The Dragon Lives Again, also known as Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, came out in 1977. It is about the soul of Bruce Lee traveling to the Underworld, where he fights Dracula, James Bond, The Man with No Name, and others. Along the way, he befriends the One-Armed Swordsman, Caine from the TV show Kung Fu, and Popeye the Sailor Man. If you haven't seen it you totally should. Peak Bruceploitation. 🥋🤜💥🤛

I watch more than my fair share of classic Kung Fu movies on Tubi or YouTube every week. And one of the movies that really stood out for me is Sleeping Fist.

Right from the high energy open featuring "Bloodsucker" by Mandingo I was hooked. Love the blend of comedy and action throughout. Huang I-Lung does some amazing physical feats (He should have had a longer career). Simon Yuen proves he is the best old master in the game. And this is the movie that made me a Beardy fan!

My full review

Monkey Man is Dev Patel’s love letter to Southeast Asian action cinema from 8 Diagram Pole Fighter right up to The Night Comes For Us. It is what a lot of action fans have been clamoring for: a mid budget, carefully produced and crafted, R-rated, revenge film. It comes from a place of actual understanding about what makes kung fu films work, and if you want a short, snappy, takeaway from this review it is this: the actual martial arts action of Monkey Man is a little less extreme than the marketing may have led you to believe however, the soul of a classic kung fu movie is under the bones here.

Read the full review: https://cityonfire.com/monkey-man-2024-review-sharlto-copley-dev-patel/

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With dozens of credits as a cinematographer and director, Herman Yau (The Untold Story, Ebola Syndrome, Taxi Hunter) is one of the most prolific filmmakers ever to have worked in Hong Kong cinema. Considering that he’s gone all respectable with historical action pictures like The Legend is Born: Ip Man and The Woman Knight of Mirror Lake – not to mention edge-of-your-seat blockbusters like Shock Wave and Shock Wave 2 – it’s easy to forget that Yau got his start in the grimy, nasty world of Category III.

Now, Yau is getting himself into high octane action with Emperor Motion Pictures’ Customs Frontline (aka War Customized), an upcoming thriller starring Jacky Cheung (Bullet in the Head) and Nicholas Tse (Raging Fire), who, for the first time, will serve as action choreographer for a film.

Trailer and Details: https://cityonfire.com/cat-iii-hong-kong-filmmaker-herman-yau-to-make-war-customized-with-jacky-cheung-and-nicholas-tse/

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I've recently got back into watching a load of the classic Kung Fu stuff and I've been rewatching in particular the Vengeance Video DVD releases from the late 90s/00s, i have about 40 of them and wondered if there was any sort of list out there of how many they released and with what cat numbers?

They generally are pretty cheap when you see them these days. I guess their quality will have been well superceded by now in most cases but I fancy going for a full set if feasible.

The search for Lo Lieh’s 1976 cult classic, The Big Boss Part II – an unofficial sequel to the 1971 Bruce Lee classic, The Big Boss – is finally over! Back in 2014, the film had a one-night-only showing at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, but unless you lived in the area, news of this limited engagement was nothing but a lost opportunity for the rest of world.

But now, The Big Boss Part II, one of the most sought after kung fu titles ever, is being released in Severin’s upcoming The Game of Clones: Bruceploitation Collection Vol 1.

The Big Boss Part II practically picks up on location in Thailand where original The Big Boss left off. Bruce Le (Challenge of the Tiger) takes over the role of Cheng Chiu On (Bruce Lee), who is now in jail for the events portrayed in the first film. Lo Lieh (Five Fingers of Death), who plays his brother, is the center character who gets heavily involved involved with another breed of local baddies. The film also stars Michael Chan Wai Man (The Handcuff), Krung Srivilai (H-Bomb) and Wong Ping (Vengeance!).

Continue reading and watch Trailers: https://cityonfire.com/extremely-rare-big-boss-2-to-hit-new-beverly-cinema-screens-dvd-release/

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I was really looking forward to this movie, and movie wise it didn't disappoint, it had a decent plot good acting and a good pace. The revenge story was sure intriguing.

