Kung Fu Movie Review

[Execproducer]

13 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

That’s why I said TCM and Criterion.

 

Criterion does indeed have The Samurai Trilogy, along with Samurai Rebellion and The Sword of Doom and the Zatoichi film. That is stuff they have always had. How many of us are using that service?

 

17 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

I guess the question of availability is always an issue with these, since most of us participating in these things are aware of the obvious choices and may try and go too obscure and then you can’t find the choice. I mean, that happened with that French Xmas I wanted to do last year (which I had seen in a French film class in grad school) but I recall it being really obscure (why I didn’t pick it, even though you did a bonus review IIRC). 

With Halloween and Christmas it really shouldn't be that complicated to avoid the more obvious choices because there are thousands of films that fit the theme. Obviously more so for Halloween but we've still barely scratched the surface for Christmas. Martial arts films too.

 

33 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

im sure a samurai effort would go deeper than Kurosawa, The Samauri Trilogy and the Lone Wolf and Cub box set.  

I do not share your confidence in that belief.

[Curt McGirt]

Well, somebody would probably pick Ninja Scroll at least.

[odessasteps]

I would expect someone to choose Blind Fury. And someone to argue for the right to pick Highlander. 

[Execproducer]

Blind Fury would make for a good bonus review to talk about its debt to the Zatoichi series. Highlander would be perfectly fine for an edged weapons theme. A samurai only theme, not so much.

[J.T.]

2 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I would expect someone to choose Blind Fury. And someone to argue for the right to pick Highlander. 

Since this is a Kung Fu movie review, I would expect someone to pick a Kung Fu movie.  It's not that fucking hard.

Edited April 3, 2020 by J.T.

[odessasteps]

1 minute ago, J.T. said:

Since this is a Kung Fu movie review, I would expect someone to pick a Kung Fu movie.  It's not that fucking hard.

I meant if we were doing a samurai event. 

[J.T.]

11 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I meant if we were doing a samurai event. 

Ah, then yes.  Blind Fury owes a great debt to Zatoichi so I'd give it a pass in a jidaigeki project, but the only thing that Highlander did was fuel more myths about the nature of the katana that weeaboos the world over still cling to.

Katanas are forged the way they are because Japanese steel is shit, not because there is some magical process that gives them a super sharp mono-molecular edge that can carve through bone and metal.  The katana was a very good weapon against the armor it faced at the time but the fucking things are not goddamned lightsabers.

Still, some common sense needs to be applied.  Using the Blind Fury / Zatoichi argument some idiot could petition to review The Magnificent Seven in the samurai event and that is absurd.  If it's that much of a struggle, I can pick a bunch of kung fu movies for the lot of you to watch.

Edited April 3, 2020 by J.T.

[AxB]

1 hour ago, J.T. said:

the only thing that Highlander did was fuel more myths about the nature of the katana that weeaboos the world over still cling to.

Katanas are forged the way they are because Japanese steel is shit, not because there is some magical process that gives them a super sharp mono-molecular edge that can carve through bone and metal.  The katana was a very good weapon against the armor it faced at the time but the fucking things are not goddamned lightsabers.

That's why I hated playing For Honor. Samurais vs Vikings vs Knights. The Knights would win every time, their weapons and armour are centuries more advanced than the other two. It would take a Samurai a day to pierce the defences of a fully armoured Knight, whilst the Samurai's armour might as well be made of paper, against Medieval European weapons.

[Curt McGirt]

1 hour ago, J.T. said:

If it's that much of a struggle, I can pick a bunch of kung fu movies for the lot of you to watch.

Just FYI to everyone, I've already watched and sent in my pick.  

[RIPPA]

I am trying to decide who is the angrier, crankier Dad at the moment

Me or JT

[J.T.]

8 hours ago, RIPPA said:

I am trying to decide who is the angrier, crankier Dad at the moment

Me or JT

I was triggered.  I blame Mark even though I love him like family.

17 hours ago, AxB said:

That's why I hated playing For Honor. Samurais vs Vikings vs Knights. The Knights would win every time, their weapons and armour are centuries more advanced than the other two. It would take a Samurai a day to pierce the defences of a fully armoured Knight, whilst the Samurai's armour might as well be made of paper, against Medieval European weapons.

