My wife and I like to stop in Singapore on our way home from a dive vacation. It's a great city; clean, green, great food, lots of shopping opportunities, nice people and just generally a nice change from every where else in South East Asia.
We also like to go to the movies and Singapore often has a variety of movies that don't make it to theaters here in Germany. The downside of going to the movies in Singapore is that we often only get to see part 2, or part 3 of a good story. You can say what you want about movie piracy and downloading, but I don't feel the least bit guilty about downloading a movie that was never shown in a theater near me.
On this trip we got to see the story of Ip Man, probably the best known master of the iconic Kung Fu form Wing Chun. But just like normal, we only got to see part 2 of this story and I'm looking for a download of part 1. Part 2 of the Ip Man story deals with his time in Hong Kong after fleeing from the communist takeover of China.
He was dirt poor, while trying to raise a family, and build a school for his form of Kung Fu. Things weren't easy and the other schools of Kung Fu didn't help things for him. The movie isn't completely historically accurate, but it tells most of the story well, and there are some great fight scenes. Here is a trailer I found on YouTube. I hope you like it.
The second movie I watched on this trip was The Storm Warriors, and sure enough this one was the 2nd part of a 3 part story. The first part, The Storm Riders was filmed in 1998, so the second part has been a long time coming. I haven't found a download for that first part yet.
While watching Storm Warriors it was pretty obvious to me even before I came home and could do a little research that this movie was based on a comic book. The Kung Fu styles are far more fantastical than the down to earth style of the Wing Chun. There are quite a number of Chi Kung style fights where spears and swords fly and strike without actually ever been held in a warriors hand, and there is a Chi Kung style shield scene that is probably the best I've ever seen filmed. That scene alone is worth to see this movie.
You can see that particular shot at around the 9 minute mark of this clip. I hope you enjoy it.
Edit: Liujingke's post in the comments section reminded me of a trailer I saw while I was waiting for Iron Man 2 (yeah, another comic book movie...). Jackie Chan has made a remake of The Karate Kid movie, also starring Jaden Smith. Jaden of course is Will Smith's son and has some acting experience with his Dad. From what I saw in the new Karate Kid trailer, Jaden has been working out with some professional coaching.
Jackie Chan loves to pay homage to older movies, and I'm sure this new Karate Kid movie will have some really corny stuff, but I'm sure it will have some good action scenes too.
So, what movies do you recommend?
- SpearDriver
