Legendary Strike was close to being a legendary strike-out. Somehow a film that starred kung fu powerhouses Angela Mao, Carter Wong, Casanova Wong, and Chen Sing underperformed in the fists and kicks.

The story had some fun twists and turns. There were corrupt Ching nobles, Ming rebels, Korean sympathizers, Japanese characters, monks, fake monks, and real monks in disguise all after a pearl that is a holy relic, but there's also a fake pearl and a poor dead body dragged around the country side. With all these moving pieces, of course there are double crosses galore.

The story had potential, unfortunately some of the best fighters were missing for big chunks of time during the movie. Angela Mao doesn't appear until the 30 minute mark and Carter Wong is also vastly underused. Paul Chu plays the ML and he is out classed by the kung fu fighters around him and it shows.

The soundtrack often sounded like spaghetti western music and I suppose with all the outdoor settings and classic good guy versus bad guy fights only with fists or swords instead of guns it was fitting.

Many kung fu movies end abruptly as if the crew ran out of film but this one had a particularly unsatisfying ending. The saving grace for this film was simply being able to see the cast in action even if they were often underutilized. Legendary Strike may not be legendary but it did have some entertaining moments.

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Godzilla is nearing death not only for himself but possibly all of humanity as his nuclear heart is about to explode. If that wasn't enough to deal with, Japan's G Force must also contend with some truly scary monsters created from the original 1954 Godzilla weapon-the oxygen destroyer-that have reached maturity and come ashore.

Though we are still in the rubber suit era, the CGI and miniatures are quite good for this time and budget. The Destoroyah describes a number of ten foot tall monsters that look like a cross between Alien and the creatures from Starship Troopers, or giant creepy scorpions that can also shoot laser breath out. Their battle with humans in a building were probably the scariest scenes I've seen in the old G movies. The danger and stakes were immediate and personal. When a reporter is trapped in a car with a Destoroyah after her it's more compelling than when unseen humans die in buildings and cars crushed by the giant monsters.

The story for this movie is strong when it focuses on the monsters. Godzilla's son appears and fights Destoroyah, drawing Godzilla back for a final battle. The fights are good, resisting the camp of older movies.

The weak spot in this movie is as usual, the humans. This group was a particularly bland group of actors and flat characters. The one bright spot was a call back to the original Godzilla movie when Momoko Kochi reprises her 1954 role as Emiko Yamane. Ultimately, the monsters showed more believable anger and grief than the humans.

The OST for this movie was particularly good for a Godzilla movie evoking emotions and blending appropriately with the scenes. Probably the best music from any of the Godzilla movies I've watched.

Aside from the acting, the biggest problem I had with this movie was that the narrative and pacing were not always coherent or cohesive. There were times I wasn't completely sure what was going on. At others, it felt like parts of the story had been forgotten.

The movie makes a nice circle back to the original which is fitting as this was to be the last in this series. Godzilla fights one final monster, maybe his greatest enemy yet, before his punishing finish for Tokyo.

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The Dragon Missile is the Shaw Brothers' version of The Flying Guillotines only a little cooler because it's Lo Lieh wielding two dragon shaped boomerangs. Good guys still get disarmed and lose their heads at the behest of the evil local lord because he's, well, evil, and LL and his dragon missiles are his weapon of choice.

The plot is not very deep. The evil lord needs a rare medicine and sends Lo Lieh and his deadly dragon missiles to get it. The evil second in command wants the glory and rewards so he sends henchmen to "escort" LL. Along the way innocents are killed and family members come seeking revenge. There are crosses, double-crosses and triple-crosses all with LL in their cross-hairs. Very few minutes go by without weapons being drawn and red blood or heads flying.

Several of the fight scenes take place outdoors in beautiful settings near the ocean. Some of the stage sets will seem familiar to Shaw viewers. The fights are adequate for this cast, not super fast but entertaining.

The plot was thin, the sound effects could have come straight out of a Warner Bros. cartoon, and as always the Shaw Bros. ending was hilariously abrupt, but it was a fun 80 minutes of fights, chases, and betrayals.

