I zhuzhed up my Kicksgiving recommendation list over on the Watch More Movies blog!
So, if you’re looking for something to watch tonight: look no further.
P.S. If you’re participating in Noirvember and want a little less shock to your cinema systems, maybe check out Five Deadly Venoms (1978): a kung-fu film with a detective-story plot!
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If you (or the family you might be staying with for the long weekend) are lucky enough to get the El Rey Network, they’ve celebrated Kicksgiving the past few years with The Way of the Turkey Marathon. This year they are playing four full days of Shaw Brothers and Bruce Lee films!
(Full schedule here.)
There’s some overlap with my starter post on Kicksgiving, so here’s what to look forward to if I piqued your interest last week:
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)
(followed directly by its two sequels)
Thursday the 23rd at 12pm
Saturday the 25th at 9:30pm
From my Kicksgiving post:
“This film laid the groundwork for Gordon Liu and Lau Kar-leung to become kung-fu film legends and it’s a high point for the Shaw Brothers studio. The choreography is innovative. The cinematography is equally exquisite and playful. If you enjoy The 36th Chamber it spawned two great sequels as well.”
Fist of Fury (1972)
Thursday the 23rd at 6:45pm
Friday the 24th at 10pm
Saturday the 25th at 10am
From my Kicksgiving post:
“Seeing as Kicksgiving is, at its heart, a celebration of Bruce Lee around his birthday (Nov 27th), I would be remiss to leave out a Lee film from this list. Yes, another version of this story is also on this list (Fist of Legend (1994)) but it’s a good story okay. Now, to warn you, the tensions between the Japanese and Chinese characters are rendered with a lot less sensitivity than in the 1994 film. Bruce Lee’s films are not typically cinematic tour-de-forces, but the strength of his personality alone makes them worth watching. Bruce Lee knew how to be a movie star, I just wish the movies matched his talent. If you doubt Bruce Lee’s impact take a second to imagine yourself as a young person in the 1960s tuning into The Green Hornet and seeing someone who looked like Bruce Lee stealing the show as a badass embodiment of masculinity every week.”
Five Deadly Venoms (1978)
Friday the 24th at 4pm
Saturday the 25th at 7:15pm
From my Kicksgiving Post:
“Five Deadly Venoms is an oft-referenced cult hit from Shaw Brothers. Chang Cheh is one of the filmmakers that really set the tone and established many of the conventions of Shaw Brothers kung fu films. With Venoms, Chang pushes the boundaries a bit by telling a more modern crime-detective story. It has a windy plot, but it’s a worthy introduction to Chang’s work and The Venom Mob.”
Bonus Recommendations BELOW THE JUMP!
House of Traps (1982)
95 min. | Director: Chang Cheh
Stars: Feng Lu, Philip Kwok, Chin Siu-ho
Thursday the 23rd at 10am
This movie is a riiiide. Unfortunately, by chance, it was the first Venom Mob movie I saw and was therefore a little hard to follow. House of Traps is also an adaptation that relies a bit on knowledge of the source material. BUT, it’s still worth watching for the dynamic and imaginative design and use of the titular house of traps and the fun costume design.
It’s a gory one though, so be warned.
Executioners from Shaolin (1977)
98 min. | Director: Chia-Liang Liu
Stars: Lo Lieh, Chen Kuan-tai, Lily Li, Wong Yue, Gordon Liu
Friday the 24th at 8am
Sunday the 26th at 8pm
Executioners is based on an apocryphal story of revenge being wrought on the semi-legendary Bak Mei (Pei Mai in the movie) for his burning of the Shaolin temple. The film focuses on the cultural position of martial arts styles and familial relationships. The characters are well limned by a great cast: Lo Lieh as the villainous, super-human Pai Mei, Chen Kuan-tai as the tiger-style master and father grieving the loss of his school and master, Lily Li as the crane-style master and Chen’s put-upon but strong-willed wife, and Wong Yue as the ultimate home-school kid.
