Comments on DVD re-issues of Shaw Brothers Gu Long films?

[dchute]

I read a report recently to the effect that the current series of Shaws re-issues from Celestial/IVL is not doing well, "because only old people are interested." It occurs to me that I haven't seen any mention of these films here, even though they include the wonderful string of Gu Long adaptations directed by Chor Yuen, with Ti Lung playing most of the signature characters.

This seems strange to me, since it was basically these wonderful movies that got me interested in the novels in the first place, and brought me here looking for information. I'd be interested to hear what you think of these films---which I guess means, why you aren't more interested in them. Hard to imagine any TV show being as rich in atmosphere as the best of these movies: "The Magic Blade," for example, or "Sentimental Swordsman," which I was able to watch recently with the novel fresh in my mind!

Obviously the TV versions are longer and can include more of the characters and plot twists from the novels. But that would be true of any feature-length adaptation of a novel. What else?

[Dagger Lee]

I saw Clans of Intrigue remastered on vcd and it was good. It's based on Chor Lau Heung by Gu Long and stars Ti Lung as the main character. I heard that two scenes were cut from the remastered version and I'm wondering why.

[dchute]

Some nude bathing and a lesbian kiss are missing; no major plot points.

Apparently different cuts of these films were prepared for different territories: more gore for Japan, less sex for Taiwan. And the negative that survived in the vault corresponds to the last version produced. It varies a lot: Human Lanterns is known to fans in a much gorier version than the one IVL has released, while Black Magic seems to be intact. There's no evidence that either Celestial of IVL is censoring the films.

The question, though, is why fans of the novels love the TV versions so much and apparently could care less about these movies. Any thoughts on that poiint?

[Dagger Lee]

Some people believe that there's no way a long story could fit into a 2 hour movie so they go with the series. To me, I watch both serials and movies. The movies that are based on novels that I have seen are good and ok. The only one that is terrible is THe Legend of The Flying Swordsman. I hate that movie so much and I'm making a review on it now.

[dchute]

This is the one that co-stars Sonny Chiba? With the white beauty-parlor streaks in the hair? Dreadful!

For me the Gu Long stories seem to work a lot better as feature films than Jin Yong's, and as I read more of each I think I can see why: the GL novels may be long when collected but are episodic. The movie Sentimental Swordsman is a very close adaptation of the first volume of Little Lee---except for the finale, which is a completely different.

And how could any of the later actors hold a candle to Ti Lung?

[Ding_Lik]

I've bought a lot of the shaw films...having seen some of them when I was a kid brings back good memories.

Some scenes are cut, not sure why, but you can check out this forum that deals with martial arts films. Very good site, will prolly have some answers for you

www.kungfucinema.com

Has anyone seen The Chinatown Kid, starrring Alexander fu sheng? I heard the celstial release is only 86 min, but the original/theatrical release was like 114 min. Also they have an alernate ending and original ending not incl. in DVd. That sucks.

What other shaws do yo watch?

[yu]

Boudha palm and Vengeance are good.

Who saw Two Heroes? with Alexander Fu playing Fong Say Yuk. I think that one of the heroes could have beat the bad guy alone, he was a fag, he only hit people from the behind. I first thought that he was going to be super powerfull. The ending was bad because of this and the lama costume.

[Dagger Lee]

To dchute,
I believe that Jiao En Jun could compare with Ti Lung because he has a very ancient look and acts well. He also starred in Legend of Dagger lee as Li Xun Huan.

[yu]

Originally posted by dchute
And how could any of the later actors hold a candle to Ti Lung?

I think that Ti Lung is not suite for every roles. Like the role of Chu lui Chiang didn't really fit him, Adam Cheng is better. And
Damian Lau, my favorate, is really good as a wuxia actor.

I prefer to see Ti Lung in movies fighting with fist then with sword.