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This sequel to the beautifully made Come Drink With Me should have been called Silver Roc instead of Golden Swallow. The amazing Cheng Pei Pei, the star of CDWM, is relegated by director Chang Cheh to a supporting role in her own movie in favor of Jimmy Wang's Silver Roc.

The story sets up an unhealthy love triangle. The Roc is a ruthless killing machine cutting and slashing his way across the country taking out anyone affiliated with a gang or evil family. The problem comes in when he frames the Golden Swallow for the killings bringing down all sorts of trouble on her head. Fortunately for her, Lo Lieh shows up as the Golden Whip saving her after she's been poisoned and protects her while she heals. The two of them fight side-by-side together and become friends though The Whip is falling in love with her. Meanwhile the Roc spends all of his non-killing time at the brothel.

Why did the Roc set her up repeatedly? He and the Swallow had known each other at their martial arts school years ago and he would occasionally speak to her even though he was a jerk to everyone else. Now he's trying to force her to come to him with the bad guys hunting her down relentlessly even though he's known where she is all along. I don't begin to know how to reconcile her having feelings for a man who kills mercilessly and puts her life repeatedly at risk out of "love". These aren't spoilers, it's literally the plot for the whole movie. It's that basic.

Wang is seen several times riding a horse and he rides like he wields a sword-sloppily and as if he'd never done it before. Normally, Lau Kar Leung is my favorite fight choreographer, but he missed severely with this movie, maybe it was Tang Chia's influence. Wang's ultimate swordsman abilities are akin to spray and pray with everyone falling down. In CDWM Pei Pei's moves were artistic, here they are rudimentary and she keeps having to throw her hands up like a cheerleader. Lo Lieh manages to look smooth and powerful which only accented Wang's frenetic movements. It didn't help that Wang's acting was stiff as a board in this movie.

What I did like were Pei Pei's and Lieh's performances. They came across more naturally bringing some depth and nuance to scenes that bordered on the ludicrous. Wu Ma played a good guy for a change and he was able to show what he can do with a few lines and scenes.

I know I'm coming across as harsh, but watching Come Drink With Me and Golden Swallow back-to-back was a mistake because the difference in quality and style was glaring. Chang Pei Pei commanded the screen in CDWM, in Golden Swallow she was stuck playing the vacillating female over someone who kills and threatens to get her attention. Wang's character took up most of the story which is a shame because he was the least interesting thing about the whole movie. I would have scored GS lower, but gave it a bonus point bump for Cheng Pei Pei's and Lo Lieh's diligent work to save this story.

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Lau Kar Leung is one of my favorite martial arts directors and he did not disappoint with this movie. The story started out slow gradually building as the movie went along. LKL's fight choreography is always intricate, complex, and in this case, with very little wire work. The kung fu stars knew what to do with his direction and made the fight scenes shine.

Gordon Liu plays the 11th prince, and soon to be named Crown Prince, who has to hide his martial arts skills and his identity as he tries to find out which brother is trying to have him killed. He takes on a hot-headed thief named Ho, played by Wong Yu, through some subterfuge and trains him in kung fu and how to be a better man. The growth of their relationship from adversaries to friends is at the heart of the story. The movie starts out as a light comedy and steadily grows darker.

In Liu's initial fights he disguises his skills making it seem that what happens are accidents or like a puppet master fights through someone else. In two other "polite" encounters with killers, a wine tasting and antiques buying expedition, he fights calmly and intricately with the polite killers without damaging the products. Ultimately, there is a no holds barred showdown with Lo Lieh, playing the corrupted general along with his minions.

For fans of Shaw Brothers productions there are many familiar faces filling out the cast. The biggest star for me was the man behind the camera, Lau Kar Leung. His fight choreography, especially in the days before CGI, is amazing. Fortunately, for him, he had some actors well versed in kung fu to bring those scenes to life.

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A very young Jimmy Wang Yu, Lo Lieh and Cheng Lei team up to take down a corrupt magistrate who is causing his people to starve and kills his citizens indiscriminately.

