STREAMING REVIEWS MARATHON
I
don’t always find a lot to write about with regards to the films I
watch- and I watch a lot of movies, especially with a subscription to
Netflix and Amazon going. I also own a Roku, and that provides me access
to several free streaming services with plenty of Public Domain
footage. And while I enjoy several films and may occasionally find
something worth writing about with one film, often I will just stream a
series of films and never write a single word. I thought, with my
recent marathon, that it deserved a little write up with only a little
blurb and recommendation for each film.
And
as these “Marathons” usually have one linking attribute to them, I
figured I would start it off with a bit of an informative piece each
time I write one of these.
Shaw
Brothers Studio is a production company that mostly made a name for
itself with a series of Kung Fu features that spanned from the 1960’s
through the 1980’s with a “classic Hollywood” business model of pairing
specific actors with specific directors for a slew of films. There are
literally thousands of films from the company’s “Golden Period”; with
stars like the “Venoms” and Gordon Liu featured prominently. To be
honest, Shaw Brothers films pretty much dominated the “Martial Arts”
film business and only saw a significant challenge to their model when a
pair of executives left the company in order to form “Golden Harvest”
and signed a brand new star; Bruce Lee.
Several
Shaw Brothers films are currently streaming on Netflix and, of course,
I’ve been knee-deep in the epic awesomeness that is “classic Kung Fu”
from the top studio of the time. As a young boy, I’d often be sticking
to channel eleven or channel five during the Saturday double matinee to
catch a flick- often horror or Kung-fu related, but always a degree of
pure adrenaline that kept my eyes glued to the boob tube when I
should’ve likely been out climbing trees and building snow forts. So
revisiting the films is a bit of nostalgia and a bit of newfound
appreciation for the things I loved as a child.
As
a note, the only unfortunate slight I’ve been able to find is that the
films are only available in their native “Chinese”… whether Mandarin or
Cantonese, the only option on the Netflix “Language” selection is
“Chinese”. There are English subtitles, but the traditional “awful dub”
option is just not available and part of the nostalgic charm of these
films are the terrible dubbing with awful accents and fake tenors
designed to make characters as over the top as possible. It’s not that I
dislike the language, but a little nostalgic value is lost when we
don’t hear the same guy dubbing over several different characters with a
different pitch, growl, or whatever it seems something is lost from my
childhood. Luckily, something is gained when we’re able to hear the
appropriate tenor, voice, and inflection to specific lines. So it’s
mostly a fair trade off, but requires more reading when one may want to
just be focused on the fighting.
“Come Drink With Me”-
This
film is a bit of an oddity for its tone and rather progressive view of
the female protagonist, played by Pei-Pei Cheng (Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon). The story is a fairly simple one as the son of a Governor is
kidnapped by a gang of bandits and held for ransom. The Governor’s
sister is sent to investigate and free her brother, aided only slightly
by the mysterious “Drunken Tiger”. From here on out the action fills in
the blanks as she fights off the gang, infiltrates the area, and winds
up wounded before the big climactic battle that will reveal the truth
behind Drunken Tiger. There’s a bit of a romance that never goes much
further than the occasional look between the leads and “Golden Swallow”
is never portrayed as the damsel in distress. The action and
choreography is terrific and there’s plenty of slapstick comedy to go
along with the story.
4.5 out of 5.
Invincible Shaolin
The
Qin General of an unspecified province is unhappy with the Imperial
edict forcing him to employ Shaolin teachers to instruct his troops. The
Shaolin are also unhappy with the Qin dynasty, preferring to return the
Ming to power if fate allows. So the General concocts a scheme,
demanding new teachers from the Northern Shaolin to replace those from
the Southern Shaolin school. What follows is a contest that ultimately
proves fatal for the Southern Shaolin teachers and creates a rift
between the schools. Both sides are manipulated by the General into
several pitched battles- can the Shaolin unite in time to prevent the
General from succeeding in his plan to destroy all of Shaolin?
This
is a very traditional Kung Fu film in that it features the detailed
training sequences we normally come to see in such films as various
fighters work to master a given style. The cast is very likeable and the
General comes off as a terrific villain with a masterful hand at
pulling a number of strings. Much of the story depends on the viewers
acceptance of social customs in order to fully buy in to why the two
sides would fight one another. The fighting is absolutely top notch and
features a number of impressive battles with a fair amount of gore.
5 out of 5.
Disciples of the 36th Chamber
The third film in the “36th
Chamber” (AKA: Master Killer) series of films features the terrific
Gordon Liu returning to the role that originally made him famous.
Unfortunately, the film doesn’t quite live up to the first film’s
promise and features a much less engaging protagonist being trained by
Liu. The film is played more for slapstick comedy and pratfalls than it
is for the serious training that made the first film so amazing. A young
teen and his two brothers are forced to hide and train in the Shaolin
monastery when the buffoonish brother repeatedly insults the reigning
Government. Liu takes the boy and his brothers under his wing and the
rest is Kung Fu training.
2.5 out of 5.
Masked Avengers.
The
title here is a little misleading and may be an issue of something
being lost in translation or maybe just a misunderstanding- but the men
in the masks are a group of bandits whose butchery, sadism, and cruelty
have drawn the attention of a Martial Artist and his school of young
warriors. When one of their agents manages to return to their school
with fatal wounds, he leaves them with a barely muttered clue on where
the Masked Bandits are hiding but not who these bandits may be. The
school heads off to the province and start to investigate, only to run
afoul of the Bandits in several encounters.
Are
the bandits led by the charismatic merchant? The mysterious cook? Or
the wealthy landowner? With their numbers dwindling, the school had
better find out or they’ll be far too outnumbered to fight back. The
film features some terrific fight choreography and the wonderful
interaction between the characters builds to a brutal finale that sees
the bandits base turned into a house of torture and death traps. A
must-see for Kung Fu fans!
5 out of 5
Five Elements Masters.
I
love me a bit of grue in my movies, and Five Elements Masters (AKA Five
Elements Ninja and several other titles) features an awful lot of
spurting blood, severed limbs, and massive physical damage to various
victims of deadly Kung Fu. Probably one of the goriest Kung Fu films
made, this was definitely a fun watch. The plot revolves around the
Japanese “Five Elements Ninja” and their attempt to dominate the Martial
Arts world by destroying the local practitioners through their five
elements style. Fairly cut and dry when one member of the local school
survives an ambush, he’s forced into hiding and trains to prepare
himself for the style utilized by the Ninja.
4 out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment