Capsule Reviews - 3 Vintage Horror films from South Korea

A Bloodthirsty Killer (1965)

Starring: Lee Ye-chun, Do Kum-bong, Jeong Ae-ran, Lee Bin-hwa, Won Nam-kung, Chu Seok-yang, Mun Kang, Jo Seok-geun, Na Jeong-ok
Director: Lee Yong-min

Classic vintage South Korean horror is actually very effective in that genre despite its age. A lot of that goes back to the film's breathless pace that kicks off with "mysterious goings-on" and goes full horror without letting up for an entire hour. I mean, the hauntings and scares (by 60s standards) just keep coming and coming. Then the film sets itself apart in the unconventional third act that will surely divide its viewers.

The movie opens with mining mogul Lee Si-mok (Lee Ye-chun, of The Man With Two Faces) going into an art exhibition, only to find the place completely empty. Was he set up? Was he late? He hears a female laugh and finds but a single painting, that of a woman named Ae-ja (Do Kum-bong, of The Noble Thief Iljimae), whom Si-mok recognizes. He picks up the painting and it starts melting in his hands. Spooked, Si-mok takes a cab out of the place, but the driver takes him out into the countryside and deposits him at a mysterious house. There he meets a mysterious artist who gives him another portrait of the woman and begs for him to leave. But then she appears and the artist tries to sexually assault the woman, who stabs him to death. Si-mok, hiding under the bed, sees the woman float out of the house.

Si-mok is chased out of the house by the cab driver, who thinks he murdered the artist. After a lengthy chase, Si-mok finds himself in a basement of an abandoned building, where the same woman who murdered the artist appears. It is Ae-ja, whom Si-mok seems to have known and thought was dead. He ends up taking her to a family friend, Doctor Park (Won Nam-kung), who also is surprised to see Ae-ja in such good condition, considering that she apparently had died more than a decade earlier. After a series of spooky phenomena at the doctor's office, Ae-jae returns to life and kills Doctor Park. Si-mok flees and returns home to his wife, Hye-suk (Lee Bin-hwa, of The Gates of Hell), his mother (Jeong Ae-ran, of The Public Cemetery Under the Moon), and children. But soon Ae-ja shows up at the house and starts haunting them, too. Just what is going on and why does this supposedly deceased Ae-ja have it in for Si-mok and his family?

Like I said, the film starts off unsettling and goes full throttle on the haunting and supernatural phenomena for an entire hour without letting up. It is only in the third act that the movie takes its breath, with an extended flashback that takes up most of the final half hour giving us the bizarre and twisted soap opera that explains Ae-ja's relationship to the other characters and why she is so vengeful. It is an unconventional approach, but it weakens the narrative by allowing the true climax to have taken place well before the narrative reaches its end. Instead of a final showdown, we get a Deus ex Machina resolution to one of the film's creepier moments.

I also thought that the metaphysics of the ghosts and spirit possession are a bit murky; one of the characters is murdered and returns as a cat demon. Given what we learn later, it is unclear whether we have two cat demons who can assume their respective human forms, or one cat demon who can assume multiple forms. I wish the script had been more explicit in that regard. There are two religious figures that show up, a female shaman (shamanism has long been a big part of Korean culture) and some mysterious woman (Kang Mun, of The Three Swordsmen of Iljimae) who randomly shows up claiming to be the family housekeeper. We find out who she is at the end and my response is...uh...huh. How convenient.

A Bloodthirsty Killer is two-thirds of a horror classic. The lost momentum of the third act and "easy" denouement hamper what is otherwise a highly entertaining horror-mystery about vengeance from beyond the grave.

A Public Cemetery of Wol-ha (1967)
aka The Public Cemetery Under the Moon

Starring: Park Nou-sik, Do Kum-Bong, Kang Mi-ae, Hwang Hae Hwang, Jeong Ae-ran
Director: Kwon Cheol-hwi

I wonder if this was the first South Korean horror film shot in color. Taking a glimpse at the IMDB's Advanced Search, it may very well be, especially if you don't count Yongary, Monster from the Deep as "Horror".  Much like A Bloodthirsty Killer, this is a revenge flick from BEYOND THE GRAVE revolving around the supernatural doings of a wronged first wife. Unlike that film, this film's scares bookmark both ends of the film, while the middle hour is one long flashback explaining how we got to where we're at.

