No comments about Wing Chun Dummy.

4 comments about Everyone Is Kung-Fu Fighting.

1. Many short films are showcased via film festivals and the internet. MOST of those shorts are dramatic in nature. The shorts in this DVD are a rarity in the short film world as they are heavy in action which are not as easy to produce as the dramatic ones.

   With the increasing popularity of martial arts action movies, Everyone Is Kung-Fu Fighting is an exceptional DVD showcasing some of the best martial arts action that rival and/or surpass most of the studio released action movies.

   Some of the directors are destined for Hollywood.




2. This is a collection of 5 or so shorts, produced by various Martial Artists, many of whom are very talented. Some of the skits are ingenious and show real potential, where others are lagging.

   Fans of The Kwoon team will be pleased to see them here, as they really put on a show. The Sammo Hung lookalike is very talented and deserves a chance at Hollywood.

   Stop reading this and buy it.




3. This is a compilation of 9 home videos from amateur directors. A couple are actually done on studios. All of them are worth a watch. The movies range anywhere from 1 to 22 minutes in length.
   
   'Gung Ho' and 'Cradle of the Blind' are only a minute long but both are very funny. 'Kung Fu Legends Turbo' is like a video game and very well done. The rest are mini movies and all are pretty good. Special features include commentaries from the makers of the films and also outtakes. The outtakes for the Stunt People's movie 'Teamwork 2' is a must see! There are also a couple other cool special features.
   
   Sound and picture quality are good.



4. I actually bought this because I went to highschool with one of the directors (I haven't kept in touch with them, but I thought I would check it out). The action scenes in most of the shorts are really great, the stuntwork is amazing, and the production values are suprisingly decent.
   I think the main shortcoming is the short-film format. Without any sort of development of the characters, there's no real reason to be interested in the action.
   Action without a story just sort of becomes monotonous. I'd be a lot more engaged in the action if I were playing Soul Caliber II. If you're really into fighting, then maybe it wouldn't be as boring to you as it was for me.

2 comments about Deadly Strike.

1. This movie had alot of excellent fighting scenes!!! Bruce Li's character is noble but dark. He has a mean streak. He is very intense and serious about either bringing the bandit criminals to justice dead or alive!!
   
   In this movie, Li plays a police chief who must lead his inept department of not so good kung fu fighters against some highly skilled bad guys.
   One unique scene features a man standing on another man's shoulders and fighting together as one person against Bruce Li!
   That sounds different because it is the first time I have seen a fight scene choreographed this way.
   Because of Ho Chung Tao (Bruce Li) and the unique fight scenes that you must see to believe, I give this movie a 5 star rating. Another amazing action movie from the legendary Ho Chung Tao!!



2. Deadly Strike is a film reminiscent of the old matinee westerns that played in the theatres when I was a kid. A new lawman (Bruce Li) comes to town, and with the aid of a group of misfit convicts he takes on the bandits and their boss (Chen Sing) who have been terrorizing the region.
   
   The story is predictable, but enjoyable. There's plenty of action mixed with humor and drama (or rather, melodrama, some of which is unintentionally quite funny itself). The camera work isn't bad, but the way the film was formatted to DVD makes the cinematography look worse than it really is. One funny gaffe: we can see the actors waiting to begin a fight sequence while adjustments to the lighting are being made. These sort of things can be distracting, but as the story goes on you learn to look past them.
   
   Bruce Li, while not much of an actor, has a few rather impressive fight sequences. Chen Sing has incredible screen presence for a film of this sort, not to mention superior fighting skills. Unfortunately, you won't actually see that much of him in Deadly Strike. It's the charming and likeable supporting cast that really makes this film, including Lung Fei and Tsai Hung as convicts working for Li, along with inept lawmen, a witty thief, and what posse would be complete without a pretty-yet-dangerous prostitute? The bandits snarl and laugh maniacally, but never seem to pose much of a real threat.
   
   All in all, Deadly Strike isn't a great film. It might not even be a good film. But it most definitely is a fun film to watch, and one that I can watch over and over without getting tired of it. But then, I always loved those cheesy westerns when I was a kid too.

No comments about Escrima Rene Latosa 2 DVD Box Set.

1 comments about Wing Chun Vol.5-Street Fighting Applications.

1. Having viewed quite a few Wing Chun instructional videos, this one definitely stands high above them all. Most others are poorly organized, usually with bad audio. William Chueng's videos are a good example of this.
   
   Todd Shawn Tei's video is professional, extremely informative, and easy to follow. I was trully inspired by all I learned and would highly recommend this to anyone who is learning the art as an important supplement.

