoned and killed by the Japanese. As they further plot to dominate the Chinese martial world and destroy the spirit of his people, divided by his love for a Japanese girl, Yumi, and his hatred for the atrocities committed against his culture, Jun Chen soon wages an almost one man war against the Japanese.

Now, with two legendary films of the same story already existing, how do you make it different, justify telling the same story again? Previously, I thought Jet Li was crazy for remaking a Bruce Lee film, but of course, he triumphed in making one of the greatest modern martial arts films, Fist of Legend. So, it is a mammoth uphill battle to try for a third time. In this versions case, they took the idea and decided to do it as a 30 hour tv series, the first half dealing with the backstory we never saw, and the last part being a retelling of the film version we kung fu fans know so well. However, that is the crux of one of the problems I have with this edition. This edition is a 2 hour cut, condensing the last half of the series, the story we already know, so we don’t get that unique glimpse into the characters backstory. On one hand, I would like to see that first half, but on the other...well, it is Hong Kong television, so that means it is haphazard and very low budget. Frankly it makes sense not to release the tv series as a whole because it doesn’t look that good. Releasing a condensed version is smart, because I doubt many people are going to want to pay for and sit through 30 hours of low budget tv anyway. With this version, you get a small hint of the changes, but you still have the sense you are missing out on the whole story. I was just hoping for a little more backstory, and would probably like and extra 30 mins added at the beginning so I could see some of it.

Quite frankly, it isn’t very good. It all hinges on the fact that the series was made in a fourth of the time and probably 1/25th of the budget that American tv viewers are accustomed to. It is that culture shock problem, if I wasnt raised in the US with US tv standards in production and acting, I may love this series. The cast is all solid, and (at least in this version) the editing is kept at a brisk pace, keeping the story moving. But, it is all so cheap. Despite some good sets, locations, and occasional scenes of atmospheric shots, it is hindered by the limited scope of the production. No doubt stretched to its fullest extent, the lack of true time and budget for the action, actors, and filming makes this production nothing more than of novelty interest to really die hard kung fu/martial afficianados.

The thing about being a Donnie Yen fan, no matter how much you love him (like I do), the sour fact is that he never really took off as a huge star or solo talent. In the industry and with fans, he has respect, has charisma, and certainly has talent on par with any of the top names in martial films, from Jet Li, to Yuen Biao, to Jackie. But, I think getting his start in the age when martial films were dying, when the true martial stars began to fade and fighting just became an element in any kind of action film, as opposed to a genre in and of itself, he never saw the chance to be a huge star. His resume is a nice blend of genres, from one of the last old school films- Drunken Tai Chi, to cop action- In the Line of Duty 4, Tiger Cage, to fantasy swordplay- Dragon Inn, Comet Butterfly and Sword to new wave, wire fu period fighting- Wing Chun, Once Upon a Time In China 2, Iron Monkey, but in these films, his best work, he was usually a co-star or shared billing with other stars. And, his directorial efforts like Legend of the Wolf and Ballistic Kiss are really nothing more than entertaining b-pictures. Likewise, this Fists of Fury tv series really does fall short as a Donnie Yen showcase. Although he did the fight choreography, the limited budget never allows him to do much, sometimes having to choreograph and shoot an elaborate fight scene in one night, with non martial actors and limited stuntmen. The fights are so sped up and awkwardly shot, it is often very laughable, and not the best example of this talents. While he does try to pay more of tribute to Lee than Jet Li did, aping Lee’s stances, vocalizations, and some dialogue, it is admirable but still not enough to save the show from its overall clumsiness.

THE DVD
Tai Seng DVD. Not a terrific adaptation, but the DVD is actually a surprising treat due to a great commentary track and good presentation considering the fair, lackluster material. The Picture- Basically fullscreen, tape (BETA, thank you D Yen commentary). The transfer does fine with the materials provided, but what is provided just doesn’t look that great. I think it is safe to say, mid 90’s HK television is on par/worse than an early 1970’s Doctor Who episode. We have infomercails that look better. Hell, I’ve got home videos that look better. But, as far as I could tell, the transfer is glitch and artifact free, gaining it major points. Just be forewarned, it looks as good as it can but HK tv is pretty darn cheap. Sound- Dolby Digital 5.1 Cantonese or English dub tracks with optional yellow English subtitles. Very good audio tracks. While pretty straightforward and a little hollow, what they lack in dynamics they make up for in simple clarity. The sound fx is pretty generic and one assumes most of the dialouge was dubbed. Its fine but, once again, it is a low budget tv production, so don’t expect outstanding score or fx.

EXTRAS
Chapter selections--- Tai Seng Trailers for Bullets of Love, Assassin, The Duel, Cop on a Mission, Fist Power, Deadful Melody, Dragon Inn, and Fists of Fury--- Donnie Yen Filmography--- Making Of behind the scenes featurette. This 21 ½ min promo for the series features various soundbites from the production crew, and Yen in the gym, but mainly it has several scenes from the film and montages that let us see some of what we have missed in this condensed version, including early plotting and fight scenes. As a matter of fact, the fight scenes in this featurette look better than the scenes in the movie, so it is a welcome addition.--- Commentary tracks. Track one) Donnie Yen and Dr. Craig Reed. Donnie yen commentary is immense fun. He is extremely affable and very easily slides into talking about the project and is upfront about its limitations. He discusses the pressure and time constraint he was under, having to choreograph a fights on the spot, with so-so stuntmen, and finish it in a matter of hours (which leads to a great anecdote about the infamous padded down Bey Logan fight we see in the film). He even mentions how it was an oversight on his part, not realizing the undercranking/speeding up of BETA would be different form film undercranking and would make the fights look too fast. And, no one is spared as Donnie amusingly points out the melodrama, bad acting in scenes of co-stars as well as himself. At the end of the track, he jokes that maybe the commentary will be the DVDs main selling point, but, no joke, with his laid back yet informative, fun comments, he is right. Track 2) features Dr. Craig Reed again (who is this guy?), Tai Seng product manager Frank Djeng, and martial artist film star Robin Shou. While Donnie’s track is mainly anecdotes about the production and thoughts on Bruce Lee, this track delves into the stars and the history behind the story. It too, is lighthearted and fun, but unfortunately is hampered by technical difficulties, the track is full of hiss, and the low volume commentary struggles against the film soundtrack. It is a good thing there are two tracks, because, although still listenable, the second commentary is so annoyingly distorted it was a struggle to sit through.

CONCLUSION
Well, this version of Fists of Fury while ambitious in its scope, is hampered by limited HK tv budget and general melodrama. A curiosity for HK and Donnie Yen fans, luckily the DVD, although a condensed version of the series, does offer good extras, particularly the featurette and the Donnie Yen commentary that make it worthwhile for those die-hard completists out there. Otherwise, I would say it is best to approach with caution and maybe give it a rental first.

During the 1970’s, four friends grow up very close. The childhood companions are characteristic opposites, with the smart and shy Sang-taek and the goofy clown Joong-ho being the tag alongs compared to the rough and tumble Dong-su and Jeong-suk, with Dong-su being the group leader, his father a well known gangster in the area and Jeong-suk his second in command... As they enter the 80’s and high school, the part between them deepens as Dong-su and Jeong-suk's troublesome ways begin to lead them down a seedier path in life. But, for the more timid and socially inept Sang-taek, having friends with muscle helps when it comes to fights and getting set up with girls. It is a fight one day at a movie house, where the four fiends find themselves quarreling with an entire crowd of kids from a rival school that leads the friends to part for a few years... Cut to a few years later and the college educated Sang-taek and Joong-ho return to find that both former buddies have become even more involved in a life of crime, with Jeong-suk serving time in prison to prove his gangster worthiness and Dong-su a full fledged gang member and drug addict. Sang-taek helps Dong-su get back on his feet, but things take a turn for the worse when Jeong-suk is released from prison. Unwilling to live in Dong-su’s shadow or go legit, Jeong-suk takes up with a rival gang, a more dirty and corrupt group, and soon is at odds with his former friend. Things turn deadly between the two and Sang-taek and Joong-ho may be unable to save their friends from killing each other.

Friend (2001) is an extremely moving and mostly well told tale of growing up, growing apart, but still, despite all the changes, retaining that same basic love for a person. I guess the safest comparison would be to something like As Tears Go By or Mean Streets, though Friend is not as concerned with the gang culture as those two films. But, the shared theme of being unable to help a friend that is spiraling out of control and being lead down a criminal path is there. In this case, it is primarily Sang-taek, the timid youth who prospers in his education, who must watch as Dong-su and Jeong-suk become enemies- enemies who still have fondness for one another, but their priorities lie within their gangster lifestyles. The film offers up a very convincing portrait of the buddies and great period details, including a soundtrack with 80’s songs like Blondies “Call Me”. Even the band that plays at their school, Rainbow, is perfectly 80’s authentic. The friends tell off color tales, goof off, deal with cruel teachers, trying to get girls, and Dong-su and Jeong-suk are constantly sticking up for and defending the weaker Sang-taek and Joong-ho. This latter fact leads to one of the films best sequences the aforementioned fight at a movie theater where they are literally up against and angry mob.

