View Full Version : Where in the world is Wong Fei Hung?!
I've heard and read for years and years about the Wong Fei Hung film serials starring Kwan Tak-Hing that started in the 40s and started slowing down all the way down to the 70s! I've found and watched scenes of them on various websites, but never the whole film.
I've seen two of 'em, but I still have problems finding more. To tell you the truth, I haven't seen many B&W Kung Fu flicks from this series for sale, period. Has anyone been had the luck of finding any.
Dreadnought, The Mag Butcher or Skyhawk don't count! :p
http://www.ehga.org/img/kwantakh.jpg
Morgoth Bauglir
12-10-2007, 06:47 AM
You can check the buy/sell/trade section, but those films are very rare.
You can check the buy/sell/trade section, but those films are very rare.
I know! What I always found unfair is the reason that they are so rare is because the Chinese movie market was very low-budget back then. Japanese movies from that same era are much easier to find and have amazing video quality (Chambara films for example).
It's a miracle they find the HK movies they do from the 60s let alone the 50s! I just hope that one day a company would put some effort forth to find 'em :(
Linn1
12-10-2007, 08:13 AM
in HK for years. The reason they are so hard to find are: A.Very few have been released on video and B.The prints are so hard to come by. This is because the prints were played over and over till they fell apart. The ones that didn't were used by HK TV stations to make copies and then the originals thrown out! The largest collection of these films is at the HK Film Archives and they don't even have a complete collection. The most I've seen in one private collection is 14-17 films, mostly from copies off HK TV.
Morgoth Bauglir
12-10-2007, 08:17 AM
That is just sad:( Hopefully somebody releases some of them on DVD one day.
I'd doubt it though, but I'd sure as hell pay for one of those copies from TV! :(
FrankBolte
12-10-2007, 10:14 AM
I have like 3 or 4 episodes of them...they dont have many fights,some of the fights are on utube..if u cant understand cantonese its absolutely boring to watch..most of the time they stand in a line and talk...the fights are interesting as u can see already early stages of drunkenfist (who said jackie invented that?) as a matter of fact its Yuen Hsiao Tien using monkey fist against Kwan Tak Hing using drunken fist..theres some oldschool Liondance and often appearances of real life kung fu masters..for example my grand-grandmaster Lau Jaam (see my avatar),Lau Kar leung is in many episodes as a stuntman/extra,the real wife of Wong Fei Hung,Mok Gwai Lam is performing some hung fist in one episode (this is also on utube)..its definitely interesting to watch specially if u interested in cma..cos they always had kung fu masters as guests
the fights are interesting as u can see already early stages of drunkenfist (who said jackie invented that?)
Nobody ever says that! Drunken Fist or "Zuì Quan" has been around for hundreds of years. Thanks for the info though, I found some of the vids. It's interesting to see how fight choreography has evolved since then. Still, this kind of stuff was groundbreaking for it's time! I just don't know why they're still in B&W. The audio's too low, but the fighting is fun to watch. GOD, I WISH I COULD FIND THESE ON DVD!! :eek: I'm really enjoying watchin these sequences, they're well arranged.
Wong Fei Hung Combats the 5 Wolves (1969)
PewH0fFiO5E
FrankBolte
12-11-2007, 09:38 AM
Nobody ever says that! Drunken Fist or "Zuì Quan" has been around for hundreds of years.
well, I know that..as a matter of fact I teach Hung Kuen..anyway what I meant is that I read an interview somewhere where they claim that they invented drunkenfist for the movies..cant remember where though..actually lots of things have been copied from the old B/W series specialli in Once upon a time in china..
actually lots of things have been copied from the old B/W series specialli in Once upon a time in china..
Well yeah, think about it, they were doing Kung Fu flicks when Kung Fu movies weren't even popular in HK cinema.
Linn1
12-11-2007, 02:06 PM
the Wong Fei Hung films were the source of nearly everything we've seen in kung fu films over the years. The young master who learns kung fu to defeat someone who killed his master, using everyday things as weapons, Chinese vs. Japanese, etc.
reason108
12-11-2007, 10:13 PM
I thought that one of these films was available on vcd at yesasia or dddhouse. But, it may have been a few years back that I saw it; or, it could just be my memory playing tricks on me.
dragonherb
12-11-2007, 10:24 PM
Was it this one?..
http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx?pid=1000007787§ion=videos&did=106&code=c&
Was it this one?..
http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx?pid=1000007787§ion=videos&did=106&code=c&
Cool..............................and of course it's out of stock. :mad: I'm gonna look into these VCDs a little more and maybe I'll find 'em on another site. Doubt it though.
dbmaster514
04-15-2008, 01:26 AM
That is the only Wong Fei Hung I have been able to find the only thing I have from pre-60s HK film. Would love to get a hold of some of those TV sources, I've heard about them and tried to get a few people in HK to record them for me but nothing ever turned up.
The Amazing Psycho Per
04-15-2008, 09:29 PM
Wong Fei Hung Combats the 5 Wolves (1969)
LOL... The Choreography is better then in the Shaws from the same period...
LOL... The Choreography is better then in the Shaws from the same period...
Hmm, that's true IN GENERAL. Because Chang Cheh's choreography at the time was top notch, and he wasn't surpassed at the time, but then again that's only him. The majority weren't even in their league.
FrankBolte
04-25-2008, 08:21 AM
Hmm, that's true IN GENERAL. Because Chang Cheh's choreography at the time was top notch, and he wasn't surpassed at the time, but then again that's only him. The majority weren't even in the league.
I think he meant it the other way around..that the choreography was better than in the early shaw movies..
Chang Cheh did Choreograph:confused:..thought he only directed ?
SamuraiDana
05-21-2008, 03:33 PM
I found a VCD of one of the b&w Wong Fei Hung films (unsubtitled, of course) in a Chinatown VCD bin. I believe it's HOW WONG FEI-HUNG PITTED 7 LIONS AGAINST A DRAGON (1956), although I don't recall the process by which I figured that out. I don't have it handy, so I can't tell you what company released it.
I don't have it handy, so I can't tell you what company released it.
Ooh! Catch a quick pic of both sides of it if possible. That'd be interesting to look at. Was it cheap? Because they're near impossible to find.
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