Legendary Weapons of China (1982)
109 min. | Director: Lau Kar-Leung
Stars: Lau Kar-Leung, Kara Hui, Fu Sheng, Gordon Liu, Hsiao Ho, Lau Kar-Wing
Saturday the 25th at 8am
Sunday the 26th at 10am
You really couldn’t hope for a better cast than Legendary Weapons has--and it’s a big cast at that. The narrative is simple to follow despite some diversions, which divide many fans of the film (I’m in the pro-humor camp), and lots of deceptions on top of deceptions by the characters. I personally think that taking a fantastical bent and peppering the story with humor is what makes the film work. A movie about martial artists who hope to become resistant to bullets during the Boxer Rebellion could otherwise be too heavy, honestly. The addition of the feint of incorporating 18 different traditional weapons into the film’s fight scenes delightfully stretches Lau Kar-Leung’s creativity. Legendary Weapons is a personal favorite of mine among the SB films.
Kicksgiving is nearly here! I thought I’d do a little rundown of my journey to becoming a kung-fu movie fanatic and offer some recommendations if you’d like to become one too.
I watch too many movies. This has been true for most of my life. I’ll watch just about anything, and exceptions to this tend to be specific. However, action and, by extension, martial-arts movies were a blindspot for me until a few years ago. I never put much thought into it at the time, but in retrospect, I think I avoided them because I had a narrow view of the genre, informed by less-than-stellar representatives. While it still holds that films that act as conservative power fantasies are spectacularly uninteresting to me, now I know for a fact that that describes only a small fraction of what the genre has to offer.
It started with Arnold. Total Recall (1990) is a movie I liked from my childhood. Then The Fifth Element (1997). Yeah, I was that person: I defended my beloved genres all while playing the it’s-not-really-an-action-movie game every time I liked an action movie.
My significant other is an action movie enthusiast but never gave horror films a chance. I am a horror movie enthusiast that never gave action films a chance. We schooled each other. He showed me Commando, Fist of Legend, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. I showed him Suspiria, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Fright Night. I’m now a die-hard Shaw Bros fan. He’s now a Dario Argento devotee.
Then I started watching kung fu movies voraciously at The Hollywood Theater and on the El Rey Network. (FYI: El Rey does a Way of the Turkey Kung Fu Marathon now on Thanksgiving weekend!) Shaw Brothers films in particular captured my attention. Learning the folkloric ropes of wuxia movies was fascinating. (Wuxia means “martial heroes” and usually refers to period stories about martial arts legends of China.)
The theatrical staging, bright and bold costuming, and pacing of Shaw Brothers’ wuxia movies are reminiscent of traditional hollywood musicals. Swap out the songs for sword fights. Not always tho, sometimes there are songs too.
From my perspective as an American, it took me off guard how many woman-led kung-fu movies are out there. There’s so much variety to the women in kung-fu movies and that variety is almost always valued in the film. Women can be powerful, villainous, dainty, coarse, naive, religious, iconoclastic, antisocial, goofy, cunning, horny, and any of combination of the above. In other words, women are people not plot devices. It’s no wonder Cynthia Rothrock went to Hong Hong to be a movie star, while Hollywood slept on her.
Kung-fu movies can be harder to get into for Westerners because, honestly, plot summaries and home-video packaging can be very misleading for a lot of Chinese/Hong-Kong releases. Take literally any Jackie Chan movie from the 1970s or 80s as an example.
DVD Cover:
Actual Star of the Movie:
So, here’s a few recommendations on where to get started if you’re new to and interested in martial-arts movies. BELOW THE JUMP:
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)
115 min | Dir: Lau Kar-leung
Liu Yude (Gordon Liu) is one of many students taking part in an uprising against oppressive Manchu government officials. When the uprising is put down, the families of the rebels are murdered in reprisal. Yude escapes to the Shaolin Temple with the intention of learning kung fu to revenge his family and friends. The monks refuse to teach him, but Yude is persistent and eventually earns their respect and instruction. Yude rises up the ranks of the temple completing training in all the 35 chambers but his motivations have transformed. Yude, now known as San Te, earns the right to open the 36th chamber of Shaolin to bring martial arts to laypeople.
This film laid the groundwork for Gordon Liu and Lau Kar-leung to become kung-fu film legends and it’s a high point for the Shaw Brothers studio. The choreography is innovative. The cinematography is equally exquisite and playful. If you enjoy The 36th Chamber it spawned two great sequels as well.
