HepDude

I am now of the opinion that you should eliminate this category altogether.

The whole thread is about this, and now that I've made a point of reading some reviews of those films (none of which I've seen, except "Iron Monkey"), they seem to be no more suited to CTHD viewers than any of the other films in the thread, and probably less so.

For example, my list would be:

- Iron Monkey
- The Bride with White Hair
- The Swordsman
- Fong Sai Yuk 1 and 2

in that order.

I haven't seen any of the films in the CTHD category above (except Iron Monkey), simply because I haven't seen them recommended or discussed anywhere other than this thread. At such, they don't seem like consensus recommendations for newbies, which is what a CTHD category should have.

So, I would request that the CTHD category be eliminated, and consider the whole thread to be one big CTHD-fan recommendation.

Trigger

I don't fully agree with you, but I've changed things anyway.

wonton

i think this thread for newbies to hk films, not CTHD fan-recommendation thread. this is bugging me, where did the newbies get the idea of CTHD is a hk film and that they expect hk films to be CTHD? IT'S NOT! gggrrrr.

HepDude

Thanks, it's appreciated.

BTW, I finally saw Fire Dragon. It's a mixed bag. This could be Brigitte Lin's best film from an acting point of view, although the "Bride With White Hair" role is so much "meatier".

The script for Fire Dragon is its weakest aspect. While all the segments help develop the characters, nevertheless the segments don't mesh well as a whole, the way they do in "Iron Monkey".

Some of the fight scenes are dazzling, and some have that "we'll make it blurry so you can't see the wires" aspect. There are certainly more explosions than in any other HK film.

I think it is a rent-first, especially since the only DVD out there is not a particularly great transfer (for example, sometimes the colors are washed out - although it is not bad enough to interfere with enjoyment of the film).

Trigger

I updated a little bit in case anyone cares... if anyone has any suggestions for titles or if you notice a spelling mistake or some such thing - go ahead and post about it.

axolotls return

You have to add:

Comrades, Almost A Love Story under Romance.

Anyone else with me?

Vanian

Trigger -

When you mention Tai Seng, it may be good to note that many of their DVD's are the same exact DVD's as the imports. On many movies, the only difference is their sticker on the DVD case.

You've done an excellent job of keeping track of everything.

Vanian

Trigger

Excellent - I've heard good things, but haven't watched this yet. I plan to this weekend. I just added the topic and put whatever off the top of my head.

Thanks

Good point about Tai Seng - however, I think most of their releases have been produced by them... Bichunmoo and a few others have been re-issues with a sticker. Perhaps more than I know because I simply buy it from HK unless it's not available there - then I'll buy it from Tai Seng. Like Deadful Melody - the existing releases were hard to come by and the Tai Seng release looked great. It's somewhat of a gamble. I'll mention that on my next update this weekend.

axolotls return

I've flipped through enough bins in Chinatown to say that most of the Tai Seng stickered DVDs (I don't know about their tapes, but my Hard Boiled VHS has an ugly Tai-Seng sticker over the original distributors name, and I did personally pick up the tape from their offices!) are just that. Stickered DVDs. They do produce their own like Wing Chun, Duel (just added stuff on top of the Chinastar version), New Legend of Shaolin (crap picture.. but like Iron Monkey it is headed for the big screen... I hope hip-hop runs it's course before this come out..)

skinny

Hi there,
maybe somebody in this forum can help me find the title of a HK-movie I saw 5 years ago on australian tv.
The tv commentator announced that movie as one of his HK-favorites with lots of comedy elements..

The story was about a medieval swordsmen (I think a guard of a king) being time-transported into modern hongkong.
There he's somehow picked up by a spoilt HK-girl who sort of keeps him as a personal slave and doesn't treat him with much respect. But he keeps on helping her out of difficult situations...

I hadn't seen much HK movies at that time before, therefore I don't remember any details about actors, producer, etc...
But maybe someone in this forum has seen that movie and is able to help me...
Thank you

dleedlee

Iceman Cometh or TerraCotta Warriors.
The former with Maggie Cheung and Yuen Wah, the latter with Gong Li
and Zhang Yimou. I'm guessing it's the first as it's more widely available
and in circulation. Also, I guess IC takes place in HK while TW is in the mainland.

I did finally get to see TW this summer though on the big screen.
Terrific film, oh, and TW prominently features an old prop airplane if that helps.

skinny

@ dleedlee

thank u very much 4 the quick reply!

I've checked with the imdb.com description and I think it has to be 'Iceman Cometh'. The description matches perfectly to what I can remember of that movie.
Now I will have 2 look where I can find this movie on dvd...

axolotls return

Iceman Cometh is one of the greatest movies IMHO.

gabegarwick

Skinny,a review of Iceman Cometh with screenshots can be found here..
KFCCinema

Looks like DDDHouse, HiViZone, and Amazon all carry Iceman...

