Chen Kuan Tai in Death Ring (1984) (Full movie)

Happy 70th Birthday Chen Kuan-tai!!

In his honor, I'm posting one of his movies.

Enjoy!

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Click for superlarge resolution picture

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For more information, please check out: 

• IMDB - Death Ring aka Lei Tai (1983)
• IMDB - Chen Kuan-tai
• Wiki - Chen Kuan-tai

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For other Chen Kuan-tai posts, please see:

• Invincible Monkey Fist (猴拳大決鬥) (1978) (Full video)
• Happy 69th Birthday Chen Kuan-tai!! [Iron Monkey (1977) (Full movie)]
• Chen Kuan-tai - Iron Monkey Strikes Back! (1978) (Full movie)
• Chen Kuan-tai in Shaolin King Boxer (aka Iron Fists) (1979) (Full movie)

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Happy 68th Birthday Ti Lung (生日快樂 狄龍)!! The Kung Fu Instructor (1979) (教頭) (Full movie)

Happy 68th Birthday Ti Lung (生日快樂 狄龍)!!

I am posting The Kung Fu Instructor (1979) (教頭) (full movie) in his honor!

Apologies to all, I couldn't find the full movie on YouTube and reluctantly posting this movie in 11 parts but it's a good movie and it stars the birthday boy, Ti Lung. It may be slow at points as it is a Kung Fu Staff instructional but I loved it! This movie and Gordon Liu's Invincible Pole Fighter are two great movies featuring the Pole/Staff prominently.

You all should be able to recognize the story. The plot is basically Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo starring the great Toshiro Mifune. Other movies that paid homage to Yojimbo including this Shaw Brothers movie are: Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (with Clint Eastwood); Walter Hill's Last Man Standing (with Bruce Willis) and Roger Corman's The Warrior and the Sorceress (with David Carradine).

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The Kung Fu Instructor (1979) Chinese: 教頭
Mandarin: Jiao tou
Cantonese: Gau tau
English dubbed


Synopsis:

The Kung-fu Instructor is martial arts film director Sun Chung's loose homage to Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo where unlike Toshiro Mifune's Sanjuro character being a snarling, bastard, drunk swordsman looking for a drink, popular actor Ti Lung's Huang Yang role, is an upright, righteous, weapon instructor looking to keep his limbs. Huang is a famous martial artist trapped into teaching kung-fu to the wrong clan while the opposing "good" clan tries to save him so he can instruct their members. Besides kung-fu comedian Wang Yu starring in one of his few serious roles, Sun became the first Shaw Brothers' director to use a Steadicam which gives the film's action and editing style a unique brand of tension and rhythm. The pole fights are also out of this world.

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Trailer

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Movie in 11 parts

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For more information, please check out:

• IMDB - The Kung Fu Instructor
• Wiki - The Kung Fu Instructor
• IMDB - Ti Lung
• Wiki - Ti Lung

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In case you missed my other Ti Lung entries I've posted, please check out:

• Happy 67th Birthday Ti Lung!
• Ti Lung - Return of the Sentimental Swordsman (1981) (Full movie)
• Ti Lung's Deadly Breaking Sword (1979) (Full movie)
• Soul of the Sword (1978) starring Ti Lung (Full movie)
• Ti Lung stars in The Sentimental Swordsman (1977) (Full movie)
• Ti Lung in King Eagle (1971) (Full movie)

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Happy 67th Birthday Ti Lung!

Hard to believe one of the oldschool Shaw Brothers superstars, Ti Lung, turns 67 today! It was only like yesterday I was a kid and watched him in 5 Shaolin Masters! Wishing Ti Lung health, wealth, and happiness and many many more birthdays to come!


Animated GIF's coming in time!



Tribute to Ti Lung






Ti Lung vs Chen Kuan Tai fight scene from Opium and the Kung Fu Master (1984)

For more information:

• Wiki
• IMDB

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Ti Lung - Return of the Sentimental Swordsman (1981) (Full movie)

One more movie of Ti Lung's I'm posting in honor of his 67th birthday. Enjoy this full movie!


