Reviews written by Martial Arts Raider
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The Chinese Boxer
November 27, 2006 Great film ..bad soundtrackThis version of the classic " Chinese Boxer" has been restored to its highest glory even better than the theatrical release for that I give it an A plus...unfortunately, as with the movie "Deadly Duo" the music soundtrack has been partially re-recorded with a synthesizer and produces an cheap sound that always ruins some key moments in the movie..I just don't know why Celestial couldn't keep the original music soundtrack intact. The original music was spectacular in accompanying the mood of the movie. Otherwise the movie is still worth getting.
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Crazy Shaolin Disciples
January 21, 2006 Great Cast ...Bad Script...poor directionCrazy Shaolin Disciples has one of the more interesting casting essembles in Shaw brothers history. It combines some of the Venoms with Gordon Liu. The major flaw of this movie is the silliness it tries to create in order to make the audience laugh. And I'm sorry to say it doesn't work at all. One of the reason is the way the film portrays shaolin monks and its upcoming students as juvenile delinquents similar to "Animal House". Throughout the movie, the monks are constantly playing pranks with the students and vice versa which really leads to no where in the story other than to provide some cheap laughs. Unfortunately, the first time director failed to recognized that the Shaolin Temple was always a place of workship and a sactuary instead it is converted into a fraternity house which makes the story unbelievable. There is also a subplot of the Qing government chasing after Hung Si Kwan, portrayed by Lo Meng (Venom). Unfortunately his character is very inconsistent and is no where close to how well Chen Kuan Tai portray that same character in "Heroes Two". It is also a shame that Kuo Che (Venom)is reduced to being a comedy relief as a Elder Monk who are overly lenient with his mischevious disciples rather than being able to showcase his martial arts. The inconsistent plot mixes in patriotism with comedy, which unfortunately leads to confusion for the viewer. All in all, this movie is a dud with a wasted cast esemble. Spend your money on "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" and "Heroes Two" but not this turkey!
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River Of Fury (Hong Kong Version)
River Of Fury (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 3
(2)Our Price: US$14.49Usually ships within 7 - 14 daysRelated promotions:September 29, 2005 River of Boredom..!This film starts out with a promising story...a young man from China, Danny Lee,seeks a better future after the death of his parents, by traveling to farway places with his uncle, actor Ku Feng who operates a boat. There, Danny meets up with rising Opera Singer, Lily Ho, who falls in love with him and is scheduled to marry him until greed strikes. All the actors are good in this film especially Ku Feng,who plays an ambiguous character..but the storyline is thin and really goes no where in the middle and I thought that the opera scenes were a little too long. Lily Ho's character was a little too inconsistent for me but her acting was top notch. If you're looking for a good martial art film, this is not the right movie..if you like Lily Ho, light drama and chinese opera you might find this film entertaining.
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Marco Polo (Hong Kong Version)
September 29, 2005 Classic Fu Sheng film! but Marco Polo needs work!Marco Polo was one of the many films which highlighted Fu Sheng's rising popularity, humor and martial art talents. It is also the first film to introduce Kuo Che,who later was known to many as the "Lizard" of the Five Venoms,as one of the main heroes in this film. This film features excellent martial arts scenes such as Kuo Che's leaping skills as well as enjoyable training scenes with entertaining "Masters" similar to the film "Shaolin Martial Arts" and "Shaolin Temple" As a bonus, there are some surprise guest appearances such as Gordon Liu,who plays a different role than his usual "Hero" character. Also, the biggest surprise was seeing Carter Wong,who usually stars in Golden Harvest Films,(The 18 Bronze Men)in a Shaw Brother Film. The storyline is average..but the weak point of the film is actor Richard Harrison, who plays Marco Polo. I can see why he defected to Hong Kong for acting roles, because he cannot act. Most of his scenes consist of staring or admiring at the chinese fighters or smiling at Shih Sze,wife of Carter's Wong's character. He was a tad better in "Boxer's Rebellion" but that's not saying much. Also, his character is not believable. His sudden change of heart for the Hans people was not credible after all he was the highest rank officer who was doing very well for Emperor Kalubakhan. Other than this minor point, the film is a great one for Alexander Fu Sheng as well as Kuo Che fans.