The plotting is nearly split down the middle, with the first half being their more youthful days, childhood and teen years, and the last half being the more mature, early twenties when they begin to distance themselves from one another and Dong-su and Jeong-suk become rivals. It is this last half of the film that features the films most heart wrenching sequences as well as its biggest stumbles. Jeong-suk takes up with the more rough gang leading to friction with Dong-su and he believes Dong-su orders a hit on him when their opposing sides disagree, his mixture of hurt and bloodthirsty anger is note perfect and the sequences very brutal. Unfortunately this is a case where the film would benefit from an additional 10-20 minutes to flesh out this last half, see more from the fortunate two as their criminal friends begin to draw themselves into a fatal fight. But, from what I know of Korean cinema, distributors frown upon films being over two hours, so since the film clocks in at just under two hours that development isn’t there. And, a final crucial scene, comes off a bit cheesy, with soap opera melodrama and overacting, but the rest of the film is so great this one scene stumble doesn’t harm the overall effect very much. Director Kwak Kyung-taek based the film on his own youth, with Sang-taek representing himself and appropriately serving as the films narrator. I have to say it ranks pretty well in the pantheon of autobiographical films, and certainly is one of the better examples of good Korean cinema...

Dae-ho works a thankless job as a loan officer at a bank. His job is all the more thankless due to his tardiness, which he is punished for in the form of headlocks and berating from his mean boss. Dae-ho’s home life isn’t good either, whether it be crushes on co-workers who don’t notice him, being bullied by local teen punks, or having his father chide him for being a lazy, ambitionless twit. In the hope of finding a way to break his bosses headlocks, he visits a Tae Kwan Do teacher, who is of little help and curiously is wearing a neckbrace. After being suspended for the day because he showed up late again, he wanders into a run down gym advertising “WRESTLERS NEEDED. FREE UNIFORMS. COMBAT TECHNIQUIES FOR DAILY LIVING!” But, even there, the gym manager turns him down, commenting that his smaller, soft physique and goofy nature are no good for wrestling. Eventually, Dae-ho gets his break when a fight promoter makes an offer to the gym manager. It seems one of the big stars in Korean wrestling, Yubiho, needs one big match before he breaks into the Japanese leagues, so the fight promoter needs a new, dirty fighter, to fight in a pre-scripted match and make Yubiho look good. So, they start training the clueless Dae-ho (so clueless he thinks a crotch protector/cup is a facemask) the art of wrestling, or at the very least, cheating, since he will become the Foul King, a villainous wrestler who breaks the rules by employing forks, blinding powder, and such.

Foul King was a huge hit in Korea, one of the big box office films the year it was released. I wasn’t really too impressed with its simpleton makes good story. Its the kind of one-dimensional role a Splash or Big era Tom Hanks would be cast in, though its semi-brutality makes it less aggresively cute than a US crowd pleaser comedy. Its certainly a subject that has been done to death before, a picked on loser trying to make good, find that one talent he hasn’t discovered yet. After training, Dae-ho wears the mask as he confronts the bully punks and when he professes his crush on a co-worker, all illustrating how he finds himself, his confidence, through wrestling. In fact, as much of a dolt Dae-ho may be, like he may accidentally stab his wrestling buddy with a real fork instead of a fake one in his first match, Dae-ho does prove himself adept at wrestling. That’s where the struggle to take a fall comes into play. Which is odd because the film, on one hand, emphasizes that all the matches are pre-choreographed and then seems to ignore this fact when it comes to Dae-ho fighting Yubiho, acting like its a big deal to take a fall. It is like the film doesn’t know if wrestling is supposed to be legit of not. Likewise, the film has heart but it has its fare share with narrative holes and uneven storytelling; for instance, Dae-ho’s overnight success by becoming a known wrestler after only one small match in which he wears a different costume. It has some charming moments, but I’ve never been a huge fan of the likable retard. Lead actor Song Kang-Ho should be highly commended for his stunts, and the big finale is a 10+ minute long match that is highly entertaining...

The film opens with Wong Fei Hung (Jet Li) traveling via stagecoach with Aunt Yee (Rosamund Kwan) and Clubfoot (Xin Xin Xiong) to Texas to visit Buck Tooth So, who has traveled to America to start a new branch of the Po Chi Lam school. They pick up a scruffy young gunslinger named Billy (get it?, played by a guy with a frizzy bleach blonde surfer hairdo). Fei Hung is separated from his companions during a skirmish and subsequently loses his memory and is rescued by a tribe of Native American Indians. Meanwhile, Aunt Yee and Clubfoot meet up with So and see the racist conditions the Chinese are forced into living separated and shunned from the white locals. After some bonding with the Indians, Fei Hung is reunited with Aunt Yee and friends, regains his memory, and aides the town in their fight against a gang of bank robbers lead by a deadly, dark, wolf killing fighter with razor sharp spurs.

The great Sammo Hung directed this installment, and it is a film with one or two good moments but ultimately a bore that falls prey to the price of being a sequel- not being able to live up to the original. Overall, much like the Jackie Chan film he made the same year, Mr Nice Guy, Sammo and crew have a threadbare script with dull characterizations and a story you just cannot get into despite the few brief bits of fairly good action. Its like they just thought, lets think of all the Westernlike scenes we can, stampedes, Indians, guns Vs. martial arts, bar fights, lynching, of course, throw in the standard OUATIC lion dancing scene, and build a movie around it. The film was actually a location shoot (a big deal for HK film), taking the bother to go to Texas and California to shoot instead of trying to pass off some sparse bit of Mainland China for the Wild West. There is quite a bit of English speaking and no doubt the American actors they hired either were non-professional or some bottom of the barrel dinner theater lot. I mean, I can forgive the Chinese cast for fractured English, but the English speaking actors cant spout lines in their own native language with any conviction. The fight choreography is pretty good, Sammo grounds Li and crew a tad more than Tsui Hark, only using wirework every now and then to enhance a leap or two. Xin Xin Xiong once again, like in parts 3 & 4, becomes one of the films saving graces. But, its all too dumb (and not even dumb in a good way) and ultimately uninteresting. Sure, if you are a Sammo fan, a Jet Li fan, its essential viewing. Jackie Chan gets grief for 'ripping off' OUATIC and America with Shanghai Noon, but thats only because people forget/don't know that some twenty years before Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe was on cinema screens. For me, the only real fondness I have for OUATIC and America is that it reminds me of when I first watched it while visiting my best friend. For everyone else, it will remind them of how much better the first three Once Upon a time in China films were.

THE DVD: Tai Seng. An import of the Carnival or China Star version.

PICTURE: Widescreen, 1.85:1. The film was shot 2.35:1, so there is some cropping which hinders the film. It is all just a tad too up close and the fight choreography, especially, is too cramped. While you have to judge HK films on a sliding scale, there is quite a bit of damage, general wear of softness and brightness, not spots or scratches. Colors are pretty good and so is the contrast, but it really could look quite a bit better, a very halfhearted but acceptable (if not for the wrong ratio) transfer.

SOUND: Cantonese or Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 with optional Chinese or English subtitles. The subs actually have a few points were they are a good 5 seconds or so behind the dialogue. Pretty average sound. Gets the job done without any real flaws, but also without any great effect or impressive mixing.

EXTRAS: 12 Chapters--- Cast Info (Chinese Only)--- Theatrical Trailer--- 24 min ‘Making Of’ documentary unfortunately in Chinese only with no subtitles so all the interviews become negligible.

CONCLUSION: Well, really the series has teetered out at this point. By no means is has it reached Friday the 13th territory of having worn out its welcome, but certainly the Once Upon A Time In China films hit their peak with the first two. The transfer is worn and doesn’t present the image in the proper ratio, the only source for that with Eng subs is the Thunder Media Taiwanese edition. But, it is cheaply priced. Probably more of a rental for most, perhaps a purchase for those die hard HK action and Jet Li fans, but its a film I’d say most could live without having in their collection.

Here is a case where you have an all star cast, including the likes of Andy Lau (God of Gamblers, Days of Being Wild, Savior of the Soul), Bridgette Lin (Swordsman 2, Chunking Express, Peking Opera Blues), and Elvis Tsui (Gunmen, Viva Erotica, Royal Tramp) hamming it up as the title characters. You get a director like Taylor Wong who previously handled big name stars in Rich and Famous and had a hand in directing two of the big forerunners to the new wave fantasy action movement with the early 80’s films Buddha’s Palm and (one of my nonsense, wacko faves) Return of the Deadly Blade. But it all fails because it has an uninvolving, nearly incomprehensible story. I cannot imagine they had more than a rough idea of a plot because they never stick to any idea, commit to any real story. Its like the done to death blurry, slow motion, wirework, sword swinging fight choreography and its roster of names should be enough to ensure healthy box office. Well, it isn’t. There are so may reasons I should love this movie. Great cast, and the genre is one of my favorites. Its a film where the lead character can decapitate his enemies, just with a flutter of his robe, but, like his foes, it all falls apart in every way.

