More wars have been fought over salt than gold. This little historical tidbit makes the premise of this movie a bit easier to understand. As the faded and nearly unreadable expeditionary credits tell us, the government of China at some point restricted the trade of sale and thus a large black market of salt began.

Most every kung-fu film has pretty much the same plot. Someone is killed or wronged and his pupil/offspring goes off to fight the bad guy. At first the hero gets his rear end handed back to him so he goes back and trains or tries another method and then in one huge fight at the end they win and the bad guy is defeated.

This is one of those stories but it has an interesting twist to it. The hero of this film is the daughter of a framed official. She and her little brother do a double gender bending twist infiltrating the bad guys to clear their father's name.

For a chop socky film, this one is about average. The comedy is a little weak and quite frankly I'm a little tired of the urine jokes so common in these films. The action is good and the film kept me entertained. I guess that's about all I can ask for, right?

At least it had the lovely Polly Shang-Kuan. She could kick ass and still have you marvel at what an adorable girl she was. She made just over fourty films in her career (according to her imdb page) and I'll certainly be checking out some more of her films in the future.

I should also mention that never once was a character referred to as either Lady Whirlwind or a ranger. Still, English titles of kung fu movies never seemed to make much sense anyway but this was most likely done by the distributor to tie it to the Angela Mao film.

Labels: 31 days of film, Hong Kong, Kung Fu

Shaolin Deadly Kicks: Yet another typical kung fu movie of good guys and bad guys. After a gang of thieves break up their treasure map into eight pieces and scatter. A lawman goes to hunt them down one at a time to get the pieces. This film, based on that plot description, could be a western but instead, it's a kung fu movie.

I seem to be a total sucker for dollar DVDs with Kung Fu movies. I tend to pick up anything that appears to have some sort of period kung fu to it. A lot lately have been stinkers but this one wasn't that bad, although the plot was a bit boring at times. In fact if I had been director, I would've ended the film after about an hour.

Still, for a dollar kung fu movie it's not that bad.

Labels: Bad Movies, Dollar DVD, Hong Kong, Kung Fu

Rage of the Masters: From the dollar bin comes this rather bland Jimmy Wang Yu film. The plot is rather bland with a brother and sister seeking revenge and enlisting a great kickboxer to help them. Of course, the problem lies in the fact that he has promised his mother that he won't fight.

The film progresses through some dull scenes which, I confess, I did not watch with my full attention. The saving grace is the last half hour which has some pretty cool kick boxing and martial arts scenes.

It's crappy chop socky for a dollar so if that's your thing, go for it. If you really like it, there's a widescreen version available under the title, "The Destroyer."

I think the reason I haven't watched so many films lately lies from the fact that I regularly watch crap and this is just more of it. I've seen so many kung fu movies over the years that it's almost getting to be a genre that I can't watch anymore, at least not without some sort of comedy or class to save it.

Labels: Bad Movies, Dollar DVD, Hong Kong, Kung Fu

Silver Hermit From Shaolin Temple: Continuing with the weirdness, I decided to watch a classic chop sockey film. Unfortunately all I found in the dollar dvd bin was this movie.

Silver Hermit is a pacifistic martial artist who, along with three others, is invited to a contest to fight to win the hand of a young woman and thus inherit a prestigious martial arts school. Unfortunately for him two of them end up dead with one barely surviving. Of course he gets the blame and has to clear his name.

The film is rather dull at times, although the martial arts is pretty good. The problem stems mostly from the video presentation which is, as usual, pan and scanned plus horrendously dubbed. To top it off the film goes black at times and when you can see the picture, it's like watching it through a coffee filter.

I guess the only saving grace of the film was getting to cheer the opening credits when Joseph Lai's name came up. Yes, the same man who brought to you a monkey punching a snake! Unfortunately I still have yet to find the rest of his animated films even though I have heard they have been released.

Labels: Bad Movies, Cheap DVDs, Dollar DVD, Hong Kong, Kung Fu

Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth / Prisoner of Five Boulders: EastWest, our favorite dollar DVD company released yet another disc of kung fu movies of questionable legality. We get an interesting mix here but nothing special.

Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth is a highly fictionalized account of his life and death starring Bruce Li. The film is rather dull and I found myself dozing off quite a bit.

Prisoner of Five boulders is another of the Mainland Chinese features that somehow got in the hands of some pranksters with a dubbing studio. The origin of the dubs on this is somewhat of a mystery but it is quite obvious they tried to follow in the footsteps of Woody Allen with his famous, "What's Up Tiger Lily?" and the old Pete Smith comedies. The problem is, this dub made me smirk a bit but it had no quotable lines and outside of hearing the emperor sing "Like a Virgin" I can't really remember anything happening in the film that was particularly funny.

When you spend a dollar on crap, you should expect nothing more.

