I saw Kung Fu Killer (a.k.a., Kung Fu Jungle, 2014), starring Donnie Yen in a theater. It is (or was) in limited release. IMO, it’s one of Donnie’s all-time best movies. Others might think differently, but I found it more entertaining than either of Donnie’s Ip Man films. It’s also a tribute to the Hong Kong kung fu movie genre, with guest appearances by Mang Hoi (Mandarin: Meng Hai), Sharon Yeung Pan-Pan, Stephen Tung Wai, Tsui Siu-Ming, Yuen Cheung-Yan, Yang Ching-Ching, David Chiang, and numerous others. Also, a few scenes from Drunken Master to give credit to Jackie Chan and Simon Yuen Siu-Tin.
The film is almost a showcase for the villain, played by Wang Baoqing, as a serial killer of the top martial arts masters. I’ve never seen him in anything before, and I’ve read that they weren’t sure he could pull off the martial arts well enough. Put that to rest; Wang shows his abilities well onscreen, and in the final fight at night on a busy street, he matches Donnie move for move. My only complaint, if I have one, is that Wang’s character makes a few too many ‘monster faces’ when acting crazy. IMO, there is no need to make faces like you’re turning into a werewolf to convey insanity and/or simple menace. But regardless, the movie works.
I’m not sure if I’d rate the end fight in Kung Fu Killer at the same level as the end fight in Flash Point, but the one in KFK is ‘kung fu’ and "shapes’ based. Something not seen very often in martial arts movies anymore, especially those set in modern times. Also, the overall movie is far better than Flash Point. I don’t know how many more big martia arts movies Donnie has left in him anymore, so this one is a treat. I do know that he is scheduled to face Mike Tyson in Ip Man 3.
Screened 7 grandmasters yesterday. Great start when champion confronts 7 masters then flick starts to drag little bit but patches things up with superb end fight. Lee Yi Min is quite terrible actor, in non action scenes he is almost pain to watch but more than makes up that with ability in acrobatics and fighting.
[quote=“sartana1, post:797, topic:368”]Thanks for the heads up. Didn’t know about they were releasing KoF&D i have the Japanese Shamghai 13 which looks great but no English dub. Ill probably get that one too. Love that movie. One of the top 10 old school kung fu’s imo![/quote]I watched The King Of Fists And Dollars the other night, not as nice a transfer as the other two but still worth getting.
While detective Xu (Takeshi Kaneshiro from House of Flying Daggers) performs his crime scene investigation in an early 20th century China, he encounters on a crouching tiger (Donnie Yen, Ip Man), who is actually a hidden dragon with a history of violence.
I’m becoming a fan of Chang Cheh’s kung fu and wuxia movies. Crippled Avengers, One-Armed Swordsman, The New One-Armed Swordsman, Five Element Ninja… Great films. Last night I saw Vengeance! - a wonderful pulpy gangster kung fu neo-noir drama (yeah, I know how it sounds!) which is like a John Woo movie, except it was done 16 years before John Wo started his action flicks. Love it.
I watched Enter the Dragon and Game of Death back to back recently. Even though Game of Death is a bit of a mess (re-using clips from Bruce Lee’s other films and so on), I still think it’s one of the better kung fu films. The original footage with Bruce Lee in the yellow tracksuit at the end of the film is excellent. I love the soundtrack and the opening credits, as well:
As for newer flix, stay away from Once Upon a Time in Shanghai. One of those newer generation chinese movies with more CGI than Avatar and lots of superficial “acting”, a bloated story and little originality. Seems to me a lot of modern chinese cinema is little more than feature-length screen tests
First Kung FU (or in fact Wuxia) movie in quite a while:
THE INVINCIBLE (1972)
A fairly unknown Wuxia movie, barely released theatrically in the West. It was saved from oblivion by a German DVD called "In der Gewalt des Roten Drachten“. The Red Dragon from the German title must be the Kahn, the leader of the Mongols and their Chinese allies from the North who want to subjugate all Chinese people and therefore attack the southern provinces and start a reign of terror. Wang Yu is the invincible swordsman from the English language title; he saves the life of a woman not knowing that she is the Kahn’s sister. He wants to commit suicide because he didn’t recognize an arch enemy, but his sovereign knows the Kahn cannot be stopped without Mr. Invincible.
There’s some romance (the Kahn’s sister falls for the Invincible) and even a couple of musical moments. And before I forget: there’s some nudity as well, very rare in a wuxia movie from the early Seventies. This is no genre classic, but the swordplay is quite spectacular and the cinematography is nice, with a few cute angles angles and compositions.
6/10
It can be watched, in Chinese (dialogue changing to German for a few seconds or minutes on a couple of occasions) with English subtitles on You Tube:
I wanna know which are which and make sure they’re all correctly put into the GCDb along with all their alternate titles and an IMDb link as reference. Can you help?
Bruce Lee the Invincible: Not the same film
The Invincible Fist: Not the same film
Imdm link (Rivals of Shaolin): Not the same movie
The Invisible Fist: Not the same film
The Chinese title of the film I reviewed, is: Zong heng tian xia
Lots of Kung Fu/Wuxia movies with the word ‘invincible’ in the title, so problems are to be expected
i have the Japanese Shamghai 13 which looks great but no English dub. Ill probably get that one too. Love that movie. One of the top 10 old school kung fu’s imo![/quote]I watched The King Of Fists And Dollars the other night, not as nice a transfer as the other two but still worth getting.
