Shaw Brothers DVD recommendations
So pockyman asks me for some Shaw Bros. DVD recommendations. I immediately drop what I was intending to write about tonight, just to pander to my tiny little audience. That's the kind of guy I am.(Seriously, man, thanks for the encouragement.)
Since everyone reading this probably knows me personally, you probably also know what the Shaw Brothers studio was: The most successful Chinese language film studio of the 1960s & 1970s. In the last 5 years, Celestial Pictures was set up in Asia to handle the much belated official re-release of over 700 old Shaw Bros. films on video, TV, and festival screenings. They've done about 500 DVDs, as many VCDs (some of which aren't on DVD), and have recently started a cable channel called Celestial Classics, which is all-Shaws all the time. Sadly, only in Asia.
Most of those region 3 DVDs are still available through import shops like dddhose.com, but over the last two years several US companies have been releasing region 1 discs, which is what I'll talk about here. Image has released about 20 items so far, and are currently scheduled to release 1 per month. Tokyo Shock have at least ten licenses, though have only released a few. BCI just announced 15 titles, but have yet to release any. Well Go USA are brand new, but already have 4 titles out, plus two on the way shortly. And The Weinstein Company brought 52(!) titles with them when they split from Miramax. They have only released 6 in the past year, the rats, but 5 of those are absolutely essential. So, let's stick to what is currently available (or coming in the next month or two) on Region 1 DVD in the US.
Think I'll break it down into loose categories for ease of digestion, since we're talking about a few dozen films.
Chang Cheh films: Chang Cheh is one of the most famous of Shaw's directors, known for bloody action, improbable styles and weapons, and a kind of fatalistic machismo that pervades most of his work. He's also known for working with a set of actors known as "The Venoms," due to their original collaboration on the film "The Five Deadly Venoms". They'd work together on various other films over the 10 years that followed.
Five Deadly Venoms is available dub-only, from a few years back. Don't think anyone else has the rights at this point. Our hero must face off against five master whose styles are based on 5 poisonous animals. Odd-ball kung fu at its finest. First film for the "Venoms" team.
Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms: aka Crippled Avengers. Out of print, dub-only, worth watching if you can find it. Crippled son of rich man gets evil prosthetics, learns kung fu, cripples anyone who pisses him off. Several of his victims band together, learn kung fu, seek vengeance. Even better than the original!
The One-Armed Swordsman: Absolute must-see! Made near the end of the 1960s wu xia (heroic swordplay) genre. Jimmy Wang Yu is a humble, poor martial arts student, mistreated by his fellow students and the master's daughter. A prank goes too far and he loses an arm. Naturally, he becomes a brilliant swordsman anyway! Typical shifting allegiances and political intrigue of the wu xia genre. Great dramatic stuff.
The Water Margin: First of two adaptations of portions of the classic Chinese novel of the same name. The second film, "All Men Are Brothers" has the other title the book is often known by, but isn't available in the US at this time. 108 heroes gather in the marshes to oppose a corrupt government. Only a dozen or so are featured prominently, but ain't that enough?
Other Chang Cheh movies include: House of Traps; Have Sword, Will Travel; The Heroic Ones; Deadly Duo; Heroes Two; Two Champions Of Shaolin and The Wandering Swordsman.
Swordplay films: The previously mentioned wu xia genre was at its peak popularity in the 1960s. Often centered around skillful heroines, the plots of wu xia films usually involve factions jockeying for political advantage through subterfuge and treachery. The hero or heroine must untangle a central mystery to see justice is done. In the 1970s, the wu xia faded before the onslaught of the uber-macho kung fu genre, but a few directors carried on, most notably Chu Yuan, whose beautifully shot films moved the genre into an increasingly fantastic and baroque world full of legendary weapons, bizarre mystic techniques and cunning villains with elaborate lairs.
Come Drink with Me: Directed by the great King Hu, starring the great Chen Pei-Pei (best known in the US for her appearance in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, made almost 40 years later) as a government agent sent to rescue a kidnapped official from bandits. She must team up with a prototypical drunken swordsman to defeat the gang's leaders. As thoughtful as it is action-packed. Essential.
Cave Of Silken Web: OK, not really a wu xia, but rather the second of a series of four musical fantasy adventures based on "Journey to the West." Definitely the sexiest of the 4, as the Monkey King and his pals run into some voracious spider-women. I was so pleased and astounded they released this in the US. I often wonder if someone bought it off the shelf at Best Buy expecting a kung fu film...
Magic Blade is a Chu Yuan film, in which Ti Lung and Lo Lieh play rival swordsmen who put their differences aside to retrieve the legendary Phoenix Dart from a mysterious villain. Many inventive action scenes lead to the usual grand finale in the villain's lair. Loads of fun but not as odd as:
Bat Without Wings, another Chu Yuan classic, this time starring Ti Lung as a kind of ancient Chinese Derek Flint. He helps out the daughter of a beleaguered family, as they unravel a particularly twisted mystery. Literally no one is who they seem to be, as our heroes travel to the final showdown at the trap-laden Bat Island. A real hoot.
Deadly Breaking Sword and The Shadow Whip are a couple lesser wu xias, worth a rental.
Kung Fu films: A different approach to martial arts films started in the very late 60s, a more visceral, personal approach. Street level fighting replacing flying swordsmen, personal grudges replacing political maneuvers. Shaws was a little late to adopt this style, but once they did they went whole hog. In the later 1970s, a new emphasis on the Shaolin Temple re-invigorated the genre, as did a dose of comedy in films like My Young Auntie.
King Boxer: This was the first proper kung fu film to get a wide release from a major studio in the US. Warner Bros. distributed it in the early 70s as "Five Fingers of Death." It made quite a stir, and it's still easy to see why. If I described the plot (rival schools, vengeance, training, yadda yadda) it would do nothing to convey how intense the film is. Lo Lieh stars as the upright student who learns the fearsome Iron Palm technique. Every time he uses it, he gets the opening music sting from "Ironside," which Tarantino re-swiped for "Kill Bill." Plus director Cheng Chang Ho was the only Korean director working for Shaw Bros. at the time, so that should earn some bonus pockyman points:) Must see.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Heroes of the East: Two from Liu Chia-Liang (aka Lau Kar-Leung) the only actual martial arts master to direct films for Shaw Brothers. Hi s films have a greater attention to detail and technique in the fight scenes, though don't expect any actual realism to creep in. It's just more convincing BS is all. 36th Chamber started the Shaolin craze good and proper, with its bizarre training practices, including the 18 Bronze Men."Heroes of the East," meanwhile is aka "Shaolin Challenges Ninja," in which a young Chinese man marries a Japanese bride via arranged marriage, only to discover she's a martial arts enthusiast. Pretty soon, marital strife raises its head as our newlyweds discover they can't agree on which style of martial arts is better. It's 50% Asian Taming of the Shrew, and 50% martial arts demo reel, as escalating domestic strife leads to our hero facing off against seven Japanese masters! Both films star Gordon Liu ("Kill Bill") and are well worth your time.
I haven't even got to the weird stuff, which I guess I'll save 'til another day. Anyhow, if you don't want to dive right into buying these DVDs, they're almost all available via Netflix. Hope this is of help to you, and there's plenty more to look forward to.