Hong Kong Godfather Review

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(More customer reviews)The Shaw Brothers have created over a thousand films and with several having been aired on US television and some being released on video, and as most people tend to think of martial arts when it comes to the Shaw Brothers, they have also done several films outside of martial arts. A perfect example is their 1985 film "Hong Kong Godfather" (Jian dong xiao xiong).
"Hong Kong Godfather" revolves around three buddies who are part of a triad gang. Playboy Lung is one of the higher ups in the triad, while Wen is now a sergeant in the police and Wei is the former hack and slash member who has retired from the gang and now living a peaceful life and raising his teenage daughter. Each of these men are loyal to triad leader Uncle Han.
But there is a bit of dissension within the gang as one of their own members who doesn't get along with Playboy Lung is working with the rival gang and planning to kill of Uncle Han, his family and everyone who is a member of their triad.
When the rival gang goes after Playboy and nearly kills him, both Wei and Sergeant Wen know they must help their friend out and avenge their fallen uncle the best way they know how...by machetes.
VIDEO:
So far, each Shaw Brothers release that FUNimation Entertainment has looked quite solid. Thanks to Celestial Pictures going through major remastering and restoration for many of the Shaw Bros. films, "Hong Kong Godfather" looks pretty good for a 1985 film. But where there martial arts film doesn't seem so dated, "Hong Kong Godfather" reeks of '80s fashion and music. From the "Miami Vice" clothing, the Crockett and Tubs hairstyle (yes, the mullet is in full-effect) and more.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
"Hong Kong Godfather" is presented in Cantonese with an optional English stereo dub. As mentioned, this is a 1985 film and for the most part, dialogue is clear but the film sports some major '80s synth music that is more like listening to early '80s music from the old televison show C.HI.P.S. I don't remember music being like this in the mid-80's, probably early 80's but for the most part, the music doesn't hold up all that well over 25 years later. I prefered to watch this film with its original Cantonese language. I briefly listened to the English dub but it wasn't for me.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
"Hong Kong Godfather" comes with trailers of upcoming releases.
EXTRAS:
The DVD release comes with a slipcase cover.
JUDGMENT CALL:
"Hong Kong Godfather" was definitely an interesting and entertaining triad film.
I use the word "interesting" because I have watched many triad films and I don't think I have seen a film this bloody or violent. In some way, it's like playing a video game like "Resident Evil" or "Dead Rising" in which your constantly hacking and slashing or killing so many zombies. In this case, "Hong Kong Godfather" is a film about exact justice and three men taking on a lot of triad members with machetes and a lot of blood spurting while still maintaining some martial arts during the fight sequences. But for the most part, this is a film that focuses on machete slashing.
So, in many ways, "Hong Kong Godfather" is an "interesting" Shaw Brothers film for its mere content. Granted, today's violent films look more realistic while "Hong Kong Godfather" sports the "Miami Vice" clothing and hairstyles, bad '80s synth music but because of how crazy this film gets, you can't help but be entertained and in awe of what takes place.
The film has violence against men, women, children. Tons of blood and hacking. Many foreign, non-Chinese actors (makes me wonder if the Shaw Brothers was trying to make this film more accessible to a wider audience) as triad gang members (working for the rival gang), full frontal nudity and if your only exposure to Shaw Brothers films was martial arts films, "Hong Kong Godfather" definitely brings something new and over-the-top.
Overall, if you are looking for a crazy, bloody and violent Shaw Brothers film, "Hong Kong Godfather" is definitely for you!

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Sword Masters: The Heroic Ones*Shaw Brothers* (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)An allstar-stellar cast and the most invested film of it's time -a purported million dollars or more was apparently spent on this production- Ku feng, deservedly is cast as the father of an elite clan of sons who are all very good warriors. David Chiang and Ti Lung are his favorites though and this is beginning to offend some of their siblings leading to a revolt and tragedy for the entire family. This film probably has one of the highest or THE highest body count of any Shaw Brothers film. Bolo even makes an apparence in the beginning of the story. Extremely well written, an all out production, with fine acting make this film a must have by any Shaw Bros. collector. If this DVD comes with the english dubbs Shaws fans are instore for quite a treat. The translations are excellent for the english dubbs in this film.


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No screen team was more triumphant in the Golden Age of kung-fu cinema than the iron triangle of director Chang Cheh and his protégés David Chiang and Ti Lung. This is their quintessential historical epic, set during the waning years of the Tang Dynasty. It s literally brother against brother as David Chiang and Ti Lung display their remarkable martial arts prowess battling insiders and outsiders in a duel to the death for the fate of China.