[Thuan]

I love these movies. Great stuff. Chor Yuen's Gu Long adaptions belong to my favourites. Haven't seen CLANS OF INTRIGUE, but I will soon. Looking forward to see Ti Lung as Chor Lau Heung. How's the sequel LEGEND OF THE BAT?

Nice surprise was BUDDHA'S PALM. A great early Fantasy movie with lots of special effects and action scenes that rivals those Wuxias of the early 90s. Anybody watched HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL ARTS WORLD? It's supposed to be much better than BUDDHA'S PALM.

EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER has just been released on DVD. That's a great Martial Arts movie by Lau Kar Leung starring Gordon Liu. Great pole fighting (especially the wolf fang's technique).

What do people here think of NEW LEGEND OF THE FLYING FOX starring Felix Wong. It got lots of praise on other sites and it's from the director of SECRET SERVICE OF THE IMPERIAL COURT, so I will get it for sure.

[yu]

Seen Sentimental Swordsman and it's pretty good. Ti Lung is better as Dagger Lee then Chor Lau Heung. Derek Yee as Ah Fei was great.

[Long]

So far I've seen:

Clans of Intrigue - Chor Lau Heung
Legend of the Bat - Chor Lau Heung
Death Duel - Jer Yiu Fung
Killer Clans - aka the Butterfly Sword

Can anyone recommend any others that I should watch? Like have Shaw Brothers made a movie based on Lok Siu Fung or Siu Sap Yat Long or Fu Hung Sit??

I think all of the Shaw Brother movies were great and loved watching all of them. I think Ti Lung was really good as Chor Lau Heung. I don't know why not many people liked him in that role.

But the movie I really liked as "Killer Clans". The art work and the production was really well done.

Shaw Brothers made wuixa movies like how they're supposed to be made. Chu Yan was a really good director from what I can see and one of the most underrated directors of all time as not much is heard about him.

I hate some of the newer movies, because they border on the brink of mockery and bad humour. They're all trying to be 'funny' and add lots of 'toilet' humour. Like I really hated those movies they made from Jin Yong's novels like "Swordsman I, II, and III". There's also one where Jet Li starred as Cheung Mo Kei, and that movie practicualry took the 'mickey' out of all the characters. I can see why even Jin Yong got so upset that he wrote to the director to complain. I also cringed when I saw a movie called, "Wicked East, Poison West, Southern Emporer, Northern Beggar, and Central Divinity".

I just wished that when people make movies out of novels that they take more care in being serious and attempt to be at least accurate to the novel, like Peter Jackson did with Lord of the Rings.

[Dagger Lee]

I think Ti Lung is good as Chor too. I don't think he fits the character of Lee Chun Foon(Li Xun Huan) well.

[Long]

Originally posted by Thuan
What do people here think of NEW LEGEND OF THE FLYING FOX starring Felix Wong. It got lots of praise on other sites and it's from the director of SECRET SERVICE OF THE IMPERIAL COURT, so I will get it for sure.

I bought the New Legend of the Flying Fox yesterday. I have to say it's pretty good. But then I'm a little biased given I'm a Felix Wong fan. It's worth watching. But I must say, not as suspenseful as the Gu Long Shaw Brother's movies I've seen.

[Long]

The full Shaw Brother's DVD/VCD product releases can be found here:

http://shaw.intercontinental.com.hk/en/New_Release.asp

[Dagger Lee]

Is Killer Clans the same story as Butterfly & Sword that starred Michelle Yeoh and tony Leung?

[Long]

'Killer Clans' is the original Butterfly Sword movie.

The one starring Tony Leung and Michelle Yeoh is a remake of that story. I haven't seen the Tony Leung version, but the production by Shaw Brother's was really good. I highly recommend it.

[Long]

Recently I've just seen:

The Sentimental Swordsman (ie Lee Chun Foon), and the Swordsman and the Enchantress (ie Siu Sap Yat Long), both starring Ti Lung.