Initially Jimmy Wang Yu, the main hero, is on his own with a few towns people who are trying to get a petition to the magistrate's overlord to bring justice to the town. Lo Lieh works for the magistrate but though a skilled swordsman is not into his work. Cheng Lei starts out in prison where he got himself incarcerated just so that he has food to eat. An unlikely trio find their way on the same side during the course of the movie.

The story starts out slow and repetitious, the sword fights rather dull and uninspired. The bodies start piling up as the movie goes along and Jimmy Wang Yu's character dances a fine line between being heroic and ineffectual. Eventually, the sword fights improve but were not memorable. The story does pick up as well as more and more people are galvanized into action.

Magnificent Trio has been re-mastered, the colors and clarity are vibrant. The music and sound effects came through clearly.
The subtitles were easy to read as well. It's worth mentioning because some of these older films have been neglected and treated poorly. The colors can be faded and the subtitles can run right off the screen. Thankfully, MT was lovingly restored.

I didn't find Magnificent Trio thrilling and the fight scenes were okay. What I did like was the chemistry between the three heroes and the sacrifices they were willing to make to better the lives of others. Overall I enjoyed the movie though I doubt it's one I'll ever re-watch.

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While searching for Godzilla underwater, a government agency seeking to destroy Big G accidentally wakes up an unfriendly alien aboard it's ship who has been sleeping for the last few million years at the bottom of the bay. Godzilla does not take kindly to anything else destroying his city so it's on like Donkey Kong.

I enjoyed this Godzilla movie because it's one of the few movies where the humans are actually interesting. Most of the time they are background noise. The writers took the time to develop three or four characters, giving us someone to root for, care for and also despise.

The alien ship was formidable enough but when the alien(s) aboard is able to siphon off some of Godzilla's DNA and create a monster body of his own, the big guy has his hands full. This movie used a variety of techniques to bring the monsters, spaceship and fights to life, including the signature miniatures Godzilla movies are known for. Too often in Godzilla movies there are a lot of boring filler scenes in between monster fights, Godzilla 2000 kept the action going among the monsters and the humans.

Despite its mediocre rating I found it entertaining from start to finish.

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I would love to have been in the writers’ room for this movie and seen what they were thinking and tripping on. Let’s make a monster environmentally conscious because it eats pollution. Far out! But it also sprays concentrated sulfuric acid on people and shoots toxic waste out of its belly button. Cool! We should also have some cartoons mixed in with the action. Groovy! And go-go dancing and singing randomly thrown in. I can dig it! Don’t forget some trippy dream sequences! Right on! We gotta have a guy hallucinating at a concert, too. Lay it on me!

In fairness, this was a fun Godzilla movie with a formidable enemy for the big guy. Hedorah can grow and change shape the more he feeds on pollution. He flies, Godzilla even flies!

Even though there are some psychedelic moments, there are also real stakes in this movie. Main characters are maimed and killed by Hedorah. The stakes were also high for the environment. Real images of the disturbing amount of pollution in Tokyo Bay are shown as the theme song is sung. Pollution was becoming a very real concern and, in this story, spawned a deadly monster.

There is plenty of monster-on-monster wrestling. They might have spent too much time taunting each other and Godzilla takes a beating more often than not for most of the movie, but we know we can always count on him to rally in the end and take care of business. If you are a fan of the old school Godzilla, this is one of G’s more unique films. Outta sight!

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It's Manchu vs Ming in this classic kung fu movie. I've watched it twice now, and while it has some splendid choreography and Gordon Liu is a kung fu beast I can't say it's my favorite. I did give it a .5 bump on re-watching.

A good third of the movie is devoted to Gordon training through the 35 stations at the Shaolin temple. The scenes are rigorous and impressive. Lau Kar Leung (Gordon Liu's brother IRL) is one of, if not my favorite martial arts choreographer. No slow stop action fight scenes or training scenes. While the scenes are slowed down for the human eye to follow, the movement is constant. A wide variety of weapons and challenges are used which highlight Gordon's abilities. The only caveat I have is that like a novel's page needs some white space to rest the eyes, I could have used some breaks from the action to develop the main character and give me more reasons to understand him, the people he sought to help, and the monks who trained him.

