Warrior

(2011, US, Mimran Schur Pictures/Filmtribe/Solaris Entertainment)

Dir. Gavin O’Connor; Pro. Gavin O’Connor, Greg O’Connor; Scr. Gavin O’Connor, Cliff Dorfman, Anthony Tambakis; Action Dir. J.J. Perry; Cast Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Nick Nolte.

140 min.

Supercharged, highly emotive sports movie which makes the logical transition from Darren Aronofsky’s reflective downbeat sucker-punch portrayal of wrestling in The Wrestler (2008), via David O. Russell’s boxing drama The Fighter (2010) to the brutal ground and pound of mixed martial arts. But to cast Warrior as merely a bandwagon jumper does the film an immeasurable disservice. Sure, every sporting cliche is here, from Rocky‘s small town ambition to Raging Bull‘s complicated family ties, before the film reaches a contrived and predictable conclusion. But the film rests on superb performances and a core of convincing characters each battling with a divisive balance of loyalty, pride and responsibility. The MMA tournament which takes up the majority of the final act is utterly compelling, offering both an insight into what motivates the men choosing to engage in extreme full contact cage fighting and the impact their decisions have on those closest to them.

The central drama revolves around a former alcoholic and abusive father, played by Nick Nolte, who cleans up too late to build bridges with his two estranged combative sons. One, played by Joel Edgerton, is a physics teacher and family man who is forced back into the ring due to spiraling debts. The other son is more complex. Played brilliantly by Tom Hardy, he returns to his home town of Pittsburgh after running out on the US Marines, choosing his father to coach him for the upcoming SPARTA tournament – billed as the Superbowl of MMA – but stubbornly refusing to accept his fathers apologies. The two brothers end up in the same competition, so it’s pretty obvious where the film is heading. But it is manipulative enough to get caught up in the emotion, and as an exercise in humanising the brutal sport of mixed martial arts it works very well.

The Heroic Ones

(1970, HK, Shaw Brothers)

Dir. Chang Cheh; Pro. Run Run Shaw; Scr. Chang Cheh, Ni Kuang; Action Dir. Lau Kar-leung, Lau Kar-wing, Tong Gaai; Cast David Chiang Da-wei, Ti Lung, Chan Chuen, Lily Li Li-li, Ku Feng, Chan Sing, Chin Han, James Nam Gung-fan, Lo Wai, Wong Chung, Yuen Woo-ping, Bolo Yeung.

121 min.

Sublime Shaw epic performed on a large scale with no expense spared on props, sets, costumes, extras and fake blood. Loosely based on the Mongol invasion of China, Ku Feng plays the marauding Lord Li commanding one of China’s many kingdoms with a little help from his sons, known collectively as the Thirteen Generals.

Biblical assertions aside, it is Li’s drunk thirteenth son, played by David Chiang, who becomes the group leader after slaying Bolo Yeung with a big stick, leading his brothers into missions of intrigue and espionage. The Lord’s disciples come unstuck when two of the troop turn Judas and attempt to steal the glory, steering their Mongol faction headfirst into serious trouble with a rival warlord leaving their kingdom vulnerable to attack.

Chang Cheh laments his fallen brethren with plenty of gusto, particularly when Ti Lung dies defiantly defending his master and when David Chiang meets a horribly grisly end, even by Shaw Brothers standards. But when Chang Cheh isn’t dwarfing his lens with great colour and movement, he is asking strong moral questions of his audience; a title heavy in irony and a cast of characters who (aside from a few moments of jaded loyalty) seem to possess very few redeeming features.

This successful film would set the trend for Shaw’s high concept direction into the 1970s and introduce a new team of talented actors and filmmakers with a fresh and exciting set of ideas.

AKA: Shaolin Masters; 13 Fighters

The Victim

(1980, HK, Graffons Film Co.)

Dir. Sammo Hung Kam-bo; Pro. Karl Maka; Scr. Louis Lau Tin-chi; Action Dir. Sammo Hung Kam-bo; Cast Sammo Hung Kam-bo, Leung Kar-yan, Chang Yi, Chung Fat, Wilson Tong Wai-shing.

89 min.

