Shaw Brothers festival?

[character]

Any interest in watching/talking about 5-10 Shaw Brothers films? There have been recent DVD releases of a number of titles in the Mainland as well as Regions 1 and 3. To say nothing of the Internet.

My favorites are the early Chu Yuan wuxias but I'll happily watch other ones.

[roddy]

I'm up for that. Although anyone following the incredibly slow Wong Kar-wei festival may ask themselves if my participation is actually a good thing or not . . .

[renzhe]

I'd probably look at a couple, as longs as I can download them fast enough and have time.

[character]

Y'all are probably more familiar with what's available online, so why don't you choose a few which are available that you want to watch? Otherwise I can suggest a few titles based on what I have.

Also, is there any interest (as in you would contribute) to making vocabulary lists for the films?

[roddy]

Here's the results of a search on verycd.com for 邵氏 - now let me knock the ball back into your court, perhaps you can scan that and see which ones are worth downloading

As for wordlists, I can try and type stuff in as I watch, but I generally don't have the Renzhe-like patience necessary for pinyin, translations and actually finishing.

[renzhe]

I won't be writing up vocab lists this time. I'm still working on finishing a couple of shows, and I'm doing too many other things at the same time.

But if someone typed up a list of interesting words, I can run it through an electronic dictionary, look up pinyin and stuff like that.

[character]

OK, so no word lists.

To start, how about

《天涯明月刀》(The Magic Blade)

http://www.verycd.com/topics/151044/

《大旗英雄传》(Clan Feuds)

http://www.verycd.com/topics/149206/

If you guys don't like this kind of wuxia, we can try something else, such as:

《残缺》(Crippled Avengers) -- Chang Cheh's subtle-as-a-brick storytelling combined with amazing physical feats.

http://www.verycd.com/topics/149676/

《螳螂》(Shaolin Mantis) -- Root for the bad guy.

http://www.verycd.com/topics/146753/

《花木兰》(Lady General Hua Mu-Lan) -- The least painful Huangmei opera I've watched.

http://www.verycd.com/topics/137470/

《血滴子》(The Flying Guillotine) -- Title says it all, really.

http://www.verycd.com/topics/95194/

《倩女幽魂》(The Enchanting Shadow) -- Same plot as the movie Chinese Ghost Story. I started watching this recently; it's nice, but kind of slow.

http://www.verycd.com/topics/88923/

Or we can watch whatever you think looks interesting.

Edited April 21, 2009 at 02:06 PM by roddy

[roddy]

Taken the liberty of editing verycd links into your post, character.

What say we start with 《天涯明月刀》, 《大旗英雄传》and then see where we're going? The second is listed as 粤语 though, maybe not so great for those hoping to practice listening.

[renzhe]

"Crippled avengers" is awesome

[character]

Shame about《大旗英雄传》( and also《残缺》). The Celestial DVDs almost always have Mandarin as one of the tracks; I didn't think to check.

How about 《螳螂》instead? It's listed as Mandarin.

[renzhe]

The version of 残缺 on a certain torrent tracker named after pirates has Mandarin sound.

[character]

《天涯明月刀》(The Magic Blade) - A good test to see if you like Shaw Brothers wuxia films. This one seems to have almost all the genre elements found in them -- if you don't like it, we'll want to try other genres. Personally, I like everything about this movie except for Ti Lung's weird tonfa/sword combo.

But WRT Chinese, I'm interested in what you think of the voices and vocabulary. Is there somewhat of a Taiwanese accent present? What I can understand seems clear enough to me, but there's a lot I can't get. The Shaw wuxia/kung fu movies seem to use a pretty limited vocabulary, other than all the words relating to the setting not normally taught in Chinese class. Perhaps I missed the day when "getting the peacock dart to take over the martial arts world" was discussed.

[roddy]

Got that and Clan Feuds downloading. Pretty slow though, might be a few days yet.

[renzhe]

I'm currently downloading this and the mantis one (and I already have the Crippled Avengers), it could take another day or two.

Am I understanding correctly that this is based on a Gu Long novel?

[character]

《天涯明月刀》(The Magic Blade) and a number of other Chu Yuan wuxias are based on Gu Long novels: Ranking & Reviews of Chu Yuan's 18 GuLong adapted Films

I've only read a few of his novels, and that in translation, so I'm not sure exactly how this one relates to the source material. Good places to ask would be:

http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/

http://wuxiasociety.org/forum/

[roddy]

Still downloading. At this rate the Shaw Brothers festival will outlast the Wong Kar-Wai one.

[character]

Sounds like I should rewatch 《残缺》(Crippled Avengers) next.

Are these kinds of films not popular with DVD/VCD sellers of all kinds in China? There's usually a Action/Martial Arts section in US DVD stores selling these or other Shaw Brothers films, though even today a lot of the releases are of questionable legality.

[renzhe]

I have the Magic Blade, the Shaolin Mantis and the Crippled Avengers.

I can watch them whenever the others are ready.

[character]

I rewatched Magic Blade recently. Do you have any opinion on the following:

But WRT Chinese, I'm interested in what you think of the voices and vocabulary. Is there somewhat of a Taiwanese accent present? What I can understand seems clear enough to me, but there's a lot I can't get. The Shaw wuxia/kung fu movies seem to use a pretty limited vocabulary, other than all the words relating to the setting not normally taught in Chinese class. Perhaps I missed the day when "getting the peacock dart to take over the martial arts world" was discussed.

[character]

Shaolin Mantis - Ming vs. Qing in this martial arts masterpiece. Some reviewers complain about the story, but to me it's a big draw, creating some tension throughout and making us wonder what the lead character (David Chiang, someone I can rarely stand) will do.