Comments:

I enjoyed watching the Sentimental Swordsman, but the character of Lee Chun Foon has never been one of my favorite characters. I find him too 'poor poor ma ma' for my liking and this movie did not change my perceptions of him. On the one hand he is supposed to be an intelligent fellow, who can detect various traps and dangers, that no one else can detect. But when it comes to himself and his own well happiness and well being, he's just a dam fool. But he's a different type of character never the less, and rare. Rating around 3/5.

The Swordsman and the Enchantress was also very good to watch. Though I suspect the plot does not follow the novel closely. I've never read the novel before in any form. The plot has similair aspects to the TVB series, 'Treasure Raiders' starring Felix Wong. Rating around 4/5.

[Long]

Just finished watching "The Magic Blade" and "Jade Tiger".

The Magic Blade - Was a very suspenseful and intriguing tale as always. It was centred around the character of Fu Hung Sit. I wasn't that familiar with this story as it did not follow closely to a TVB series called "The Black Sabre" starring Eddie Cheung (as Yip Hao)and Hugo Ng (as Fu Hung Sit). In fact this movie doesn't even feature Yip Hao so prehaps it's from a different novel. It was a good story never the less. But I've been watching too many Gu Long stories of late and so foreshadowed most of the twists and themes.

Jade Tiger - is a story that explores right and wrong through the form of a hero who sets out to seek revenge. He is caught up in a web plots and schemes that would make the mind boggle at how some people would be so extreme as to sacrafice themseleves to destory another clan. I have to say that I did not like the main character too much in this story - especially the way its portrayed in the movie.

I have seen a number of Gu Long stories and I must admit, there seems to be a pattern here through usuing different symbolisms to define he same theme/plot, ie that we humans aren't in control of our own destiny.

Sentimental Swordsmen - humans are like spiders. From the day we're born we all weave our little web to trap others and sometimes we get trapped into other's webs.

The Swordsman and the Enchantress - Humans are nothing but just mere puppets. We're all slaves of fame, fortune, and love.

The Magic Blade - Humans are nothing but pawns on a chess board.

Jade Tiger - humans are controlled by conflict/destiny.

[jin yong]

as a fan of Wu Xia stuffs, I really love swordplay movies because of their stunning beautiful art direction

here we go for the flicks based upon the Ku lung work, all of them were directed by Chu Yuan, the master of Ku Lung's adaptation


Clans Of Intrigue - Chu LiuXiang Chuanqi - starring Ti Lung, this adaptation is pretty faithful, but the ending was changed, the ending looked like the third instalment of Chu Liu Xiang's series, the fight choreography is pretty average, but the production values were top notch.

Legend of The Bat - Bianfu Chuanqi – when the move started, people can see this is a sequel of Clans of Intrigue, the art direction, and the gowns are very nice as most the Shaw movies, but they used a boat on a small scale during the crossing of the sea, and I could recognize the garish little boat so easily, if you don’t mind about the little boat pick it up.

The sentimental Swordsman - Duoqing Jianke Wuqing Jian – a very good adaptation, but the ending was different from the book

Killer Clans - Liuxing, Hudie, Jian – one of the best Chu Yuan movie I’ve ever seen, a very good adaptation, there’re some characters missing from the original novel, but you can still enjoy it, there’re a lot of surprising plot twists

The magic Blade - Tianya, Mingyue, Dao – this is my favourite Chu Yuan’s work, the fight choreography is very inventive.

Death Duel - San Shaoye De Jian- a very sad story, there aren’t so many stars, but the movie is still entertaining

The Jade Tiger - Bai Yu Laohu – a very good movie, nice costumes, amazing set.

Web of death – the CGI stuffs are so cheesy, they used a rubber spider to scare the other knights, this movie doesn’t work for me


Heroes Shed no Tears - Yingxiong Wu Lei - not seen yet
Clans of Amazon - Xiuhua Da Dao - not seen yet
Proud Twins - Jueidai Xuang Jian - not seen yet

Full Moon Scimitar - Yuan Yue Wan Dao – not seen yet