As
I keep saying, this stuff isn't mine and may very well be pulled for breach of
copyright. You can, of course, go looking on YouTube, or its foreign variants,
for copies. I'm sure you know how.
When
I were a lad "Made in Hong Kong" was stamped on all sorts of stuff.
It was a by-phrase for cheap and tacky. But that was about to change.
I
was a young teenager when Enter the Dragon was released so I didn't see it for
a few years as it was classified as an X back then. When I did see it, it was
cut but I still thought "FFS!". It was awesome, a good old fashioned
spy/espionage affair with some martial arts thrown in long before the high-tech
of Bourne or Crouching Tiger. Naturally, I decided to see loads more as well as
manage to track down where I could see it in its uncut glory. This was the
first martial arts movie to be produced by a major Western TV studio. It
spawned an interesting TV series (Kung Fu) as well as some tripe (The Water
Margin or Monkey).
Well that was a bad
move as back then all you could see were "Chop Socky" movies out of
Hong Kong. You know the kind of movie, even if you've never seen one - the hero
fights his way through the movie, in houses, on the street, in parks and
fields, on top of trains. He is often battered within an inch of his life but
always wins through. These films, when I watched them, were invariably dubbed
(More about dubbing in a forthcoming blog?) but I still lapped them up. I'd
spend all day in the cinema watching the movies. Binge viewing before it caught
on. I was living in Glasgow in the late 70s and spent many an entire weekend
sitting in some flea-pit with nothing but a choc-ice to see me through the day.
A 'net search for Shaw
Brothers will get you going. And going. And going.
Back to Bruce Lee: He
died and eventually, his last film was released. This was Game of Death. Again, not too bad a film. Unfortunately, the game to play when watching
it is to look for the joins. Bruce Lee died in the middle of filming but there
was enough "in the can" to be going on with. So, in come the
bandages, the fake beard - all wound into the story to make them believable.
There is even a cut-scene when Bruce Lee was on display in his casket. The
real, dead body.
The film has numerous
doubles, numerous cuts from older films but it does have a good storyline. I'd
watch both the re-mastered version (with all(?) the footage) as well as the
version that was released to the big screen. It is worth it. But I do say that
as a die-hard Kung Fu movie fan.
Those are the two of
his that top my list. There are others but I'll leave you with those two.
This ramble brings me
to Ip Man, starring Donnie Yen.
Now Ip Man was a
martial arts master and teacher - he taught Bruce Lee, and this is his story.
The movie is brilliant - there is no other word for it. Definitely on the
"must see" list. This is the third outing (of many) of a fighter in
the ring of opponents - Bruce Lee, Jet Li and now Donnie Yen. Watch and see who
you think does it best.
I only have picked
those two action stars, I have not mentioned the movies of Jackie Chan or Jet
Li but I could have.
These movies are
another chicken and egg thing - do I like the movies because of the Eastern
philosophy or did I get into the Eastern stuff because of the movies?
I'll finish here with
a parody. Do you remember Airplane! or Police Squad? Well before them came The
Kentucky Fried Movie and it contained a major segment, "A Fistful of
Yen". Well worth a watch.
That's it. Hopefully, the next bit of this blog will be sooner
rather than later.
Comments, whether in agreement or not, are
always welcome.