The story is a complete mess. I mean, it is so bad, it is nearly impossible for me surmise. Between bad writing and bad sub translation, its a real chore. There is complicated backstory that is only spoken of, events offscreen, all told in such a mediocre, ill-translated way, you can tell its a disaster no matter what the language and even if it was translated perfectly. There are also entire conversations that are seemingly psychically communicated, two actors speaking, yet their mouths don’t move. The direction and editing is so dizzying, that too makes just the job of “Who is that flying in the air?” tough to decipher much less where people are standing and what exactly is the location. For Example... At one moment it looks like our hero, Sam Sui (Andy Lau) and Butterfly are escaping the soldiers pursuing them in a field. Then Butterfly falls off a cliff into a river. Sam Sui continues to fight on the field before suddenly disappearing into the ground. Dao (Elvis Tsui), the commander pursuing Sam Sui, informs his men to “Search the celler.” Butterfly, underwater and drowning, swims up to some rocks, movies them aside, and sees Sam Sui, trapped in ice. Thats right, trapped in ice. He then busts through the ice, grabs her, and leaps out of the river, landing in the field again. He puts her on a horse and this is, word for word, his instructions to her- “Here is dangerous. Listen to me. No matter what, just leave here first. You’ll go towards the West. Count the numbers from 1 to 7. Ride up the horse. Later you can see me.” She then rides away only to have him- for no apparent reason- tie a rope to the horse so he can fight and then bungee jump onto the horse after she rides a couple of feet away???

The basic plot, as best I can surmise through the headache I’m still suffering from (and was caused by the film)... Sam Sui is a master swordsman at some competition for master swordsmen, where he is framed for murdering a royal family member. Soon, he and Butterfly, a member of some rival sword school who has the hots for him, are running around being pursued by a ninjalike sword sect and the army commanded by a, guess what?, master swordsman Dao. Dao’s terminally ill daughter, Red Leaf, was a onetime love of Sam Sui. Anyway after a couple of battles where Sam Sui defeats all comers very easily, he and Butterfly go to Swords Villa to rescue her sister and meet up with Ming Jian Kim, yet another master swordsman. After Ming Jian and Sam Sui spend long minutes swiping the empty air, the ground, and flying around, some guy named Yun Dong Wong breaks out of the ground, is a leader of some sort, and was buried for 7 yrs. Something like that, by this point my temples were throbbing... Anyway, the armies all converge on this spot, wanting to arrest the wrongly accused Sam Sui, but he is injured, so they decide to let him rest and have a grand duel. Anyway there’s some kind of backstabbing... Butterfly is kidnapped... Someone wants Ming Jai to be the master swordsman... A Prince shows up to judge the duel... Everybody fights... Its awkwardly filmed making what’s going on hard to discern, and you don’t really care anyway... Its a mess and it made my head hurt...

Although The Prisoner is billed on the cover as being “Jackie Chan is The Prisoner”; Chan only has a small role in this 2001 re-release of the 1990 film Island on Fire. In fact, he doesn’t come in until about twenty-five minutes into the film. He then has a couple of cool fights in a pool hall and in a prison, after killing someone in the pool hall, but the comic, martial arts wizard that we all know Jackie Chan to be never appears. Rather, this film is an action/drama about a police officer, played by Tony Leung, who puts himself in lockup in order to uncover a crime that he doesn’t know much about. The only thing he does know is that his friend was killed and his dying wish might have been for Leung to solve the mystery of the prison. Okay, so follow this closely; Sammo Hung, from Martial Law, is also a prisoner but he wants to get out to be with his son. But, there are two bad guys who go around bullying everybody and they want to kill Jackie Chan. The warden likes to see the inmates fight against each other and he’d like to kill a few people of his own. Meanwhile, no one knows Leung is in prison and he has no idea, nor does he take any steps to find out, who is behind the prison mystery. Confused? So was I and I was watching the film!

Once I approached the end of the film some ideas fell into place and I had a better idea of where the story was supposed to be going. But it takes a long time to make heads or tales out of the loosely wound plot and in-between the twines are a lot of dull moments punctuated by pretty good fight scenes. The production values are high in this movie with big sets, lots of explosions and a gratuitous scene with a pretty girl in a wet shirt. So one must assume that the Production Company spent so much money on the production that they had nothing left with which to pay a good writer. But that’s okay, someone’s child did a fine job for an 8th grader!

...All in all, The Prisoner is a ten-year-old, mediocre film that tries, and must, capitalize on Jackie Chan’s name in order to draw an audience. If you’re a die-hard Jackie Chan fan, give it a glance but if not, skip it!

The original Yuen Woo Ping/ Jackie Chan/ Simon Yuen Drunken Master and Snake in the Eagles Shadow were films that spawned many, many imitators, recycling the comedic stylings and master-student relationship, many of which cast Simon Yuen as the old, scrappy kung fu master. Jade Claw (aka. Crystal Fist), I guess, is a pretty fair imitator, though it is nowhere nearly as good, sort of the idiot cousin to Drunken Masters favorite son. I mean, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with Jade Claw, but in chop socky circles it is praised as one of the better imitators, particularly because of its charismatic star, Billy Chong, who briefly shined on the independent circuit as a pretty big martial, action-comedy lead. Billy is affable enough, good looking, handles himself well in a fight, but I think only Lueng Kar Yan (in Sleeping Fist) really matched Jackie when teamed up with Simon Yuen.

A hero is only really interesting when pitted against a decent villain, and Phoenix Eye is a good villain. Pheonix Eye definitely has two of the most memorable henchmen I’ve seen, and they almost could carry a film on their own. Well, that a pretty big “almost”, but I enjoyed them. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for any handicapped fighter, be he one-armed, blind, hunchback... Director Wang Wa Yat also directed Billy Chong in Kung Fu Zombie and Sun Dragon. While not having the benefit of the big studio sets, and budget (which is saying quite a lot), he does pretty well and unlike other imitators had the benifit of some Yuen Clan choreography on Jade Claw. Despite all of the well worn formula plotting and predictable sequences, the film moves nicely and entertains without becoming boring.

THE DVD: Xenon presents a pretty good, budget priced, older kung fu transfer.

PICTURE: The box says fullscreen, but it appears to be slightly widescreen. I’m guessing, but there looks like far too much image to be a matting job. Regardless of the ratio, it looks great and you can see a lot of image, no fighters disappearing out of the frame. The sharpness and color are nice. Taking into account the horrible kung fu transfers out there, a great print with very little wear and tear. There are a few minor glitches and it may be a bit too dark in the night scenes, but overall this was a nice surprise and is one of the better cheap old school kung fu DVD pictures out there.

SOUND: 2.0 mono, English dub, and the track overall has quite a bit of distortion, like its a struggling transistor radio. Dialogue is still clear, but its just not the best audio track, and it particularly suffers with the music, the high ends screeching and the low ends muffled.

EXTRAS: Besides chapter selections, the only extras are 15 mins of fight footage from other Xenon releases, Invincible Obsessed Fighter, Jackie Chan’s 36 Crazy Fists, Wu Tang Champ Vs. Champ and Eagle VS. Silver Fox

CONCLUSION: Fair enough, but I can see why one could live without it. If you are a fan, it's pretty cheap, by all means pick it up. Those new to the old school world of kung fu should check out Drunken Master or Snake in the Eagles Shadow, the master-student films that spawned imitators like Jade Claw.

Billy plays a kung fu student, taught the martial ways by his hard hearted father. Billy made an enemy in a local wily sideburned thug, who Billy thwarted during a robbery and sent the thug to jail. Now, the thug has returned and enlisted a Taoist priest/wizard to aide him in disposing of Billy. Being a couple of geniuses, their elaborate plan involves having a couple of zombies push Billy into a pit of knives. (Why bother with zombies instead of using average Joes? Well, the movies called Kung Fu Zombie, not Kung Fu Human Henchmen.) Anyway, their grand scheme goes so wrong that the thug is killed instead of Billy, and now the thugs ghost haunts the Taoist wizard and demands that he be put into a new body. So, the wizard and the thug start to scour the mortuaries for bodies. They find a great specimen, but it actually is a deadly killer named Lueng- they mistook him for a dead body because he has killed so many people he is devoid of a soul. Lueng is an old enemy of Billy’s family, and soon he tires to kill Billy in a battle that Billy has trained all of his life for, so Billy comes out the victor, killing Lueng. Trouble is Billy’s dad takes most of the reward money and drops dead. The wizard and the thug try to put the thugs spirit in Lueng’s body, but Lueng is so evil he turns into a vampire and madly roams the countryside feasting on the locals and ready to get revenge on Billy. So, they put the thugs spirit into Billy’s pop, and poor Billy now has his fathers stolen corpse and a mad vampire to deal with.

Kung Fu Zombie is pure, cheap, unadulterated, stupid fun. It doesn’t have good makeup fx. It doesn’t have a great story. The comedy is pretty lame, and the fights aren’t spectacular. But it is all so silly, the film comes out a total winner. It is only out to entertain, and it succeeds. From the Keystone Cops speedup of the robbery flashback, to Billy’s best friend named Hamster, the thug ghost pinching prostitutes, the rampaging thug/Billy’s dad corpse, and the vampire killer Lueng kicking a guys head off and drinking blood from the spurting neck. What more do you want for entertainment? The film succeeds on pure low budget charm, pulling off some goofy comedy, effective mood lighting, good molten corpses, and pure off-the-wall inventiveness.

