Shaw help: assistance from those who don't watch kung fu!

[Mike Thomason]

I'm trying to plan out the remainder of my Shaw exploitation/genre purchases for the time frame after the October 4th release of Sensual Pleasures, Seeding of a Ghost, Bewitched and Return from the Dead (providing they don't all go VCD only) and the following are the titles I need to know about...

36 Secrets of Courtship
Brothers From The Walled City
Carry On Doctors & Nurses
The Criminals
Doubles Causes Troubles
Fangs of the Cobra
The Flying Mr. B
The House of 72 Tenants
Innocent Lust
Let's Have A Baby
Let's Make Laugh
Let's Make Laugh II
Love With The Perfect Stranger
Men From The Gutter
The Millionaire Chase
Mr. Possessed
Mr. Virgin
My Darling Genie
Police Force
Prince Charming
The Pure and The Evil
Scandal
The Scandalous Warlord*
Sex for Sale
The Singing Killer
The Stud and The Nympho
The Venus Tear Diamond*
The Warlord
We Love Millionaires
Women of Desire

If anyone's seen any of these titles...I want to hear from you! I can do without reading who shows what where and to whom (I'm sure most of us are a bit more mature than snickering schoolboys), because it's a given some of these titles will harbour that kind of content. It's entertainment value I'm looking for -- so let me know!

[cal42]

MAD WORLD OF FOOLS was discussed on the Scrounge thread a few months back. Sharkeysbar posted a review up: http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/reviews.mhtm ... ay_set=eng .

[Bearserk]

The Stud and the Nympho is ok, a tale about infidelity and lust, and a mad man I liked it at least, and it made me put in an order for some more SB titles.

[Teddy Wong]

I've seen Mr. Possessed only.
Kenny Bee is a man possessed by the ghost. Everytime he is close to woman, he becomes possessed, and that's the reason why he can't get a girlfriend. Carol Cheng plays her typical character. She falls in love with Kenny, but because of his possession they can't have normal relationships. It's a bit stupid and a little entertaining comedy. Nothing serious or memorable.

[Mike Thomason]

The list has been updated! I've taken out the titles that have since been purchased, and added in some new ones (*) that have since caught my interest -- roll on with the recommendations, folks.

Since this thread started I have snapped up the following Shaw titles:

The 5 Billion Dollar Legacy
The Amorous Lotus Pan (1992)
Bewitched
Big Bad Sis
Carry On Con Men
Cherie
Dreams of Eroticism
Forbidden Tales of Two Cities
The Golden Buddha
Golden Lotus
Hong Kong Hong Kong
Legends of Lust
A Mad World of Fools
Maybe It's Love
Passing Flickers
Return of the Dead
Seeding of a Ghost
Sensual Pleasures
The Shepherd Girl
Sinful Confession
Summons to Death
That's Adultery
Twisted Passion
Two Con Men

...thus, we're getting along...

[Teddy Wong]

The Golden Buddha

Golden buddha is a stupid detective, but it's quite enjoyable. Not something special though. It started as James Bond movie alike, but later I realised that Golden buddha and James Bond movies have nothing in common. I don't really remember what was the summary about, because the movie is not memorable.

[Mike Thomason]

The initial list has since been updated to reflect some other titles that have piqued my interest, as well as remove the titles that I've collected since this thread project was first started -- again, feedback appreciated where people have seen and/or are in the know about the titles up!

Additionally, watched The Shepherd Girl (1963) last night and quite enjoyed it -- my first experience with Mandarin musicals (outside of Perhaps Love). Is this film what they refer to as "Huangmei Opera", or is it simply indicative of musicals from the period?

[cal42]

Golden buddha is a stupid detective, but it's quite enjoyable. Not something special though. It started as James Bond movie alike, but later I realised that Golden buddha and James Bond movies have nothing in common. I don't really remember what was the summary about, because the movie is not memorable.

Yeah, it's quite fun but not particularly memorable. It was obviously an attempt at doing a Bond. I loved the villain's outfit. Gotta get me one of those.

[Mike Thomason]

Gee whiz...I thought The Golden Buddha was alright. I liked the leads, the locations and the look and style that Lo Wei achieved -- he was definitely a much better director, IMO, back in the sixties before the advent of the kung fu explosion that dispensed with plot, characterisation and such in favour of long, arduously boring and flowery fight scenes!

