121 - The Invincible Eight

Connection To THE VICTIM - Sammo Hung who worked on the film and can be seen briefly.

Strictly (UK) speaking from my point of view here - The amount of Hong Kong cinema on DVD compared to what's potentially released is quite low, true a lot of the work from the HK superstars is available - but alas sadly it seems, a lot of the company that release these titles, end up going bust sooner or later including the awesome Hong Kong Legends, and even though it would be nice to have DVDs of many of the films, places online like YouTube have end up being awesome featuring stuff that is not necessarily the easiest to come by and best of all they can often come in the original language.

Which brings me to The Invincible Eight, an early film from Golden Harvest, at one point the homes for Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan among others, which I got the chance to watch online - this did get a release on the Legendary Collection in Hong Kong itself which all of sudden out of nowhere all went out of print - which is directed by Lo Wei who did go onto direct the first two Bruce Lee Hong Kong films and Jackie Chan (which wasn't a creative partnership), actually this was made the same year as The Big Boss with all signs pointing that it was made before.

I really did end up enjoying this - I was expecting something Magnificent Seven like, based on the title alone, and to be fair I think there is shades of a western movie influence in here, you tell me the last shot of the movie wouldn't be out of place in a western? The plot is basically 8 people who end up with revenge on their mind, and involves them eventually teaming together to take down the big boss.

To me this was Angela Mao's movie, it had the most energy whenever she was on screen, and are character was among the most enjoyable but it was pretty good the eight had distinct enough personalities to stand out from each other.

Overall, there is probably better kung fu movies with better fighting etc. but I was left satisfied and was rooting for the eight to get their revenge, if you like the old kung fu movies there is no reason why you won't like this. 

120 - The Victim

Connection To ENTER THE FAT DRAGON - Sammo Hung.

Sammo Hung like a lot the actors working in this time period in Hong Kong (let's say early 70s to early 90s) where often prolific, multiple films released in the same year where there American counterparts might have not have done half their amount. What is great though say - about Sammo Hung films is that you are discovering new films all the time, which never ever end up being quickies made around some of their most famous work, they stand up on their own as pretty cool flicks.

While it's fair in my mind to say 70's period kung fu can sometimes blur together because I think of similar locations/clothing and the inevitable of the same actors popping up - six degrees of HK cinema is probably the easiest game in the world - they are films that I want to see - there's usually a cool villain, cool fights, revenge (often the master or relative like the father) which make them reliable and fun.

And whilst The Victim doesn't stand out too much it's still a film I enjoyed thoroughly, maybe because it had a bunch of the hallmarks of these period kung fu movies plus the whole Sammo Hung-ness (yeah that's a thing... apparently) of the movie make the film a good watch.

I must say the villain with his eye-patch I kept thinking Bond villain, but I think it was subconscious in many way because it hit me that he looked like (a Chinese) Javier Bardem, who yeah was the most recent Bond Villain.

Overall, not a game-changer in it's genre but a solid movie with decent fight scenes and the occasional good laugh, recommended.

119 - Enter The Fat Dragon

Connection To SOUL OF BRUCE LEE - Both of these films fall into the Bruceploitation category, though this is a satire of the phenomenon.

As a long-time fan of Sammo Hung and a fan of the Bruceploitation genre this film was an absolute treat - so much it was like it was made to please me (though it came out 4 years before I was born).

The film most closely follows the plot of Way Of The Dragon rather then Enter The Dragon (though there is a great sight gag early on spoofing the movie - also should point out Hung actually was in that movie) and we get Sammo Hung, who's character is obsessed with Bruce Lee acting like he is Bruce, even at one point in the movie getting a job as an action guy on the set of a Bruceploitation movie - in which he ends up in the fight with "Bruce" which becomes a pretty cool message - if you are going to pretend to be Bruce, show you are as good as Bruce.

Like the best kung-fu comedies - the kung fu is awesome of course but the comedy is actually funny - comedy moments that are universally funny and not just to the HK audience - it's odd that this film seems a little unseen in the Western world compared to some of his other classics, but there is plenty of Hong Kong films I've seen on import or whatever and thought the same about.

The opening is cool featuring Hung fighting a number of people including Mars, briefly Meng Hoi (who as a kid is in Enter The Dragon) and finally the awesome Yuen Biao, and there's plenty of cool fights in between and the final fight where he takes on three fighters one by one is cool, however how I do say this - there is a black man, a white man and a Chinese man (this isn't the start of a joke), the black man looks a bit like it could be a white guy in black face, times where different then or just could be the guys original pigment.

Overall, utterly enjoyable from start to finish, well worth it for fans of Bruce Lee and/or Sammo Hung, with the running time just flying by I don't hesitate to recommend this.