Enter the Dragon (1973)

Enter the Dragon (1973)

starring Bruce Lee, John Saxon, Jim Kelly

directed by Robert Clouse

99 minutes

Lee (Bruce Lee) agrees to take part in a martial arts tounament sponsored by Han, a suspected drug kingpin. Han and Lee both trained in martial arts at the Shaolin Temple. Lee is there on behalf of an international law enforcement organization who are trying to get enough evidence on Han to raid his private island. Lee has another motivation for taking the job, one of Han's enforcers is responsible for his sister death.

District 13: Ultimatum (2009)

Original Title: Banlieue 13: Ultimatum
French with English subtitles

starring Cyril Raffaelli, David Belle

directed by Patrick Alessandrin

Walter Gassman, the leader of the Department of Internal State Security (DISS), makes a deal with some foreign business men to destroy District 13 in Paris. His plan is to wipe it off the face of the Earth and then rebuild. Police captain Danien Tommasso (Cyril Raffaelli) and District 13 resident Leito (David Belle) team up once again to save the neighborhood.

Thoughts

Elodie Yung plays Tao, the leader of one of the gangs in District 13. I know her best from Season 2 of Daredevil where she played Elektra.

This movie had some of the trappings of the first District 13 movie but it only had a glimmer of the acrobatics that were seen in the first installment.

Executioners from Shaolin (1977)

starring Chen Kuan-tai, Li-Li Li, Wong Yue, Lo Lieh, Gordon Liu

directed by Lau Kar-leung

Hung Hsi-kuan flees the Shaolin temple when his teacher is killed by the villainous Pai Mei. Hsi-kuan comes back for revenger more than a decade later after going into hiding, getting married and having a son. Hsi-Kuan is unsuccessful in his attempt to kill Pai Mei but he manages to escape. He trains for several more years before taking another stab at killing Pai Mei.

Gong Shou Dao (2017)

starring Jack Ma

directed by Zhang Wen

length: 23 minutes

This martial arts short film features Chinese businessman Jack Ma fighting various martial arts legends including Donnie Yen and Jet Li. The film is a series of fights without much in the way of plot. The fight choreographers include Yuen Woo Ping and Sammo Hung.

Jack Ma is not a martial arts master.

The movie was released on Singles Day (Nov 11) in 2017.

District B13 (2004)

See my previous post about District B13 for the description. I just finished watching it for the second time. I forgot how short it was. It's fun but it feels a bit light. It could have used some more acrobatics and fight scenes. The escape sequences were my favorite parts of the movie.

A Fist Within Four Walls 1.01

Episode 1

This is a  Hong Kong TV show from 2016 which is currently available on Amazon Prime. It is in Catonese with English subtitles.

The story opens on 1945 in Kowloon, a neighborhood in Hong Kong. Chiu Mang-san and Duen Tong-tin, the leaders of two competing schools of Baji (a Chinese martial art) agree to work together. Kowloon was controlled by organized crime at this time.

The 35th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)

Starring Chia-Hui (Gordon) Liu
Directed by Liu Chia-Liang

San Te (Liu) runs away from his hometown after his friends are killed by the evil Manchus. He winds up at the Shaolin Monastery. He stays, becomes a monk, and spends the next several years studying Shaolin style kung fu. Eventually he returns to his hometown in the hopes of teaching others what he has learned and helping them to put down the evil Manchu rulers.

I enjoyed this movie. The version I saw was dubbed. About half of it was devoted to his time spent training at the monastery.

The Perfect Weapon (1991)

Starring Jeff Speakman, John Dye, Mako, James Hong, Mariska Hartigay, Dante Basco, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Directed by David C. Wilson

Jeff Sanders (Speakman) returns to his old neighborhood in Santa Fe to visit Kim (Mako), a friend who served with Jeff's father in the Vietnam War. Kim is in the process of being shaken down by the local crime boss who wants his help in moving heroin. When Kim refuses he is executed by Tanaka, the local crime boss' enforcer.

Jeff is then tricked by Yung (Hong), the man behind Kim's murder, into targeting the wrong man. It is only with the assistance of a teenage boy (Basco) that Jeff avoids killing the wrong man and captures Yung.

Lady Bloodfight (2016)

I'm not sure how this movie made it's way on to my Netflix queue but it had been sitting there for a while when I finally decided to watch it this weekend. I wasn't dying to watch it. It was more of a case of me deciding to give it a try and then sticking with it.

Jane is from Pittsburgh where she waits on tables. After getting into a fight with some patrons of the diner where she work she is fired. She then leaves Pittsburgh and travels to Hong Kong to fight in a women's martial arts competition and search for her father. In Hong Kong she meets Shu who fought in the same competition the year before. Shu trains Jane for the competition. Wai, Shu's rival, trains Ling to win the same competition.

The first half was a bit of a slog to get through. The acting in this movie is pretty bad but there are a few emotional moments in the second half of the movie that got to me a little bit. I did like the music and how they used it, especially towards the end. The fight scenes within the competition and outside of it were decent. I'm not sure what I really expected to get out of this movie. Most of it felt forced. I shouldn't have been moved by it, even though I was. There were lots of short cuts taken, lots of things left unexplained.

District B13 (2004)

Original Title: Banlieue 13
French with English subtitles

Six years in the future, the authorities have given up on a run the down banlieue or district 13 of Paris. Walls have been built around it. There are no schools or hospitals. All sorts of services usually provided by the government like the police have been or are in the process of being withdrawn.

Leito is the last man willing to stand up to Taha, the drug lord who effectively runs Banlieue 13. He is arrested and sent to prison after Taha cuts a deal with the police.

Six months pass. Damien Tomaso, a police officer is tasked with finding a bomb that Taha's men stole. Damien is teamed up with an unwilling Leito. They need to find and deactivate the bomb which is set to go off in less than 24 hours. The bomb is powerful enough to kill everyone in the banlieue. Leito shows little to no interest in helping Damien until he learns that Taha (who also holds his sister captive) is the one in possession of the bomb.

Most of the movie is a fast paced action romp with a couple twists. There are lots of acrobatic action sequences. I enjoyed it quite a bit.