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Shaw Brothers

yichihyon

01:39 / 18.10.07

Any fans of the old Shaw Brothers Chop Sockey films of the 60's, 70's and 80's? I am amazed at the restoration of their movies. I recommend films by Chang Cheh and Chu Yuan. Chang Cheh the godfather of asian action cinema gave John Woo his start and he apprenticed under Chang Cheh and learned his craft. Some films I recommend from him are 5 deadly venoms and others by the venoms clan like kid with the golden arm and invincible shaolin and ten tigers from kwang tung and flag of iron. Some Chu Yuan films i recommend are Death Duel and Sentimental Swordsman. He uses nature and scenes of nature that surround the martial artists in a conflict. It almost shows that violence and heroism is linked to them like mother nature. Chu Yuan as a side note starred in the excellent Jackie Chan movie Police Story where he starred as a gangster businessman. Yes! Shaw Brother films are back!

buttergun

12:33 / 19.10.07

I've reviewed around 30 or so Shaw Brothers movies over on Cityonfire.com, under the name "Joe909." I've been watching them since I was a kid -- my lifetime favorite is "Chinese Super Ninjas," aka "Five Element Ninja."

Cityonfire.com Shaw Brothers review section

I also wrote a long feature on the Venoms group (aka the guys who starred in such Shaw Brothers classics as Five Deadly Venoms, Crippled Avengers, Masked Avengers, etc), with short bios of each member, a rundown of their filmography, and some "top five" lists:

My Venoms feature at Cityonfire.com

HCE

23:04 / 20.10.07

Yes! Big fan. Not much to add at the moment as I'm a bit tired, but I will try to revisit this thread when in better spirits.

yichihyon

00:43 / 05.11.07

here is a few trailers for some of my favorite Chu Yuan directed Shaw Brothers films. I think he uses the poetic backdrop and foreground of nature in the fighting scenes to illustrate the beauty and violence of nature is also rooted in men and women.

Death Duel
The Sentimental Swordsman
The Return of the Sentimental Swordsman

Bandini

12:32 / 05.11.07

I'm definitely a fan, more so when i was a teenager but i still hold quite an affection for a lot of Shaw Brothers films.
I can also recommend Master of The Flying Guillotine if you haven't seen it - Unathorised music by Neu! and Kraftwerk and the inspiration for Dhalsim from Street Fighter.
Also i really love King Hu who made truly beautiful Wuxia films and inspired Ang Lee hugely for Crouching Tiger.

yichihyon

23:57 / 05.11.07

Yes I like King Hu too! I like a Touch of Zen alot!!!! What are some recommendations for some old school martial arts films?

heres one of my Shaw Brothers favorites! Lily Ho is such a beautiful Woman that can kill with the best of them!!!!

The Lady Professional

yichihyon

05:52 / 08.11.07

Here's another of my favorite Gordon Liu films Heroes of the East aka Shaolin challenges Ninja. Classic Classic martial arts favorite. Marriage and Martial arts. A beautiful Japanese woman marries a headstrong Chinese martial artist. She knows martial arts as well and they get in a fight to determine which country has the best martial arts. She is beat by him when using various weapons counterattacked by various other weapons. She returns to Japan to learn more martial arts and challenges her to a duel again but her teachers find the letter and are insulted so they go back with her to find out which martial arts is the best.

Heroes of the East trailer

yichihyon

11:26 / 18.11.07

Chinatown Kid starring Fu Sheng

The Chinatown Kid directed by Chang Cheh and starring Fu Sheng who died in a car accident after purchasing Bruce Lee's old home according to Bey Logan's book Hong Kong Action Cinema, was another one of my absolute favorite films while growing up. It deals with an illegal imigrant Chinese man trying to make it in San Francisco Chinatown full of gangs prostitution and drugs. Fu Shengs character, all he ever wanted was to live the American dream symbolized by the digital watch he and the gangsters have, as a symbol of new and technological a device showing the capitalist dream. Fu Sheng's character died trying to save a fellow imigrant student worker who gets hooked on drugs. I guess it shows the evils of capitalism. It also shows the Venoms at before their prime as gangsters fighting for turf.

Chinatown Kid

yichihyon

07:49 / 18.09.08

Lizard of the Five Deadly Venoms

One of the cult favorites of the Shaw Brothers. This would make a wicked cool remake, before the death defying wire works of wire fu and probably and inspiration for the Mortal Kombat video games with characters like Lizard and Scorpion in both the video game and the movie Five Deadly Venoms. Also a NY rap group named themselves after the norotroious venom five as well as a metal group Merader naming their album after this influential cult chop sockey Shaw Brothers favorite..... starring Phillip Kwok who did the action choregraphy of John Woo's Hard Boiled and the Bride with White Hair!!!! And the other Venom Gang favorites, Sun Chien, Lo Meng, and others!!!! The Five Deadly Venoms......

The Five Deadly Venoms
The Deadly Venoms - what what
Mortal Kombat

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