Damascus steel is as arguably close as we'll ever get to Vibranium, but it's the smelting and forging techniques that make the sword. 

No matter where you go in the universe, Iron is still Iron so metallurgy is very important.

Edited April 3, 2020 by J.T.

[Curt McGirt]

Oh, to clarify -- I wasn't given one yet. I just picked one, but I had to rewatch it first. And it fuckin' ruled, so whoever gets it is going to be VERY happy.

[Execproducer]

OK update time. Five days until deadline for picks.

Execproducer

J.T.*

J.H.*

Curt McGirt*

AxB

RIPPA*

Setsuna*

Odessasteps*

Asterisks indicates those that have made their picks. Feel free to do bonus reviews if you want but I'm not going to push for them. Just run them by me and I'll let you know if someone used it as a pick.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Execproducer

[Execproducer]

Last pick is in. If no one else jumps in by Sunday morning, I'll be sending them out.

[Execproducer]

All films have been sent. Let's say April 30 for the deadline. 

[J.T.]

Sounds good!

[Execproducer]

First review is in. We are mere days away from the deadline.

[RIPPA]

JT and I both just went "oh shit! we have to write a review" in the Destiny thread

[Execproducer]

Being an old man and an unsophisticated gamer I have been playing a lot of Fortnite where my goal is generally going on kill crazy rampages and occasionally winning being the cherry on top. So yeah, I've been slacking a bit. But that is the advantage of running the show. The disadvantage being the high bar I set for myself in taking on multiple reviews. So I have a long week of refreshing my memory of a few films and I'm about halfway through a 13 hour epic that has neither subs nor dubs.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Execproducer

[J.T.]

My pick review is in.  Editing the bonus review so that it does not look like it was written by an idiot.

[OSJ]

On 3/31/2020 at 9:08 AM, J.T. said:

We tried to keep the selections limited to films that were fairly accessible.  I think we lucked out that someone out there had posted nearly every Carl Scott joint out there for someone to be able to pick Soul Brother of Kung Fu.

I am sure that I am only one of five North Americans that has copies of Deathmask of the Ninja or Secret Service of the Imperial Court  on DVD.

Also, I think we're attempting to stick to kung fu movies only this time around.  No jidaigeki / ninja movies.

For a solid month I've been trying to figure out who the other three might be.

Deathmask of the Ninja is a damn fine film despite having nothing to do with deathmasks or ninjas. The only thing that bugs me is that the big bad is the "Ninth Prince", which of course begs the question of what happened to the other eight? I obsess over shit like this.

[OSJ]

On 4/3/2020 at 6:35 AM, J.T. said:

I was triggered.  I blame Mark even though I love him like family.

Damascus steel is as arguably close as we'll ever get to Vibranium, but it's the smelting and forging techniques that make the sword. 

No matter where you go in the universe, Iron is still Iron so metallurgy is very important.

It should be mentioned that a Viking sword wasn't so much an edged weapon that was used for cutting (although if you were unarmored it could certainly cut you), it's main use due to its weight was to smash bones and cripple opponents. I've had occasion to wield just about every edged weapon known to man and a Viking sword is one heavy motherfucker. I have a pretty good gun on the right side from years of playing baseball and darts and I could barely hold the thing in a defensive posture, those fuckers were heavy, I'd hate to be hit with one. Anything short of heavy plate armor and something is getting broken.

[Curt McGirt]

Ack! Okay, I'll do mine tonight. 

[lostinube]

On 4/27/2020 at 10:34 PM, OSJ said:

For a solid month I've been trying to figure out who the other three might be.

Deathmask of the Ninja is a damn fine film despite having nothing to do with deathmasks or ninjas. The only thing that bugs me is that the big bad is the "Ninth Prince", which of course begs the question of what happened to the other eight? I obsess over shit like this.

At least on Netflix in Japan, Deathmask (had on Beta back in the day with the very misleading clamshell case) is available under it's original title, Shaolin Prince.

Eh, either the other princes are dead or just got passed over and don't care. I'm assuming the emperor in the film is a brother of the 9th Prince. Some people just can't settle for a sedan chair with swords in it.

[odessasteps]

Review done. Still working on the intro post for my choice.