Billy Chong’s kung fu cinema career was a very short one. While a pop idol in Indonesia, his youthful good looks caught the eye of late 70’s film producers and after a few minor/secondary roles he was soon the featured star of such independent notables as Jade Claw, Super Power, Kung Fu Executioners, and A Fistful of Talons. Despite his success on the minor kung fu circut, around the mid 80’s, he abandoned the world of film and went back to Indonesia and a career as a tv star. The wizard is played by Chan Lau, a very familar face to kung fu fans from his various roles in Blind Fists of Bruce Li (he was one of the con artist kung fu teachers), Dragons Claws, 36 Deadly Styles and Fists, Kicks and Evils. Lueng, the vampire killer was played by Kwan Yung Moon of The Bloody Tattoo, Ninja in the Dragons Den and Dead and the Deadly. I’m pretty sure the thug was Kong Do from Executioners from Shaolin, Tattoo Connection, and Kung Fu Instructor. Director Wa Yat Wang was also responsible for Dynamo, Jade Claw, and Sun Dragon.

THE DVD: Ground Zero. Part of their Blackbelt Theater line of fringe classics.

PICTURE: Widescreen. General wear and tear one expects with an old kung fu film. Mainly it shows the most problems in some of the night scenes where the picture is way too dark (I adjusted my brightness and contrast, which helped a little but some details were still lost in the darkness). For those used to kung fu transfers, the loss of color and sharpness are in the norm. My disc pixelated a little during one scene, but only briefly and it was fairly benign. All in all, I’d say it is acceptable; in the realm of GZ transfers it is actually a pretty good one.

SOUND: Dolby Digital Mono, English dub. Standard bits off minor hiss and track distortion. Its the usual muffle of an aged soundtrack that was done on a scant budget to begin with.

EXTRAS: 8 Chapters- “Lost” Trailers (15:35). Nice bunch of theatrical trailers for Raging Rivals, Enter the Invincible Hero, Dynamite Shaolin Heroes, Buddhist Fist and Tiger Claws and Dragon’s Snake Fist

CONCLUSION: I love this movie and have been waiting for it (and Kung Fu from Beyond the Grave) to emerge on DVD. A cheeseball, late-night favorite. The transfer is weak but the price satisfies. I say if you consider yourself any sort of b-movie kung fu fan, you need to own Kung Fu Zombie.

London... Gym teacher Enrico Rossini (Fabio Testi) is having an affair with Elizabeth, one of his students. One day while the two are floating down the river on a romantic boat ride, Elizabeth swears she glimpses a girl being murdered in the woods along the riverbank. It is a sight that proves to be true when, in the woods the following day, a fellow students body is found viciously murdered. Fearing that it will lose him his job and destroy his marriage, Enrico discourages Elizebeth from saying anything, but the police investigation begins to lead to him anyway as circumstantial evidence and his nervousness casts suspicion on him. Soon, Enrico is involved in the investigation, not only to clear his name but for personal reasons. The savage murders continue and the clues begin to point to a group a wild, indulgent schoolgirls, and one mysterious girl, named Solange (Camille Keaton), may be the key to the mystery.

Loosley adapted from an Edgar Wallace novel (so I hear, never read it), What Have They Done to Solange? (1972) perpetuates some of the giallo conventions and clichés while adding a few twists, enough fine direction, and (for its time) controversial violence to make it become one of the genres classics. Forgive me if I tiptoe around the specifics. I’m sure other reviews may not, but I’ll preserve some key details. The controversy of Solange came not really because of gore in the violence, but the violence itself, the means by which the killer dispatches the girls. Likewise, while it exploits the same old business seen all too often in gialli and suspense films, a man out to clear his own name, killer on the loose, other things pop up in Solange, unexpected deaths and tricks that somewhat bend the formula. Overall, Solange works because it is well paced, memorable, with decent characterizations and performances, qualified direction, all wrapped in a nice Ennio Morricone score. Sure, it is just a pulp film, but its a good pulp film.

Director Massimo Dallamano’s (aka Max Dillman) first real claim to fame was as Sergio Leone’s cinematographer on A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, and as a director is best known for Solange, Dorian Gray(the Helmut Berger version), and his giallo follow-up What Have They Done to Our Daughters?. I guess Fabio Testi’s breakthrough role was in Vittoio De Sica’s The Garden of the Finzi Continis (1971), but 70’s Italian exploitation fans will know him best from Sollima’s Revolver, Castellari’s The Heroin Busters, and Fulci’s The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. One of the problems in giallos was wooden male leads. Occasionally there would be an engaging performance like James Franciscus and Karl Malden in Cat O’ Nine Tails. Testi, who looks like Sean Connery playing Jesus, falls prey to the being the giallo cypher- just a guy there to hunt the killer and be somewhat suspect. Camille Keaton, though, is who people are likely to remember. Despite her brief and silent (oddly, genetically congruous since her granddad was the one and only Buster Keaton) appearance in Solange, Keaton has real presence. Of course, a few years later, she would become best known as the protagonist in the equally maligned and applauded I Spit on Your Grave.

Pretty much, all gialli have alternate titles a-plenty. Solange is no exception. According to the imdb, they are, Solange, Who Killed Solange?, Who's Next?, The School That Couldn't Scream, The Secret of the Green Pins, and Terror in the Woods.

THE DVD: Media Blasters, part of their Shriek Show division.

PICTURE: Letterboxed. Anamorphic. First, its always nice when such a sub-genre cult film gets a affectionate DVD release. Much like Anchor Bays Giallo collection, I’m Sure MB/Shriek Show did the best they could. Solange shows some evidence of wear and tear, the occasional spot or line, waviness, and scenes that are a bit too grainy, worn. So, it does show its age, but it is more than satisfactory. There is the shimmer of some edge enhancement on background details, like rippling water or tree bark, but it is not too bad or frequent. Maybe someday someone will sit down with one of these prints and restore and remaster it completely. Thats a big- maybe. Until that day, this transfer will more than suffice and fans should be very pleased they can throw out those bootleg vhs.

SOUND: English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. Actually its not to bad of a dub. The crew who did it get bonus points for Enrico’s Italian accent, keeping his character a believable foreigner among the British. Technically the source audio does have the same old pops and fuzz that one grows accustomed to when they are a fan of the genre. It a fair enough job, one assumes they did the best with what was provided.

EXTRAS: A great little booklet containing a nice rundown of the stars, director, synopsis, and photos --- 16 Chapters--- Trailers for Sweet House of Horrors, Spasmo, House at the Edge of the Park and House of Clocks.--- Art Gallery (5:30). A nice montage of various posters and lobby cards with Morricone’s Solange theme accompanying it.

CONCLUSION: Well, if you are a giallo fan- pick it up. If you are curious- pick it up. All in all, they did a decent job with source material that is usually less than perfect. it is still less than perfect, but more than adequate for the cult film fan.

Monkey Fist (1974) is a pretty mediocre cheapie with a few notable points that still cant save it from being an underwhelming piece of chop socky cinema. Monkey Fist is very loosely based on the true tale of Master Koo Sai, who developed a monkey style of fighting while imprisoned. I say ‘loosely’ because the way I heard his story was not very much like it is in this film. Director Suen Ga Man is pretty unimpressive. Very bland framing. The fights, to their detriment, aren’t very stylized, usually a barrage of feet and fist, while desperate, also pretty messy and forgettable. The real notable thing about this film is that it stars Chan Sao Chung.

In the martial film world, there is a lot to be said for performers who actually have a great deal of martial/stunt experience and training before they commit their moves to celluloid. Jet Li was a huge Wu Shu champion. Sonny Chiba was a respected karate and judo expert. Jackie Chan had his strict Peking Opera training. But all of the training in the world still cannot amount to that intangible thing that makes someone appealing to watch- charisma. Jimmy Wang Yu was a champion swimmer before he was a martial film star, and as a martial film star he always looked like,...well, a swimmer. But, in his best films, the guy had charisma, so, for me he could deliver entertainment and be cool despite his lack of actual martial skills. Master Quing Fu Pan (from the film Iron and Silk) may be a one of the worlds greatest living martial arts experts, but he doesn’t have that cinematic spark to make him a martial film star. Chan Sao Chung is one of those guys, who has a great martial background and is a true Monkey Kung Fu expert. There is little doubt he is a master of those skills, but as far as charisma goes he is relatively bankrupt. I mean, its really cool and all to have him on film showing off those skills, but as part of a narrative and as an interesting cinematic protagonist he’s dead in the water when not fighting.

Chan Sao Chung is tiny. I mean tiny by Asian standards. There are parts when he is training a little kid, who must be about 8-10 yrs. old, and Sao Chung isn’t even a head taller than the kid. His movements are economical which shows he’s a real martial practitioner instead of a cinematic one, or one who has done stadium exebitions like Jet Li, who’s exaggerated movements translate well onscreen. Also, for a film with a touted Monkey Kung Fu expert, Sao Chung does very little Monkey Kung Fu. He looks cool when he does Monkey Fu moves but rarely implements them in his fighting. Even in the final battle, he barely does any, mainly sticks to Tai Chi-ish more direct, precise, fluid fighting. So, that’s a disappointment, no crazy monkey fighting. I’ll take Mad Monkey Kung Fu over this film any day.