Sammo’s masterpiece is essentially a vehicle to showcase the talents of Leung Kar-yan, and he has simply never looked better. But The Victim works on many levels. The action scenes are worthy of Sammo’s status as one of the genre’s best choreographers. The comedy touches are subtle in comparison to the director’s usual bawdy standards, and the film’s dramatic outpouring – detailing an ongoing family feud – makes this thoroughly more exciting than your standard run-of-the-mill kung fu pulp. Sammo plays his typical happy-go-lucky persona seeking out a new sifu in Leung Kar-yan, but Leung’s a man with problems of his own. His brother (Chang Yi) tried to rape his wife and has been on the run from him ever since. But will Leung ever face up to his enemy and fight back? The Victim is a true late night classic, still fresh and exciting after all these years, and a film that demands repeated viewings.

AKA: Lightning Kung Fu

The Prodigal Son

(1981, HK, Golden Harvest)

Dir. Sammo Hung Kam-bo; Pro. Raymond Chow Man-wai; Scr. Barry Wong Ping-yiu; Action Dir. Sammo Hung Kam-bo; Cast Yuen Biao, Lam Ching-ying, Frankie Chan Fan-kei, Sammo Hung Kam-bo, Peter Chan Lung, Chung Fat, Dick Wei, Wu Ma, Lee Hoi-san, Chien Yuet-san.

101 min.

A rip-roaring classic of a kung fu movie, this is undoubtedly one of the greatest martial arts films ever made and arguably Sammo’s crowning achievement.

By the time this mature fight fest landed in 1981, Sammo’s uneven trait of mixing sincerity with absurdity was a distant memory, even if it would take Sammo a while to entirely grow out of his penchant for slapstick extremities. The semi-autobiographical story recalls a boyhood spent behind the scenes and on the stage as part of a travelling Peking Opera group. Alongside a cast featuring his former Opera friends and performers, the film feels both heartfelt and strongly authentic.

Everyone plays to the top of their game, particularly during the sizzling fight sequences which display Sammo’s intricate mastery of motion, honed from a breadth of martial knowledge and filming experience. Few kung fu films have managed to top The Prodigal Son in its innovative choreography, with particular attention paid to editing, timing, camera movement, narrative structure and fluidity.

As Sammo’s second Wing Chun film, this acts as an indirect prequel to Hung’s earlier Warriors Two, detailing the early years of martial maestro Leung Jan, here depicted as a spoilt youth played excellently by Yuen Biao. Believing himself to be the kung fu king of Foshan, Leung’s fights are being fixed by his parents who fear for the boy’s safety. It takes a single beating from Wing Chun master and Opera performer Leung Yee-tai (Lam Ching-ying) before the truth comes out.

Despite persistent calls for Yee-tai to become Leung Jan’s sifu, he only reluctantly decides to teach the boy when his entire Opera group are killed and their building torched following a destructive order from the Duke, if only for the benefit of adding a revenge angle to the story.

Sammo appears as the burly Wong Wai-bo, brother of Yee-tai, secluded in a country hideout suffering delusions of grandeur. Frankie Chan plays the warm-hearted villain, but he is only a villain by proxy. He is a privileged, oppositional construct of Leung Jan’s character, possessing the kindest of intentions and only indirectly linked to the Opera murders. The balance of power between Lam Ching-ying’s authority and Yuen Biao’s youthful naivety adds to most of the film’s splendour, with both actors delivering career defining performances. Particularly Lam Ching-ying, even if he does spend large sections of the film singing in drag.

The movie concludes in a bloodbath, with Yuen Biao grappling prodigal rival Frankie Chan toe to toe in an astonishing final reel which never fails to amaze.

AKA: Pull No Punches

Snake Crane Secret

(1977, HK, Kim Hin Film Enterprises Co.)

Dir. Wu Ma; Pro. Leow Swee-kim; Scr. Wong Yeuk-ping; Action Dir. Li Chao; Cast Meng Fei, Dorian Tan Tao-liang, Yu Tien-lung, Dean Shek Tin, Elsa Yeung Wai-san, Fang Fang.

90 min.