Synopsis

Li Xunhuan comes back to his home after three years of wandering. He is decided to have a normal life, but a group of skilled martial arts fighters and leaders are bent on killing him, so they can be ranked top by Bai Xiaosheng in his renowned list of the best warriors in the martial arts world. Li Xunhuan battles them as he searches for his estranged friend A'fei, who is now married and living in seclusion. Li asks A'fei to join forces and fight against a new threat that wants to rule the world: the Money Clan.

    Return of the Sentimental Swordsman (1981)



For further info:

• Wiki
• IMDB

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Ti Lung's Deadly Breaking Sword (1979) (Full movie)

I'm posting another movie in celebration of Ti Lung turning 67 today! Enjoy this full movie!


Synopsis

The Deadly Breaking Sword elevated director Sun Chung to the martial arts director ranks of Chang Cheh. Starring the incomparable Ti Lung and Jackie Chan's kung-fu comedic rival Alexander Fu Sheng, acclaimed fight choreographer Tang Chia had a field day increasing the stars' venomous fighting appeal. Armed with the "Deadly Breaking Sword" technique, Tuen Cheng-tsin (Ti Lung) unites with thief Ko Mun (Alexander Fu Sheng) to defeat an assassin being "acupuncturingly" controlled by the evil Dr. Kuo. 

Deadly Breaking Sword (1979)




More info:

• IMDB

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Soul of the Sword (1978) starring Ti Lung (Full movie)

Here's another Shaw Brothers movie starring the titanic Ti Lung! Enjoy!!



Synopsis

SOUL OF THE SWORD (1978) is a swordplay drama from Hong Kong's Shaw Bros. studio starring Ti Lung and featuring several superb fight sequences involving both sword fighting and kung fu. However, it's quite different from the studio's usual swordplay films, particularly those directed by Chor Yuen (THE MAGIC BLADE) and Chang Cheh (BLOOD BROTHERS), both of whom also worked frequently with Ti Lung. This one has fewer characters and more of an emphasis on the romantic relationship that grows between "Nameless" (Ti Lung), a swordsman seeking to unseat the current "King of Swords," and Ho Lien, a young woman shopkeeper (Lin Chen-Chi) with whom he falls in love. In between sword fights, the film addresses the question of how love affects a swordsman's destiny. Complicating matters is the fact that the woman is identical in appearance to a woman glimpsed by "Nameless" as a boy in the film's opening sequence. In that scene, a swordsman who challenges the King of Swords is defeated and killed and his woman companion (also played by Lin Chen-Chi) kills herself out of grief. This incident inspires "Nameless" to excel in swordsmanship so he can defeat the "King," but also haunts him with visions of the dead woman and has tragic implications later on. Ku Feng plays Chiu I, the last of the film's three leading characters, a clever doctor who befriends Nameless and offers him advice.


Directed by Hua Shan (INFRAMAN, LITTLE DRAGON MAIDEN), the film is beautifully shot and edited and includes an important cinematic feature less frequently used in the films of Chor Yuen and Chang Cheh. Hua Shan and his cinematographer provide frequent closeups of the leading performers, adding a powerful emotional lift to the story. It helps that Ti Lung is at the top of his game here, as both an actor and an action star, and that Lin Chen-Chi is a most beautiful young actress who photographs well from every angle. This is only the third film I've seen her in (the others are SPIRITUAL BOXER, also reviewed on this site, and BATTLE WIZARD), yet I find her among the most riveting of Shaw Bros. actresses. Breaking with the conventional model of Shaw Bros. beauty, she's thin and angular with a long nose and thick lips too big for a small face but balanced by piercing eyes set wide apart and a nice space of forehead. The cumulative effect is just mesmerizing and the cameraman seems to agree.


One of the small number of significant supporting characters is Yien (Norman Chu), a rival swordsman who has unsuccessfully courted Ho Lien, only to see her fall for Nameless. His attempts to settle matters are equally unsuccessful, although he gains an ally in a vengeful swordswoman who'd lost a female partner to Nameless's sword earlier in the film. (Kung fu diva Lily Li has a cameo as the ill-fated partner, with awkward shots of a nude body double spliced in.) The large number of cast members listed by IMDb for this film is presumably accounted for by the numerous quickly-glimpsed and hastily-dispatched opponents of Nameless.


