Lan tou He / Dirty Ho

I deserve an award for googling the best cover possible

Director: Lau Kar Leung
Writers: Ni Kuang
Date: 1979

Genre: Kung Fu
Description: Prince trying to hide his princeship, secret identity, trying to hide his kung fu skills, master and student, returning home, brother against brother

Cast: Gordon Liu Chia-hui, Wong Yue, Lo Lieh, Wang Lung Wei, Kara Hui, Hsiao Hou

Crew of note:

Runtime: 97 mins.
Color: Color
Trivia:

summary
Wang is an alcohol drinking antique dealer with a secret identity. Ho is a common thief with average kung fu skills. Apparently, he’s also quite filthy, hence the title. They meet through a series of coincidences and amusing encounters, until Ho finally learns Wang’s secret. Ho becomes his kung fu disciple, and they must help each other survive their travels (and antique buying). But they are both being hunted down by merciless assassins who wish to keep Wang from returning home.

review

Kung Fu Movies Checklist of Asskicking Baddasery
1. Gordon Liu with a mustache and beard.
2. Unlikely duo or master-student relationship.
3. Elaborate training session that probably wouldn’t work in real life.
4. New twist on kung fu style or delivery (secret kung fu).
5. Evil villain with unlimited henchmen.
6. Non-weapon object used during combat.
7. Heroes taking on multiple villains.
8. Final battle that lasts more than 3 minutes.
9. Shaw Brothers signature abrupt ending.
10. Hot Schoolgirls.

Total: 9/10

No wonder this is a masterpiece. Despite the absence of jawdropping, high-flying, arms-flailing kung fu, the way Gordon Liu tries to hide and subvert his kung fu skills while defending himself creates some of the most interesting situations ever. Comedy, kung fu, and art dealership, what more could you want?

conclusion
Kung Fu cinema was at its pinnacle during the 70s, with Shaw Brothers Studios doing most of the ass-whooping. Having used up every possible plot device (revenge, training, greed, crazy monkies) and fighting style (eagle claw, snake fist, centipede style, etc) conceivable, Lau Kar Leung, in a drunken stupor I imagine, said: “Why don’t we do kung fu.. by not doing kung fu!? NATCH!” (citation needed). And now this is regarded as one of the best in the genre. If you love kung fu movies, this is a must.

things to take note of
Gordon Liu shows that he can actually do more than just kick butt; I wish he’d done more comedy
Simple, yet intricate subverted kung fu

best moment
Han dynasty painting? 100 gold pieces. Qing dynasty chair? 150 gold pieces. Gordon Liu stroking his beard and talking about paintings and antiques? Priceless.

why you should watch this
Typing “Dirty Ho” in Google’s image search will get you interesting results
Gordon Liu subverts his kung fu badassery
Kung fu badassery

rating: 8.4

scorecard
Plot: B
Cast: B+
Cinematography: B
Music: C+
Entertainment: A

similar movies, maybe:
Wu du / Five Venoms directed by Chang Cheh, with the secret identities
Other Godron Liu movies, both directed by Lau Kar Leung:
Wu Lang ba gua gun / 8 Diagram Pole Fighter
Shao lin san shi liu fang / 36th Chamber of Shaolin / Shaolin Master Killer

Drunken Master II – Directed by Lau Kar-leung, Jackie Chan, 1994.

Featuring: Jackie Chan, Lau Kar-leung, Ti Lung, Anita Mui, Ken Lo, Mars, Bill Tung Biu.

Drunken Master II in my opinion is the last truly great Jackie Chan film ever made. Since then he’s made movies which have good fight scenes to be sure, but for sheer energy, choreography and creativity nothing afterwards has come close. There are a number of reasons for this. For one he’s just getting older and naturally that’s slowed down his physical prowess, and also luxuriously long film shoots required for one fight scene were becoming a thing of the past. Reportedly the last seven minute fight scene took FOUR MONTHS  to shoot. That’s longer that the entire film shoot for the majority of films out there. I never tire of watching this film’s fight scenes even though I’ve basically memorized them at this point.

