WUXIA MOVIE REVIEWS

Bedrockgames · Sep 21, 2016

I've been reviewing a bunch of wuxia films on youtube. This month I did the 1967 movie The Assassin, The Blade (the 1995 remake of the One-Armed Swordsman) and Bat Without Wings (a Chor Yuen film).

Compiled them into one spot here: http://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-assassin-bat-without-wings-and.html

Mallus · Sep 21, 2016

Thanks for the link!

I've been meaning to dive into a bunch of wuxia films I've been queuing up on Netflix. So far I've watched Five Elements Ninja, which was pleasurably ridiculous. And I've got the new Criterion Blu-ray of King Hu's A Touch of Zen just begging me to set aside 3 hours to watch it.

Have you seen Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin (from 2015)? It's a gorgeous film, but not for everyone. If you liked something like Ashes of Time, though, I highly recommend it.

Bedrockgames · Sep 21, 2016

Watch stuff on Netflix fast-they've taken down lots of good movies. Amazon Prime has some good wuxia too.

I saw the 2015 Assassin. It is s beautiful film and Shu Qi is great, but something about it didn't draw me in (I think the pacing and the way fight scenes were hard to follow just didn't work for me). It was good film making though. I have been meaning to rewatch it and see if my opinion changes with further viewing.

The restored Touch of Zen is magnificent. I have a review up of that on the YouTube channel as well.

Five Elemental Ninja has some great fight sequences. I love the opening in particular. And the burrowing ninjas are awesome.

nguoiduatin196 · Sep 22, 2016

I've been meaning to dive into a bunch of wuxia films I've been queuing up on Netflix. So far I've watched Five Elements Ninja, which was pleasurably ridiculous. And I've got the new Criterion Blu-ray of King Hu's A Touch of Zen just begging me to set aside 3 hours to watch it.

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Mallus · Sep 22, 2016

Bedrockgames said:
Watch stuff on Netflix fast-they've taken down lots of good movies.

That's good advice. Reminds me that I first heard of A Touch of Zen from a great 15 part documentary series called The Story of Film: An Odyssey, which my wife and I just finished before Netflix pulled it. It might be on Hulu now. The documentary had some exquisite footage from Zen from a great print - imagine our surprise when we got the DVD from Netflix and it looked like a transfer from a ratty VHS tape dug out of someone's basement.

And the burrowing ninjas are awesome.

I had a stupid grin on my face through the whole mole-ninja fight. Ditto the Solid Gold Disco ninjas.

Again, will definitely check out your reviews. Do you do chanbara films, too? Around my house we got hooked on the Criterion editions of the Zatoichi films (I think we've seen 15 or 16 by now) available on Hulu. Shintaro Katsu might be my favorite actor. He's good enough that I've watched what's essentially the same movie 15 times!

Bedrockgames · Sep 22, 2016

Mallus said:
That's good advice. Reminds me that I first heard of A Touch of Zen from a great 15 part documentary series called The Story of Film: An Odyssey, which my wife and I just finished before Netflix pulled it. It might be on Hulu now. The documentary had some exquisite footage from Zen from a great print - imagine our surprise when we got the DVD from Netflix and it looked like a transfer from a ratty VHS tape dug out of someone's basement.

I had a similar experience with Touch of Zen (I've owned multiple DVDs all trying to find a copy with decent image quality and each of them looked awful). The recently restored one looks very good.

Here is my take on it: https://youtu.be/2Yl5AhTv_D0

I had a stupid grin on my face through the whole mole-ninja fight. Ditto the Solid Gold Disco ninjas.

Again, will definitely check out your reviews. Do you do chanbara films, too? Around my house we got hooked on the Criterion editions of the Zatoichi films (I think we've seen 15 or 16 by now) available on Hulu. Shintaro Katsu might be my favorite actor. He's good enough that I've watched what's essentially the same movie 15 times!

I haven't done any so far. That is a genre I am not as familiar with and don't know whether I can speak at length on camera as comfortably. I am about to watch the complete Lady Snowblood. Maybe if I dive a bit into some Samurai movies next I'll do a video down the road.

thanthaocb · Oct 5, 2017

I've got the new Criterion Blu-ray of King Hu's A Touch of Zen just begging me to set aside 3 hours to watch it.

Bedrockgames · Oct 17, 2017

thanthaocb said:
I've got the new Criterion Blu-ray of King Hu's A Touch of Zen just begging me to set aside 3 hours to watch it.

That is an amazing restoration. It is almost like seeing a different movie (at least from the copies of it I've had).

Nguyễn Thùy · Jan 13, 2018

I saw the 2015 Assassin. It is s beautiful film and Shu Qi is great, but something about it didn't draw me in (I think the pacing and the way fight scenes were hard to follow just didn't work for me). It was good film making though. I have been meaning to rewatch it and see if my opinion changes with further viewing.