The consistently exciting action is staged by Tang Chia and includes a number of sword duels and larger-scale fights in which Ti Lung faces off against multiple opponents, including one memorable confrontation in a studio-built bamboo forest. Ti is also forced to fight without sword in more than one battle and uses his kung fu skills to great effect. The fights may not be as brutal or bloody as those found in Chang Cheh's films, but they're also far less gimmicky and stylized than those in Chor Yuen's films. This is a film that relies more on character and relationships and less on tricks and plot twists. There's a very moving and evocative Chinese music score tying it all together, a welcome change-of-pace from the mix-and-match, cut-and-paste scores we often hear in these films.

Soul of the Sword (1978)

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Ti Lung stars in The Sentimental Swordsman (1977) (Full movie)

One of the Shaw Brothers classics starring one of their biggest stars, Ti Lung. Enjoy!


Synopsis

Due to his own extreme ideals, famed swordsman Li has lost everyone dear to him. After his life is saved by a rival swordsman, Li's overwhelming pride means he forsakes the woman he loves and lets her marry his saviour. Now resigned to traveling the country with his loyal aide, Li's only comfort is alcohol and the simple life he has now accepted. On one such journey, the lonely swordsman befriends the exceptionally skilled, yet secretive Fei who has his own pressures to contend with. Li then finds himself embroiled in a battle to own the highly-prized 'gold armour shirt' — a protective vest that can withstand any blow.

As he discovers that many of the people he meets have a hidden agenda, Li realizes that Fei is the only man he can truly trust. This new friendship is put under test when the 'sentimental swordsman' is hunted down by numerous hired killers and framed for a series of crimes he didn't commit. The person behind Li's troubles proves to be elusive, though all the clues seem to point to the legendary 'Plum Blossom Bandit', a disguised figure whose identity has long proved elusive to the martial world.

The Sentimental Swordsman (1977)    




For more info, please check out:

• Wiki

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Ti Lung in King Eagle (1971) (Full movie)

In celebration of the great Ti Lung's 67th birthday, enjoy this full movie!


Synopsis

This Shaw Brothers martial arts classic follows Jin Fei (Ti Lung), aka King Eagle, a skilled but reclusive warrior. With warring clans fighting it out all around him, Fei remains a neutral avenger of the innocent until love draws him inexorably into battle. But his romance with chief Yuk Lin (Lei Cheng) of the Tien Yi Tong society means taking on Lin’s evil twin sister, one of the most formidable opponents Fei has ever faced.

King Eagle (1971)



Further information:

• Wiki
• IMDB

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Some of my favorite martial arts/action movies

I am somewhat of a martial arts/action movies buff. Many fans always compare their Top Ten list of All-Time Favorite Martial Arts Movies or Action Scenes. I, to date, cannot be pegged into a Top Ten of my favorites.

So I 'cheat' and come up with a few lists broken out into various categories. I guess one day I will have my Top Ten list, but until then, check out mine. 

Do you agree? Disagree? What is your Top Ten?



Some "oldschool" I love (in no order)

1) Five Venoms - 'nuf said... Wing Tsun master Leung Ting did the MA choreography

2) Invincible Shaolin aka Unbeatable Dragon - 5 Venoms gang stars... evil Manchu general, Wang Lung-wei, manipulates Northern Shaolin to fight Southern Shaolin -- features "Snake" learning the Yung Chun (aka Wing Chun) style and "Toad" learning Southern Praying Mantis - 2 of my fave styles

3) Shaolin vs Ninja aka Heroes of the East - Gordon Liu (Master Killer) marries a Japanese woman... inadvertently his comments to his wife about the Japanese MA is misinterpretted as a diss by her martial brothers and sensei... the sensei sends 7 of his students... all experts in various arts to challenge Liu - judo, single nunchuku & single sai vs butterfly swords; japanese spear vs red-tassled spear; etc

4) Invincible Leg Fighters - Dorian Tan shows why he should be in consideration as one of the best kickers of the oldschool generation (My friend says he was very good in The Hot, The Cold, and the Vicious -- I haven't had a chance to watch yet)

5) 5 Masters of Death aka 5 Masters of Shaolin - the first kung fu movie I can remember seeing... i was ~10 yrs old; all star cast -- all from director Chang Cheh's stable of actors/godsons -- a who's who of oldschool superstars: David Chiang, Ti Lung, Alexander Fu Sheng, etc

6) 36th Chamber of Shaolin aka Master Killer - Gordon Liu -- inspirational training scenes on a par with Rocky training scenes


loads more...


