7/2/2023 0 Comments Five superfighters movie![]() ![]() ![]() Last but certainly not least, Lau Kar-leung directs the last major Shaw production, Martial Arts of Shaolin, filmed in mainland China with a hot new talent named Jet Li in the lead role it is paired in this set with The Bare-Footed Kid, a reverent remake of a Chang Cheh classic with Johnnie To (Running Out of Time) in the director’s chair and Lau back on fight choreography duties, in arguably the ultimate filmed tribute to Shaws’ everlasting cinematic legacy. Next, we once again meet Chang Cheh’s basher boy band the Venom Mob in no less than four of their best-loved team-ups: Invincible Shaolin, The Kid with the Golden Arm, Magnificent Ruffians and culminating in the all-star Ten Tigers of Kwangtung, co-starring Ti Lung and Fu Sheng.Īfter Lau brings us perhaps his best high-kicking comedy with My Young Auntie, a playful star vehicle for his real-life muse Kara Hui, we see Shaw Brothers fully embracing Eighties excess in our strangest double feature yet: Wong Jing’s breathtakingly wild shoot-‘em-up Mercenaries from Hong Kong, and Kuei Chih-hung’s spectacularly unhinged black magic meltdown The Boxer’s Omen. Already established as a genius at blending dazzling action with physical comedy, Lau himself plays the lead role in the hilarious Mad Monkey Kung Fu, coupled here with Lo Mar’s underrated Five Superfighters. We begin with kung fu master Lau Kar-leung’s instant classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, in which his adoptive brother Gordon Liu achieved overnight stardom as the young man who unexpectedly finds spiritual enlightenment on the path to vengeance Lau and Liu followed the original with two comically inventive sequels, Return to the 36th Chamber and Disciples of the 36th Chamber, both included here. Picking up where Volume One left off, this sophomore collection of Hong Kong cinema classics draws together many of the best films from the final years of the Shaw Brothers studio, proving that while the end was nigh, these merchants of martial arts mayhem weren’t going to go out without a fight! Armed with stunning special features and ravishing new restorations, this boxset is even bigger and bolder than the last one. ![]() Since The Video Vacuum motto has always been “quantity over quality”, I can’t give this any less than ***.Shawscope: Volume Two Limited Collector's Edition I just wish the fights themselves were real showstoppers instead of placeholders. Still, it’s hard to hate a movie that has more fighting than talking. While the film is action-packed, the action itself isn’t quite an exemplary representative of the genre. The finale is action-packed, but by the time it finally rolls around, you might feel a bit numb from it all.Īll of this certainly isn’t boring. The second act adds several training sequences into the mix while still not skimping on the Kung Fu. The first act in particular is full of fights. While the fights themselves aren't exactly mind-blowing or anything, they occur with such regularity that it's easy to forgive the sequences that are marred by unfunny comic relief or clumsy staging. They go their separate ways and each find new masters to teach them the skills necessary to defeat the man in black.įive Superfighters ain’t great, but I’ll say this for it: Hardly five minutes goes by in which a Kung Fu fight doesn't break out. ![]() (That is to say he kicks their ass.) When he beats up an old Kung Fu master, his three students vow revenge. A man in black pajamas goes around the countryside "correcting" people's Kung Fu. ![]()
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