The sets, costumes, and production values are above average for a 1978 kung fu film. The copy I saw was dubbed which always takes away from the viewing experience. Almost any male actor who worked for Shaw Brothers was in this movie. It was fun to pick out all the ones I knew.

One of my favorite kung fu actors, Lo Lieh, plays the Big Bad though he sees very little screen time. This is Gordon's hero's journey. Through training and sacrifice his character seeks to avenge his family's death and bring kung to his people so that they can protect themselves from the enemy. A better than average kung fu film to pass your time with.

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Chen Kuan Tai falls for the beautiful Lily Li after the death of his master and the burning of the shaolin temple. Kung fu foreplay includes a battle of his Tiger style against her Crane style. Lo Lieh plays the murderous eunuch with a super sucking groin. And it's just as humorous to see as it sounds. Wong Yu plays the son of the two kung fu lovers. Inexplicably he dresses as a woman even as he ages.

Considered a kung fun classic, I found it to be rather average. Lau Kar Leung's direction and martial arts choreography saved the film for me. The fights were well choreographed and creative without looking overly staged. It helped that some of the better kung fu actors starred in this movie: Lo Lieh, Chen Kuan Tai, Lily Li, Wong Yu, Chiang Tao, and Gordon Liu.

The plot revolves around revenge and training, taking place over twenty years. There are a lot of gaps in the storytelling. Fortunately, the training sequences are entertaining and well done. It does have one of the most abrupt Shaw Brothers endings ever. Due to the choppy style of storytelling it's not a movie I'd recommend unless I knew the person enjoyed well done fight sequences.

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Just as weird as the title suggests. The emperor has an elite guard who throw round spinning weapons that lock on to their target’s head and decapitate them. It’s a 1970’s movie so it’s not too gruesome, but you do see the headless flailing bodies for a few seconds.

Chen Kuan Tai is the most skilled killer on the squad. He figures out the emperor is ordering the executions of scholars and ethical government officials and though he’s sworn an oath to the emperor he can no longer be his assassin. Someone else is scheming to use the guillotine squad to take out personal enemies and impediments on their path to the throne and hates the moral minded killer. Chen flees with a lovely musician and they start a life together elsewhere, but the emperor’s men never give up keeping them on the run.

Lots of kung fu and wild guillotine action. The kung fu was okay, but given that CKT was actually trained in the martial arts, the fight scenes seemed slow and stodgy. That didn’t stop them from breaking all the furniture in the room though! Plenty of unsuspecting people lose their heads with the flying killing machines while their loved ones or colleagues look on in horror.

Even with all the action and actual character development of the lead the story seemed slow at times. Wai Wang played a great dastardly villain, but didn’t seem to have enough time on screen to be a more menacing threat. Despite those drawbacks, I never expect much from kung fu movies. This one kept my attention and if you enjoy kung fu movies it’s worth seeing for the creative guillotine fights.

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King Boxer was a fun bucket of popcorn. Not much story or plot to get in the way of the fighting. Two schools prepare for the big tournament-one by training hard, the other by cheating and taking out the rival fighters.

Lo Lieh plays the earnest competitor who gains the confidence of his kung fu master and is taught the secret iron palm technique.

Along the way there are betrayals, decapitations, eyes gouged out, and a little romance.

The fights felt a little overly staged at times but were entertaining nonetheless and Lo Lieh is always a smoldering delight to watch. It’s worth watching to see the iconic shot of Lo’s glowing red hands.

Though the plot was thin it never got in the way of some good kung fu fighting. And that’s primarily what I watch these movies for. It also paved the way for another kung fu fighter who would set the bar higher later that year-Bruce Lee.

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The Five Venoms is thought by many to be one of the best kung fu movies. What sets the movie apart from the others in the genre? It has a (mostly)coherent plot, decent acting, nice sets, good lighting and use of color and intricate fight choreography. As long as you remember the confines of the genre, it’s an enjoyable ride. I can’t put the crown of best kung fu movie on it because Enter the Dragon has that title for me.

The Five Venoms begins with a mystery that a young ku fighter must resolve for his dying master and the audience watches the story unfold as he does. He must figure out the deadly players involved with little information and also who is using their venom training for selfish motives. There are alliances and betrayals, hidden identities, a secret treasure and real stakes.

