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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 2d

The Deadly Companions (1961)

Starting off with Sam Peckinpah’s first feature, something I’ve been meaning to watch for years now and have just never made the time for. Starring John Ford favourite Maureen O’Hara

Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 2d

Western Wednesday #39-43

My Blu-ray player has just decided to stop working and so I won’t be watching these Westerns I found in a DVD store in Nantes, and will instead just watch whatever shit I can find on Tubi

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 3d

The titular sword is a dark object, with evil intent forged into it, a powerful weapon that brings misfortune upon the one who wields it, making this almost the Wuxia equivalent of Winchester ‘73 or The Wild Bunch, stripping away the heroism and the glory from the violence that undergirds the genre

Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 3d

Li Mak-Jan (Adam Chen Siu-Chow), a young swordsman looking to prove himself, wants to duel the reclusive master Hua Quian Shu (Tien Feng). His travels bring him into contact with Hua’s daughter (Jade Hsu), as well as his childhood love (JoJo Chan Kei-Kei) and her sinister husband (Eddy Ko Hung)

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 3d

The Sword (1980)

Tam’s first feature, following several years of making social realist tv movies about the place of women in Hong Kong society (I need to get my hands on his Seven Women series). Beautiful, stately, modernist compositions with Tony Ching Siu-Tung’s King Hu on speed choreography

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 3d

This one starts off very goofy, but then there are huge tonal swings when Ko Tai Hoi starts kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and eventually murdering women. These scenes aren’t played for comedy, which is good, but their proximity to the slapstick goofs gets very jarring

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 3d

This first confrontation with Ko happens while Wong is writing. Ko insults him and the two duel with calligraphy brushes, each trying to write different words (“benevolence”, “kill”, “submit”, “death”) that express their feelings towards the other. Turns minor wrist actions into essential cinema

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 3d

Kwan Tak-Hing has a much smaller part in this than in The Skyhawk, but despite it being 5 years later he seems sprier and more engaged. That’s at least partially because Yuen Woo-Ping designs his one big fight scene around Kwan’s skills and limitations, rather than bringing in somersaulting doubles

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 3d

Lam Sai-Wing (Sammo), an overzealous and foolish Kung-fu student gets into trouble with Ko (Lee Hoi-Sang), his master’s rival. When Ko’s near-do-well son (Fung Hak-On) kidnaps Lam’s sister and frames Lam for killing Ko’s goddaughter, Lam trains with a drunken master (Fan Mei-Sheng) for revenge

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 3d

The Magnificent Butcher (1979)

The second movie where Sammo Hung plays the student of Kwan Tak-Hing’s Wong Fei-Hung, although this is an out-and-out Sammo vehicle in a way that The Skyhawk wasn’t. Very few people have ever been as good at playing incredibly confident idiot blowhards as Sammo

Poster for The Magnificent Butcher (1979)

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 4d

My favourite running gag is this guy who lives inside an urn and is summoned by the bad guy to do his bidding. He is able to pop all of his limbs back in and disappear, or move by rolling around, and he fights with a paper sword that acts like metal. Shu defeats him by convincing him he’s ugly

Brandy Yuen Jan-Yeung as Child in Urn in The Miracle Fighters

Brandy Yuen Jan-Yeung as Child in Urn swordfighting with Eddy Ko Hung in The Miracle Fighters (1982)

Brandy Yuen Jan-Yeung as Child in Urn facing off against Yuen Yat-Cho in The Miracle Fighters (1982)

Close up of Brandy Yuen Jan-Yeung as Child in Urn in The Miracle Fighters (1982)

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 4d

This one is so silly, even more so than a lot of the other Taoist action films I’ve seen. The bickering between the two elderly priests is especially fun as they each work to sabotage the other’s spells. Yuen Woo-Ping gets his whole family (The Yuen Clan) involved in acting and stunt performing

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 4d

The Miracle Fighters (1982)

Shu (Yuen Yat-Choh) is mistaken for the young prince who was kidnapped years earlier. The royal sorcerer (Yuen Shun-Yi) decides to pass him off as the prince to advance his own position, so Shu must learn magic from two cranky Taoists in order to protect himself

Chinese poster for The Miracle Fighters (1982)

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 4d

The final fight, with Yuen and Sammo using their cheeky, acrobatic Monkey Kung Fu to combat Lau’s more traditional and brutal martial arts is such an achievement. The imagination with which Sammo constantly reconfigure the three bodies in relation to the space and each other is endlessly thrilling

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 4d

The way his character’s fighting style changes over the film to reflect the influences of his new teachers is so impressive. Rarely has an actor in a martial arts training film sold their physical journey better than he does here

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 4d

Absolutely insane that this is Yuen Biao’s first proper film role (he even gets an Introducing credit). He’s an immediate charisma machine and just as martially gifted and physically expressive (if not more so) than Jackie and Sammo.

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 4d

But Kar turns out to be an outlaw who is using them to get revenge on his former compatriots. After they discover that their master is a murderer, he kills Di and Yi seeks out a new master (Sammo) who teaches him the techniques that will allow them to bring Kar to justice

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 4d

The first half is an incredibly funny conman farce as Yi Pao (Biao) and his brother Di Pao (Bryan Leung) run various scams to make money, usually resulting in them getting beat up. After losing a fight to Kar Mo Do (Lau), they become his disciples to learn his skills and get better at scamming

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 4d

Knockabout (1979)

Yuen Biao’s first leading role after a decade of stunts and bit parts in Shaw and Golden Harvest films, directed by and costarring his Peking Opera School brother Sammo Hung, and a brilliant villain turn by actor/director/stuntman/action choreographer Lau Kar-Wing

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 4d

It’s nice to be able to look at my Heard She Got Married/Murdered set and know I own a Blu-ray that he doesn’t even know about

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 5d

Kwan was almost 70 at this point, and he still moves very well for an older man (and Sammo helps him sell the moves) but there’s a lot of distracting quick cuts to hide the body doubles for the more difficult stuff. Kwan plays Wong with good humour and an even keel, with wide, expressive eyes

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 5d

The Skyhawk (1974)

The 4th to last of the almost 80 films that Kwan Tak-hing starred in as Wong Fei-Hung between 1947-81. Sammo Hung and Carter Huang Chia-Ta play his disciples as the three of them essentially go through a more complicated version of the plot of The Big Boss (1971)

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 5d

Martial Arts Monday #38-42

The Skyhawk (1974), Knockabout (1979), The Miracle Fighters (1982), The Magnificent Butcher (1979), The Sword (1980)

Back in NZ now so I’m spending the day catching up with some classics. Patrick Tam has become a huge favourite this year, so I’m keeping his film til last

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Finn Nicolas @ficolas.bsky.social · 6d

Yeah, either scrappier or way slower and more ponderous. I did love that kill on the cliff side, though

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Reposted by Finn Nicolas

Nea “Dracula” Ching @thegaychingy.bsky.social · 14d

It really is One Battle After Another

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