Posted on 01/22/2011 4:10:46 PM PST by West Texas Chuck
I have the most awesome collection of martial arts films of anyone I know. I love this stuff. I own everything from old Kurosawa, Shaw Brothers and a lot of more contemporary stuff. I couldn't even list them all here. My favorites are Japanese Jidaigeki, all that old weird Samurai stuff. I own every Zatoichi film ever made and all the TV episodes I have been able to locate. Shintaro Katsu was a genius and his sense of humor always cracks me up.
I also have some really good modern stuff, "Twilight Samurai" and "The Hidden Blade" and "The Samurai I Loved" are absolute masterpieces, but "Seven Samurai" and "The Hidden Fortress" and all the Miyamoto Musashi stories from the old school are priceless as well. So much unrequited love, so many men that just won't tell the woman how they feel, sounds like my life.
Several of the aforementioned make me cry at the end, I'm a sensitive guy. Chicks dig that.
If you haven't seen it, the Donnie Yen "Ip Man" is just about as good as anything that has ever been put out there. I'm not big on wire-fu but I have a ton of old Jet Li, and I can watch "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" or "House of Flying Daggers" with a completely unbiased eye and just have fun. And Jackie Chan, "Drunken Master" is always good for a few laughs.
Yeah, I'm weird, but there is so much honor and solid values in these films that it is inspiring. The Chinese and the Japanese are really quite conservative in a lot of their cinema. They have such unbelievable history and fascinating legends.
Laugh if you want FReepers, but this is one of my passions. Right up there with guns and bicycles. And fencing with the libturds.
I am right there with you, FRiend. I LOVE martial arts flicks. I couldn’t tell you which is my favorite, as that changes from week to week.
Have you seen Chocolate? I highly recommend it. It’s terrific!
I really can’t stand all the post-”Crouching Tiger” stuff. The feats are too obviously impossible.
I’ve been watching a lot of Zatoichi stuff on Hulu recently. That Shintoru Katsu was a naughty bad-boy in real life and it just oozed over into his performances.
I say “Twilight Samurai” when it came out and “When the Last Sword is Drawn” on Hulu. Both are two of my all-time favorites and both are set during the tumultuous quarter-century between Peary’s arrival and the Meiji restoration. Sad tales about the fall of the samurai order without the loud bombast of “The Last Samurai”.
Sword of Doom and Leinenkugel. A match made in heaven.
I’d post a vanity on my collection of lost socks but some folks would probably accuse me of theft...........
Bicycles? WTF is wrong with you? ;-)
“When the Last Sword is Drawn” is pretty hairy. I love how fierce the guy is in combat, and yet so loving to his family. Great film.
Yeah, the flying stuff gets to me, but you just have to suspend your belief in physics ;)
It’s all good.
Can’t help it. I own 9 bikes. I’ve been a bike nut for my whole life, ever since I got my first tricycle for Christmas when I was about 3. Something like 50 years ago. I still have a blast with my bikes, I just can’t ride like I used to.
Toad (5 Deadly Venoms) was a complete badass. He got killed way too early.
“Sword of Doom” is pretty good. Toshiro Mifune made so many great films. That man was a genius actor.
I just got “Five Deadly Venoms” recently, it’s pretty good. Another old Shaw Brothers classic.
While I like Donnie Yen, “IP Man: The Beginning” is a much better movie.
I have a small collection of Martial Arts DVDs, too.
A few Bruce Lee and Jet Li and Jackie Chan [older ones]. And a couple with Chuck Norris.
And when I see some unknown Martial Arts actor on a DVD with dubbed voices I buy it . . . I enjoy the scenery and action as much or more than the story.
Glad to meet a true aficionado of Martial Arts films.
I’m not familiar with this. Have to look it up.
Still, the final fight between Yen and that Japanese general is righteous. But the first time he walks into that dojo and kicks booty is the best part, IMHO. That guy is right up there with Jet.
Beatrix Kiddo’s dispatching of the Crazy 88 is something to behold.
My friends laugh at me because of how much of a nut I am for this stuff. Well, that and other stuff ;)
“IP MAN The Legend is Born” is the title...sorry about that.
The REAL LIFE Ip Chun is in the movie. He is the oldest son of the real Ip Man. It was really good. I like the Yen one’s as well.
You know, I love the “Kill Bill” films. Michael Madsen is always on my list of favorite actors, and Gordon Liu as “Pei Wei” was Tarantino’s coup-de-grace.
My woman hates those movies. I may have to feed her to my turtles. One interesting thing I got from the first one is the 5-6-7-8s doing “Woo Hoo.” I still get a rush every time I hear that song.
One of my favorite martial arts films of all time is "Fist of Legend" starring Jet Li with English subtitles rather than the overdubbed version.
One fight scene in particular which I love watching is between Yasuaki Kurata and Jet Li. It is beautiful and breathtaking at the same time.
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