The five members of the poison clan each have their own fighting style-scorpion, snake, centipede, lizard/gecko, and toad. The different fighting styles are fun to watch and give a glimpse into the characters’ personalities. Unlike many kung fu movies there is some character development and motivations for their behaviors.

What I didn’t care for as much is that the fights looked too choreographed. I didn’t feel like they flowed smoothly at times, more like dancers counting their steps. At least they kept the camera still and at a distance where the whole scene could be observed instead of just seeing segments of the fight. I have to say I like to have at least one female fighter in the cast, sadly there are almost no women in this movie. I think I saw Mama Hung slumped over where an entire family had been murdered when one of the bad guys was trying to find the treasure map. Little quibbles are I could see the wig tape at times, and the fight sounds were not always synched with the motions. I try not to judge a kung fu movie by what are usually atrocious dubbing choices, but at least it didn’t sound like one guy was doing all the voices.

The Five Venoms and teen sidekick was an entertaining movie. The good guys eventually team up against the bad guys showing that teamwork does pay and evil does not. Like all kung fu movies I’m kinder in grading it, as it was a product of it’s time and for a specific audience.

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This outdoor variety show was entertaining mainly because of the cooking element. Lee Seo Jin and Eric Mun are quite adept at cooking outdoors and making a variety of dishes-chicken, fish, octopus, pizza, pasta, soups, breads. I was amazed at what they were able to put together over a wood fire and in a brick oven. They made side dishes and sauces on the fly out of what they had on hand or what was in the garden. This is not a show to watch when you are hungry.

Yoon Gyun Sang was cute as the mostly clueless helper. I enjoyed the different guests they had visit. Some were better in the "kitchen" than others.

Now to what didn't work as well for me. I thought the episodes were too long. An hour would have been enough time for me. There was an awful lot of filler. If I never see someone scooping up goat dung again it will be too soon. A lot of time was spent taking care of the goats, traveling, watching the cats frolic, and watching the guys fishing or playing out on the water. There were other times when practical jokes went on for nearly 20 minutes. There were also episodes where there wasn't any scintillating conversation taking place, just a lot of standing or sitting around with little conversation. These guys have been in the business for awhile and must have some interesting stories to tell. I wish they had opened up more and told us some. There was one conversation with Lee Jong Suk that that I thought was revealing but those moments were brief. If it wasn't for the pop-ups this show might not have been as entertaining. I could have also used less dirty bare feet close-ups when someone was preparing food on the floor.

Had it not been for all the filler moments that completely lost my attention I would have rated this variety show an 8.0 or 8.5 The cooking aspect of this show inspires me to look at food and flavor combinations in a new way. Spoiler! Although for a Pizza Margherita I'm still putting the basil on as it comes out of the oven so that the basil doesn't scorch like theirs did by putting it on before baking.

I can definitely recommend this show for the cooking scenes, they were very interesting. And if you like to watch goats doing goat things or cats trying to escape their room this may be just the ticket for you.

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This drama started out as a steamy, temperature rising story of a good girl tempted by the wild side in the form of the gorgeous, sexy Jasper Liu. Waiting for a new episode each week to be English subbed was interminable.

Then the writers slammed on the brakes and morphed the story into an office drama dousing everyone in an ice cold shower. Maybe they got cold feet about besmirching the FL and ML and making them look like cheaters.

By the time the abbreviated who gives a fork third act came around I’d already queued up An Affair with Lee Mi Sook and Lee Jung Jae to show those young whipper snappers what it could have been.

Even though I found the whiplash inducing change of tone frustrating in this drama I still dutifully waited and watched every week. My disappointment is over what could have been and wasting Jasper Lui on what ended up being a boring office drama for the most part.

The leads did a good job. I even enjoyed the best friend’s over the top acting and story.

The music was ok, but not memorable.

Rewatch value-I’ll probably go back and watch parts of it sometime in the future.

I would definitely not discourage anyone from watching this, just don’t have any expectations of where the story is going based on the first few episodes and intro. Enjoy it for the flawed story it is.

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