4 comments about Pride FC - Collision Course.

1. Pride 13...Anybody favored to win in this event lost. That doesn't mean it wasn't one of the best Prides ever. Full of surprises sums it up.
   This event is known for the rule change of allowing soccer kicks to a downed opponent's head. It turned out to be a real factor here.
   Buy this for the legendary Sakuraba vs Vanderlei Silva 1. Their rematch is in Pride 17 but the first one is a classic.
   Dan Henderson vs Renzo Gracie is also a stunner.
   You gotta have this one if you consider yourself a fan of MMA at all. This is simply the best there is.



2. PRIDE 13 WAS AN EVENT THAT IN MY OPINION WAS WORTH THE COST. VITOR BELFORT SHOWED SOME GRAPPLING SKILL, GUY MEZGER AND EGAN INOUE WENT TOE TO TOE,HEATH HERRING AND SOBOLEV DENIS WAS LOBSIDED, DAN HENDERSON AND RENZO GRACIE WAS A FLUKE, COLEMAN AND ALLAN GOES WAS A JOKE,T. YASUDA AND MR. SATAKE WAS DESCENT,TRA TELLIGMAN VS. IGOR VOVCHANCHYN WAS A STANDING BATTLE, AND SILVA VS. SAKURABA WAS AN INSTANT CLASSIC!!!!!ALL IN ALL THE PRICE OF ADMISSION WAS WELL WORTH IT.



3. Yes the matchups were good, but the new Pride rules were really the story of this DVD.

   Kicking and kneeing a down opponent was now legal in Pride. This would have given Igor Vovchanchyn a KO victory over Mark Kerr in their first encounter. But enough with the what ifs; this Pride was to be the first under these controversial rules.

   The new rules really favored the "strikers" and gave the "grapplers" something to think about. These old terms are dated. Every good fighter is well-rounded in grappling and striking skills. Maybe it safe to say that the good strikers really got a kick off these new rules. No pun intended.

   The night kicked off with BJJ sensation Vitor Belfort against Pride newcomer Bobby Southworth. We got a glimpse of Belfort's submission skills in this fight. A mismatch, but entertaining.

   Next up was to be a grudge match between Enson Inoue and Guy Metzger. In an earlier UFC tournament, these two were to fight, but Enson suffered and injury that prevented this. Words were tossed, as they always are and a grudge was born. Unfortunately for Guy, Enson had retired. So in came older brother Egan Inoue to challenge Metzger. While Egan was the more muscular of the two, Metzger was actually bigger in size. A good striking fight with a solid KO for a finish.

   The ever tough Heath Herring was up next against Denis Sobolev. Herring at a young age had taken out perhaps the most dominating wrestler in Tom Erickson. With his stock rising, nothing was to stop Herring this night, not even a tough-guy in Sobolev.

   The next fight featured two MMA's classiest fighters. As classy they are, of course they happen to be very good fighters. On one corner we had Renzo Gracie, the most active of the famous Gracie family. His fights were against formidable opponents. With wins over Taktarov, Kikuta, Otsuka, and Maurice Smith, speaks volumes. In the other corner: Dan Henderson. Henderson was/is all business. He is a quite man who just wins. His victories include wins over Goes, Newton, Yvel, Nogueira, Babalu were also impressive. So these two great (in and outside the ring) fighters fought with a sneaky punch resulting in decisive KO. No phantom-punches, it may require the slo-motion of your DVD to really catch the quick right.

   An interesting matchup between heavyweight Mark Coleman and middleweight Alan Goes was next. The last the world saw of Coleman was in Pride winning the Grand Prix tournament. His return was anticipated even if was against a smaller opponent. Goes the superb BJJ technician was the first true submissions expert Coleman was to face. The new rules turned this fight into lights-out for the loser. A funny sequence of events follow the stoppage of this fight. It cannot be missed.

   The next fight was the Japanese treat fight. We had Masaaki Satake vs. Tadao Yasuda in a fight catered to entertain the Japanese crowd. A match of little to no significance. I did disagree with the decision, though.

   Fight 7 was originally the battle between Ken Shamrock and Igor Vovchanchyn. The buzz behind was huge, but Shamrock was forced to step down due to an injury. His "last second" replacement was fellow Lions Den fighter Tre Telligman. Telligman while respected, was on paper no threat to Igor. Tre had fought (valiantly) and lost to many good fighters. Igor was ready to use this fight as a springboard to a highly-anticipated rematch against Mark "the Hammer" Coleman. The biggest shocker in recent MMA history. Really something special!