Somehow I’ve acquired lots of friends in recent years who haven’t seen many Jackie Chan films other than his American films. I love showing old classic Jackie Chan movies who think he’s cool, but have barely scratched the surface of how good his films are. Drunken Master II I always view as the one I’d want to show them last, because everything else would seem disappointing. In fact I like it so much that I’ve made it my 2nd major DVD production (the first being a re-subtitled version of Shaolin Soccer).

The reason is that there STILL isn’t a 100% uncut good quality DVD out there of this movie. The best edition is the one with the image at the top of this post, but that edition is 1.85:1 aspect ratio whereas the film is 2.35:1 so you’re missing a lot of picture. The Miramax edition is 2.35:1 but it’s dub only with redone music and sound effects that ruin the film. Also they cut out the ending because they thought it was in poor taste. The picture quality on that one however is great! Hong Kong never did good film transfers so all their movies have looked like they were at least 10 years older than they actually were.

So what I did was took the original Hong Kong audio from my laserdisc edition and synced it to the Miramax picture and appended the missing ending from the 1.85:1 Hong Kong DVD. Oh and of course I re-subtitled the entire thing fixing translation here and there. When I’m done with it very soon I plan on giving copies to all my friends who I know would want a copy.

Don't blink otherwise... forget it, you're DEFINITELY going to miss subtleties in this fight, watch it at least three times.

Story – This is the sequel to the original Drunken Master which is one of the films that made Jackie Chan’s career. He plays famous historical martial artist/doctor Wong Fei-Hung who is more popularly played by Jet Li in the Once Upon a Time in China series. Jackie Chan chose to make him more of a bumbling immature character (presumably before he became the admired figure of history). Jackie is traveling home with his dad from a trip to buy lots of Chinese medicine including a very expensive ginseng root. During the train ride home his ginseng gets switched with an ancient Chinese seal being transported by a British Consul.

I don't look evil do I?

Back at home he has to give the customer who bought the ginseng a fake ginseng root which of course doesn’t end well. It turns out that the evil British Consul is trying to smuggle out precious Chinese artifacts in crates of steel being transported from a steel mill that they take over. So it’s up to Jackie to put a stop to them, and do a whole lot of growing up in the process. Ti Lung plays his strict father and late singer Anita Mui is his troublesome stepmom who is always trying to cover for Jackie.

Action – Aside from the choreography this film is also exceptionally well shot/edited. They know how good everything looks and give us nice wide shots so not a single punch or block goes unnoticed by the camera. The editing flows naturally and you never have to search for the action.

First action scene involves Jackie and Lau Kar-leung who plays an older former soldier who is trying to steal the jade seal back from the British Consul. The first bit is spear versus Chinese broadsword in very small quarters underneath the train. My kung fu sifu says no film has done spear fighting well, but to my less trained eyes this still looks very impressive. This is definitely a scene where I had to watch multiple times each time watching only one person.

Neo can suck it.

After this is a sort of friendly duel between Jackie and a fish monger who wants to go out with a snake seller who kind of has a thing for Jackie. It’s not very long, but what’s kind of cool is that the style of this fight scene is very much like the halting sort of theatrical performance from Hong Kong movies of the 70s where there was a lot more posing and pauses after each hit and block. An interesting contrast to the relentless pace of the fights in the rest of the film.

The next tour-de-force action scene is Jackie using Drunken Boxing against several opponents. He gets really drunk, and the sheer variety of moves he uses against his opponents is staggering. Just as impressive is how well the moves flow into each other. This scene is trademark Jackie Chan with his creative mix of action and comedy. Just talking about it makes me want to watch it again.

Don't fight him! Not when his face is that red!

There’s a bit of a dry spell here before Jackie and Lau Kar-leung vs an Ax Gang trying to assassinate them. Yes, an obligatory Hong Kong ax wielding gang of dozens of guys. Hong Kong films are full of movies with Ax wielding killers, but I don’t know if there’s ever been this many. Jackie versus four guys is great, but Jackie versus dozens of guys is entertaining for lots of different reasons. This scene’s highlight is a number of creative ways of fighting with a bamboo pole that ends up becoming very splintered and broken down from all the hard blows.

