The Movie Thread Reloaded

[Bedrockbrendan]

Watched Killer Darts from the Shaw Brothers Collection Boxed set. Still haven't had a chance to listen to the commentary track (but checked out the first few minutes and seems promising). Believe it is also up on prime. Killer Darts is a 1968 Ho Meng-Hua movie. Yueh Hua and Fang Mian are both in it. But the star of the show is Chin Ping (who had a big role in the Temple of the Red Lotus trilogy and was in a number of movies before quickly retiring in the early 70s). She is great. Chin Ping can use a sword convincingly and also has a lot of charisma. In this movie she plays Jin Yu-Sien, the adopted daughter of a master, Liu Wen-Lung, whose disciple killed her parents. Because the disciple used the master's own darts to do the job, this leads to a misunderstanding later in Jin Yu-Sien's life that provides much of the drama. Ho Meng-Hua tells a good story and this movie is no exception. With him, one rarely feels lost or confused, and most things that are introduced early in the movie, pay off later. There is also always an effective emotional core, so you care about the characters. The action is good, but more in the 60s Shaw Brothers mold. I happen to like that style but it really does require a compelling lead to make it work and I think Chin Ping is on par with other great leads from this time. In my review I gave it a 6.5. I was basically struggling between a 6 and 7. In the last half hour I decided I would give it a 7 if the emotional ending had a lot of heft. It was a good ending, but wasn't enough for me to push it to 7. I mention this just to say, I could see someone else rating this higher. And I think that 6.5 requires some explanation as it is a genuinely good film.

Did a review on the blog too: https://thebedrockblog.blogspot.com/2025/03/killer-darts-casual-review.html

[Lurkndog]

Season 3 of Reacher is going pretty well.

In particular, the opening episode has a good twist in it, so by all means watch the entire episode before casting judgment.

New episodes drop early Thursday mornings.

[Bedrockbrendan]

Watched The Crimson Charm. This one was surprisingly enjoyable. Basically a master swordsman and hid daughter save a woman from getting raped by the son of Yellow Robed Chief of The Crimson Charm Gang, but kill the son in the process. So Yellow Robed King shows up at the sect headquarters on the masters birthday and slaughters everyone. Three of the surviving heroes regroup three years later to get revenge against the gang (though each one has someone different motivation as we get development during that three year period). The fights did have a few sloppy moments but they were still fun. And there were plenty of cool weapons. The evil sect in this one is one of those groups that has a lot of guys with names like White Faced Yama King.

[Bedrockbrendan]

That does look pretty heavy on the CGI lol. 

It is and it's TV tier which is another reason I think it was probably a TV series.

I can handle a certain amount of that. But that looks like the kind of show where they use it even when it isn't needed (i.e. using CGI to remove blemishes and such). I was watching a lot of wuxia and chinese fantasy shows in the 2010s and they were loaded to the teeth with CGI. It was often questionable, but I will say they tended to avoid that muddy look a lot of US shows have, so even if the CGI wasn't great, it was like the colors at least matched lol. Also one thing I think CGI works very well for is Qi. It sucks when they use it to replace wirework, but when they use it for Qi blasts, that looks pretty cool even if the effect is kind of iffy.

[Thornhammer]

Watched The Void (2016) last night.

It's a cosmic horror movie about a cop bringing a guy into a small hospital, and then things immediately get nasty as a bunch of cultists surround the place and tentacle monsters start erupting from people.

They don't explain shit - there's no detailed background on what the Elder God here is, it just is. It is never named, nobody knows a damn thing about it except the bad guy, and the heroes are freaked out but still manage to blast things with shotguns and the like. In short, it's a Delta Green operation that goes badly south right out of the gate, and looking at it through that lens helps with the rather thin plot. The acting isn't particularly good, either.

The special effects though - these guys were punching above their weight class. It's all practical effects, no shitty "The General" car insurance level CGI (as one might expect from a low budget independent film), and there's a fair amount of it - blood, tentacle critters, the main bad guy transforming into something nasty.

Not perfect, by any means, but I really liked it. Some good inspiring visuals for any cosmic horror gaming you might want to do. Hell, you could kinda-sorta finagle it into an alt-universe extension of True Detective Season 1 where they went harder with the cult.

[Omega]

That does look pretty heavy on the CGI lol. 

It is and it's TV tier which is another reason I think it was probably a TV series.

I can handle a certain amount of that. But that looks like the kind of show where they use it even when it isn't needed (i.e. using CGI to remove blemishes and such). I was watching a lot of wuxia and chinese fantasy shows in the 2010s and they were loaded to the teeth with CGI. It was often questionable, but I will say they tended to avoid that muddy look a lot of US shows have, so even if the CGI wasn't great, it was like the colors at least matched lol. Also one thing I think CGI works very well for is Qi. It sucks when they use it to replace wirework, but when they use it for Qi blasts, that looks pretty cool even if the effect is kind of iffy.

Spy Kits had that over-use of CGI feel to it. Now-a-says near every movie feels more like a cartoon with maybe live people in there somewhere.