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Heaven And Hell
September 18, 2005 This movie is a mess..don't let the movie box fool"Heaven and Hell" is literally a mess of a movie. I watched this movie because I thought Fu Sheng, David Chiang and the Venoms stars will be teamed up together to fight the baddies and with Chang Cheh direction what can go wrong? Well,the first thing is that Fu Sheng and David Chiang are really guest stars and not the main ones and the parts that they are in are boring and quite silly. Secondly, director Chang Cheh seem to want to create a retro version of "Young People" and "Generation Gap" as well as Stanley Kubrick's "Clockwork Orange" filled with our stars singing and dancing. There are scenes which utilizes a stage with cheap props that makes no sense other than to show a little artsy look to the storyline. That style worked with those movies but not in this one. As for the plot,it is very inconsistent and jumps around too much to really grab the viewer's attention. I almost couldn't believe that he made Fu Sheng a singer rather than a fighter with his usual humor. Fu Sheng does fight but not enough to grab anybody's attention and by the time we meet up with the Venoms the movie feels only a quarter entertaining. This is probably Chang Cheh's worst effort.
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The Drug Addicts
1 people found the following helpful
September 18, 2005 Movie with a message..David Chiang directorial deb"Drug Addicts" was David Chiang's first directorial debut starring his pal Ti Lung as the drug addict. Although some of the drug addict scenes were a little over the top, the storyline was interesting and Ti Lung with his acting ability pulls off his character very well. What really makes the movie click is Wang Chung's character, who helps Ti Lung overcomes his addiction but find himself caught ironically working as a drug pusher for a gang. The fighting scenes are well choregraphed and the music soundtrack interestingly sets the mood for the drug addiction scenes. This is one of the few asian movies that dealt with the drug scene during that period as well as delivering a message to the audience. Good job David Chiang.
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Descendant Of The Sun (DVD) (Hong Kong Version)
Descendant Of The Sun (DVD) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 3
(2)Our Price: US$14.49Related promotions:September 17, 2005 Superman Ripoff, director Chu Yuan worst effortAlthough I have never seen "Descendant of the Sun" during its theatrical release, I was eager to view this film on Celestial's restored DVD. I was expecting a great storyline with heavy swordplay action, good suspense storytelling and interesting characters that Chu Yuan is known for. Instead, the movie rips off the American Superman plot and uses too much animation rays that really gets annoying as it progress throughout the film. The plot is silly and Derek Yee, who can act and does descent martial arts in the past cannot save this turkey. He looks silly flying around on a visible wire throughout the film. I suspect that this film was Chu Yuan's later efforts before he quit Shaw Brothers because it definitely does not even come close to his earlier great films such as "The Magic Blade" "Sentimental Swordsman 1 & 2" etc. I gave this film a one star for the classic Chu Yuan set designs but other than that,don't waste your money on this film..spend it on the earlier ones.
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Chinatown Kid
September 16, 2005 Deleted Scenes and alternate ending...Why CelestiaChinatown Kid was a movie that I was hoping that Celestial would remaster on DVD. When I watched at the chinatown theater, it was funny and had some good fighting scenes in it. Fu Sheng was up and coming and the Pre Venom Mob was featured in this movie. Although the sets were chessy and not authentic, it was probably the first chinese movie to focus the storyline around chinatown during that time. The good news is that they did an excellent job with the color and sound of the movie... the bad news is that there were some deleted scenes such as how some of the venom cast graphically died and the biggest deletion scene involving an extra villain that were featured in the original print. Also, the ending of this DVD was not the same ending as the original. The new ending was unexciting and probably was an outake. In fact there is an american DVD version of this film that contains the missing villain scene and the original ending. So my question to Celestial is why delete these scenes as well as the original ending..I thought these remastered DVD's are suppose to contain restored footage uncut. I was a disappointed in this version of "Chinatown Kid" but despite all this ..it was still entertaining.
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