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Masked Avengers (1982) Review

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(More customer reviews)Masked Avengers may be my favourite Shaw Brothers film... certainly it rates highly. I've bought, copied and stayed up late to tape it more times than bear mention. Naturally I was thrilled to see it on DVD... in digital format at last!!
But the product is mediocre at best. It is mastered from a very old video copy with plenty of artifacts, and very clearly not from film. It's not letterboxed, making much of the dialogue literally one-sided (since you can only see half of the screen), and as with other films released by NS and Ground Zero, there are gaps in the sound. To put it bluntly, there are plenty of better copies out there in private collections. Even the uncompleted synopsis on the box ("...a stunning climax at the Mask Gang's"-- what? The Masked Gang's what?!) indicates the level of carelessness that went into this "Limited Collector's Edition."
Still, this is likely to be the one and only digital print of a Chang Cheh milestone, and it's no worse than a 3am broadcast of Black Belt Theatre. Unfortunately, it's no better. Admittedly it's nice to see these old workhorses finally being immortalised and made available for sale. It would be nicer, however, if it could be done professionally, and with a bit of the affection that makes diehard fans buy them

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Item Name: Masked Avengers; Studio:SB

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The 14 Amazons (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Shaw Brothers, the company known for their many releases of Hong Kong films for many decades ran by producer Sir Run Run Shaw, knighted by the British government and founder of Shaw University in Hong Kong and even founded the HK-TVB TV network was a major power behind the company and his third brother Runme Shaw (who founded South Sea Film), the film company would become known as Shaw Brothers Studio and become the first studio to bring Hong Kong cinema with sound in 1934.
The Shaw Brothers have created over a thousand films and with several having been aired on US television and some being released on video, "The 14 Amazons" gets its release on DVD courtesy of Celestial Pictures and FUNimation Entertainment via their Hong Kong Connection line featuring original masters of the original film and both the Mandarin and English dub dialogue.
In 1972, the film "The 14 Amazons" was released in theaters and won Best Director (Cheng Kang), Best Supporting Actress (Lisa Lu), Best Sound Recording and Honorable Mention for Drama for the 11th Golden Horse Awards in 1973 and earn Lily Ho the "Oustanding Female Lead Performance" for the 19th Asian Film Festival (1973).VIDEO:
"The 14 Amazons" is presented in 16:9 and received restoration by Celestial Pictures. I was absolutely impressed by the restoration since a lot of the older Shaw films I have seen definitely shows its age. Watching this film, I was impressed by the colors and how the film looks as if it was made recently versus in 1972. I can definitely imagine how beautiful the print would be on Blu-ray where I'm sure the colors of the film would definitely pop.
The film utilizes quite a bit of colors and since the characters are seen during the outdoors, a good level of natural light is shown through the film. Details on mountains and lush scenery can be seen and of course, a lot of red for the blood seen on this film.
But aside from the colors which I enjoy, there are some problems that I did find. There is a blurring effect when the camera pans quickly and also some parts, was not sure if it was intentional (to be artistic) when you see the picture pause for a split second. Also, one scene where I felt the editing was cut to abruptly.
But overall, aside from those few negatives, it doesn't ruin the enjoyment of the film at all. The restoration of "The 14 Amazons" is quite impressive.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
As for audio, the film is presented in English Dolby Digital stereo and Mandarin Mono. Personally, having endured these Shaw films with the terrible (yet humorous) English dubs back in the late '70s and early '80s, just watching it again with the English dub just didn't make sense anymore (unless you get a kick of how bad they were acted). So, watching it with the Mandarin mono track was my choice and preference.
I felt the English stereo soundtrack was OK but felt the Mandarin mono to be much better. For listening, I had my receiver set for stereo on all channels for a more immersive soundtrack.
Some may be wondering why the film is presented in Mandarin when Hong Kong films are typically in Cantonese. The Shaw Brothers Studio had films split into Mandarin and Cantonese. Kang Cheng spearheaded the Mandarin division and was known for his violent martial arts films which were box office hits for the Shaw Brothers.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
"The 14 Amazons" comes with trailers of upcoming releases.
EXTRAS:
The DVD comes with a slipcase.
JUDGMENT CALL:
"The 14 Amazons" was actually quite an epic film and at first I was expecting a cheesy film but I was very impressed by the sheer amount of action, violence and also how many talent were featured in this film to showcase the battles between the two clans. I use the word "epic" but not in the way that you see many people onscreen like John Woo's "Red Cliff" but for a '70s film, there's a lot of extras on this film to create the feeling of war.
And in some ways, I felt that this film was quite ambitious with the amount of obstacles the Yang Family had to endure during their march towards Western Xia and showing the sheer violence of the King and his sons.
Also, different compared to other Hong Kong Wuxia films is that the cast is mostly all female (for the Yang family). Although General Pao's remaining son Yang Wen is played by a woman (Lily Ho), the film which the actress really shines in but can see her in other Shaw Bros. films such as "The Golden Knight", "Jade Faced Assassin", "Silver Fox" and "Angel" films.
But "The 14 Amazons" was definitely an exciting adventure/martial arts film. The amount of action and violence worked well with each other as well as having a clan full of women who can kick ass makes things a bit more exciting as well. Interesting to note is a short early appearance by now world renown martial arts actor Yuen Biao (who trained with Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Corey Yuen) who has a role of a Yang soldier.
As for the DVD, I'm glad that you do have the option of the Mandarin or English dub track and the restoration of the film definitely adds to the enjoyment of the film as well. A shame that there are no special features but then again, since the Shaw Bros. churned out films one after the other, I'm not sure if that type of footage of the making of the film is lost.
But on its own, FUNimation Entertainment and Celestial Pictures are doing a great service for fans of these classic martial arts films by releasing it on DVD in the US. If you are a fan of the Shaw Brothers, these restored DVD releases are worth watching!