In fact, I so much liked the movie that I've just ordered a swag of other similarly-themed sixties spy/thriller Shaw titles (some more pre-kung fu yawnfest Lo Wei amongst them). But anyhoo, each to their own, hey?

[dleedlee]

Additionally, watched The Shepherd Girl (1963) last night and quite enjoyed it -- my first experience with Mandarin musicals (outside of Perhaps Love). Is this film what they refer to as "Huangmei Opera", or is it simply indicative of musicals from the period?

I haven't see The Shepherd Girl but I don't think it's generally considered an example of huangmei opera, though both are derived from folk music.

See Love Eterne ( the Butterfly Lovers story) or The Kingdom and the Beauty as examples. Others: Lotus Lamp, Dream of the Red Chamber, The Three Smiles,

[Mike Thomason]

Thanks for the Huangmei recommendations -- I'll probably get to them soon!

As an aside, I watched Yang Chuan's Twisted Passion (1985) this evening and, as it was produced towards the end of the Shaw's reigning cycle of theatrical releases, it's not hard to see why they fell from favour. Producing absolutely mindless, boring drivel like it would have killed off any film company...

[Teddy Wong]

Flying mr. B is a Superman spoof. A bit stupid but enjoyable and sometimes funny, especially Philip Ko and Kent Cheng. I liked it. Brothers from the walled city is a good thriller, very brutal and shocking. I liked it very much. House of 72 tenants is a very good and smart <which is very rare> comedy. I liked it very much. It was also very popular movie.

[ewaffle]

Forbidden Tales of Two Cities

The two cities are Hong Kong and Macau, the forbidden tales are raunchy sex farces and there are enough not unfunny instances of mistaken identity and dumb gwielos to keep things interesting.

[mrblue]

I agree about Golden Buddha - it's very cheesy, but enjoyable. I hate most of Lo Wei's movies, but this one is pretty good.

I loved the villain's outfit. Gotta get me one of those.

That's actuallu Lo Wei himself. I liked his whole "evil lair".

House of 72 Tenants is good (Kung Fu Hustle borrows a lot from it) but I'm sure I missed out on a lot of the deeper bits of the story and some of the jokes, because it is very much targeted towards HKers.

Interpol is a shameless James Bond ripoff (down to the main character being named 009). If you like Connery's Bond movies, you'll probably enjoy this.

Police Force is a very solid action movie. Nothing much of note (besides it being Alexander Fu Sheng's first movie) but it does everything well.

[Mike Thomason]

Time to resurrect this one! There's about forty-odd Shaw titles that I still haven't grabbed that still stir an interest in me -- and below are those titles! The question is: where should I start in the final leg of my ongoing Shaw Brothers collecting spree?

Apartment for Ladies
Behind the Yellow Line
Blue Skies
Brotherhood
The Casino
The Delinquent
The Drug Addicts
The Enchantress
Friends
The Happiest Moment
The House of 72 Tenants
How to Pick Up Girls*
The Human Goddess
Kidnap
King Drummer
Les Belles
Let's Make Laugh*
Let's Make Laugh II
The Lizard
The Love Eterne
Love on Delivery*
Love with the Perfect Stranger
Lovers Destiny
Loving You*
Madam Slender Plum
Mercenaries from Hong Kong
Moonlight Serenade
Mr. Possessed
Murderer Pursues
My Dream Boat
Perfect Girls*
The Pure and the Evil
The Singing Escort
The Singing Killer
Sons of Good Earth
Summer Heat
Sunset
The Taxi Driver
The Tiger Killer
To Kill a Jaguar
The Warlord
Whatever You Want*
When the Clouds Roll By

Titles I've marked with an an asterisk, I've seen before and don't really need much in the way of feedback. Reviews are pretty thin on the ground (across the 'net) for the rest, so I'm relying on the better informed folk hereabouts for pointers on the rest

[Teddy Wong]

Imagine a typical SB kung fu movie set in the modern time, and kung fu fighters are dressed as modern soldiers. This is "Mercenaries from Hong Kong". It's not bad, not very good, it's Ok. But I liked the atmosphere of of "modern-old kung fu movie". Well, at least that what I felt during the movie.

[KMGor]

Mercenaries From Hong Kong is decently entertaining. Not great though. In particular, it doesn't really go anywhere in the final act.

The Singing Killer is pretty uneven as well. It's worth watching, though, if for nothing else than to see David Chiang look VERY uncomfortable while he lipsyncs to 70s songs with lyrics by Chang Cheh (!). There's also some pretty good action scenes.