Old School Kung Fu Fest: the aftermath
April 22nd, 2013 by Mr. C
(Our friend Earl at the Old School Kung Fu Fest ready to trade fisticuffs w/ anyone named Twister!)
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The Old School Kung Fu movie fest courtesy of Subway Cinema & Anthology Film Archives came and went like Wong Fei Hong’s famous shadowless kick! It was a weekend worth of condensed old school injected kung fu flavor totaling to a modest 7 films including the secret screening on Saturday night which ended up to be Bloody Parrot from Shaw Brother Studios. In effect all the movies were of the midnight variety edition ranging from the classic Shaolin, Wutang, Tibetan Lama Pai, & Ching Dynasty conflicts to the more esoteric black magic, sexploitation, & exploitation variety to the other end of classic balls to the wall modern HK action! We caught 6 out of the 7 screenings and had to tap out of Sammo’s/Lau Kar Wing’s – Odd Couple due to brain malfunction because of 2 days worth of mind melting HK madness! This compact festival dedicated to all things kung fu, boobs, black magic, & femme fatales was much fun indeed! From the background music of the Wu Tang Clan playing between screenings to the enthusiasm of Subway Cinema when introducing the films being screened, I hope they continue the Old School Kung Fu movie tradition! Below is a lightweight capsule mention of the screenings that we attended.
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Shaolin and Wutang (1983)
It was nice to stroll down memory lane with this classic movie as Shaw Brother fame – Lau Kar Fai represented Shaolin, the great Adam Cheng represented Wu-Tang, & last but not least the evil Ching Lord was played by everyone’s favorite bad-guy in Shaw Brother period piece movies – Johnny Wang Lung Wei! The Ching lord and his goons add more fuel to the fire in the already intense conflict between Shaolin and Wutang. The Excellency has a one track mind to learn the famous Chin Kang fist form from Shaolin and the Bagua Wutang Sword routine in order to reign supreme in the Martial Art World! Evil! The 35mm print of this screening was immaculate and it was very nice to see this movie in all its Cantonese glory though I’m pretty sure the voices were dubbed over again in cantonese because it didn’t sound like Adam Cheng or Lau Kar Fai. If that was the case, that would seem weird because the cast and director/star were all cantonese. This film was filled with comedy, full of revenge, & excellent display of chinese kung fu! Adam Cheng techniques flow like the wind while being graceful and Lau Kar Fai has that look of intent to kill which is native to his Hung ga 5 animal style! I had forgotten how good this movie really is! Recommended!
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Shaolin Temple against Lama (1980)
This was a Taiwanese martial art treasure as Alexander Lo Rei who played a Prince that is trained in the Tibetan Lama Pai fighting art is fooled by the Black Faction sect into fighting against the Shaolin Temple in order for this deceitful clan to gain a stronghold into overthrowing the Chinese Han. The Black Faction attempts to turn Lo’s Lama Pai sect against the Shaolin so they can eradicate each other! How rude! The Black Sect gets nasty when they hire the Persian Killers to wipe out Shaolin and the Prince’s clan! The production value of this film was low, the martial art execution was high, and the plot was well..not much to it. The costume and dress of some of the villains reminded me of rejects from KISS with the shoulder pads minus the makeup! The action was slightly sped up but the execution of fight was amazing combining the traditional arts with the acrobatic! Alexander Lo Rei is definitely not a joke and the final fight sequence against the man with the “Iron Skin” was something else. It’s a clobber-fest and we recommend it! The print at the screening was in 16mm format on two reels and rather faded. Since Anthology only had one 16mm projector, they had to stop for a few minutes to thread & queue up the 2nd reel. It was great to hear the film in it’s native tongue instead of dubbed in my opinion!
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Bloody Parrot (1981)
This was one wild Shaw Brother film as I am still scratching my head trying to understand what was going on. The Bloody Parrot that wasn’t a parrot tinted with a hue of sexploitation and a lot of horror. Vomiting and some insane autopsy’s with exploding fluids from organs seemed to dominate the screen. There was this common goal of finding the missing treasure and pearls but I wasn’t totally clear on the intentions as demons, witchcraft, revenge, & a bloody parrot entered the scene. Oh yeah and I can’t forget to mention the use of a human face shaped as a frisbee weapon! I think I just gave up in trying to understand the film half way through and just enjoyed the weirded out visuals of darkness as a whole! I enjoyed it as working canvas of exploitation art as they would say! Also of note the director: Hua Shan also had a hand in making Super Inframan so that should give you some hints on the mindset and insanity we’re dealing with. If you can find the movie in any form, go see it! The screening we went to was a faded 35mm print but still enjoyable. It added more camp to the film!