Come Drink With Me (1966)
91 min | Dir: King Hu
Golden Swallow (Chang Pei-pei) is on a mission to rescue her brother from kidnapping bandits. Following her first encounter with the bandits, Golden Swallow is befriended by a drunkard called Fan Da-pei. It turns out Fan is a martial artist as well, living in hiding as the school he attended has been taken over by a corrupt abbot aligned with the bandits. Their fates intertwined, Fan debates whether or not he should challenge the abbot while Golden Swallow mounts her forces to take back her brother.
Perhaps the most famous wuxia film, Come Drink with Me is theatrically-staged action; grace and violence hand in hand. This movie has one of the best final showdowns I’ve seen in a movie. Chang Pei-pei, a former ballet dancer, rightfully became one of the first bona fide kung fu movie stars with this movie. Good news if you like Come Drink with Me, it also has a good sequel: Golden Swallow (1968).
Yes, Madam (1985)
93 min | Dir: Corey Yuen
An investigation into a Hong-Kong crime ring’s activities goes south when an undercover agent is killed and Senior Inspector Ng (Michelle Yeoh) needs help. Senior Inspector Carrie Morris (Cynthia Rothrock) comes in from abroad to track down a microfilm containing damning information about Mr. Tin, a crooked businessman with ties to the crime ring. The film follows Ng and Morris as they close in on Tin as well as some small-time crooks who inadvertently get caught in the crossfire.
Much like other films on this list, Yes, Madam was a starmaker. This was Michelle Yeoh’s first starring role and Cynthia Rothrock’s first Hong-Kong film. I’m not certain who was the primary fight choreographer for the film, but I’d guess it was a cooperative effort from director Corey Yuen and producer Sammo Hung. That choreography combined with Rothrock’s martial arts skill and Yeoh’s utter fearlessness in doing many of her own stunts make the fight sequences remarkable. It’s also got a great soundtrack.
The Last Dragon (1985)
109 min | Dir: Michael Schultz
Leroy “Bruce Leroy” Green (Taimak) is a shy and earnest martial arts student living in New York City. He’s advanced to a high level and his instructor tells him he has only one more step to becoming a great master, The Last Dragon. Basically, you get so good at martial arts you become magical and start to glow. Leroy embarks on a quest to achieve The Last Dragon. Along the way, a challenger emerges. Sho’nuff (Julius J. Carry III), the Shogun of Harlem, begins to hound and torment Leroy and his family after Leroy refuses to fight him. At the same time, Leroy’s little brother’s favorite TV show host Laura Charles (Vanity) is in danger of being kidnapped by evil video-arcade empresario, Eddie Arkadian. Leroy manages to rout Arkadian’s goons and Laura is quickly smitten. When Sho-nuff and Arkadian team up, Leroy faces his biggest challenge yet that will test if he has finally embodied The Last Dragon.
I don’t have sufficient fervent praise for The Last Dragon. It’s incredibly fun and every single character is full of life. Taimak is instantly lovable as Leroy. Sho’nuff is one of the best movie villains of all time. (I will fight you over this and so will Sasha Banks probably.) Vanity is charming in her ott thirst for Leroy and her songs are a delight. This is a film with a great soundtrack too. My favorite reading of the film that I mulled over last Kicksgiving involves the film serving as a perfect illustration of the difference between cultural appreciation (Leroy) and cultural appropriation (Sho’nuff). I’ll probably do a short essay on that sometime soon.
Fist of Legend (1994)
103 min | Dir: Gordon Chan
In 1914 a gang of Japanese martial arts students try to kick out a Chinese student, Chen Zhen (Jet Li). Chen manages to defend himself before their sensei comes to wrangle them and apologize. The sensei tells Chen that his master Ho Yuanjia has died in a fight back in Shanghai. Chen immediately heads home to find that his master’s son, Ho Ting’en (Chin Siu-ho), has taken over the school. Chen goes to the dojo where his master was killed to challenge his master’s opponent. When Chen beats him handily, he suspects that his master was murdered, which he confirms with an autopsy. Word of Chen’s victory gets around town and the school begins to thrive again. Ting’en doesn’t deal well with the rivalry on top of his father’s death and turns to a sympathetic prostitute and drugs for comfort. As personal conflicts become political and vice versa, Chen and Ting’en struggle in seeking justice.
