question for the Golden Harvest fans...

[sevenhooks]

Okay, most of you here know I'm a Shaw fan.
But my preference is certainly not exclusive.
I love a good movie period.
Been getting into some late 70's / early 80's Golden Harvest joints lately.
Last Hurrah for Chivalry, Prodigal Son, Duel To The Death, The Sword (Golden Harvest?), etc. are all great.
But I now want to dig a little deeper and explore other stuff from that same period and of that same calibur.
What can you recommend?
I heard Cheeky Chap was pretty good (and if anyone has an english dub of this and wants to trade, hit me up on the message)
Looking for good action, be it kung fu or swordplay and a decent story if possible. I'm pretty open here, so give it your best shot...

[killer meteor]

I heartily reccomend the Bruce Lee movies, Magnificent Butcher, Encounter Of The Spooky Kind and Hapkido

[sevenhooks]

Seen all of those actually (though it's been well over 20 years since I watched Hapkido - should probably peep it again).
Looking to delve a little deeper in the GH vaults for some gems I might not be knowing too much about.
Just how thick is their catalogue anyway?
Obviously not as plentiful as Shaw's, BUT STILL!

[Markgway]

I wouldn't recommend The Cheeky Chap personally... if you're looking for a Wei Pai vehicle The Phantom Killer is better.

Any of the following are worth checking out...

Dreadnaught, The Iron-Fisted Monk, Knockabout, The Magnificent Butcher, The Prodigal Son, Warriors Two, The Young Master.

1977-1981 was the best period for Golden Harvest traditional martial arts IMO.

[Tosh]

I really liked Wheels on Meals, any of those old Chan movies are good before he came to Hollywad, it's been years but I remember really liking Fearless Hyena to, need to check that one out again here.

[sevenhooks]

Any of the following are worth checking out...

Dreadnaught, The Iron-Fisted Monk, Knockabout, The Magnificent Butcher, The Prodigal Son, Warriors Two, The Young Master.

Again, seen all of these.
Looking for lesser known stuff I suppose.
Phantom Killer sounds great though.
Any specific release to recommend?

Speaking of Warriors Two, who was the guy on here who made the fan disc w/the old dub synched up?
Those screen caps looked pretty good from what I remember and my only copy of W2 don't look so hot.
:(

[gfanikf]

1972
Bandits From Shantung
The One-Armed Boxer

1973
A Man Called Tiger
Back Alley Princess
Beach of the War Gods
The Devil's Treasure
The Fate of Lee Khan

1974
The Skyhawk
Manchu Boxer

1975
The Man From Hong Kong


1980l
Encounter of the Spooky Kind


1982
Missiles Over Falklands ( I have no idea what this was but I want to)

1983
Duel to the Death
Winners and Sinners
Shaolin Drunkard (THIS MOVIE IS AWESOME)
Project A

1984
Pom Pom (Not to much action but very funny)
Long Arm of the Law
Wheels on Meals

1985
Mr. Vampire
Police Story

1986
Witch From Nepal
100 Ways to Murder Your Wife
Lucky Stars Go Places
Mr. Vampire II
Heroes Shed No Tears

1987
Tragic Hero
Scared Stiff
Eastern Condors
Project A II
Long Arm of the Law - Saga II
Mr. Vampire Part III

1988
Dragons Forever
Paper Marriage
The Inspector Wears Skirts
Police Story Part II

[Linn1]

Phantom Killer is the better of the Wei Pei films that were released. These are the best from each year IMO that don't get a lot of mention:

71
The Invincible Eight
The Blade Spares None

72
Bandits From Shantung
Lady Whirlwind
The One-Armed Boxer
Hapkido

73
A Man Called Tiger-Uncut version only
Seaman No.7
None But the Brave
Beach of the War Gods
When Tae Kwon Do Strikes
Thunderbolt
The Fate of Lee Khan
The Tattooed Dragon

74
The Shaolin Boxer
Whiplash
The Tournament

75
The Valiant Ones
The Seven Coffins
The Young Dragons

76
The Himalyan-One of my all time faves
Tiger of Northland

77
The Shaolin Plot
The Invincible Swordswoman
Broken Oath

78
Naked Comes the Huntress
Mr. Big-Modern action

79
The Hellfire Angel-Modern action

80
The Sword

81
Tower of Death
The Phantom Killer
The Gold Hunters
Death Hunt

[shukocarl]

...surerly Point the Finger of Death is a First Films poduction starring Wang Yu ?
Carl:)

[Linn1]

I was going by a Fortune Star list I have and that sneaked in. ;) Corrected. And gfanikf needs to stop copying my posts...before I post them! :) BTW, Missiles Over Falklands...not so hot.

[gfanikf]

Ah I forgot Tower of Death granted I like the GOD2 cut a lot more. Mainly because its the worst movie ever with the greatest kung fu.

And gfanikf needs to stop copying my posts...before I post them!

:lol :lol

[Markgway]

I reckon THE FATE OF LEE KHAN is one of the best martial art movies of the 70's.

[sevenhooks]

I reckon THE FATE OF LEE KHAN is one of the best martial art movies of the 70's.


Need to see this one.

[Yakuza954]

Is an uncut version of A Man Called Tiger available? What extra footage does it have? I remember Markgway and VonHumboldtFleischer having a discussion about it before.

[Linn1]

there was a vcd that was uncut and the Japanese release was uncut and widescreen. As for what was cut, it's been a while, but the "international version" released in the US by Embassy (and nearly everywhere else) was missing at least 15-20 minutes of footage. It was everything from fights to regular scenes.

