The Encyclopedia of Martial Arts Movies

485 Pages·1995·37.32 MB·English

by  Bill Palmer

The Encyclopedia
of Martial Arts Movies
Bill Palmer, Karen Palmer
and
Ric Meyers
j
The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Lanham, Maryland, and Oxford
SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
Published in the United States of America
by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A Member of the Rowrnan & Littlefield Publishing Group
4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706
www.scarecrowpress.com
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Copyright © 1995 by Bill Palmer, Karen Palmer, and Ric Meyers
First paperback edition 2003
*this is a print-on-demand edition. As a result of the printing technique
utilized, photographs may appear to be oflower quality than usual Scarecrow
Press publications.*
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
The hardback edition of this book was previously cataloged by the Library of
Congress as follows:
Palmer, Bill.
The Encyclopedia of martial arts movies I Bill Palmer, Karen Palmer, and
Ric Meyers.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-0-8108-4160-4
1. Hand-to-hand fighting, Oriental, in motion pictures. 2. Motion pictures
Catalogs. r. Palmer, Karen. II. Meyers, Richard.
Ill. Title.
PN1995.9.H3P36 1995
791.43'655-dc20 95-9205
e ....
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Science!r---Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-l992.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
ISBN: 0-8108-4160-6 (paper)
Dedication
•
This book is dedicated to all the fans who share our
obsession with, and enjoyment of, martial art movies.

Contents
•
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Abbreviations xv
Martial Arts Movies A to Z 1
Addendum 403
Aliases 411
A Partial List of Japanese Film Series 415
Bibliography 417
Index 419
About the Authors 467

Preface
•
"Martial Art" ... "a skill suitable for war." the name phonetically in English. We have tried to track
In this context, virtually any movie could be included down as many of these variations as possible, and have
in this work, but we have limited our scope to those films listed them in a separate appendix.
where the fighting art depicted originated in Asia. Many series are listed together, such as "Brave Archer,"
Many films have more than one title; the title might and "Sword of Justice." The greatest number of films in a
have been changed from its original release for an Ameri series is probably that of the Kwan Tak-hing "Huang
can audience, and many distributors retitle films, espe Fei-hong" series, with at least 80 films made by that actor.
cially if a film is available on more than one label. A number of other actors have played Huang Fei~hong,
Wherever possible, we have listed the films by the title they including Jackie Chan and Ku Feng. A partial listing of
were released under in America. All known alternate titles, Japanese film series is listed in an appendix.
including original language titles, follow in parenthesis. Martial art films are generally rated R, or at least PG,
One notable exception: there has been a great deal of due to the "violent" nature inherent in the genre. One could
confusion about the titles of Bruce Lee's films. His first support the announcement by the Pope that, by their very
martial arts film was released in Hong Kong as The Big nature, ie: the genre IS about fighting, these films would
Boss. It was released in the U.S. as Fists ofF ury, but the automatically be rated R. However, one should bear in
authors believe the title was switched with The Chinese mind that the better films justifY the violence with cogent
Connection. To clarifY matters, we have listed Bruce Lee's plots requiring fights and depict these fights almost like a
films under their original Hong Kong titles. dance - which it really is. The grace and beauty of the
We have employed the following format is this book: movements are the true focal point ofthese films. They can
Title (Date). (Alternate titles; Original language title). be considered as a ballet or gymnastics event, where the
Production Company; Director; Executive Producer; Pro action is presented as a "fight." There are exceptions to the
ducer; Screen Play; Martial Arts Instructor; Cast; U.S. R rating, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, designed
Release date (Theater, TV, Video); Distributor; running primarily for the younger crowd.
time. Not all films are particularly violent, and in many no
Some cast names are not complete as the credits are one is killed. One notable exception, however, is the origi
sometimes placed against a white background, or are off nal, uncut The Streetfighter, starring Sonny Chiba. This
the screen, making it impossible to read the names. film has the dubious distinction of being the first movie to
As with alternate film titles, many ofthe Chinese actors receive an X rating for violence. Most of the genre films
have alternate spellings, or Americanized names. We have are, by far, less violent than the slasher films produced by
listed the actors according to the names they are most major U.S. companies!
usually listed under. We should mention that both the Our rating system, based on a one to four star scale,
Chinese and Japanese list their surname first, then their takes into account story, set design and props, costumes,
frrst name. So, when Americanized, Wong Ca Sa Fa be color, lighting, film quality, and camera work, as well as
comes Casanova Wong, and Wong Dao becomes Don the quality of the martial arts and choreography.
Wong Dao. Sometimes these "Americanizations" make
sense, sometimes they don't. In addition, the Chinese and 1 Star-Substandard production and/or martial arts
Japanese language is based on written symbols, so that l l/2 Stars -Poor
names can be pronounced differently depending on the 2 Stars -Average
dialect. Just remember, someone has to decide how to spell 2 1/2 Stars-Above average
viii Preface
3 Stars -Good serve as a brief filmography of actors. We have tried to be
3 1/2 Stars -Very good as accurate as possible. But, as always, some errors are
4 Stars -Excellent production, acting, martial arts, bound to be made, and we hope our readers will under
and choreography. stand. All comments, corrections or additions can be sent
to Bill and Karen Palmer in care of the publisher, for
By checking the names in the index, the book also can possible inclusion in future editions.
Acknowledgments
..
The authors would like to thank the following individu mation; Joe Nieves, previously ofRoxy Video, for lending
als and organizations for their help in making this book us tapes; ESPY TV's John Burke and William Hohouser
possible. for bringing the Palmers' reviews and film clips to "Martial
Joe Ragus, ofJ.A.R.S. Video (718-456-0663, P.O. Box Art World," broadcast on MSG Cable network, for the past
113, Little Neck, NY 11363), who has one of the largest eight years; William Connolly, publisher of Martial Arts
selections of martial arts films in the U.S., for answering Movie Associates; Mickey Fromkin, Susan Rice, and
our numeruus phone calls and sharing his vast warehouse Bracha Graber for videotaping every martial art movie
of information, and for providing scores of review copies; their cable systems broadcasted; Paul Nice, CarlifStaton,
Merlin David and Bill Thompson for their invaluable help, JeffGoodhartz, and Paul Haberman ofHenshin Video for
their inexhaustible knowledge, and for providing the ma sharing their collections; David Chute for his fantastic list
jority of the Japanese film reviews; Mathew Tse and Anna of very early martial arts films; Peter J. R. Smith; Michael
from Ocean Shores Video; Tom Ward and Rita of Saturn Madonna; Robert J. Randisi; Suzanne Roach of World
Productions and Fighting Fury Video; Sylvia Delia, pre Video Pictures, Inc.; Lynn Singer from International Video
viously with World Wide Entertainment, the then distribu Entertainment, Inc.; and the Lincoln Center Film Library
tor of the Shaw Brothers films; and Ronald Lee ofNYUE for the photograph of Hsu Fen g.
Enterprises, Inc., NY. And a very special thank you to our parents and our
We would also like to thank Greg Yokohama of Action martial art instructor, Nobuyoshi Higashi of the New York
VideoandChambaraFilms for the photographs and infor- Kokushi Budo Institute.