Killer Meteor
08-05-2009, 01:27 AM
Director: Chang Cheh
Starring: Ti Lung, Alexander Fu Sheng, Ku Feng, Wang Li, Phillip Kwok Choi, Lu Feng, Chin Siu-ho, Wang Lung-wei, Chiang Sheng, Lo Meng, Sun Chien, Wei Pei, Dick Wei, and lord knows how many more!
Not exactly well liked (the annoucement that it was coming to DVD was mostly greeted with groans), and suffering from a troubled history (this is what happens when you let MPs visit the shoot!), I'll be annoying, buck the trend and I quite like this all-star mish mash from Shaw Brothers.
Jumping back and forth a generation, the film introduces us to the formation of the Ten Tigers of Kwantung (initally two rival factions of kung fu masters played off against each other by the Manchus), and years later, shows the Manchu's taking a murderous revenge against the descendants of the Ten Tigers.
The flashback structure is not as confusing as I was fearing, though it may have been simpler to show all the "older footage" first, then go forward to the later scenes, rather than jump back and forth. From what I can gather, the reason for this odd approach was due to the original film being abandoned following one of Fu Sheng's recurrant on-set accidents, but I'm not sure.
The swamped cast results in many of the stars being crudely sidelined, not least of all poor Dick Wei, who never seems to do ANYTHING in any of his Shaw films. Ti Lung, Fu Sheng and Ku Feng get the lions share of the "past" footage, but do not play very engaging characters. Stealing scenes right left and centre are Lu Feng as a gruff but also jovial fisherman, and a completely stark raving mad performance by Phillip Kwok as the Druken Master, Beggar So Hat-yi. As usual, Wei Pei and Sun Chien are shoved to the sidelines in favour of the 'Opera' Venoms.
The latter footage gives Wang Li a chance to be a really sly villian, but none of the Baby Venoms come across pretty well, and they are not helped by some atrocious hairstyles - one of them has latter day Elvis style mutton chops.
Besides the usual fake sets (I've seen more convincing piers in a pond), and the usual rubbish score by Eddie H. Wang (as in; take a load of De Wolfe cues and slap them together with no sense of style or consistency), there is some especially cracking fight choreography on display here, including some blistering and varied weapons fights - plus a little bit of gore! When it comes to Peking Opera meets Grand Guignol, Chang Cheh is still the master!
Fun but not especially good, this film is ideal entertainment if somewhat lacking
PICTURE: Excellent anamorphic picture (I presume progressive), though the colours never seem quite right, but that seems par the course for the Shaw remasters, so I'm not going to get angry over that.
SOUND: Mandarin, Cantonese and English mono, plus English 5.1 (yuck!). Mostly OK, if, as with all of the Shaw remasters, a bit too overfiltered. On the Cantonese track, Ti Lung has been redubbed on his first scene for some reason, which is rather distracting. The English dub is the original and ranges from OK to dreadful (someone should really shoot the guy who dubs Wang Li and Phillip Kwok - Graham Norton sounds more manly!). Subtitles are OK but the odd ill chosen phrase gets through. The option of "slates" is a nice option for dub watchers, allowing them to read signs and credits.
EXTRAS: Original Cantonese trailer; new Mandarin trailer; original World Northal trailer for Black Magic 2; new promos for The Deadly Duo, The Brave Archer and Martial Club; Celestial documentary on Chang Cheh; photo galleries.
Starring: Ti Lung, Alexander Fu Sheng, Ku Feng, Wang Li, Phillip Kwok Choi, Lu Feng, Chin Siu-ho, Wang Lung-wei, Chiang Sheng, Lo Meng, Sun Chien, Wei Pei, Dick Wei, and lord knows how many more!
Not exactly well liked (the annoucement that it was coming to DVD was mostly greeted with groans), and suffering from a troubled history (this is what happens when you let MPs visit the shoot!), I'll be annoying, buck the trend and I quite like this all-star mish mash from Shaw Brothers.
Jumping back and forth a generation, the film introduces us to the formation of the Ten Tigers of Kwantung (initally two rival factions of kung fu masters played off against each other by the Manchus), and years later, shows the Manchu's taking a murderous revenge against the descendants of the Ten Tigers.
The flashback structure is not as confusing as I was fearing, though it may have been simpler to show all the "older footage" first, then go forward to the later scenes, rather than jump back and forth. From what I can gather, the reason for this odd approach was due to the original film being abandoned following one of Fu Sheng's recurrant on-set accidents, but I'm not sure.
The swamped cast results in many of the stars being crudely sidelined, not least of all poor Dick Wei, who never seems to do ANYTHING in any of his Shaw films. Ti Lung, Fu Sheng and Ku Feng get the lions share of the "past" footage, but do not play very engaging characters. Stealing scenes right left and centre are Lu Feng as a gruff but also jovial fisherman, and a completely stark raving mad performance by Phillip Kwok as the Druken Master, Beggar So Hat-yi. As usual, Wei Pei and Sun Chien are shoved to the sidelines in favour of the 'Opera' Venoms.
The latter footage gives Wang Li a chance to be a really sly villian, but none of the Baby Venoms come across pretty well, and they are not helped by some atrocious hairstyles - one of them has latter day Elvis style mutton chops.
Besides the usual fake sets (I've seen more convincing piers in a pond), and the usual rubbish score by Eddie H. Wang (as in; take a load of De Wolfe cues and slap them together with no sense of style or consistency), there is some especially cracking fight choreography on display here, including some blistering and varied weapons fights - plus a little bit of gore! When it comes to Peking Opera meets Grand Guignol, Chang Cheh is still the master!
Fun but not especially good, this film is ideal entertainment if somewhat lacking
PICTURE: Excellent anamorphic picture (I presume progressive), though the colours never seem quite right, but that seems par the course for the Shaw remasters, so I'm not going to get angry over that.
SOUND: Mandarin, Cantonese and English mono, plus English 5.1 (yuck!). Mostly OK, if, as with all of the Shaw remasters, a bit too overfiltered. On the Cantonese track, Ti Lung has been redubbed on his first scene for some reason, which is rather distracting. The English dub is the original and ranges from OK to dreadful (someone should really shoot the guy who dubs Wang Li and Phillip Kwok - Graham Norton sounds more manly!). Subtitles are OK but the odd ill chosen phrase gets through. The option of "slates" is a nice option for dub watchers, allowing them to read signs and credits.
EXTRAS: Original Cantonese trailer; new Mandarin trailer; original World Northal trailer for Black Magic 2; new promos for The Deadly Duo, The Brave Archer and Martial Club; Celestial documentary on Chang Cheh; photo galleries.