This brings back bad memories. I only saw one or two of these kinds of films to quickly realize Hong Kong cinema was dead.
Theres something up with this Accented Cinema guy.
This video is pretty normal but then I watched his once about the "American sequel to JTTW" and he's gets mad about how Guyanyin is some sexy guy who sucks white dick*. Now I'm seeing reccomendations for videos of his about "The Desexualization of Asian Men." Is this some ricecel channel masquerading as a movie review channel?
*In the JTTW video he also said "messing with peoples religion is not okay!" which is a funnny thing for a Chinaman to say. He then says that Guanyin is a motherly figure and that being attracted to her is wrong so he's gay.
I'm currently watching through Chor Yuen's adaptations of Gu Long novels (basically these are martial arts movies with an emphasis on political/social maneuvering, deceit and murder.) They're good. Killer Clans was the first of his that I saw and I don't think I realized how prolific he was as a director. He's always given second billing compared to Chang Cheh, when people talk about Shaw Brothers movies. Or third billing, below Lau Kar-Leung. But it's very competent, thriller-fu film making. The martial arts is definitely more on the wuxia/fake magic side compared to 36th Chamber or Legendary Weapons of China, but we're talking about adaptations of wuxia novels in the first place. And there's still no CGI anywhere. Mostly just editing tricks and wire work.
First one I saw was Sentimental Swordsman. I enjoyed this quite a bit. Some of these stories can become a little overly complex. They're based on books, and in the process to film, it can be hard to deal with how the story gets compressed and character screen time reduced (relative to a book) so you don't have a chance to form a strong impression of each character. But this story is easy enough to follow. A guy is framed for crimes he didn't commit and manipulated for the benefit of the actual criminal. Through his friendship with another martial artist, he overcomes his opposition and identifies the real culprit: the "plum flower bandit."
SpoilerShow
"plum flower bandit" sounds like a code word for a rapist tbh
You can currently watch most of the Chor Yuen movies on youtube, but who knows how long they'll remain available:
Chor Yuen's movies should definitely be approached more as thrillers and films-as-storytelling, rather than because you want to see demonstrations of real martial art. Nobody during this time period could match the Shaws in terms of set design or costuming. Let's just ignore the little detail that these sets and costumes would be reused over and over and over in 100 Shaw pictures. But they're still very nice, regardless.
This guy has been mass uploading, ripping and sharing Shaw stuff on youtube. He sends google drive links on request. No idea how long his channel will last. Guess it depends who owns Shaw distribution rights in the USA. Dragon Dynasty went out of business and very few other companies are even putting out blu-rays of kung fu films. 88 Films has a few, but I don't know if any of them are Shaw.
A massive number of these films are simply unavailable via any other method than piracy, unless you own a VCR or some other dead media player. You always have to check with 88 Films Blu-Rays, incidentally, because they're not all the same region. Some releases are region 1 and some are region 2. Could be a problem for those without an all-region player.
Shaolin Intruders was a film I hadn't seen yet. I thought it was fairly enjoyable. It occupies a sort of middle ground between proper kung fu show-off vs wuxia fantasy. There's some stylized wire work for a few set pieces, but fights are still limited to practical effects. I suppose that's part of why even the more stylized "wuxia" films of this period appeal to me. They can't really do anything too fantastical when they're limited to smoke projectors and colored lights.
The core of this story is a murder mystery. Mysteries work well in kung fu and wuxia films. Five Deadly Venoms is a mystery and so is Sentimental Swordsman. The slow burn of figuring out who is doing what and why meshes well with dudes slapping each other angrily.
Blu-ray has regions, but I've heard that 4K UHD is not. I imported the Riki Oh Blu-ray from the UK and it was region locked. I had to pirate my own damn disk to get it to play.
I know there were some big expensive Shaw Bros Blu-ray sets. I didn't grow up with Shaw Bros though, so I didn't shell out for those. I've bought many of the Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sonny Chiba, and Etsuko Shihomi sets.
But they're still very nice, regardless.