[yosemitemike]

I canned my Netflix subscription because I hardly watch it and got a Shout! TV subscription.  Shout! TV has a lot of content for only $3.99 a month.   

[Bedrockbrendan]

I canned my Netflix subscription because I hardly watch it and got a Shout! TV subscription.  Shout! TV has a lot of content for only $3.99 a month.   

One thing I like about shout is they seem to be putting up almost all the movies in those Shaw Brothers Classics boxed sets (I think it takes a few months after a new set comes up for them to go on there, but I know I have seen many from the sets that way)

[Ratman_tf]

I canned my Netflix subscription because I hardly watch it and got a Shout! TV subscription.  Shout! TV has a lot of content for only $3.99 a month.   

Oh wow. I'll have to look into that. A quick peek at their homepage looks promising.

---

Starting a re-watch of The Orville, since my bro resubbed to Disney Plus, and that gets us Hulu as well.
Really love the show, "coffee shop liberalism" and all.

[yosemitemike]

$3.99 is the ad free tier too.

One thing I like about shout is they seem to be putting up almost all the movies in those Shaw Brothers Classics boxed sets (I think it takes a few months after a new set comes up for them to go on there, but I know I have seen many from the sets that way)

I have been watching these since I started my subscription.  I forgot how bloody some of these were.  I am watching one called The Devil's Mirror.  The body count would make a slasher movie jealous.

[Bedrockbrendan]

$3.99 is the ad free tier too.

One thing I like about shout is they seem to be putting up almost all the movies in those Shaw Brothers Classics boxed sets (I think it takes a few months after a new set comes up for them to go on there, but I know I have seen many from the sets that way)

I have been watching these since I started my subscription.  I forgot how bloody some of these were.  I am watching one called The Devil's Mirror.  The body count would make a slasher movie jealous.

I saw Devil's Mirror just recently. I was very impressed by it

The blood spilling is taking to a level of art in some of those shaw bothers movies lol

I was just watching this kill count of Jimmy Wang Yu in the movie Golden Swallow (comes to like 193): https://youtu.be/O6VllBltPU0?si=B10Lis9qCkAKLV2_

That is more than a kill a minute

[yosemitemike]

I was just watching this kill count of Jimmy Wang Yu in the movie Golden Swallow (comes to like 193): https://youtu.be/O6VllBltPU0?si=B10Lis9qCkAKLV2_

That is more than a kill a minute

I am watching this one now.  The pacing is something else.  It starts with a woman fighting some guys.  I guess she gets hit with poison darts.  I can't tell what's happening but that's what the guy who comes and forces the bad guys to give him the antidote says.  Then it cuts to them in the mountains talking about some guy called Little Roc.  Then we cut to Little Roc riding his horse when some bandit guys (?) appear and try to blow him up.  I wonder who these guys are.  I guess it doesn't matter since he kills all of them.  These may seem like spoilers but this all happens in like the first 5 minutes. 

[Bedrockbrendan]

I was just watching this kill count of Jimmy Wang Yu in the movie Golden Swallow (comes to like 193): https://youtu.be/O6VllBltPU0?si=B10Lis9qCkAKLV2_

That is more than a kill a minute

 

I am watching this one now.  The pacing is something else.  It starts with a woman fighting some guys.  I guess she gets hit with poison darts.  I can't tell what's happening but that's what the guy who comes and forces the bad guys to give him the antidote says.  Then it cuts to them in the mountains talking about some guy called Little Roc.  Then we cut to Little Roc riding his horse when some bandit guys (?) appear and try to blow him up.  I wonder who these guys are.  I guess it doesn't matter since he kills all of them.  These may seem like spoilers but this all happens in like the first 5 minutes. 

Technically it is the sequel to Come Drink with Me (Cheng Pei-Pei is playing the same character from that, but the new director is more interested in Jimmy Wang Yu's character). The ending of the movie is pretty remarkable lol. I quite like Golden Swallow (even though the main character gets pushed aside for Silver Roc lol)

[yosemitemike]

Technically it is the sequel to Come Drink with Me (Cheng Pei-Pei is playing the same character from that, but the new director is more interested in Jimmy Wang Yu's character). The ending of the movie is pretty remarkable lol. I quite like Golden Swallow (even though the main character gets pushed aside for Silver Roc lol)

It's weird how little screen time the title character gets.  Come Drink With Me is a bit like that too.  A lot of the focus is on whatshisface the drunken boxer guy with the pole.  The ending is...wtf.  I had to watch it four times to parse out what actually happened. 

I am watching a movie called 7 Man Army.  I don't know what I expected but it wasn't WWII.  It does the whole 7 guys making a doomed stand thing but they are really stretching to make it work when the attacking force has tanks and artillery.  There are multiple scenes where the Japanese attack with swords and bayonets instead of just shooting so there can be a martial arts scene.  There's also a subplot about a period wuxia guy with a sword who wants to avenge his master for some reason.  The fight scenes aren't bad but they are a bit silly in the modern era.