Dance of the Drunk Mantis - 南北醉拳 (1979) - FIRST GIVEAWAY RESULT!

We now enter the second week of 36 STYLES SEASON and this time we're going to be taking a look at a film that's often overlooked but does seem to be highly regarded among a few Kung Fu film fans. In 1978 Seasonal films released Drunken Master. Starring Jackie Chan and directed and choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping it's mixture of broad comedy and intricate Kung Fu action was a massive hit with local audiences in Hong Kong and cemented Jackie's popularity as the number one action star. Shortly thereafter producer Ng See-Yuen wished to make a sequel in hopes of being able to capitalize on the film's success. However Jackie had gone on to sign a contract with Golden Harvest to begin what would be a monumentally successful career with the studio so Ng was forced to find a replacement.

Ng chose Sunny Yuen Shun-Yee, brother of Yuen Woo-Ping who returned as the director. Also cast members such as Woo-Ping and Shun-Yee's father Yuen Siu-Tien, Hwang Jang Lee and Linda Lin Jing returned with Siu-Tien being the only one playing the same character he had played in the first movie, the classic character of Beggar Su. The results are mixed to say the least but what we're left with is worth seeing for sure.

Foggy (Shun-Yee) is a waiter who finds himself getting into trouble with Beggar Su (Siu-Tien) who soon finds out Foggy is in fact his adopted son thanks to his mother (Lin Jing). Foggy tries to get Su to teach him Drunken Fist style Kung Fu but does nothing except ridicule and abuse him. Meanwhile a deadly Drunken Fist expert called Rubber Legs (Hwang Jang Lee) is on the hunt for Su so he can prove once and for all who the King of Drunken Fist truly is.

Now given what had come before, Drunk Mantis had a lot riding on it in order for it to become a hit. It wasn't of course but like all these movies they've now gained a following through various fan circles. I for one didn't really dig it as much as Drunken Master. There's a lot to like here but it just seemed it was lacking in a few things that for me made it's predecessor such a great movie. First of all the film doesn't have a strong as a lead. Jackie Chan effortlessly crafted a performance that combined drama, comedic timing and high physicality and pretty much exuded charisma through out the film. While I respect Yuen Shun-Yee as a performer and for his many contributions to Hong Kong Cinema to me he isn't as strong a lead as Jackie. He can match him move for move but his knack for comedy is limited to pulling silly faces and yelling a lot.

Fortunately he is backed by a pretty solid cast of recognizable faces. As mentioned a few cast members from the previous film return. This time they are joined by Corey Yuen Kwai playing the student of Hwang Jang Lee's character Rubber Legs and Yen Shi-Kwan who plays a sickly looking medicine man who teaches Foggy how to fight. All of them fulfill their roles very well and help elevate what is a pretty average movie.

One thing that really annoyed me and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't ignore it. The comedy. Kung Fu Comedies were common place around this time. While the mixture of the two genres had been started at Shaw Brothers with the likes of Lau Kar-Leung's Spiritual Boxer. It wasn't until Jackie starred in Snake in the Eagle's Shadow that the formula for such a film would prove massively successful. Literally dozens upon dozens of films with elements lifted directly from it were made in hopes of making money. This meant shoe-horning in as many cheap laughs as they could among all the martial arts action. I honestly did not like what as going on here. all of it just seemed incredibly forced. Such as a scene in which Beggar Su and Foggy visit a local bank and get into a little scuffle with the manager played by Dean Shek. Dean Shek does...well, what Dean Shek always does but it could have been a lot shorter then what was left in there.

A few people do find that sort of thing entertaining and I can respect that but I personally find it very grating and just kills the film dead in terms of it's pacing. A good chnk of stuff could have been cut from this but then we would have been left with half a film. Still for all it's faults we are given a generous amount of Kung Fu action to help soften the blow of the many and I mean many "comedic" antics of Sonny Yuen.

Yuen Woo-Ping worked along side Shun-Yee and another of his brothers Yuen Jang-Yeung as well was Yuen Kwai. They throw in some nice ideas throughout. The first fight featuring Sunny sees him go against two fighters using the bizarre styles of Chicken and Duck Styles, respectively. I thought this may have been a sly nod to Snake in the Eagle's Shadow but it's a short yet wonderfully creative action scene. Hwang Jang Lee doesn't do much kicking instead using a style combining the Drunk Fist and Mantis Fist styles. It was interesting to see him use a form which focused more on fist combinations since Hwang is known for his blistering kicking style. He does very well as used expect but I would have liked to have seen him use his legs more considering his character name is Rubber Legs.

