A number of the most entertaining films born from “the kung fu craze” are available to stream on Amazon Prime Video. Amazon’s streaming service has a big catalog of martial arts films, with the most important chunk of that coming from one of the vital vital corners of the style, which is the old-school kung fu movie.
Previous-school kung fu films are finally what the medium is constructed on. Curiosity in martial arts films blew up within the early Seventies thanks largely to films like The Chinese language Boxer, 5 Fingers of Loss of life, and naturally, Enter the Dragon. What adopted was an period remembered now as “the kung fu craze.“
This explosion of enthusiasm for Hong Kong martial arts films had a key affect on Seventies cinema, resulting in increasingly kung fu films releasing all through the last decade. And whereas the style has modified considerably since these days, the kung fu movies of the Seventies stay among the many finest the style has ever produced.
To Kill With Intrigue
Earlier than the rebranding he acquired through his roles in Drunken Grasp and Snake within the Eagle’s Shadow, Jackie Chan’s martial arts film profession was on a really totally different trajectory. Working below Lo Wei, the director of Bruce Lee’s first two martial arts films, Chan made a sequence of largely forgettable old-school kung fu films far faraway from the extra family-friendly, “everyman” picture he developed later.
Just because To Kill With Intrigue was a kind of movies, the 1977 Lo Wei-directed kung fu film shouldn’t be sometimes thought-about a must-watch Jackie Chan basic. However separate it from the same old expectations of a Jackie Chan film and what you get is an action-packed wuxia journey story full with an fascinating thriller, well-developed characters, and an important revenge narrative.
To Kill With Intrigue will not be Jackie Chan’s finest film, however it’s actually a extremely underrated entry into the kung fu style.
The thirty sixth Chamber of Shaolin
In 1978, Hong Kong’s preminent kung fu film studio, Shaw Brothers, launched The thirty sixth Chambers of Shaolin, which starred Gordon Liu as a younger man who joins the Shaolin Temple within the hopes of buying the coaching he must get revenge towards the villain who killed his dad and mom, Lo Lieh’s Normal Tien Ta.
The thirty sixth Chamber of Shaolin is the definitive old-school kung fu film in additional methods than even Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon. The movie incorporates all the perfect aspects of the style; an exciting last showdown between the hero and the villain, a quest for revenge, and coaching sequences.
In truth, the coaching in The thirty sixth Chamber of Shaolin is one in every of its greatest attracts. To perform his objective, Gordon Liu’s San Te has to undergo numerous “chambers,” each with their very own distinctive problem that he has to determine beat. In true kung fu film trend, how he overcomes every particular person problem winds up changing into related to the battles forward.
The Iron Monkey
To not be confused with the enduring 1993 kung fu titled Iron Monkey, The Iron Monkey is a 1977 martial arts movie headlined by Chen Kuan-tai, one of the vital recognizable actors related to Shaw Brothers films. Within the film, the actor performs Iron, a younger man who has to embark on a mission of revenge when his father, the chief of a gaggle of rebels working with the Shaolin Temple, is murdered.
This setup places Iron on a path to hitch the Shaolin Temple, the place he learns Monkey Fashion Kung Fu and turns into “the Iron Monkey.” Clearly a real-life martial artist, Chen Kuan-tai makes use of his kung fu experience to make Iron Monkey seem like a real power to be reckoned with.
Along with nice choreography and motion, The Iron Monkey advantages from an excellent forged of massive stars, regardless of not being an precise Shaw Brothers manufacturing. In The Iron Monkey, Chen Kuan-tai is joined by fellow Shaw Brothers favourite Chi Kuan Chun, perennial villain actor Kam Kong, and Bryan “Beardy” Leung.
A yr after The Iron Monkey, Chen Kuan-tai reprised his function because the titular Monkey Fashion grasp in a direct sequel, The Iron Monkey Strikes Again. Because it too is streaming on Prime Video, the 2 halves of the Iron Monkey’s story will be seen back-to-back.
Secret Rivals
Recognized for his unimaginable kicking expertise and background in Taekwondo, Hwang Jang Lee famously performed Jackie Chan’s principal opponent in Drunken Grasp. Secret Rivals offers a fair better showcase of Hwang Jang Lee’s martial arts abilities by casting him – and appropriately so – because the seemingly unbeatable villain, Silver Fox.
Secret Rivals tells an intricately woven story about two martial arts consultants – each with their very own hidden agendas – who develop a rivalry, which must be balanced with their efforts to defeat Silver Fox. As for the 2 primary characters, they’re performed by John Liu and Wong Tao, who get pleasure from a string of well-choreographed one-on-one showdowns.
The success of Secret Rivals set off a trilogy of films, all starring Hwang Jang Lee. The second installment, Secret Rivals 2, can be obtainable to observe on Prime Video. Secret Rivals 3, then again, is not on the service however will be streamed on Tubi.
Crippled Avengers
The director and the forged that put collectively 1978’s The 5 Lethal Venoms, one of many best martial arts films of all time, reunited in the identical yr for Crippled Avengers. In Chang Cheh’s Crippled Avengers, 4 members of the five-man appearing group often called the Venom Mob play fighters who – for various causes – turns into victims of the film’s villains, who inflict upon them dehabiliating accidents, from blindness to the lack of one’s legs.
Drawn collectively by their widespread enemy and new station in life, the group change into a group and acquire new and distinctive methods to battle, with one character even getting “iron ft” to compensate for the lack of his ft.
Clearly, Crippled Avengers is pushed by a wild gimmick, however Chang Cheh and the Venom Mob achieve infusing it with an excessive amount of allure. The premise paves the best way for some enjoyable coaching sequences for every of the protagonists, which blends completely with their particular person preventing kinds.
Along with Crippled Avengers and 5 Lethal Venoms, the Venom Mob and Chang Cheh remodeled a dozen martial arts films collectively. And out of all of them, solely Crippled Avengers is on Amazon Prime Video.