Updates looking good Trigger, muchas gracias for doing the upkeep!

cheers,
Gabe

Trigger

de nada... I enjoy doing it if people benefit from it.

JaxComet

Anyone?.........

Beeeil

Visible Secret just came out, with Hsu Chi. I started to watch it the other night, but 20 minutes into it I decided that it was a little too much to watch it by myself in the basement, at midnight, and on a 10 ft screen, so I haven't finished it yet. My wife and I are saving that one for Halloween night.

So I can't give you a complete review of it, but the first 20 minutes was pretty intense to a point that I didn't want to watch it by myself!

I can tell you that the anamorphic 16:9 DVD was very nicely done, with a lot of supplemental material. Black level and details were both good. It's not as vibrant as the Shaolin Soccer DVD but again it's not about people playing soccer in bright sunny days on green grass.

Beeeil

Chris Camfield

Greatest up until the point where the villain pulls out a potion of Destroys Your Kung Fu and the movie goes all maudlin. :->

Tell me that was just a bad translation...

Chris

Trigger

Dude - potions like that are all over HK... my friend went there and brought back some Destroys Your Kung Fu potion, Make Your Palms Sweat potion, Hurt You In The Eye potion, and a lotion called Render You Not So Good At Sports. I asked him to find me some Kill Your Math Skills pills, but the store he went to was out.



Welcome to the forum if nobody else has said so yet... (or have I already said that?)

Chris Camfield

Hehe... thanks very much!

Incidentally, I was in a comic book store yesterday which had some HK films for rental, so I ask:

What's everyone's opinion of Sammo Hung's _Millionaire's Express_? Is it worth repeated watching? The reason I ask is that I was planning on including it on my next order from HiviZone (Universe release, $5.50US), but this store has a copy of it on video that I could rent for half that.

Chris

d2cheer

I have read/scanned this post and it is very good. One thing I don't think I saw addressed is when more than one company puts out a DVD like Iron Monkey which version should a person get? On that note which version of Iron Monkey on DVD is the one that I should purchase? It seems like there are at least 3/4 versions of this on DVD.


Keep up the good work!!

mseg

Chris Camfield

Well, if you can play Region 2 PAL DVDs, I understand the Hong Kong Legends release is the best one available.

Here's one comparative review of the HKL and Mega Star releases. (Just to add to the number of versions, presumably there'll be a North American release some time in 2002.)

http://www.loveandbullets.com/ironmonkey.htm

Chris

Trigger

I covered that topic in the FAQ section... Basically, the best place to look for info on which DVD version to get is to visit www.asiandvdguide.com - if it's down for some reason you can ask your questions here on this forum and we'll try to answer. As for Iron Monkey - I have the Media Asia disc and it's pretty good. I'm probably gonna get the US version after it has its theatrical run... they'll clean up the print and as long as they don't screw it up too bad with the soundtrack, it'll surely be a good DVD. If you can play PAL, the R2 version is supposed to be great. For now, the Media Asia one is fine for me.

Chris Camfield

Wow, I obviously didn't read the FAQ very closely. This site rocks! Thanks very much, Trigger.

skinny

Thank you all very much for all of the hard work being put into this forum! And I find your list of movie recommendations very helpful.

I've just returned from my holidays in New Zealand to cold Germany. I had my flight routed via Hong Kong to grab some of the suggested dvds from your 'must have' lists.
Your recommendations helped me to (hopefully) pick the right discs. I had printed out all of the HK movie threads to read them on lazy beach days and so was well prepared for the HK shopping marathon.
Like one of you had written before, you'll find the best HK dvd deals in Mongkok (Tung Choi Street, parallel to Nathan Road, close to the Mongkok MTR station and the Ladies Market).
A lot of the Universe Laser releases (also Iceman Cometh) were available for HK$ 35 each ( approx. US$ 5) or 3 for HK$ 100.
A number of releases from Widesight entertainment were sold for HK$ 18 each or 3 for HK$ 50. Although these were mostly releases unknown to me, I've bought some of these also - you cannot go too wrong with these prices!
And I have bought Naked Killer for HK$ 35 .. (was it HepDude that kept recommending this flick??)

Now I do have enough movies for a long, cold, dark winter...

And finally my hotel recommendation for a HK movie shopping spree: This time I chose the Grand Tower Hotel in Mongkok, reasonably priced large (really big for Hong Kong standards) rooms and located right in the middle of the Mongkok shopping district, next to the MTR subway station on Nathan Road in Mongkok. double room HK$ 500++.

Regards to all