[Dion Brother]

WANG YU'S 7 MAGNIFICENT FIGHTS, THE HIMALAYAN, SHAOLIN PLOT and SKYHAWK are all seriously underrated. I think Tan Tao Liang looked better in THE HIMALAYAN than anything else he ever did. Would love to see a remastered dvd of any of these. My copy of SHAOLIN PLOT succumbed to VHS humidity rot years ago.

[morgoth]

One movie that I haven't seen but have been trying to find opinions on is a Chang Shan(Chen Shan) movie called Flag of Honor.

[FarEastPirate]

a VCD of Himalayen was Just released by Fourtune star,

with no subs

Excellent quality on par with the early Megastar releases on DVD when they were not remastered no little digital blocks at all on my 23 inch Plasma

[dager in the cotton]

Dion's right , Himalayan was one of Tan's best works , he was razor sharp in that. the training scene alone is worth the price of 10 DVD'S , a lot better than Hand of Death,
also be great to See, Shaolin Plot in Decent quality.
War Gods , Naked Comes the Huntress would be most welocme.
Flag of Honor is available at yes Asia I Think it's war film , Chang Shan plays a Japanese General, I have not seen the film can't confirm if he fights in it, I doubt it judging from the poster,

[collecting history]

Chinese Hercules wasn't GH made...it does look bit cool in the trailer lol

[Chen Zhen]

if u havent already, its in ur best interest to check out those GH angie mao flix...the broken oath, when tae kwan do strikes, the tournament, and hapkido are all top notch flix. especially the tournament...f'n awesome flick.

[kowloon]

years 1971-1975 include the best of the best golden harvest's movies

[mpm74]

I've been curious about GH movies in the early 70's. Like, how are their swordman/swordwoman flicks compared to Shaws?

Budgets? Set designs? Blood factor? Gore? Stories?

[Markgway]

A lot of the early GH movies haven't dated terribly well compared to similar Shaw output.

The company didn't hit its stride IMO until about 1977

[mpm74]

One thing I like about the late 60's/early 70's shaw films - aside from the talent, stories and direction - was the fact that they were really violent and bloody.

I know Golden Harvest started around 71', right? But were films like Invincible Eight and The Comet Strikes bloody? I know Bruce Lee's Big Boss was up there as far as blood was concerned, but I'm talking about the lesser known ones.

I watched a bootleg (very unwatchable quality) of Invincible Eight (barely watched it), and from what I saw, it was very bland compared to something like 12 Gold Medallions. Mind you, I only watched a little bit, with subtitles cropped off, so I didn't get much out of it.

I'm just wondering what the case would be if i picked up one of those new remastered they've been releasing on DVD.

[Jesse Smooth]

The Association (1975) is very underrated as well. There's a cool fight between Byong Yu and Whang In Sik. Plus Angela Mao has a double role. Though Dragon Tamers ('74) is a standard basher, I think it's an unnoticed classic--directed by John Woo and James Tien in a very rare role as a leading man (yeah, Carter Wong has more screen time, but to me Tien is the star).

[Jesse Smooth]

Oh yeah, I have a pan-scan unsubbed boot of Comet Strikes ('71) with Nora. I never really watched it.

[mpm74]

Thanks for the feedback. ;)

But why, oh why, is everyone ignoring my bloody question??!! =)

(no pun intended)

[drunkenmaster]

I watched a bootleg (very unwatchable quality) of Invincible Eight (barely watched it), and from what I saw, it was very bland compared to something like 12 Gold Medallions. Mind you, I only watched a little bit, with subtitles cropped off, so I didn't get much out of it.




I picked up the remastered (Though I think it's just the subs that are remastered and not the actual print.) of "The Invincible Eight" and I think it is quite good, but I wouldn't list it as particularly "bloody". I've never seen "12 Gold Medallions" so I can't compare for you.

[mpm74]

Thank you. =) I'll have to check these out in the future. I'm on roll with Shaw flicks. You can hardly go wrong with them!

[truspirit]

Again, seen all of these.
Looking for lesser known stuff I suppose.
Phantom Killer sounds great though.
Any specific release to recommend?

Speaking of Warriors Two, who was the guy on here who made the fan disc w/the old dub synched up?
Those screen caps looked pretty good from what I remember and my only copy of W2 don't look so hot.
:(
I think his name was bentley.I managed to get a copy off him a few years ago.

[kungfusamurai]

There aren't as many GH kung fu flicks as Shaw, so they're all worth checking out. I'd stick with later ones first and work backwards, and also use certain actors as a guide on what to get, like stuff with Sammo, Jackie, Angela Mao, etc.... I'm not a fan of Jimmy Wang Yu, so I can't recommend any of his flick, but you might like them. Cheeky Chap and Phantom Killer were cool. There seemed to be more sex than blood in GH films when compared to Shaw Brothers.

KFS

[drunkenmaster]

Jimmy Wang Yu has a style of his own and did work for both Shaws and Golden Harvest when he wasn't making indie and Taiwanese films. He's not a particularly good martial artist, but his films were rarely boring. You could always rely on a certain amount of weirdness that I call the “Wang Yu factor”. I guess you either love or hate it. Personally I can never get enough.

[kungfusamurai]

I disagree.Shaw movies had more sex and expolitation than golden harvest if you're not counting their movies like sex & zen or erotic ghost story.

I don't know too many Chang Cheh or Lau Kar Leung films from the mid to late 70s with sex. Wasn't the sex mainly in the sword play genre?

When I was a kid, I liked the Wang Yu stuff, but as my martial arts film tastes became more sophisticated (LOL!), I just couldn't watch his films anymore. He's more of a brawler than a kung fu fighter. Like the Japanese Yakuza flicks versus the karate or samurai films.

KFS