Wu Ma’s cheap 70s chopsockies are meatier than your average, a director not merely content to get the best physical performances out of his cast but also allotting valuable screen time to put flesh on his characters. Yu Tien-lung plays flamboyant villain Master Hung, a Ching Dynasty consul with political and personal links to the Emperor. With his psychadelic robes and greying mane he looks a bit like a member of Slade, masterminding his villainy via the brownnosing exploits of his loyal minions, played by Dean Shek and Wu Ma favourite Dorian Tan. Their mission: to find a stolen list of Sun and Moon revolutionary fighters stashed inside a highly sought after kung fu book. Meng Fei has the book. He’s a cocksure youth with great crane style kung fu who must decide whether to show loyalty to his corrupt government in exchange for wealth and power, or side with the plucky band of rebels. There’s a honking twist in the story which looms into focus with all the stealth of a double decker bus, but on the whole the revenge backstory is handled well despite its predictability. And watching Meng Fei’s crane style combine with Dorian Tan’s Snake Fist is a treat worth sticking around for.

AKA: The Secret of the Snake and Crane; Secret of the Dragon; Snake-Crane Secrets

Game of Death II

(1981, HK, Golden Harvest/Seasonal Films)

Dir. Ng See-yuen; Pro. Raymond Chow Man-wai; Action Dir. Yuen Woo-ping, Corey Yuen Kwai; Cast Bruce Lee, Kim Tai-chong, Hwang Jang-lee, Roy Horan, Roy Chiao Hung, Lee Hoi-san, To Wai-wo, Tiger Yeung Cheng-wu, Casanova Wong Ho.

96 min.

A truly surreal piece of exploitation which is so insane you can’t help but admire it. This is another grave robbing exercise in creating a seemingly new ‘Bruce Lee‘ film, much in the same vein as its non-related predecessor. But this is a lot more fun than Robert Clouse’s garbled Game of Death.

‘Bruce Lee’ paradoxically returns as Billy Lo, eager to discover the reason behind his master’s sudden death which (sure enough) leads to his own death. This is clearly the moment where Golden Harvest ran out of unseen Bruce Lee footage, so Billy falls from the undercarriage of a moving helicopter. Cue a reprise of genuine Bruce Lee tributes and in walks Billy’s brother, Bobby (Kim Tai-chong, credited with the rather fitting name ‘Tong Lung’) who continues with Billy’s investigations.

Given the circumstances, Kim Tai-chong does very well at steering the second half of this cavalcade. Highlights include a visit to the underground sci-fi laboratory of crazy fighter Roy Horan, a battle with a man in a Tarzan outfit, a fight with a random monk (Lee Hoi-san) and a big battle with Hwang Jang-lee. It is complete madness, but this shameful exercise is also fabulously entertaining.

AKA: The New Game of Death; Tower of Death

The Street Fighter

(1974, Japan, Toei Company)

Dir. Shigehiro Ozawa; Scr. Koji Takada; Action Dir. Ken Kazama, T. Harada, Reggy Jones; Cast Sonny Chiba, Goichi Yamada, Yutaka Nakajima, Tony Cetera, Masafumi Suzuki.

91 min.

Sonny Chiba is practically rabid in this iconic fight fest, an attempt to create a Japanese Bruce Lee with an exploitation film so blood thirsty the plot barely gets going before another attack of the red stuff. Yet there is a perverted poetry to the film, despite Sonny’s penchant for targeting the body’s most delicate parts (he tears out eyes, throats and, yes, that part), and follows a code of conduct not too dissimilar from Japan’s classic chambara films and the subsequent spaghetti westerns popular at the time.

Chiba’s character, Terry Sugury, isn’t really a street fighter. He’s more of a contract killer and badass-for-hire recruited by unsavoury sorts to handle their dirty business. When Terry refuses to kidnap the Chinese daughter of a deceased oil tycoon, the Yakuza go crazy and, rather brazenly, try desperately to kill him. It’s quite a half arsed attempt, though, as Terry’s karate moves lay waste to a barrage of thugs in both Tokyo and Hong Kong, before finishing on an oil rig fighting organized crime syndicates singlehandedly.

But look beyond Terry’s eye-gouging and head-kicking and therein lies a complicated character. Terry’s a mixed-raced loner carrying the burden of a murdered father and battling a double-pronged brother and sister karate attack due to a botched job at the start of the movie. Plus his sidekick is bloody useless.

That’s too much for any man to bare. Luckily Chiba tackles everything head on with all the gusto of a bat to the face. Such intensity can only be applauded. The film manages to carry some genuine clout beyond its B movie shackles, transforming instantly into a great franchise with a hot follow-up called Return of the Street Fighter.

Chiba’s most cherished adventure and deservedly so.