There's a fight between him and Siu-Tien midway through the film which sees the two of them exchange drinks and few subtle hand lock techniques which escalates into a full-on brawl. There's a lot of acrobatic tumbling and tables being smashed but really? I thought it was too long. I'm all for complicated looking and lengthy fighting scenes but when it started hitting the 15 minute mark I thought it was a bit much. That sort of thing should be saved for the finale not the fight which signifies the end of the second act. Yuen kwai also has a rather nicely done fight with Linda Lin. Linda shows her incredible flexibility while evading Yuen Kwai's silver spear which then see's her defend herself with a sword. I enjoyed this fight in particular because the choreography was so good, especially Linda who shows off a lot of really good moves.

Yen Shi-Kwan also gets a couple fights in but they're mostly played for laughs as he knocks Sonny around a bit and then agrees to teach him his unique style of Kung Fu. I couldn't quite identify what stlye it was exactly but it seems there were a few techniques derived from classical Wing Chun as it focused mostly on hand to hand techniques with very little leg work. This was a smart idea as it contrasts very well with Hwang's Drunk Mantis Fist style and allows both actor's to do some very nicely done exchanges. That of course leads us to the finale.

It was worth putting up with the rest of the film just to get to this part. We have a straight up classic Kung Fu fight which sees Sunny and Hwang duke it out. I loved how the fight kept going back and forth with each fighter gaining and losing momentum and then forcing themselves to change tactics in order to try and land their punches. Sunny gets to do a few stunt falls but they never really looked as painful as the one's Jackie took. Also he doesn't seem to let himself get knocked around like Jackie did either. I'm not saying Sunny couldn't handle it but I expected the crashes to a have a little bit more impact to them. What we have here though is a damn good brawl that is a worthy follow up to what has come before.

Dance of the Drunk Mantis is not as good a film as the one which came before it but we do end up with some very creative action scenes and a wonderful end fight that is worth checking out. The DVD is easily available and you should do yourself a favor and go buy it as it's one which does deserve the shelf space.

Now then, the moment you've all been waiting for. Time to announce the winner of last week's giveaway. The lucky winner ho is now the proud owner of a Master of the Flying Guillotine shirt is......

RICHARD TRONDSEN

Congratulations Richard! I will forward your information to Raymond of 36 STYLES who will send you your prize in the mail!

For those who lost out don't worry because I will be announcing the details of another contest in which another shirt will be up for grabs.

So that's it for this week, if you would like the purchase the Dance of the Drunk Mantis 36 Styles shirt click HERE!

That's all for now. Be here next week when I will be posting a review for Shaolin Vs Lama!

Kickstart My Heart, Hwang Jang Lee!

Demon Strike (1979)

Been a while since I reviewed anything from the old school era of martial arts cinema so I thought I'd highlight one of the lesser known films from the 1970s. Leung Kar-Yan and Jason Pai Piao team up to take on bad guy Hwang Jang Lee in this very solid action/fantasy movie. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any trailers online so my usual link has not been included but on with the review!

Jason Pai Piao plays an officer for the royal court who is tasked to recover some stolen gold. On his journey he has to defend himself from assassins who are determined to kill him. Meanwhile Leung Kar-Yan is the head of a gang who discovers that a Daoist scroll has also been stolen along with the gold and sets off on his own journey in order to prevent it being used for evil.

At least, that's what I was able to pick up from the incredibly confusing narrative. It wasn't uncommon for films of this era to start shooting without a script. The film makers would outline a basic story and then to make things up as they went along. Some films were able to pull it off effortlessly while others just ended up becoming an incoherent mess. Demon Strike is one of those films but fortunately it's packed with that much action that it isn't too detrimental and really should be viewed more as a highlight reel of great kung fu action.

Jason Pai Piao and Leung Kar-Yan are the two leads and are as good as you'd expect them to be. Pai Piao plays the no-nonsense character determined to do what it takes to find the missing gold, even if it means doing things which may seem amoral. Leung meanwhile just turns up in the film when he feels like it and bitch slaps anyone foolish enough to throw a punch at him. The two don't really have much chemistry but given what they were working with it's not surprising. It would have been nice to see the two of them butt heads in the film a little more but we just get a few exchanges of dialogue and they don't really come together fully until the finale.

The confusion I mentioned earlier comes into play mostly due to how the story lines for both characters come off. Everything moves at an incredibly fast pace. Characters are introduced and then killed off soon afterwards. Fight scenes happen from out of nowhere and  there's a sub-plot which never reaches a logical conclusion and it just seems a little jarring. Yet given the sheer amount of martial arts films I've seen, I'm used to this sort of thing but I still notice from time to time.