The final duel is pretty good. The most impressive thing about it is Shek Kien’s (best known as the villain Han in Enter the Dragon) agility; despite his age, he tumbles, high kicks, and moves at a pretty good speed. But really the final fight is between hairstyles. Shek Kien’s dyed black, well-coifed 'do' resembles a slicked back Vincent Price cut. In strong contrast, Chan Sao Chung has a haircut reminiscent of a five year old who has just been allowed to comb his own hair, the part staring somewhere around his left ear and oddly plastered across his forehead. In the end, of course, Chan Sao Chung’s Beaver Cleaver behead wins over Shek Kien’s salon cut

TGE DVD: Ground Zero. Part of their Blackbelt Theater line.

PICTURE: Cropped, Full-Screen. Usual tape transfer with wear and tear, faded color, softness, and some spots and flecks on the print. Most annoying is in the first half of the film, quite a few instances where the picture completely drops off, goes gray, and comes back static ridden for a few seconds

SOUND: Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, English dub. I’m going to have to give this audio the worst rating I’ve done so far. The problem is that the branching between the dub and the original film track is aggressively uneven and choppy, veering between the two blatantly, with the original track showing nice clarity and the dub the standard muffle and warble. Both tracks have age wear and are of the usual low quality one expects with old kung fu, but the levels are so off kilter between the two it was extremely annoying- the original track is quite a bit louder than the dub. There are even two spots where for a minute or so there is dialogue, but no dub, sticking to the original track, compounded by moments that are out of synch, or stutter, repeating words.

The dub is a very Anglicized one. Sao Chung’s name is “Conrad Chan”, and I’m assuming it was originally supposed to be “Comrade Chan”. “Kang” becomes “Kane”. “Chow Li Ming” becomes “Charlie Ming”.

EXTRAS: 6 Chapters--- “Lost” Trailers (15:35). Nice bunch of theatrical trailers for Raging Rivals, Enter the Invincible Hero, Dynamite Shaolin Heroes, Buddhist Fist and Tiger Claws and Dragon’s Snake Fist

CONCLUSION: I sort of like the novelty of the little guy, Sao Chung, as a star and Shein Kien has a brief but good bit with a three-sectioned staff, but that alone doesnt equal a good movie. The previous Blackbelt Theater GZ releases wet kung fu fans appetites by being double features. This was something that helped justify the purchase of shoddy tape transfers. Since they have abandoned this and the extras are scant, it is really hard for me to recommend purchasing this transfer unless you are a kung fu film nut who knows they wont be bothered by the quality.

THE MOVIE:
With "Delirium", director Lamberto Bava continues to follow in the footsteps of his legendary father Mario Bava, by making a film that is related to his father's hit "Blood and Black Lace". As that film took place in the world of fashion modeling, as does "Delirium", except without the fashions..

In the film, buxom (to say the very least) Italian star Serena Grandi plays Gioia, a former nude model who is now the owener of "Pussycat" Magazine. (Can I say that here?) (Apparently, she inherited the magazine from her late husband.) All is well until someone begins to murder the magazine's models. To make matters worse, the killer photographs the corpses in front of a giant poster of Gioia. As the body count mounts, it becomes apparent that the killer is moving in on Gioia. But who can the killer be?

As with most of Lamberto Bava's films (except for duds like "Devilfish". I mean, have you seen "Devilfish"?), "Delirium" moves along at a nice pace. The first murder happens almost immediately, and the ones that follow are sprinkled liberally throughout the movie. And, as luck would have it, the movie never misses an opportunity to have a model shed her clothes! Bava does add an interesting touch, by allowing the viewer to see the killer's distorted take on reality. This makes the first killing very memorable.

The story isn't very original, and the ending (as is typically the case in giallo) doesn't make much sense. (We never learn exactly why the killer has been killing.) Although, I must admit, I was a sucker for the film's red-herrings. Another giallo standard that is featured here is a certain level of depravity, as Gioia is tormented by her wheelchair-bound neighbor.

Bava has wisely filled the cast with faces that will be familiar to fans of the genre. Aside from Ms. Grandi (who also appeared in Joe D'Amato's "Antropophagous") and her big talent(s), the film features Argento regular Daria Nicolodi; David Brandon from Michel Soavi's "Stagefright"; and George Eastman AKA Luigi Montefiori, a man can't seem to say no to Joe D'Amato, no matter what he's asked to do. This veteran cast adds an extra layer of polish to the film and makes it all the more fun for giallo fans.

"Delirium" brings nothing new to the giallo genre (that would actually be quite a feat), but it is a good example of how these films mix sex and violence.

VIDEO:
"Delirium" stabs its way onto DVD courtesy of the Shriek Show arm of Media Blasters. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image here is surprisingly clear, and for the most part, free from grain. There are some minor defects from the source material, but these shouldn't interfere with the viewing experience. Gioia wears several colorful outfits in the film, and those colors come across quite well here. The image is slightly dark at times, but otherwise, this is a good transfer.

AUDIO:
The "Delirium" DVD offers a Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack. This track provides clear dialogue (except for the fact that I thought the main characters name was "Gloria"), but there is a frightful amount of hissing and popping on this track. It literally sounds like the audio track is on vinyl. The popping is so loud at one point, my wife thought that someone was in our house! Despite this problem, the track is well-balanced, showing no distortion and no instances where the dialogue is drowned out.

EXTRAS:
It seems that Media Blasters always tries to add a little something to their releases, and Delirium is no exception. We start with three interviews with director Lamberto Bava (12 minutes) and actors George Eastman (8 minutes) and David Brandon (12 minuntes). Here, they discuss their memories of working on "Delirium"...or should I say attempt to discuss their memories, as none of them have anything incredibly specific to say about the film. Bava discusses his career, Eastman says "North Carolina" (which totally threw me for a loop) and Brandon rambles. These interviews are interesting, but they don't yield a great deal of information.

Next up is a text essay by director Scooter McCrae entitled "Inside Delirium". This brief read takes an inside look at the film. This is followed by text bios for Brandon, Eastman, Bava, Grandi, and Nicolodi. The extras are rounded out by a still gallery which contains 11 images.

In his interview, director Lamberto Bava discusses the fact that "Delirium" is shown on Italian TV a great deal, as it's not to frightening or violent. That's a good way to describe the film. Think of this as "giallo lite". It has all of the familiar trappings of the genre, and may be a good starting place for those who aren't ready for "Deep Red".

THE FILM
If you thought dating was scary.... you have no idea. Basically that is the premise, a lonely hearts worst nightmare. You may think you know someone. You may fall so head over heels you don’t see the warning sings. You may let someone get too close, and pay a difficult price for it... When you first meet someone and feel an attraction, your body releases a hormone called oxytocin, which leads to a basic overdrive of euphoria in people. Its why those first few months of dating are usually so memorable and a roller coaster ride on Cloud 9. Its also a good reason for, why, when the hormone starts to fade, sometimes only then do you realize certain things, perhaps annoying things, about your partner. Usually people say, “You changed”, but in reality, you were probably so swooning with hormones and affection you just didn’t notice. Well, imagine the same scenario, only you fell into the trap of a complete psychopath.

But it also about much more than that. It is about the objectification of women, the demands put upon them by men, whether it be in how they should look, to how they should behave, to what they should achieve. In Fatal Attraction, sure Michael Douglas is a scumbag, but Glenn Close is so crazy, the movie just has to have the evil psycho woman dead in the end and Douglas and his wife safe in each others arms. Whereas, Audition paints a different, less obvious picture. Shigeharu is a sympathetic character. While dishonest in his methods searching for a wife, he is a man who is coming out of a long period of mourning and seemingly so nervous about dating, that the audition process sounds like a good icebreaker. Likewise, Asami is clearly (in a way that is left somewhat ambiguous) the product of some kind of emotional and physical torture as well. Neither one of them are what they appear to be- Shigeharu not looking for an actress but a subservient, perfect wife- Asami not looking for a job or a kind mate but a victim. Shigeharu is the prototypical Japanese male, and Asami is the symbolic result of the years of degradation of Japanese females, exacting torturous revenge on the clueless male. It is the intelligent, reverse gender answer to torture films like the Japanese Guinea Pig series.

Takashi Miike’s Audition (Odishon, 1999) is a firecracker horror film. That is, the film is basically one long slow burn until an explosive ending. Its a bonbon wrapped until its the size of a basketball, it takes an hour and twenty minutes to unwrap it to get to the candy. It is a good 30-40 mins before we even get to Asami and the audition. Sure there are little shocks here and there, but the real horror and mystery aren’t revealed until the very end; its all about unraveling to the finale. And, this setup has its good points and its bad points. Fans of such hyperactive horrors as BrainDead (aka Dead Alive) will probably find the pacing bothersome. In making the film a slow burn, it drags out the unease, Miike manages to take his time and add layer upon layer of dread that will probably leave you itching in your seat, anticipating the horrible things to come. And then, after all that waiting, not only do we get the horrific payoff, but a plot payoff as well, giving a grand flashback?/imagining? of the possible reasons behind Asami's actions. And then, its over... While the ending has to be one of the better horror endings, it also makes re-watching the film a little drier. Even though the film concludes with some ambiguousness, once you’ve sat through that first, fresh time, repeat viewing isn’t quite the same. When I first saw Audition in the theater this winter, I was squirming in my seat, filled with dread, and then blown away by the ending. But upon a second viewing, all the thrill was gone. There aren’t any real surprises to rediscover and its ingenuity is only impressive on |hat first viewing. Since you know where its headed, it makes the trip longer and more of a chore to sit through.