A fresh take on the story Chen Zhen, first put on film as Fist of Fury (1972) with Bruce Lee in the role, Fist of Legend is a polished period piece with focused but imaginative fight choreography. The choreography was done by one of the top fight/stunt coordinators of all time, Yuen Woo-ping. If you’ve never seen Jet Li in a Chinese or Hong-Kong film, this isn’t a bad place to start. Chen is a very reserved character, which Li plays perfectly with a lot of heart. Jet Li is one of the great action stars for a reason; he has natural charisma paired with great technical skill. Some of Li’s earlier films have more humor to them which I personally think he’s also great at; particularly Tai-Chi Master (1993) and Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986).
Rumble in the Bronx (1995)
90 min | Dir: Stanley Tong
Ma Hon Keung (Jackie Chan) moves to New York just as his uncle is selling his shop and leaving on a honeymoon with his new wife. Adjusting to life in New York is even harder for Keung when he ends up on the bad side of a local gang. It gets even worse when Keung and his new friends, Nancy (Francoise Yip) and her younger brother Danny (Morgan Lam), are roped into the aftermath of a diamond heist.
Let Tony Zhou convince you to check out Jackie Chan’s movies if you haven’t already. Jackie Chan is a singular master of martial-arts comedy. His work with Sammo Hung is necessary viewing for fans of film form. If you’ve already seen Rumble, might I suggest The Legend of Drunken Master (1994), my personal favorite.
Five Deadly Venoms (1978)
98 min | Dir: Chang Cheh
Yang, the last disciple of a member of the secretive poison clan goes on a mission to track down a retired clan member to warn him about other members of the clan coming after his treasure. The members of the poison clan each have deadly animal-based fighting styles; Centipede, Lizard, Scorpion, Snake, and Toad. Unfortunately, the clan members reach the retiree before Yang can warn him but they don’t secure the treasure. As Yang tries to figure out who the murderers are and who among the clan he can trust, a series of machinations by clan members in influential positions lead and mislead Yang and the audience.
Five Deadly Venoms is an oft-referenced cult hit from Shaw Brothers. Chang Cheh is one of the filmmakers that really set the tone and established many of the conventions of Shaw Brothers kung fu films. With Venoms, Chang pushes the boundaries a bit by telling a more modern crime-detective story. It has a windy plot, but it’s a worthy introduction to Chang’s work and The Venom Mob.
Wing Chun (1994)
93 min | Dir: Yuen Woo-ping
Roving bandits pester a small village in the mountains. Wing Chun (Michelle Yeoh), a martial arts master, is the one person tough and skilled enough to challenge them. One day, Wing Chun saves a grieving widow, Charmy (Catherine Hung) from the bandits making a fierce new enemy. Charmy begins working at the family tofu shop under the guidance of Abacus (Kingdom Yuen). Wing Chun’s childhood best friend (Donnie Yen) returns to town after a long stint away to study kung fu with the intention of proposing to Wing Chun. Though he quickly mistakes Charmy for Wing Chun. How will Wing Chun juggle romantic misadventures and a gang of bandits targeting her and her family all at once? Really well actually.
Wing Chun is one of my favorite kung fu films. The fights are fantastical in all the right ways. Michelle Yeoh, Kingdom Yuen, and Catherine Hung are quite a team up, even if it’s just to run the tofu shop. Baby Donnie Yen is appropriately adorable and you can already see the star he would become blossoming. As you can see, Yuen Woo-ping was busy this year.
Bloodsport (1988)
92 min | Dir: Newt Arnold
Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a ninjitsu expert traveling to Hong Kong to participate in an illegal fighting tournament called the kumite. Dux is representing his master, and father figure, Shinzo Tanaka, who lost his son mysteriously in the kumite. Once he arrives in Hong Kong, he becomes fast friends with Ray (Donald Gibb), another kumite participant. Meanwhile, an American journalist, Janice Kent, is trying to get the scoop on the fights and falls in with Dux. Ray is hospitalized after one of his fights and Dux swears to avenge him and win the tournament.
Honestly, I was really doubtful of Bloodsport and actively avoided watching it until around two years ago. I mean, it’s called Bloodsport and it’s about underground death matches. To me, that doesn’t seem very appealing. But Bloodsport is actually much more than violence and crime, it’s a film about the families you grow into. It depicts the flowering of a beautiful friendship between two men who just love fighting so much. Allow yourself to be as surprised by Bloodsport as I was.