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Shaolin Prince (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)I rented this movie because of it's title when I was going through my ninja movie stage. Yes, there are no ninjas in the movie. But thank god for the misleading title or else I probably would have never come across this movie which has easily become my favorite martial arts movie and I've seen probably a hundred of 'em. It's definitely action packed and the martial arts is very good. More importantly it's a lot of fun to watch, theres never a boring moment which is something a lot of the other martial arts films lack.

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The Super Inframan (1975) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of the greatest movies ever. If anyone used to like Power Rangers when they were little, then get ready for the greatest episode ever! Hap Wong, a character actor who has been in all types of kung fu movies over the years plays the lead scientist who heads a group who look for unnatural events happening. Well one has happened, the Dragon Mom Princess with her monsters and skeleton gang have taken over the world. Just great. Danny Lee from John Woo's 'The Killer' plays a scientist who is eager to save the world. Hap Wong has a special invention which will turn him into Inframan, a super human being with great strength and special laser beams that can destroy the monsters. Danny Lee becomes Inframan and saves people from all of these evil monsters.
I was just expecting a kiddie movie but a hell of a lot of time was put into this. This movie is from 1975 but the special effects are surprisingly fun. The monster costumes are great and the lasers aren't too bad. The final battle includes some good silly fun. It doesn't try to be, but this movie is just loaded with campy fun. Watching the scientist cross the river on a boat with this green monster to go negotiate with Princess Dragon Mom had me laughing out loud for a while. Talk about memory burn, I don't think I will ever get that image out of my head. Also look out for Bruce Le who was a bad Bruce Lee clone and does some good kung fu in here. Also it seems that Danny Lee is actually the man behind the mask, it just made the movie that much better. Not great kung fu, but better than average and great for a weird movie of this kind.
The release by Image Entertainment is outstanding. They have the rights from Celestial Pictures and the movie is remastered to perfection, letterboxed and all. You will have to turn the volume way up to hear the english dub but the and mandarin track has really good sound. It also has an hour of trailers! Wandering Swordsman is on there and I have always wanted to see that. Also Deadly Breaking Sword and a ton of other Shaw relaeses are on their. They also have a ton of non shaw brothers trailers and some look very weird to say the least. One that looks very interesting is Blood Stained Tradewinds which looks to be a 1990 dark drama from Ku Lung Wuxia novel director Chor Yuen. There is also a nice photo gallery and an insert with liner notes. The interview with the director says you have to put it in your DVD rom drive. I am not good with computers. Can someone tell me how to play this?

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Shaolin Master Killer (Widescreen Edition) (1979) Review