Labels: Bad Movies, Cheap DVDs, Dollar DVD, Kung Fu

The God of Cookery: Stephen Chow plays Stephen Chow: The God of Cookery! Having won this prestigious title he becomes a complete arrogant snob critical of the smallest thing that doesn't go his way. His critical ways do not last forever when he is exposed as a fraud and ends up in a shady part of town beaten up for panhandling. Lucky for him he meets up with Turkey who is rather ugly and is brilliantly played by the very beautiful Karen Mok with a lot of makeup on. They end up working together and create a new dish which instantly sweeps Hong Kong and he uses this reacquired fame to challenge the chef who took his God of Cookery title from him.

The inspiration for this film has to be the then new craze of Iron Chef. Chow plays his part masterfully, as always, and you truly hate his guts at the beginning and come to root for him at the end. This one is easy to recommend for fans of Kung Fu Hustle or Shaolin Soccer.

I am beginning to think that I am watching my DVDs in somewhat the wrong order. Since my order has come in, I am watching all of the stuff I know I will like and leaving some mediocre stuff to stay on my backlog for last. Sometimes I think I should watch the mediocre stuff first to build up to the great stuff, but at least I have enough good stuff to go around.

Labels: Comedy, Hong Kong, Kung Fu

Kung Fu Hustle: Here's a film that is simply indescribable. Imagine a kung fu movie that puts 100% style over substance along with some of the funniest humor this side of a Buster Keaton film and toss in Stephen Chow and you get Kung Fu Hustle. Well actually what you get is the typical Chow film. While you get par for the Stephen Chow course you get one hell of a ride that, depending on your preferences, you will either love or hate.

Kung Fu Hustle holds a special place for me. While, in terms of Cantonese humor, other comedians such as Jackie Chan and especially Michael Hui stand out more than Chow in my eyes this was the first Hong Kong film I ever saw in my local multiplex that wasn't a dub and cut job. Sadly, I fear that it will be the last Chow film that will make it here in that form. While it broke records across Asia, its American box office wasn't so hot. But who knows what the future will bring.

By the way, the backlog is officially 153. I really should watch at least three more before the others come in and who knows how many I will get for Christmas. I fear that 200 count coming back soon.

Labels: Comedy, Hong Kong, Kung Fu

Rush Hour: There were a few people in my family who could not believe that I did not have this film on DVD. Me, Mr. Jackie Chan fan, did not have Rush Hour. Part of the reason is how Jackie's American films never really warmed up to me. In fact, I never even bought the vastly superior Shanghai Noon films. The other reasons I never picked it up was that it was always around $7.50 and in a snapper case. When I saw it at Wal*Mart on black Friday for $4 and in a keepcase, I couldn't resist any longer.

The film is one of Jackie's most successful films in America and partly because a lot of the humor is much more accessible to Western audiences. While the Chan films I love are filled with Keaton-esque slapstick and stunts, they very rarely had a lot of verbal comedy. With Chris Tucker in this film, it's all about the mouth. Yes, Chris Tucker blabs on and on throughout the whole film. While he has his funny moments, most of the time he's just as annoying as he was in The Fifth Element.

My verdict for this is that if you can get it this cheap, just buy it.

Labels: Jackie Chan, Kung Fu

Little Mad Guy / 37 Ninja Kids: When Stop & Shop had a half off sale on dollar DVDs, I spring into action. Their selection is limited to EastWest titles and so I picked up a couple of kung fu discs. Last night I ended up watching Little Mad Guy and gave up on 37 Ninja Kids.

This film is typical early 80s Kung fu slapstick. After Jackie Chan's "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" and"Drunken Master" the genre expanded and new stars came and went. This one stars Ming Tsai Wu as "Little Fatty." There's not much plot other than the fact that he needs to beat up the bad guys and learn from another master new types of kung fu and stuff like that.

Siu Tien Yuen (the old Drunken Master himself) has a cameo in this film but since it was made three years after his death, it's quite obvious that it's stock footage.

Labels: Hong Kong, Kung Fu

Dragon Lee vs. The 5 Brothers: Dragon Lee, one of the many crappy Bruce Lee impersonators stars in this uninspired chop socky film about some rebels who want to overthrow the Ching dynasty. There's a girl who does kung fu, secret rebels and a villain with a metal hand.

The Kung fu is very nicely choreographed and at times it looks like a well thought out dance scene. Still, with all that, there's a lot of film to sit through for some fancy kung fu scenes. I found myself nodding off at times and I do believe that will be the reaction most people would have.

On the technical side, the DVD, released by Passion Productions, is in wide screen with a fairly decent print. There are the usual scratches but it is watchable. Where it suffers is in the audio. The right channel is completely silent and thus it is somewhat like watching the film at the drive in with the little speaker put on your car window. It's too bad to ruin an otherwise fine print.

I don't know if a better version is available but for a buck, pick it up.

Labels: Hong Kong, Kung Fu