Fist of Fury / The Chinese Connection (1972)
108 min | Dir: Lo Wei
Chen Zhen arrives in Shanghai to the news that his master, Huo Yuanjia, has died. At Huo’s funeral, students of the Japanese dojo crash in and begin antagonizing Chen and the other Chinese students. Chen returns the favor by paying a visit to the dojo where he defeats every student and their sensei. This escalates quickly into a deadly turf war and Chen makes plans to flee Shanghai. Before he can leave, he discovers that master Huo was in fact poisoned by the cook and caretaker, who is Japanese but posing as Chinese. From here on out basically everyone is running headlong down the path to death and destruction.
Seeing as Kicksgiving is, at its heart, a celebration of Bruce Lee around his birthday (Nov 27th), I would be remiss to leave out a Lee film from this list. Yes, another version of this story is also on this list (Fist of Legend (1994)) but it’s a good story okay. Now, to warn you, the tensions between the Japanese and Chinese characters are rendered with a lot less sensitivity than in the 1994 film. Bruce Lee’s films are not typically cinematic tour-de-forces, but the strength of his personality alone makes them worth watching. Bruce Lee knew how to be a movie star, I just wish the movies matched his talent. If you doubt Bruce Lee’s impact take a second to imagine yourself as a young person in the 1960s tuning into The Green Hornet and seeing someone who looked like Bruce Lee stealing the show as a badass embodiment of masculinity every week.
It goes down tomorrow! #KICKSandCOCKTAILS #KICKSGIVING plus @ATCQ Tribute with @djcharleebrown • S/O to @reebokclassics @forcefieldnyc #solekalibur (at Dean's Downtown)
Kicksgiving: Interview with a Sneaker Veteran. | Sneaker Chemists |
What does Thanksgiving mean to you? In traditional times we think of it as a time for family, food, drinks, & fun. But the meaning of Thanksgiving has undergone numerous transitions since its beginnings. It has been viewed as an expression of gratitude for survival, a council’s recognition of its flourishing community, submission of the local natives, the defeat over the British, resulting in a collection of our nation’s traditions and values. Over the centuries, families added their customs to the Thanksgiving celebration, preserving that which they held most precious. The top reasons that resonate with most of us are to gather in unity & to prepare the heart to reflect upon all the gifts (family, friends, health) that saturate our lives.
Recently, our world has been going through an emotional roller-coaster of ups and downs & twists and turns from every direction. Yet and still there are people out there who give without expecting anything in return. The spotlight for “Kicksgiving” this year goes to a seasoned sneaker veteran by the name of, Coranza Tellis. He’s donated a generous amount of sneakers to support a good cause & also embodied what this time of year is all about, helping others. We finally caught up with him to get his perspective on the shoe game and check his credentials.
SC: The first question we all have to know... favorite pair of kicks?
CT: I’d have to say the OG White & Black Air Jordan 9′s
(Air Jordan 9 OG colorway done in a White, Black and Red color scheme will be making a return this December 2016 with the original ‘Nike Air’ branding.)
SC: What got you into the shoe game?
CT: I was always into kicks, even when I was little. But what got me heavy into the shoe game was... uniforms.
SC: Uniforms...?
CT: Yeah, in intermediate school we had to wear uniforms and it made everyone look the same. So naturally my kicks were a big part of what separated me from everyone else.
SC: Spoken like a true collector. That was back when the game was so simple & pure.
SC: Last question, for how long exactly have you been collecting shoes?
CT: Since 10 years old (which would make about 20+ years in the game)
SC: That is the definition of a true connoisseur!
On behalf of the good folks at the lab we want to give a special thanks to Mr.Tellis for his donations and also taking the time out to interview with us & share his sneaker journey!
In conclusion, no matter whether its sneakers, clothes, food, or simply your time try and be a blessing to someone else this holiday season. You never know how far one simple act of kindness can go! As always, #StaySoleful & Happy Thanksgiving!
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Kicksgiving - Giving Thanks to Kung Fu Films With The Ones We Love
Too often we take for granted the joy and togetherness we receive from kung fu movies. Set near Bruce Lee's Birthday of Nov. 27, Kicksgiving takes place the Saturday after Thanksgiving, where we take time out of our busy lives to force those closest to us to watch a bunch of poorly dubbed films about people kicking and punching each other.
This year, why not avoid the genocidal trappings of Thanksgiving and celebrate what we're all truly thankful for?