Auditon is probably Miike’s most accessible work. His reputation as an outlandish, interesting filmmaker began with his yakuza films Fudoh and Dead or Alive 1 & 2, and recent works like Ichi the Killer, Audition, and Visitor Q, have cemented Miike as one of the great bizarre, outlandish, risk taking voices in cinema.

THE DVD
Region 3 Universe DVD. Picture- Widescreen. Picture is very soft and contrast leans towards more grays than deep blacks, lessening the details considerably. The color scheme has a warm (brown and orange-red) colors dominating it, tanning fleshtones. The print I saw in the theater was one of the dirtiest film prints I’ve seen in a long time, and the DVD transfer is fairly dirty too, with some worn blur spots. Overall, it is extremely dull and disappointing, especially considering the films only a few years old. While Asian imports are always a mixed bag, sometimes great, usually flawed but fine, this one has a few too many minuses for my taste. Still, it beats a bootleg. Sound- Dolby Digital 2.0 Japanese with optional English and Chinese (traditional and simplified) subtitles. This was a different sub translation than I saw in the theater, and one that was a little awkward. My memory can’t recall the specific details, but the Universe sub translation just didn’t have the same feel, some phrases were off and confusing. The audio isn’t a dynamic mix, but gets the job done with no huge distortions Extras- 9 Chapters--- Trailer--- thats it.

CONCLUSION
Well, the transfer is not really that great. It doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, but I think the movie has a questionable rewatchability factor, so, combining that with a poor transfer I’ll have to give it a hesitant recommendation. Its a good rental for the curious. If you're already a die-hard Miike nut, it is a decent enough buy, but a better transfer would be welcome... There is a PAL version which I've read is an equally poor/wishy-washy transfer. There is also a Region One version that streets May 7, but no idea if that will offer better quality.

AUDIO/VIDEO:
The audio for the film is presented in a mono platform. As such, all of the aural information is channeled solely through the center speaker. The English-dubbed dialogue is easily understood. The video for the film is of very poor quality. The colors are faded, the image is very soft and there are far too many scratches and fleckings within the images to note. At the start of the feature the normal warning banners are brought up however, they appear to suffer from tracking difficulties usually found on VHS. Once the image is corrected a very poor menu screen is posted which echoes the poorly drawn caricatures from the artwork on the DVD Amaray case.

EXTRAS:
The extras identify a trailer for the feature in the disc however, the only trailer available is a very marred and for lack of a better term-"chewed up" trailer for a Jackie Chan movie. The trailer itself is in Chinese with English subs. The English subs are pretty garbled which makes understanding the point of the trailer a bit difficult to discern. No elements of any film are presented rather, Chan performing various forms of martial arts in period costumes.

CONCLUSION:
The Instant Kung-Fu man is a run-of-the-mill martial arts film from the 1980’s complete with all the wonderful kicking sounds and "whooshing" sounds we’ve come to love! This is not the best martial arts film of its kind but it is fairly fun and enjoyable all the same. Rent it and see what you think!

Why does Roberto wash his hair in the nightclubs urinal? I think its supposed to be funny... Why, in the same restroom, does the washroom attendant have soup in the sink for the people eat? Once again, its supposed to funny. Its just that oddball Chinese sensibility when it comes to comedy. It makes no sense. Don’t even try. It’ll just make your head hurt... Its pretty lightweight and offbeat little dark comedy, complete with two full blown sappy music video sequences. The seriousness of murdering wives is lifted by the downright inane antics of the two men. Sure they try to employ a few dastardly techniques to kill Fa’s spouse, including piranha, cutting her in half, blowing her up, electrocuting her, impaling her with an ice dagger, and so forth, but Don Knotts makes a more formidable and threatening opponent than these two dolts. For instance, the team trainer/doctor Fa thinks is having an affair with his wife and poisoning him, is not only gay, but trying to lace his drinks with a libido cure to help out his marraige. At one point Fa and Roberto are arguing, trying to insult each other by saying all the ways they would kill each others wife with one of them saying, ”I’ll have her cut in two and have her upper half flogged and her lower half raped.”, and the comment actually manages to be funny just because of the idiocy of the two boneheads.

Roberto is played by Kenny Bee, who also served as the films director, this also being the only film he ever directed. He is a good looking, familiar face from films like Spooky Bunch, My Heart is that Eternal Rose, The Chinese Feast and Savior of the Soul. As the wives, you couldn’t ask for a better duo of soon to be superstar females, Joey Wong Chinese Ghost Story, a nearly endless stream of ghost girl roles, and The Big Heat and pop diva/actress Anita Mui Peking Opera Blues, Miracles, Herioc Trio, and Rouge. And of course, the main draw, Chow Yun Fat, who plays it goofy to the highest level, mugging it up, and throwing tantrums with the strange habit of tearing plants apart when he’s angry (trust me its actually funnier than it sounds). For those only familiar with his heroic hard cop and gangster shoot em’ up roles, its a real change of pace to see Yun Fat in goofy mode, but it was films like this 1986 comedy that kept him afloat until his breakout role in A Better Tomorrow the same year...

Sun-joo visits the resort where her niece and friends spent the weekend. There, she finds a tape they had in the room and pops it into the VCR. What she sees on the tape is a succession of blurry, bizarre images, accompanied by text. Near the end of the tape it says “Whoever watches this tape will die exactly one week from now..... If you want to live...” and then the tape cuts off. Instinctively, Sun-joo knows that the message is deadly serious. The only person she feels safe about showing the tape is Dr. Choi, who now assumes, like her, they need to find out where the tape came from and what was the message that was taped over. Together they pool their talents and begin to investigate the tape, decipher its vague clues before their week is up, and the source of this mystery is far stranger than they could have imagined.

THE FILM:
Okay here is the story- The Japanese horror film sensation The Ring (1996 AKA Ringyu) was a big hit, spawning sequels and many imitators. The story originated as a novel first, and before the film, the novel had been adapted into a TV movie... Ring: Virus(1999) is basically an “official” Korean/Japanese co-produced remake of The Ring. And, since the basic tale has so many sources, each one is different in their own way. There are many changes to the story in Ring: Virus, essentially making it less a remake, than a re-telling, the central idea being the same. So, Ring: Virus is not so much a straight rehash, its like the difference between Vanilla Sky and Open Your Eyes or maybe even Yojimbo and Fistful of Dollars. And, the remakes wont stop, since there is also an American version of The Ring that was recently completed.

Enjoyment of Ring: Virus pretty much centers around how much you like supernatural horror films. That is, how much suspension of disbelief do you have? Can you forgive a convoluted, kind of silly plot and give in to the chills? You have to be like the characters in the film, who upon watching the tape, immediately begin to worry, they instantly have faith that this thing is bad news.

The film does have atmosphere in spades, sort of like one part X-Files one part Thesis. And, it almost solely depends on that atmosphere to carry the horror of the film, as opposed to gore or a villainous performance. For me, the story was a tad too messy, especially as they get into the actual source of the tape and possible solutions to breaking its spell, as well as a typical “its not really over” horror film ending. I was impressed by its style, but it didn’t get me wrapped up in it like say The Shining, Phenomena, or the original Haunting. But, recent Korean horror films have been entertaining me, and despite my little grumbles, they are making quite a few really solid good horror films, like this one, and considering the sad state of American horror, it is really quite welcome.

THE DVD:
From Bitwin DVD Korea. Picture- Letterboxed. 16X9. The first reel had quite a few white specs, but they ceased after awhile. Overall the print is pretty dirty, with some grain, very minor softness, and occasional lines. But, they are forgivable flaws, especially for fans of foreign films, and the transfer shows great black levels, strong color, and fair sharpness. I was really impressed with the cinematography, many neat scenes in storms, rain, snow, and well composed dark scenes. Sound- 5.1 Dolby Digital Korean audio with optional Japanese or English subtitles. Sound is strong and clear, effectively enhancing the spooky mood. The subs had a few flaws like, "We've uncovered allot." but overall they weren't abundant. Extras- 7 Chapters- A menu- That’s it.

The controversial Triumph des Willens has been notorious for ages; discussion of it cannot be limited to just to the aspect of brilliant filmmaking. Lenin may have declared the motion picture as the most powerful propaganda tool of the state, but it was Leni Riefenstahl who created the masterpiece of the genre, and this is it. Every film technique known in 1935 was used at its highest level, but for a supremely negative purpose. There's a lengthy documentary called, The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, and even the Wonderful aspect of this show is Horrible in its cold-blooded calculation.

SYNOPSIS
This is a cinematically- augmented representation of the Nuremburg National Socialist rally of 1934, a week-long gathering of Germans under their brand new Fuhrer Adolf Hitler. Starting with Hitler descending Godlike from the clouds, the film is two hours of parades, adoring crowds, torchlit serenades, and massed reviews of what look like hundreds of thousands of regimented workers, Hitler youth, and party members. Hitler makes several bombastic speeches, along with pieces of speeches and testimonials by other top party members.