For a first time dir Dev Patel did a great job directing and starring at the same time.

But then the fights the main reason I wanted to watch it, did disappoint.

There was not one fight I could point out that stood out! Reason for this the camera was just too close on the action, I thought filmmakers after John Wick ( not a die hard fan but at least it opened studios and filmmakers eyes to stop using shaky cam!) had learned to keep the camera still and let the actors show their action.

So more frustrating if u know the action is dir by Brahim Chab and he brought a capable Thai stunt crew to work with but has it ruined by the camera being too much part of the action following a fall of a stunt guy or move with the hit or worser being too close on the action that you can't follow what's going on. This stops you from being involved in the fight.

The same goes for the tuktuk chase the camera was again too close that all the crashes just had no impact.

The same problems ''Farang'' (aka Mayhem!) last year had! Again capable Thai stunt crew and action dir by Jude Poyer who did a great job on the series ''Gangs of London'' but in ''Farang'' just had the camera also just be too close or too much part of the action that killed the flow of the action...

So as action dir you can't say they not let you work or have a capable lead as Dev has trained in martial arts and the cast had also a training with Chab before filming so why ruin it with by not shooting the action right?

It hurts as this movie had a lot of potential to be a action classic in the fight department...At least the film is watchable as it was a good film overall so more frustrating the fights weren't on the same level. I just hope ''Kill'' does live up to the hype as this movie is having a lot of buzz also.

The Swordsman of All Swordsmen is a film in a unique position in 2024: despite being a little seen but highly regarded early film from one of the legendary directors of the “Kung Fu Boom” it is effectively playing second banana on its own release from Eureka Video because it has been paired with the long awaited issue of The Mystery of Chessboxing, a seminal kung fu film made eleven years later by the same director.

Don’t be fooled, though. The Swordsman of All Swordsmen is no mere appetizer rather, it is a technically assured, impressively staged, beautifully restored wuxia classic that bears heavy influence from both King Hu’s Dragon Inn and Cheng Cheh’s The One Armed Swordsman both of which had been produced the previous year and both had been blockbuster successes in the Chinese speaking world. Not only is this film worthwhile on its own as a piece of cinema, but it is a fascinating historical document for those interested in how the wuxia genre came together on screen in the late 60’s outside of the mighty backlot of Shaw Brothers.

Continue reading: https://cityonfire.com/the-swordsman-of-all-swordsmen-1968-review-joseph-kuo/

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Director Drew Goddard, who is perhaps best known for co-writing the 2015’s The Martian and directing 2011’s The Cabin in the Woods, is set to direct a 5th Matrix film for Warner.

Lana Wachowski, who created The Matrix trilogy with Lilly Wachowski (the two visionary directors are collectively known as “The Wachowskis”) will executive produce the project.

Continue reading: https://cityonfire.com/blue-or-red-the-martian-writer-drew-goddard-teams-up-with-matrix-5-sequel-prequel-reboot-drew-goddard-lana-wachowski/

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There are certain stars of the old-school kung-fu genre who faded from the spotlight before the fight choreography evolved into the more complex and dynamic style that began to emerge in the late 70’s. Out of all of them, I’d always thought about how Angela Mao’s career would have developed if she’d continued in the industry rather than retire in the early 80’s. After Bruce Lee died Mao became the face of Golden Harvest’s kung-fu output, with her Hapkido training seeing her headline over 10 productions for the studio from the early to mid-1970’s. Her turns in the likes of 1972’s Hapkido and 1973’s When Taekwondo Strikes were showcases for her raw intensity, and straddled the period when the punch and block basher style of choreography was beginning to transition into the more intricate shapes style. I’d always assumed we’d never got to see Mao feature in a true shapes driven kung-fu flick, but thankfully I was wrong.

Read more: https://cityonfire.com/dance-of-death-aka-eternal-conflict-1980-review-angela-mao-chan-chi-hwa-jackie-chan/

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The Jumbo floating restaurant shows up in quite a few films and just curious what else is out there.

As far as I know it's in the following:

Royal Warriors

The Protector

Enter the Dragon

I know there's more out there I can't think of! Name as many as you can!