AKA: Sudden Attack: The Killing Fist

The Octagon

(1980, US, American Cinema Productions)

Dir. Eric Karson; Pro. Joel Freeman; Scr. Paul Aaron, Leigh Chapman; Action Dir. Aaron Norris, Chuck Norris; Cast Chuck Norris, Karen Carlson, Lee Van Cleef, Art Hindle, Carol Bagdasarian, Tadashi Yamashita, Richard Norton.

103 min.

Chuck is on fighting form as karate champ Scott James, a sweet talker with psychological issues (his subconscious thoughts are represented by a echoed voiceover which gets really annoying). Mercenaries are being transported to a distant training ranch and taught the outlawed secrets of Ninjitsu, and their scary leader Seikura (Yamashita) just happens to be Scott’s martial brother. What an awkward coincidence. There’s only one way to sort this situation out: with violence, and plenty of it. Amateur performances and clumsy dialogue tend to slow things down, however the final assault with Norris fighting an entire ninja ranch singlehandedly is crazy enough to make it all worthwhile.

AKA: The Man Without Mercy

Never Back Down

(2008, US, Mandalay Independent Pictures)

Dir. Jeff Wadlow; Pro. David Zelon, Bill Bannerman, Craig Baumgarten; Scr. Chris Hauty; Action Dir. Danny Hernandez, Justin A. Williams; Cast Sean Faris, Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet, Evan Peters, Djimon Hounsou.

115 min.

Concussed teen movie attempting to do for mixed martial arts what Grease did for leather jackets and bubblegum. This is essentially The Karate Kid for The O.C. generation, exonerating the contemporary jock persona by adding metrosexual tendencies and substituting the football field for the sweat and grapple of the MMA arena. This physically happens in the form of Jake Tyler (Faris), an ex-collegiate football star who moves from Iowa with his widowed mother and kid brother to the sun-drenched playboy mansions of Florida. Jake is no ordinary high school beefcake, though. He reads the Iliad, befriends an Xbox nerd and charms the school babe, all on his first day.

The problem is she happens to be dating the school douchebag, Ryan McCarthy (Gigandet, who was actually in The O.C.). He organises bare knuckle brawls at the sort of house parties you find in Kanye West videos, and offers newbie Jake a welcoming gift of a socially humiliating UFC-style ass whopping. Angry Jake quickly enrolls at the local 24 hour mixed martial arts school where he befriends Brazilian jiu-jitsu sage Jean Roqua (Hounsou), discovering a kindred spirit battling his own inner demons.

Throughout the training montages and relentless emo music, Jake is almost ready to confront Ryan at the Beatdown – a no holds barred underground MMA tournament, the ultimate aim of which appears to be the opportunity to get on YouTube.

All of which follows a well worn and wearily familiar path to most high school fight movies. As a PR exercise for the sport of MMA it is more damaging as it possesses a brainwashing accuracy in adding a romantic gloss over the violent fight scenes. But any sane person should have the common sense to run a mile from these godawful characters. Apart from Hounsou’s Mr Miyagi role which is the best thing about the film: convincing, sensitive, highly skilled and played excellently by the Blood Diamond star.

Double Impact

(1991, US, MGM/United Artists)

Dir. Sheldon Lettich; Pro. Ashok Amritraj, Paul Michael Glaser, Jean-Claude Van Damme; Scr. Sheldon Lettich, Jean-Claude Van Damme; Action Dir. Peter Malota, Jean-Claude Van Damme; Cast Jean-Claude Van Damme, Geoffrey Lewis, Alan Scarfe, Phillip Chan Yan-kin, Bolo Yeung, Cory Everson.

109 min.

Egos run wild as Van Damme is given a double dosage in this rampant, enjoyable thriller, hampered somewhat by the now two dreadful acting performances instead of just the one. Yet credit where it’s due: this is one of his better outings, as he broadens his thespian range at the same time as stylishly kicking people in the head. Revenge is on the cards as Van Damme plays twin brothers separated at birth and reunited after 25 years. One’s a camp American aerobics instructor who wears silk underwear, the other a tough cigar chomping gangster type raised in Hong Kong. Their parents were hopelessly slaughtered when they were babies and they summarily vow revenge. It’s laughable enough, just as it should be, and violent as hell, with stocky Bolo Yeung playing the punishing villain of the piece, and with two prancing Van Dammes causing utter bloody chaos.