Still for all my complaints about the story, that doesn't stop me from enjoying the copious amounts of kung fu action. Featuring everything from empty handed combat to sword play, anyone who has yet to see this film may like what they see. The choreography was over seen by Alan Hsu. Who has over one-hundred credits to his name. The majority of which he was involved as the action director. After seeing this, it has lead me to believe Hsu is one of the more underrated choreographers from this era. He's able to play to everyone's strengths effortlessly and is able to make Leung Kar-Yan look just as good as he did in some of his more high-profile movies such as Knockabout and The Victim.

Pai Piao also gets to strut his stuff. One great fight sees him fighting two assassins in a run down old house. All three actors leap around, using well timed strikes, blocks and take downs, creating a sequence which could rival some of the films from the mighty Shaw Brothers Studio. However things take a turn for the better when we get the final reel and our two heroes band together to fight Hwang Jang Lee. As you'd expect Hwang gives his usual sinister bad guy routine and gets to show his flair for kung fu action. What we have here isn't the best he's ever done but there are one or two moments when things get really amped up and it would have been great to see that kind of pace maintained.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. Not only do we get Hwang Jang Lee kicking people in the face, he can also shoot lasers. Yes, you read that correctly. Lasers. During the film we find out that he has been using the stolen Daoist scroll to unlock incredible powers, one of these being the ability to shoot blue lasers from the palms of his hands. It's as silly as it sounds and when you find out what the source of the power is and it's weakness, you'll be left scratching your head is to why he went to all that trouble.

Regardless of how bizarre it all is though, we still get an absolutely cracking fight finale and are left with a film which deserves it's place among the hundreds and hundreds of titles that are out there. Go out there, find the DVD, pop it in, sit back and enjoy. Fans of old school classics will love it and those who are still exploring the genre will hopefully be satisfied. Then again, could be worse, you could be watching American Shaolin instead.

No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder (1987)

Welcome to my second week in my retrospective of the No Retreat, No Surrender series. Today I'm reviewing the second entry No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder. After the huge success of the first one Seasonal films were quick to put together a sequel to capitalize on it's huge success. Both stars Kurt Mckinney and Jean-Claude Van Damme had signed on and a script and locations in Thailand had been put together.

Unfortunately days before cameras were set to roll Van-Damme dropped out of the film, feeling it would not further his career and went on to star in Kick Boxer, which propelled the Muscles from Brussels into super stardom. Strangely, Mckinney would soon follow, thus leaving the film without it's principle actors. Producer Roy Horan was then forced to find replacements. German martial artist Matthias Hues took the place of Van-Damme and American Tae Kwon Do expert Loren Avedon was given the leading role.

The film opens in the stormy fields of Vietnam, here we see a group of people tied to posts ready to be executed by the military, here we meet Ty played by none other then Hwang Jang Lee, we can tell he's the bad guy cos 1) his face is partially obscured by shadow and 2) he has a mean looking scar on his face and nothing says evil like a big facial scar. Suddenly he barks an order and they proceed to kill their prisoners, quite why he's executed these people is never made clear but it serves the purpose of just showing just how evil this guy is, I guess a little t-shirt saying "I'm The Bad Guy" would have been a too subtle.

Next we meet Scott Wylde (Avedon), a martial artist who travels to Thailand to visit his college sweet heart Sulin. After a romantic meal consisting of deep fried insects and Tiger testicles he whisks her away to his flop house hotel room for a Bond style love scene, complete with slow motion disrobing and cheesy music. That Scott is a classy guy. Not long after their torrid love making they are attacked by some thugs. Sulin is kidnapped and Scott is arrested by the local police for killing some of the attackers. After an awkward interrogation in which he was told to inexplicably jump or maybe shut up I couldn't tell, Roy Horan shows up and tells him to bugger off to Singapore and never set foot in Thailand again.

As he's about to be shoved into a plane, Scott escapes on a motorcycle which culminates in a jump over a spitfire that would make Evel Kienevel piss himself laughing from beyond the grave. Scott soon finds out Sulin's kidnappers are involved with the Vietnamese army and Russian military, sadly I can't recall why these two armies had joined forces or why they kidnapped her but it's not all that integral to the movie. Scott then enlists the help of wise cracking Vietnam veteran Mac Jarvis (Max Thayer) and the hot tempered fighter Terry (Cynthia Rothrock) to go with him to Cambodia to rescue his girl and take down the bad guys.

So, yeah, the plot is very different to the Karate Kid cloning of the original, it seems that the producers were eager to push the series further and give the audience more bang for their buck. It's also obvious that Rambo II was a huge influence, with it's exotic locations and bombastic action sequences. There's a lot of martial arts action but there's also a few good gun fights thrown in which gives the film a really wild over the top tone. Corey Yuen returned for directing duties so as you'd expect the action is really solid for the most part.