REVIEW:
Savant was shown this film several times in film school, and remembers a course taught by Stephen Mamber where we studied the distinction between documentary filmmaking and propaganda. I think we concluded that a film record of almost any subject so selects and chooses how to represent it, that objective documentation is an almost unattainable ideal. We are bombarded with calculated, insidious media messages today, all pretending to present 'the truth', whether about a consumer item or a political candidate for sale. There are those who claim that the culture as a mass, has lost the ability to discern for itself simple values of right and wrong, truth and lies.

Creating a controlled 'truth' seemed to be exactly the aim of Riefenstahl and her Nazi producers, who created and ran the giant rally as much to make this propaganda tool, than for its own purpose. The giant stadiums were designed to accomodate special cameras (you can see little elevators for camera buckets going up and down the colossal bannered columns) and many shots were obviously accomplished by repeatedly restaging ostensibly 'candid' scenes. Because of camera placement and sound recording, it's more than probable that key 'dialogue' scenes were actually shot totally separately, including whole speeches by Hitler himself. The staggering job of assistant- directoring dwarfed the dimensions of anything Hollywood ever made: there are literally tens of thousands of people following 'direction' and 'hitting their marks' far more perfectly than in any epic. When the pomp and circumstance becomes more complicated, the spectacle turns in a Busby Berkeley vision of Hell.

And it is staggering. The camera tracks along endless lines of people whose life's fulfillment seems to be the honor of massing to adore Hitler. The huge rally of workers, with Hitler and two cronies walking calmly down a wide causeway between vast regiments of men standing to attention, is the most potent image of 20th century totalitarianism in memory.

Synapse's DVD adds a dynamic to the movie that makes this disc more 'useful' than seeing Triumph of the Will projected on a screen. Watching the the show with only its own few titles as a guide, it's easy to get lost; you wish you had a college professor sitting next to you to identify all the historical villains onscreen, and the significance of whole rallies, as well as details like insignia (Who are those guys carrying shovels instead of guns? Are there any girls in the Hitler youth?). The DVD provides this extra dimension through the pleasant-sounding Dr. Anthony R. Santoro, whose running commentary is priceless. His explanations of basic facts are clear and well-timed: So that's what the infamous Streicher looks like. 'Swastika' isn't a German word - they call it a 'hooked cross.' What happened to all those Nazis making ecstatic speeches, and who were the nastiest of them? Santoro also notes for us the not-so-obvious indications of directorial influence : the restagings, the moments 'designed' for the camera. Without making weighted judgements, he points out the sources and the ironies of Hitler's power, remarking that everything in the rallies was chosen to bolster weaknesses in the party's rule (Hitler had just assumed full control of the state; a major party leader had just been purged). Finally, he makes the vital distinction between autocratic power, which wants to control your actions, and totalitarian power, which wants control over your actions and your thoughts. Thought control of masses of people wasn't possible until the 20th century and modern communications; this film pretty much proves the theory that the most powerful tool of thought control is the Cinema.

Since study of Triumph of the Will proves that it is an obvious promotional film, and in no way a documentary, Riefenstahl's defensive claim that she was an artist not concerned with politics cuts no ice with Savant. Aesop wrote a fable about a battle trumpeter who, when captured, pleaded that he was no soldier because he carried no weapon. The conquering general had him executed along with the rest of the soldiers, with the moral that he who enables hostilities is as much a combatant as the soldiers themselves. As Riefenstahl was not even a conscripted soldier, her participation in the deification of Hitler has to put her right up with the most heinous enablers of his crimes.

TECH NOTES:
Synapse's DVD gives a reasonably clear image of the show, with the best sound Savant's yet heard. Besides the great commentary, there are newly translated, removable English subtitles, reportedly more accurate than the old ones. An extra from David Shepard is a much shorter promotional film about the army from 1935's Nuremburg rally, called Day of Freedom. Apparently it was produced because the army felt slighted by the National Socialists hogging the spotlight in the previous film; here Riefenstahl turns her camera to artsy and dynamic views of crack troops demonstrating their skill with various military hardware in a mock battle staged before a huge crowd, Roman-Coliseum style.

When people want to suppress key films like this because they might inspire further adulation of Naziism or encourage hateful rhetoric, Savant becomes suspicious. The greatest value in seeing something like Triumph of the Will today is that it might inspire viewers to question the content of the avalanche of messages they have to fend off every day: not only what passes for 'news', but attitudes and judgemental bias in other kinds of entertainment. You don't have to be Philip K. Dick to see the Ubik-like hidden messages in our modern world, but education seems to be the only way to help bring anything like truth to light. This Synapse disc of Triumph of the Will is an eye-opener and a significant DVD release.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Triumph of the Will rates:
Movie: Excellent, and Horrible too.
Video: Good
Sound: Good
Supplements: Commentary, additional short subject
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: April 23, 2001

Last House is very frightening. Its first two-thirds, before we get to the Collingwood house, is very well made. The acting is excellent, and extremely believable, especially David Hess and his ferocious partners. Although it began as an 'adult' movie made by adult filmmakers (Cunningham again sidesteps when he claims his previous softcore and borderline hardcore work as being 'documentary'), Wes Craven's conception of the worst possible horror scenario has a legitimate artistic basis. A growing number of recent mainstream films, like The Wild Bunch, had expressed the boiling violence of the times; I believe Craven when he says his cinematic atrocities were his reaction to the turmoil of Vietnam, Charles Manson, the '60s assassinations, and Richard Nixon's America. In 1971, the country was a pressure cooker that some radicals believed would actually spiral into revolution. Many Americans were terrorized by the thought of a rising tide of violence.

Charlie Manson laughed at the establishment, predicting that its own children would 'come at them with knives', in retribution for society's hypocrisy. An extension of Manson anxiety, Krug and Co. are America's worst nightmare, an alternate family of sex killers and dope addicts, a fusion of sick personalities who encourage the worst in one other. They have free sex. They sell drugs. They're completely out of control. Mari and Phyllis' very innocence triggers Krug's lust to defile and destroy, to outrage even himself.

Most everyone's been intimidated, maybe even threatened, by the kind of bullies or toughs who turn their own fears and powerlessness into aggression. Krug and Co. express their rage by wielding power over helpless victims. We get the feeling that their desire to give Mari and Phyllis 'the works' is an explosion of hatred that's built up over months of simmering hostility. It's premeditated only in that the killers know that they're going to have themselves a party. Everyone knows that to have fun at a party, one needs to let go and express oneself.

Last House is different from previous terror sieges like Lady in a Cage in that it tears up the assumed 'contract of politeness' with the audience. It pulls out all the stops, and unleashes an orgy of violence. Critics often made facile observations about violence in movies, saying that every new cinematic wrinkle in cruelty or sadism desensitized audiences, requiring the next film out to be stronger. Last House is totally outside this idea. The basic brutality here goes beyond any such theory, and anyone so desensitized as to enjoy it for its own sake, is already a borderline sociopath.

Craven knew that terror is in the details, and that's why he adds the disturbing incident where Phyllis is made to urinate on herself. A familiar captivity fantasy is the standard situation where the reader or viewer measures his or her inner strength against how the characters of a drama stand up to torture. When Phyllis pees herself on demand, Krug and his fiends are teaching her a lesson in power - whatever they want her to do, she'll have to do. Breaking the mild taboo of public urination is in itself a relatively tame humiliation, but there's a line that's been crossed. Ever have a boss, or a 'friend', insist you do something just for the principle of demonstrating who's in charge? Phyllis and Mari are undergoing that, but the horror shared by all is that both victim and tormentor know the stakes will soon escalate.

(spoilers)
The torments in Last House are direct and pitiless, and covered with a documentary eye so passive, that it all could be real. Nothing is stylized, not even to the extent that the atrocities in something like Salo are 'aestheticized.' Phyllis and Mari are breathing, shivering, pleading girls one minute, and after an extended agony, dead meat. See what I can make you do? See what I can do to you?, they seem to be saying, but when their mutilated victims are dead, the killers collapse into sullen silence. They are beyond the pale, yet there remains a pitiful humanity in their nervous, self-disgusted 'regrouping' after their crime.

Nothing's perfect, certainly not an overreaching shocker like The Last House on the Left. Craven's plan of bringing the horror full circle with the borrowed structure of The Virgin Spring is sound, but, unlike the later Tobe Hooper and Sam Raimi gorefests, his production doesn't have the basic technical sophistication for the third act at the Collingwood house. It's all interiors, which require experience to light. The cramped spaces force the footage to be broken up into more conventional angles, which don't have the docu veracity of the exteriors. Compared to the earlier section, big pieces of Last House's final reels are distractingly amateurish.

The violence in the house is also less impressive because it's not as honest as the horror in the woods. The Collingwoods use the best tricks they can come up with, but this is more plotted and hyped - with one of the first manic uses of a chainsaw. There's an obvious obscene bit where Estelle Collingwood (Cynthia Carr) bites off a piece of Weasel's anatomy. It comes from the Herschel Gordon Lewis school of exploitative shock, and the pandering instincts of the filmmakers is what makes it cheap. In general, the whole third act is an artistic letdown from the honest terror in the woods. "Just remember", the advertising should say of this section, "It's only degrading exploitation."