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(More customer reviews)Gordon Liu (also known as Lau Kar Fai) stars as a young man who's friends and family have been killed by the new government. He wakes up at the Shaolin Temple, a place he has only heard about a couple of times. When he realizes he is at the best place possible to learn kung fu, he begs and begs to learn so that he can revenge his family. He does finally get taught, but has to start with the basics. Every part of his body must become stronger before he can learn how to fight. After he finishes the first stages of training in record time, he is now highly respected and moves onto learning actual fighting styles. He breezes through this and becomes a great fighter in only 5 years or so. This is not one of those movies that has 1 or 2 training sequences. Gordon is shown in at least 13 of the chambers and half of the movie is spent at Shaolin. So after he has become a master fighter, he is given a high honor and told that he can become second in charge of any of the 35 chambers. A senior monk played by the great Lee Hoi San objects to this and says that he can't have this honor unless Gordon defeats him in a weapons duel. Lee Hoi San does not play a villain, but he does not think that Gordon is a good enough fighter to receive so much praise. His plan works better than he could have ever imagined. He ends up helping Gordon improve as a fighter and as a person. Gordon is told he can leave Shaolin now, and he goes to take revenge on the evil General who killed his family.
One thing that sets this movie apart is that it tries to be a real movie, and it succeeds. Watching Gordon grow up into a man is remarkable to see. The commentators didn't notice, but a lot of the stuff in this movie is very real. When Gordon has to use the pole with the wieght on the end to hit the bell over and over again, that is a real weight on the end of the pole! Gordon talks in the interview (included on this disc) about how the sabres that Lo Lieh uses in the final fight are real, and it just makes the movie that much better. Dont expect your average tale of revenge. I was touched deeply when I first saw this and there are not many kung fu movies that have as much meaning and feeling.
Rating- 5/5
Picture quality is remastered very well. It does get a bit darker and lighter in some scenes, but other than slight print damage once or twice, the picture quality is perfect. The Mandarin, Cantonese and English tracks all sound excellent. In fact, I have never heard the English dub sound this good. The subtitles should have been written better, and the English dub is actually a better translation. They are not horribly written, but could have been a lot better. I am not complaining though since this is the only fault on the DVD.
Special features include a great commentary from The RZA and this Andy Klein guy who does not know very much about the genre. Luckily RZA is there to help him point out actors like Lau Kar Wing, Wilson Tong and Hsiao Hou. I found the commmentary enjoyable. RZA talks about his experiences with this movie, and he is definitely a 36th Chamber expert. And I found it pretty funny that he seems to think Gordon Liu is a monk in real life.
The 17 minute interview with Gordon Liu is very interesting. He talks about many things such as training day and night and how great of an honor it was to work with a megastar like Lo Lieh. Gordon skips over the years like people should know what he is talking about, but just in case you don't, I will fill you in. In 1974 Lau Kar Leung was Chang Cheh's top action director and Gordon Liu was cast as a villain alongside Johnny Wang Lung Wei and Leung Kar Yan in movies like '7 Man Army'. When Lau Kar Leung split up with Chang Cheh he started directing his own movies for the Shaw Brothers, starting with 'Spiritual Boxer'. In his next movie 'Challenge of the Masters', Lau Kar Leung cast his younger adopted brother Gordon Liu as the lead. This is what led to Gordon becoming the star of 'The 36th Chamber of Shaolin', the greatest Shaolin Temple movie ever made.
There is a 17 minute documentary on Shaolin that is basically another 17 minutes of awesome info from Gordon Liu.
The 8 minute interview with film critic/scholars Andy Klein and David Shute is a very good description of how great of a movie this is.
The RZA gets a 10 minute interview where he talks about where he first started watching these movies and also gives his thoughts on the Shaw Brothers and explains why the Master Killer in his rap group took that name.
The trailers are the best special feature. The trailer for 'Shaolin Mantis' is very unique. Instead of showing clips from the movie, the actors introduce what kind of kung fu styles are going to be used (be sure to look for Lily Li!). Lau Kar Leung is the director of 'Shaolin Mantis' and doesn't even have a role in the movie, but he gets to show off his ultra awesome kung fu skills quite a bit in the trailer. I think I have watched this trailer about 50 times, and I will eventually master that Shadow style!
Also included are ORIGINAL trailers for 'The 36th Chamber', 'Return to the 36th Chamber', 'Disciples of the 36th Chamber', '8 Diagram Pole Fighter', 'My Young Auntie', 'One Armed Swordsman', 'Infernal Affairs 3' and the original Master Killer US TV commercial.
The last special feature is a gallery of original movie posters and movie stills.

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The One-Armed Swordsman (1967) Review

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(More customer reviews)Jimmy Wang Yu starred in many Shaw Bros. swordplay films in the 1960s, but it was THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (1967), directed by the prolific Chang Cheh, that put him on the map as the leading action star of Hong Kong cinema at the time and shifted the direction of HK sword films to a harder-edged, bloodier style with a greater emphasis on martial arts. It was the first film of its type to stress the training aspect of swordplay and gives the hero a half-burned manual which teaches him left-hand sword techniques after his right arm had been chopped off in a jealous pique by his master's beautiful but impetuous daughter. Having gone into hiding with a loyal farm girl (whose father had been a swordsman and was the original owner of the manual), Wang Yu goes back into action, after the requisite training period, to aid his former master when his school comes under attack from evil swordsmen led by Long-Armed Devil and Smiling Face.
The villains have a lethal device on their swords which locks on to the sword of their opponent and enables them to deliver the killing blow with a dagger held in their right hands as they fight. Only Wang Yu's broken sword (left to him by his dead father, who was killed when he was a boy) can counteract the effects of the sword-lock.
Wang Yu had the proper dark and brooding quality for such a role and he is well served by the violent, bleak tone of the film. He returned to the role in one official sequel, the nonstop slaughterfest, THE RETURN OF THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (1968), and later went to a rival studio to star in ONE-ARMED BOXER (1971). Shaw Bros. countered with THE NEW ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (1971), starring David Chiang in the title role, which had less intensity and more spectacle.

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(Action/Comedy) A young woman marries a dying senior member of a martial arts family in order to protect her family's fortunes, leading to a duel with a greedy relative.

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