I mentioned previously he really knows how to make people look good when their fighting, he has this incredible knack for being able to play to the actor's strengths and NRNS2 is a fine example of this. Avedon is a good martial artist, he looks good when he's throwing kicks and he handles himself well in the numerous action scenes he's in, Yuen choreographs his action that plays to Avedon's strengths really well. He's also not that bad an actor, growing up he starred in TV commercials and had a few bit parts in low budget action flicks but NRNS2 was his first full leading role, he may have been a little rough around the edges in the drama department but with a lot more exposure and some sure fire hits under his belt he could well have been a big a star as Van Damme and Seagal. It's just a shame that he never really got the recognition he really deserves.

He plays well off his co-stars Thayer and Rothrock. Thayer plays Mac with just the right level of world weariness that makes him likeable and Rothrock does well enough but it's when she's fighting she shines the most. By this time in her career she'd already made a name for herself in Hong Kong with appearances in Yes, Madam!, The Magic Crystal and Righting Wrongs so it was a natural for her to make the progression to American movies and this wasn't a bad place to start. She shares the distinction of having the one and only fight scene featuring Hwang Jang Lee (I should mention this film contains the only scene were he speaks English in a movie) and while the choreography itself is not as great as you'd expect it to be, it's a good opportunity to see these two action legends go toe to toe.

The finale has Avedon and Hues go at it and it's just as over the top as you'd expect. Matthias Hues is a large man, he towers over Avedon and when you get a heavily built man like Hues doing the action, it can come off as a bit awkward and it does a couple times but Yuen does a good enough job of hiding it and the choreography works in both actors favours. No Retreat, No Surrender 2 is a solid action flick and is definitely worth seeing as it gives a great debut from Avedon and as I said, the rare opportunity to see Rothrock and Lee fight each other.

Tune in next week for my review of Part 3 Blood Brothers!

Hell'z Windstaff (1979)

This week I'm kicking it old school and reviewing the cult classic that is Hell'z Windstaff. Released in 1978, Hell'z Windstaff was one of those independently produced martial arts films that, while not really making a big mark on the Hong Kong box office, would go on to become a bona fide cult favourite among fans of the genre. It's cult status is cemented in the fact that rap group Wu-Tang Clan (Themselves huge Kung Fu movie fans) have a track on the album Liquid Swords named after the flick.

Based on the long running Jademan (A.K.A Dragon Tiger Gate) comic series the plot revolves around two young mischievous trouble makers Tiger Wong (Meng Yuen Man) and Stone Dragon (Meng Hoi) who discover the people from their home town are being sold into by local gangsters headed by the deadly Lu (Master kicker himself Hwang Jang Lee) when Tiger and Stone end up killing one of Lu's men in a fight, Lu himself retaliates by murdering Tiger's father and Kung Fu Master. The two friend then band together and improve their fighting skills and set out to get revenge on Lu.

Hell'z Windstaff has and always will be one of my all time favourite old school martial arts films. The film doesn't take itself too seriously and offers a copious amount of fist to foot action and painful looking training sequences. It helps that we have Meng Yuen Man and Meng Hoi in the leads as both of them get to show their skills and also show off that they're not bad actors. Unfortunately both of them never really managed to get leading man status later on in their career. Although Meng Hoi would go on to be a player in several Sammo Hung productions including Warriors Two and Pedicab Driver (Both of which, have, of course been ear marked for review at some point). Sadly Meng Yuen Man was forced to retire after suffering an almost fatal heart attack in 1982. Despite that Hell'z Windstaff is a great showcase of their talents as martial arts exponents. Moving from the leading men to the leading villain. Any self respecting Martial Arts fan knows who Hwang Jang Lee is.

For those not familiar Hwang Jang Lee is a Korean Tae Kwon Do expert and former martial arts instructor for the Korean and South Vietnamese military (Where legend has it he killed a man during a one on one fight) before getting involved with the movie industry. Early appearances in movies like Snake In The Eagle's Shadow and Secret Rivals made him much in demand and he would go on to appear in the some of the most popular and sought after fight flicks ever put on film. Here he gets to show his almost superhuman like kicking skills and also gets the rare opportunity to do some weapons fighting but it's when he's up against the heroes of the movie he goes into overdrive and we're treated to one of the most furious fights Hwang Jang Lee has ever recorded.

So, there's not much to Hell'z Windstaff, in fact most of the time movies of this period didn't offer a whole lot apart from some insane kung fu action and this flick maintains that status quo quite well. So, if you haven't check it out yet, get a hold of the DVD if you can cos this an absolute must see for any fan of old school kicks.