A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Tag Archives: martial arts

May 06 2012
Mark Twain, probably

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAwNTUWeC_0

morgoth, writing a review for Amazon.com:

Before Bruce Lee, there were a few kung fu movie stars. The first huge star was Jimmy Wang Yu who started working in the very first Shaw Brothers sword plays back in 1965. He directed and starred in ‘One-Armed Boxer’ for Golden Harvest in 1971 and is in top form both in front of and behind the camera. While you can clearly see Jimmy Wang Yu is not a real martial artist, he is still one of the best kung fu stars ever. At least 50 people die in this movie and he does the most damage.

…

If you are a fan of kung fu movies pre-Bruce Lee, this is a must have. Maybe the best basher ever. It’s one of the movies that started the imaginary world where only martial arts schools exist. So the one martial arts school is a gang, and the other school is made up of good people. You just have to go with it, but it more than works. The movie is serious, but takes place in a complete fantasy world. “Never insult Tibetan martial arts”.

Never heard of this but I don’t see how it can’t be awesome.

Colin:
EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT VIDEO IS AMAZING
(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Apr 07 2011
Mark Twain, probably

(poster image from JoBlo’s Pimpin’ Poster Palace)

Chuck Norris wearing a sweater woven from the universe? Check. A woman with a giant gun leaning through an interdimensional portal? Check. The bust of a ninja with no skin, with a hand that can’t possibly be his brandishing a sai in front of him? Check and check.

And that tagline: “In a world of choices, for one man there is no choice….” Which world is this? Are there worlds without choices? The poster doesn’t appear to be depicting Earth, is ours one of those worlds? Is this subtle social commentary?

An alternate poster for the same movie has a different and yet still amazing tagline, “The Ninja, unholy masters of terror. No one will admit they still exist,” but this one is the complete package. I’m just going to go ahead and call this the greatest movie poster from 1980.

Here’s the film’s trailer:

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Apr 05 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Wu-Tang Clan’s “Bring Da Ruckus” (1993). Video is fan made but the editing is actually decent. All rap songs should be set to martial arts movies.

Before this week, I had never listened to Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) all the way through. I’d heard the hits, sure: “C.R.E.A.M.”, “Wu-Tang Clan Aint Nuthing Ta F’ Wit”. But listening to it all the way through I was struck by both its cohesion and consistency. Even People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm and 3 Feet High and Rising (which are my two favorite golden age hip hop albums not by Eric B. & Rakim) lag several in places, particularly the skits. But Enter the Wu-Tang (a couple years younger than the above two) has suffered none of that, at least in the first few spins. Each song flows pretty comfortably from one into the next in both style and tempo, and the martial arts concept is woven deftly and subtly. (And the skits are mercifully brief and, dare I say, actually somewhat funny. “And I’m gonna feed ya, and feed ya, and feed ya.” Brutal, but I actually laughed.)

If you’re at all hip hop curious, watch the above video and then give the record a few spins. You won’t be sorry.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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