Bruce Lee/Jackie Chan/Jet Li

1) Way of the Dragon aka Return of the Dragon - prefer this over Enter the Dragon - Bruce Lee wrote, directs, stars, and did the MA choreography

2) Enter the Dragon - 'nuf said

3) Armor of God - Jackie plays the Asian Hawk, a Chinese Indiana Jones... loads of action.. one stunt almost killed Jackie and left him with a hole in his head

4) Fist of Legend - Jet Li remakes Bruce Lee's The Chinese Connection aka Fists of Fury

5) Once Upon a Time in China 1-3 - Jet Li plays Wong Fei-hung


Some recent I love in no order

1) Flashpoint - more action movie than pure martial arts movie, but Donnie Yen vs Calvin Chou is the wet-dream of any MMA/BJJ fan

2) Ip Man 1 & 2 - Donnie again... these 2 movies may be a thin veil of the Chinese Nationalism... both movies follow the same structure... Ip Man is challenged by the rest of the CMA community, he beats them... foreigner comes in and kills one of the Chinese MA community who was a friend of Ip's... he fights the foreigner and wins ... think it was a little unrealistic for him to take on 10 karatekas in #1 -- but overall, love Donnie's acting... he doesn't play his usual cocky self (which is closer to real life for him)... he plays a subdued/reserved man. The tabletop fight vs Sammo in #2 is way over-the-top but so enjoyable!

3) Legend of the Fist - Return of Chen Zhen - no surprise, Donnie yet again... may have been a statement to Hollywood casting Taiwanese pop idol Jay Chou as Kato lol... great visuals/sets a la Tim Burton's Batman... the opening fight vs the German soldiers had me so hyped, I couldn't sleep that night! watched it over and over! the adrenaline and testorene overflowed! overall uneven movie for me, but Shu Qi/Hsu Chi's acting as well as Donnie's was good. The fights and visuals helped make this movie for me to be a favorite - it could've been better

4) 14 Blades - ok my last Donnie for now lol - Donnie in a period piece, plays Green Dragon, the best of the Emperor's secret police... takes on a powerful eunuch ... look for oldschool Chen Kuan-tai in a cameo fight; plot is a little confusing, but scenery is beautiful and the fights entertaining... love rottie Kate Tsui with her whip/veils style

5) Ong Bak - Tony Jaa - love the thai bareknuckle fights... 1 little krabi krabong fight... Jaa's inspirations while growing up was Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan... lots of Chan's 'parkour' stunts by Jaa. 

6) Tom Yum Goong aka The Protector - Tony Jaa again. towards the end, probably homage to Bruce Lee's Game of Death, filmed in one long take, he is in a restaurant and fights his way to the upper floors; one of my fave scenes ever, Jaa breaks the arms and legs of 53 goons if memory serves (yes I'm a martial arts movies geek, i sat there and counted! lol at me)

7) Yamada - The Samurai of Ayothaya -- Buakaw has a part in this... based on Historical figure, samurai stranded in Thailand, comes to adopt Thailand as his homeland and helps defend it from attacks -- if you loved the Thai bareknuckle action in Tony Jaa's Ong Bak, check this one out!
 
8)The Raid: Redemption - Iko Uwais in an almost pure 90 mins non-stop adrenaline ride! one fave scene is his use of the PR-24 baton paired with a folding knife against ~10 bad guys.

9) The Man From Nowhere aka This Man - in the bonus features of the dvd, the making of part... it's mentioned the powers that be behind this movie wanted to show something different to the Korean audiences and they went with the Filipino martial arts... my fave art... fight scenes were short and ballistic... last fight scene had the star fight off like 10 guys with a gun and later a knife... the knife fights is one of the best in recent memory... when i watched this movie, the testosterone/adrenaline overflowed...couldn't sleep afterwards (i watch these 'violent' movies when the wife and kids are asleep)

10) City of Violence - Korean movie, 2 buddies take on the rest of the Korean mafia that is out to kill them... parts of it is homage to the cult classic The Warriors


loads more...



Will be watching sooner or later:

Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins - period piece
War of the Arrow - period piece




I really have to come up with my Top Ten list lol ... what are some of your favorite martial arts movies?

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