The 'Crime and Retribution' angle doesn't work too well. The random, senseless slaughter of the two girls is the kind of thing that happens too often to be ignored, and therefore has validity. But when the killers are delivered unto the Collingwoods for a payback slaughter, the show becomes a fantasy that teaches the wrong lesson, even if what happens is what we want to happen. The Collingwoods aren't Max Von Sydow and they don't pull heirloom swords from the attic and reforge them as weapons for a ritual slaughter. They're an average couple, who presumably haven't had survivalist & terror scenarios running through their heads for years (as many people do now, admittedly). When they respond with such cool killer instincts, it's a horror-comic gore fantasy entirely different than the raw realism in the woods. The show really stumbles when the Collingwoods retrieve their daughter's body. They just sit over her a moment, then it's back to Killing 101. There's no pause for them to recover from their emotions. When they go into battle with such cool heads, the believability connection is lost.

True, a consistent finale would definitely not have been as thrilling for the audience. Krug and his fiends might believably escape direct punishment, even if convicted of other crimes. If they were caught, legalities would probably mandate a protracted, agonizing trial, as in The Onion Field. But The Last House on the Left is first and foremost an exploitation film - even the viewers sobered by the horror in the woods, respond like a vigilante mob in cheering the slaughter at the house. I wouldn't be surprised if Craven and Cunningham originally planned a more naturalistic variation on a Herschel Gordon Lewis film, and their superior cast inspired them to overachieve in the first section of the movie.

...Overall:
Tai Chi II is a classic martial arts film that is a joy to watch. The film is so much fun I really can’t adequately describe it. Suffice it to say, if you enjoyed any of the titles namely, The Bride with White Hair, you will definitely enjoy this film. If I could a liken it to another martial arts film, I would lean towards Once upon a Time in China. Solely for action sequences, this film is very similar to Tai Chi II. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and know that if you love Wire-Fu flicks, this one needs to be in your collection as well! Due to its lack of extras and it’s generally poor transfer I can’t highly recommend it but I can recommend it so in the words of Monty Python...there it is.

THE FILM:
A cute, dirty little street urchin, known only as The Kid (Wong Yat Lung), crosses paths with Constable Chin Ta Khan (Leung Kar Yan- Eagle Claw, Knockabout, The Victim), who is being attacked by a gang he has gathered evidence against. The Kid insults the gang, he and Chin instantly form a bond, and escape from the gang so Chin can heal his previously wounded body. After rescuing a girl (from some men who loaned her money and now want her to become a prostitute) and some more bonding, Chin and the Kid hole up for the night, but are attacked by the gangs leader Ba Tin, who Chin even not in a wounded state is no match for. They are saved by Old Fox (Simon Yuen- Snake in the Eagles Shadow, Drunken Master, Buddhist Fist, Dance of the Drunken Mantis) a foul mouthed, wisened kung fu master of the elusive Sleeping Style. Old Fox takes the two under his wing (although The Kid is reluctant, resulting in some comic foiling), teaching Chin the Sleeping Style forms, Man, Monkey, Bird and Fairy/Woman so that he can deafeat the evil Ba Tin. Along the way, they are reunited with the girl they rescued, and every time they run into town for wine, end up saving her from thugs. Eventually, we are set for the final showdown between Ba Tin and Chin, with The Kid throwing a kick or two.

Now, the success of Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master, not only made a star out of Chan, but a breakout star of Simon Yuen. Yuen is the father of esteemed martial arts director Yuen Woo Ping (Crouching Tiger, Iron Monkey, In the Line of Duty 4), and a true life martial arts expert, whose screen charisma was so strong, despite his pudgy frame and age, had audiences clamoring for films with Yuen as a dirty old kung fu master. He was actually so mobbed by fans (and Triad film producers) during the filming of Sleeping Fist (1978), he had to change hotels. Yuen is doubled somewhat in fight scenes, but considering his age and the fact that he would be dead in two years (plus does anyone complain when Sean Connery is doubled in a James Bond movie- I don’t think so?) it is understandable. Still, he is a central figure in classic martial arts films, one of the top identifiable character actors of the genre, and Sleeping Fists is one of his big films.

One cannot discount the other talent of Sleeping Fists, Leng Kar Yan and the acrobatically, double-jointedly inclined kid Wong Yat Lung. Both are solid performers in their own right, and the duo would prove so popular with Sleeping Fist that they and director Yip Wing Tsui would team up again with Thundering Mantis.

Sleeping Fist is a light, more comedic, and charming kung fu film. Although I am not very big on such films and prefer my kung fu a little more serious or wild, Sleeping Fist is still so well paced and infused with enough character that I really didn’t mind the cute stuff as much as I usually would (some cute moments to look out for, Old Fox steering the Kid around like a puppet fighting a group of thugs- the kid when finally liking Old Fox, dresses exactly like him- some urination humor). Although I still hate the Kid, I can tolerate him. The Sleeping Style I’m 99% certain is entirely fictional, and it is an obvious attempt at capitalizing on the Drunken Master success. The Sleeping Style is basically Drunken style, relaxed but without the loopiness and with some giant yawns thrown in.

THE DVD:
Ground Zero presents a fairly bare, Region 0, budget minded DVD.Picture- The fullscreen picture has muted colors, and is very soft, throughout, and it is basically like buying a fair vhs of an older and good kung fu film. Oddly enough, Ground Zero uses a Sleeping Fist fight scene as an extra on their Shaolin King Boxer DVD, and the scene is lettterbox. Strange they didnt use the same source here. Sound- 2.0 mono English dub with no hiss, pops, reverb, or noticeable flaws. Extras- 14 Chapters. Wu Tang into and Wu Tang music video. Trailers for Blazin’, Gangstresses, and a Wu Tang/Kung Fu Classics commercial. Bonus fight scene (film unspecified) lasting 2 minutes.

THE FILM: In the realm of old school, classic kung fu films, there are many films whose reputation grows because people haven’t seen it. Snuff Bottle Connection (1977) is one such film that, over many years, more people had trouble finding than those that actually got to see it , making it a somewhat rarity with faint bits of praise and earnest speculation by those who noted its impressive cast and action director.

That action director is Yuen Woo Ping, who quickly went from action director, to film director and HK action cinema guru, and today is an international figure and probably the most sought after action director in the world. I like to think I know my Yuen Woo Ping pretty well, and I would bet that he did not direct all of Snuff Bottle Connections action scenes, or at least not with any authority, because the fights are uneven. They range from pretty good to so-so, and based on the speed and movement of those so-so scenes, I’d say Yuen wasn’t on set that day. There are some good moments where a sequence will have more Yuen-ish movements. The last twenty minutes are a quite good barrage of solid fighting, but it is really the story that carries the film along until that point. The Russians are pretty dumb caricatures and it is predictalbe, but unlike many kung fu tales, the plotting is actually involving and interesting, adding almost as much too the entertainment as the action. But anyone expecting Drunken Master or Legend of a fighter style Yuen choreagraphy will be disappointed.

The two key stars here are John Liu, Invincible Armor, Secret Rivals 1&2, Shaolin Ex-Monk and Hwang Jang Lee Drunken Master, Eagle Vs. Silver Fox, Eagles Killer, each respectively known for their big kicking prowess. Unfortunately Lui finds himself part of a duo, so his screen and fighting time is cut in half. While he is still good, it isn’t the knockout solo performance of, say, Invincible Armor. Hwang Jang Lee doesn’t really show off his legs too much, sticking to some iron fan fighting, but he was still one of the better villains in the kung fu world, just a shame he didnt get to dispense as many of his trademark kicking skills... The dagger throwing brother, Yip Fei Yang, also previously teamed with Lui, Jang Lee, The Yuen Clan, and director Dung Gam Woo in Instant Kung Fu Man, but his role in Snuff Bottle was the only prominent feature role he played. The kid, Wong Yat Lung, was one of the big kiddie kung fu stars, having starred in the popular duo of films Sleeping Fist and Thundering Mantis. Roy Horan is probably best known as the priest from Snake in the Eagles Shadow.

THE DVD: Ground Zero. Part of their Blackbelt Theater line.

PICTURE: Cropped Full-Screen. Well, not surprisingly, we get another worn out, washed out, wavy, and aged tape transfer. But, considering it is a scarce film, we have to be forgiving. Still, you have been warned. I have old EP vhs that look better. Apparently Crash Cinema have a letterboxed, original negative release planned on the horizon.

SOUND: Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. Like the picture, the audio is pretty worn out too. Dialogue is audible, right down to the horrible Russian accents the dubbers barely, feebly attempt, but everything has a bit of muffle and age distortion, like a very annoying buzz that frequently pops up.

EXTRAS: 6 Chapters- “Lost” Trailers (15:35). Nice bunch of theatrical trailers for Raging Rivals, Enter the Invincible Hero, Dynamite Shaolin Heroes, Buddhist Fist and Tiger Claws and Dragon’s Snake Fist

CONCLUSION: If you consider yourself a fan, and are well aware of the deteriorating state of most kung fu films, by all means go ahead and but this transfer. It is a good enough film that I could justify fans purchasing it despite the lackluster quality. However if you are rigid about quality control and want only the best out of your DVD experience, rarity be damned, then I suggest skipping it or waiting for a better release.