The last steel mill scene has basically three core fights in it. Once you’re a few minutes into it you’ll be out of breath wanting more, and you GET MORE. The last three fight scenes amount to about fifteen minutes of pure fight scene awesomeness. Highlights are lots of fire, steel poles, red-hot ashes and Ken Lo’s vertical split. It has to be seen to be believed. 

Unless you're the guy in this shot, I'm pretty sure you can't do this. You're probably not six degrees of separation from someone who can do this.

Outtakes – When you add fire to a low budget Hong Kong film expect some good outtakes. They must’ve had a lot of fire extinguishers on hand for this film. You see Jackie all sorts of bruised, burned and battered for the sake of making these perfect fight scenes. The big stunt of this film is Jackie falling back on a bed of coals and backing his way out of them. You see a different take in the outtakes so you know he did it at least twice!

DVD – Like I said, the DVD with the cover at the top of this post is the best edition on the market. Miramax released it as “The Legend of Drunken Master.” If you’re friends with me in real life, lucky you, just ask me for a copy. 

Favorite Moment – Too many to count but seriously, the vertical split was one of my most fun movie theater moments ever. Oh and also Jackie balancing backwards while drinking his wine. I saw this film first at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I didn’t know anything about it, just that it was Jackie Chan. I had already seen a lot of his films at this point so this was quite a treat.

I don't know who you are, but I'm guessing you can't do this either.

Final Thoughts – See this movie. I don’t care if you don’t like kung fu movies, see this movie. You will be able to appreciate it just like anyone can appreciate the dancing skills of Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire. Story isn’t the most original or moving thing in the world, but you really haven’t seen anything like this and probably won’t ever again.

Just because you’re a Buddhist doesn’t mean you’re not a Master Killer, because

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is the Greatest Movie EVER!

Review in a Nutshell: This was the break-out role of kung fu legend Gordon Liu.  Look for lots of gimmicky training scenes, and lots of surprisingly happy, accommodating Shaolin monks.

This movie contains:

SHAOLIN PIMP CANE.

Three Section Staff in the Hizzie.

HEADBUTT OF DEATH.

That’s all you get this week.  I’m off to Anime Weekend Atlanta, where I’ll be involved in the

Otaku USA panel as well as my own production, “Nobody loves GUNHED”, a panel with Tim Eldred.

COMING SOON!

“GRR.  ARGH.”

]]> http://mcldel.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/joy-sales-dvds-in-may-2008/ Wed, 07 May 2008 20:59:05 +0000 mcldel http://mcldel.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/joy-sales-dvds-in-may-2008/ http://heiditown.com/2008/05/02/what-im-watching-on-dvd/ Fri, 02 May 2008 20:20:23 +0000 hmks http://heiditown.com/2008/05/02/what-im-watching-on-dvd/

I have started a new page at Heidi Town.  You will find What I’m Watching on DVD under Movie Reviews. These will be shorter versions of my other reviews.

Check it out!  As always, feel free to leave comments or recommendations.

Just wanted to let everyone know about a great blog post here. Dragon Dynasty’s Bey Logan just posted about his encounter with Shaw Bros. and Hong Kong movie legend Lau Kar-leung. This is the man responsible for the classic 36th Chamber of Shaolin, as well as many others including the great Heroes of the East, which DD are currently preparing for release on DVD soon. Bey does a great job with these films, filling them with as many extras as he can get his hands on, and his blog posts are always insightful.

Speaking of great blog posts: Darcy James Argue, a fellow jazz cohort fighting the good fight, posted a great analysis of the (un)importance of being a technical alien here. Being a virtuoso on your instrument always seems like a good idea, but then you graduate from high school, and you realize how much more you listen to Led Zeppelin than Joe Satriani. Its at that time that you realize how similar musical virtuosity is to the film Virtuosity…BAD!