   In the end...the Main Event! The battle between Japanese sensation Kazushi Sakaraba and Vanderlei Silva. Saku was on top of the world. His victories over almost every fighting Gracie and widely regarded as the best middleweight in the world. He had earned his high remarks by exhibiting truly unorthadox fighting. On the other corner was Muay-Thai sensation Vanderlei Silva. The "Axe Murderer" as he is known, Silva had a reputation as bruising striker. Silva didn't want to be another Brazilian to fall to Sakuraba. Sakuraba was eager to take out a powerful striking specialist. This fight best describes the title of the event: Collision Course! A brutal finish to say the least.

   The best Pride show maybe since Pride 10 (Return of the Warriors). A great buy, trust me.




4. Many fighters were caught at a transitional stage in this event. The new rule, which allowed the fighters to kick and knee their opponents when they are on their all fours, really played a big factor to the upsets in this event. This rule is what made Pride as close as it can be to a "no rule" contest. The change gave the strikers a lot of advantage over the grapplers. However, the fights were pretty dull except for the main event.

1 comments about IRON BODY & POWER MED - DVD.

1. I picked this video up, mainly because there's not much else out there on this subject.
   
   The video consists of two parts. The first part consists of an introduction and some QiGong exercises. My only complaint is that they don't describe the exercises enough, and they go through them very quickly. But if you have the patience to hit rewind and take some notes, I think you'll be pleased.
   
   The send part consists of some iron body techniques. From the head, to the chest, hands and feet, etc. They go in levels. For example, for hands they start with hitting a bag of dried beans (which you can pick up, or improvise), and eventually they move up to hitting a back with more and more buckshot replaced, and doing things like pushups on your fists on concrete.
   
   The science behind it is not really addressed (about recalcification of microfissures in the bones from the strikes causes your bones to become thicker and more durable from the cellular level). It does make sense and it does work, I can honestly say I can hit much harder surfaces with much more force than before.
   
   If this is the type of martial arts you're into, its really a good video, especially since there's nothing else out there in terms of this.

No comments about Rapid Assult Tatics RAT Fighting Method Paul Vunak Self Defense Fighting Dvd.

2 comments about Snake in the Monkey's Shadow/Horror Holiday.

1. This is a great Kung Fu movie that I have owned for years on VHS. When it came out on DVD, I was quick to pick up a copy. I definitely should have waited. The reproduction of this movie is almost unwatchable. Red shadows litter the movie and blur many details in the movie. As a matter of fact this DVD looks like it was copied from a poor VHS using crappy duplication equipment. The infamous rising line that comes from poor VHS duplication is present in this edition. Bottom Line-Movie = 5 stars and quality of reproduction = unwatchable.



2. This DVD would get a 4 star rating, except for the fact that 'Snake in the Monkey's Shadow' has extremely bad picture quality. It looks like Videoasia found the film reel in a lake and just dried it out before transferring it to DVD. While the picture is washed out, it is still watchable, and, it is UNCUT!!
   
   I will save my full review of this in case a remastered uncut version ever comes out, but I will tell you this movie is one of my personal favorites. The snake style has never looked so good. Wilson Tong is by far one of the best snake stylists ever to appear on screen and he really lets loose as one of the villains. I don't like John Chiang in most of his old school movies (I do like a lot of the work he did in the late 80's), but he looks outstanding in this old school masterpiece. And Pomson Shi's monkey style absolutely has to be seen.
   
   I won't talk about the Dorian Tan movie 'Horror Holiday' because I couldn't follow it and it's one of the biggest pieces of garbage I have ever seen, but this DVD is worth it for 'Snake in the Monkey's Shadow'. The reason this movie being uncut is so important is because there is a very unique scene where one of Chiang's 2 teachers tells Chiang that his pet baboon is actually his kung fu teacher. Once Chiang's teacher dies, he watches the baboon fight a snake and learns how to beat the 2 snake masters that killed his teachers. Hopefully no animal rights groups have heard of this movie because they would absolutely flip out (and with good reason), but it is a very good scene and by far the longest animal fight I have ever witnessed in a kung fu movie. Not quite as good as the hawk type bird fighting the monkey in 'Iron Monkey', but better than the cat fighting the snake in 'Snake in the Eagle's Shadow'. Watching it uncut definitely makes a big difference since all other DVD releases not only cut out the baboon fighting the 10 foot cobra, they also cut out the flashbacks in the final fight.
   
   'Snake in the Monkey's Shadow' gets a very solid 4/5 rating from me. Hardly any faults to be found. And great kung fu of course!

4 comments about Fist of Unicorn.

