martial arts movie marathon

Hours of bad dubbing, exaggerated sound effects and unnecessary camera zooms await in Shout Factory’s latest Martial Arts Movie Marathon, featuring four titles of questionable quality but guaranteed entertainment value. While each film lifts quite a bit from the Shaw Brothers and/or Bruce Lee playbook, this new volume dips a toe into grindhouse territory, inserting a bit more racy material to compete with similar drive-in fare.

The Skyhawk is pretty straightforward stuff and justifies most of its kung-foolery with a traditional revenge story, pitting Carter Huang (Big Trouble in Little China) against his former fight club. Sammo Hung pops up - as he does in two other films in the collection - to add some personality to the proceedings as one of a pair of students to Wong Fei Hung (the Skyhawk himself) out to make their teacher proud.

The Manchu Boxer incorporates more of a classic Western feel with Liu Yung as a wandering exile caught up in defending the family honor of a vagabond he met during his travels. His vow of martial arts abstinence is soon put to the test however when the local bad guy rigs a kung-fu tournament. More of a slow-burn fight film, the big finale is worth waiting for.

Things start to get down and dirty with The Dragon Tamers, purportedly the second film from director John Woo (Hard Boiled, The Killer). A mix and match of Woo’s typical overwrought drama plus some peek-a-boo nudity, the all female face-offs include topless mudwrestling and a winner-take-all hot tub fight. But the meat of the story concerns a doomed love-triangle between three aspiring Tae Kwan Do students. Watch for Woo’s signature use of slow-motion and, yes, those damn flapping doves.

But for sheer tastelessness, nothing can top The Association. More a collection of scenes than an actual movie, the plot jumps between political corruption, illegal abortion clinics and international prostitution rings. In the middle of it all is Byong Yu, looking like an aged Bruce Lee with Jim Kelly’s afro. The fight choreography is impressive enough, but it’s the shoehorned erotic sequences (including a wild belly dancer and lesbian stage show) that linger in one’s mind for all the wrong reasons. The Association is an aggressively offensive example of just how far producers were willing to go to make a buck.

Using masters created by Fortune Star in 2010, the films show obvious signs of wear and scratch marks. But they’re all anamorphic widescreen presentations with the option of English dubs or Mandarin audio tracks with subtitles plus trailers and some informative summaries on the back of the box. As the first legitimate release of these films most fans will ever see, Shout Factory has put together another bargain mini-box set.