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The Dragon Lives Again (1977)
Wow, what can I say about this film! It’s a Bruce Lee exploitation film (Brucesploitation) packed to the gills with insanity! The accompanying english dub adds even more silliness and fun into the equation! The opening film caption “Dedicated to the millions who love Bruce Lee” starts us off with this reboot or reincarnation of the Little Dragon. Bruce Leung Siu Lung plays Bruce in the afterlife in some alternate universe run by some Hollywood minions who despise Bruce Lee – the man, the myth, the Legend. The ladies on the other hand want a piece of Bruce in every which way they can often disrobing and trying to sex the Dragon up! The Exorcist leads the charge to eradicate Bruce in their bizarro world with the help of the Godfather, Zatoichi, Dracula, Emmanuele, Clint Eastwood, James Bond, and a band of zombies & mummies for backup. The dialogue, interaction, and background extras in the film were truly off the wall to the infinite degree. On Bruce’s side would be his right hand men of Popeye, Caine from Kung Fu, and the one armed swordsman! Bruce’s ultimate goal is to get transported back to earth and be far far away from this underworld of Hollywood stars! Bruce Leung Siu Lung’s martial art skills is worthy to play an offbeat clone of Bruce Lee but his onscreen acting I’m not so sure. Find this film, see this film, and get drunk watching this film!
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Red Spell Spells Red (1983)
This horror-exploitation film did not disappoint! A Hong Kong film crew goes to Malaysia to uncover a coffin of the wicked Red Dwarf in order to get video footage for their story. What they didn’t know is that they also unearthed a demon that would haunt them. Part of the film crew stays in Malaysia to visit the Borneo Long house for more video footage and this is where they all come face to face with the evil forces! A sorcerer, plenty of scorpions, sacrificial animals, and witchcraft are a plenty to move the story along. A human torture device on a spinning wheel also was a visual I could not get out of my mind. The indigenous location of the film and the tribal element of the setting added to the mystic of this evil legend! Tibet was also part of the story but I think Thailand was used as the film location to depict some of the temples & buddhist ceremonies that were portrayed in the movie. An amazing scene with a flood of scorpions crawling on a sorcerer with fire in the background along with the perspective of the camera spinning around to evoke a dizzying spell to the viewers was intense! HK filmmakers seem to love to go to Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam) for inspiration when blackmagic is in the mix. I was keeping my ears and eyes open for the Phillipines as a possible setting for this film shoot like in the case with the movie Boxer Rebellion which seemed to use the Phillipines (cost) and filipino actors to portray the indigenous sorcerers and demons. Watch this film and be plenty creeped out afterwards! A nice thorough shower is needed after such viewing!
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Angel Terminators (1992)
In the shadows of Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock in YES MADAM, Sharon Yeung and Kara Hui Ying Hung provided an updated tag team duo in Angel Terminators. Sharon and Kara played renegade HK cops in search of a Triad kingpin. Non-stop balls to the wall action led by the female Jackie Chan – Sharon Yeung would be the highlight of this film as stunts like scaling walls, jumping from buildings, negotiating a mountain, and plenty of high flying kung fu action will dominate this one. Femme Fatale Michiko provide the muscle as the hench lady and other HK heavies like Dick Wei, Mark Houghton, & Bruce Fontaine display their martial prowess against the dynamic duo! The final fight is not to be missed as things go out in a normal HK bang! This film is serious throughout with no comedic elements to it. There is no bobbing and weaving with Angel Terminators just straight up power punches originating from the hip and waist! According to Subway Cinema there were no english subtitled versions of this film so they had the translations done. Grady Hendrix was on hand at the screening to manually run the subtitles on Powerpoint! Go see this if you can! Bodies are flying everywhere!
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