1. I am happy and sad to see the release of this `Lost Classic'.
   Happy since it is finally available and sad since it's not a good film!
   Complaining aside,the whole DVD is well worth the purchase price.
   It includes the following-
   2 Versions of the film-English and Mandarin.The English is a Full Screen Version and the Mandarin is Widescreen.
   There are different openings to the film on both,and the English version has two clips of Bruce Lee not shown in the Mandarin Version.
   Original Trailer-Quite a rarity.It has unseen footage of Bruce Lee on set.
   Last Day of Bruce Lee Documentary-an interesting 20 minute piece which is narrated and hosted by Bruce's Hong Kong girlfriend Betty Ting Pei(it's dubbed in English).There's a load of footage of Bruce at a party with the cast of the film,and then funeral footage.This alone is worth the price of the DVD.
   Photo Gallery-an excellent compilation of Bruce Lee's life in 1972.I haven't seen these photos before and the captions are great.Bruce Lee Historian George Tan has done an amazing job.
   Fight Scenes interview-this 20 minute piece has Bruce's stuntmen discussing how Bruce Lee put together the famous Enter the Dragon fights,plus anecdotes about Fist of Unicorn and the man himself.

   Cover artwork is the best images of Bruce to date.
   Also recommend `Death by Misadventure-the mysterious life of Bruce Lee'.See my review on this masterpiece.

   Overall a great DVD piece,minus the actual film(s).




2. I saw this film in 1976 and could only recall some rare snippets of Bruce in the film.I was completely blank on the rest of this movie.
   This package presentation is top of the line.Two versions are presented.The original Chinese release print in lovely widescreen and an English version(the one I saw in theatres) in Full Screen format.
   The subtiltes on the chinese edition are somewhat small.They would have been better to add new titles in the borders.
   The English version has a misaligned framing,so a portion of the film is on the bottom instead of the top.It's still watchable,but a bit annoying at first.
   The footage of Bruce Lee in the films is minimal.The English version has a bit extra,which might explain why both versions were included.
   Bonus materials are abundant.An incredible photo gallery of shots from 1972 which explain what Bruce Lee was doing in what would be the most productive year of his life.Little time is spent on Fist of Unicorn and focuses instead on Way of the Dragon and Game of Death(Bruce apparently made Unicorn in between these two).An excellent archive of materials.
   The original trailer for Unicorn is quite good.A great bonus for sure.
   The main source of footage is a mini-docu entitled Last Day of Bruce Lee.It is 15 minutes of pure Bruce Lee.
   Another more recent mini documentary included is Fight Scenes the Bruce Lee way,with Bruce Lee's assistants explaining and demonstrating how Bruce Lee staged his fights.Also anecdotes on the man and his movies.Excellent material.
   There is no audio commentary on this DVD,unlike Death by Misadventure and The Young Bruce Lee(see my reviews).
   Overall a great package of rarities and oddities on Bruce Lee.



3. The movie "Fist of Unicorn" is complete garbage, badly made and rottenly acted (at one point, there is a stuttering duel of all things). The fight scenes are not very impressive, despite choreography by Bruce Lee. In the English version, Bruce Lee is supposedly showing off to Unicorn Chan in the opening sequence but, wouldn't you know, they use a double! Unicorn himself is not much of an actor, but he is a graceful fighter.
   
   What is really pitiful is the DVD itself: there is no trailer for the film, despite user comments, only trailers for "Bruce Lee: The Man, The Myth" (shown twice!) and other Bruce Lee rip-offs (even a trailer for a Ron Van Clief film). The documentary of stunt men who knew Bruce is translated by someone with a lazy drawl for a voice - you'll think it was intended as a joke. The only plus is the 72 photos of Bruce shown - for that, buy a book of pictures of the martial-arts master but not this film.



4. Now first the moivie-horrible. I never thought I could give a movie with yusakai kuratu in it a 0/5, but I am. Add in Whang in-sik who's legs look awesome in this, and I just told you the one good scene of this movie. Unicorn Chan is actually not that bad of an actor and his kung fu skills are not the worst. But his signature move where he flies up into the air like superman and then just comes down to kill his oppenents with his death strike, it is truly unbearable to watch.
   
   Now there is 2 versions of the film on this disc: A really bad full screened english version, and a widescreen one that has an even worse picture with almost unreadable subtitles.
   
   The movie is just so stupid and bad I really cannot recommend this to anyone.
   
   Now the 2 special feature are VERY good. One is an interview with betty ting pei that is REALLY REALLY old. And then a reall cool interview with bruce's stuntmen.
   
   So overall, about all I can say is, video asia, you are the absolute worst dvd company ever.