The film is set during the Japanese occupation of South Korea, although I'm not really sure when. A pair of student activists named Kim Han-sul (Park Nou-sik, of Quit Your Life and Descendants of Cain) and [something or other] are thrown in jail by the Japanese police because of their pro-freedom stance. The latter's sister, Seong-meon (Kang Mi-ae), becomes a courtesan named Wol-ha in order to raise money to secure their release. Han-sul is released first and, at his friend's request, marries Wol-ha. Han-sul gets rich through a mining business (not unlike Lee Si-mok of A Bloodthirsty Killer) and life seems idyllic for him and Wol-ha. They even have a child together. Things are looking on the up and up.

Being a horror movie, the happiness is not permanent. Things get bad when the family receives word that Wol-ha's brother's sentence has been extended to "life in prison" after several failed escape attempts. This does a number to Wol-ha's immunity and soon she's stricken with consumption. This is a window of opportunity for Nan-ju (Do Kum-Bong, playing the opposite role she played in A Bloodthirsty Killer), a kitchen servant at the Kim household. She lusts after the Kim family fortune and realizes that to get it, she needs to get into Han-sul's trousers first. So, she pays the corrupt Dr. Park to replace Wol-ha's medicine with a slow-acting poison. Since Wol-ha is taking "too long" to get better, Han-sul's "pipes" are getting a bit backed, so Nan-ju steps in get them flowing again.

Wol-ha finds out about her husband's dalliance and stops talking to him. The wicked Nan-ju uses that distance to her advantage and arranges for the "family butler" to sneak about Wol-ha's room, arousing suspicion in her husband. The husband finally approaches her and denounces her as a whore (although the subtitles read "courtesan," which doesn't carry the same impact), leading Wol-ha to kill herself. Nan-ju is able to become the second Mrs. Kim, but doesn't stop there. When Nan-ju sets her sights on her predecessor's son, Wol-ha rises from the grave for...VENGEANCE!!!

When I reviewed A Bloodthirsty Killer, my complaint was that the last third deflated the momentum built up by the first hour, compounded by the realization that the climax came a good 30 minutes before the film's end. This film avoids that, but commits a larger sin by making the flashback take up most of the film's running time. The supernatural elements take up the first and last 15 minutes of the movie, with everything in between being one long soap opera. It has some demented elements to it, but is nowhere near as twisted as the backstory in A Bloodthirsty Killer. It would have been better to have told the story in a standard linear fashion, so that the supernatural elements would have taken on a genuine crescendo of fright.

When the final haunting begins in earnest, it mainly consists of a character seeing Wol-ha's ghost (who looks almost like a vampire, what with lots of blood dripping out of her mouth), screaming, turning to the side, seeing another apparition of the ghost,  screaming, turning to the other side, seeing...etc. etc. etc. The most shocking thing that happens is when one character accidentally runs into a tree and gets their eye poked out by a tree branch. The scare scenes are kinda fun on a 1940s horror level, especially after so much soap opera and scheming. It is also very open about the characters' attempts to commit infanticide, which some may find disturbing. But overall, A Bloodthirsty Killer was a much better movie.

Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death (1978)

Starring: Kim Ja-ok, Kim Jeong-cheol, Kim Man, Won Nam-kung
Director: Kim Ki-young

Strange film is marketed as a horror film is an occasionally surreal journey of one man as he deals with various entities after a near-death experience. Lowly biology student Kim Young-gul is miserable. He lives alone in a slum. He eats ramen every day. He goes to bed hungry. One day, he is on an outing with some friends when he goes butterfly hunting. He meets a woman who offers him some juice. It turns out that she has poisoned the both of them, as she intends to die and wants someone to accompany her into the afterlife. Kim survives the poisoning and is cleared of her murder.

After that, Kim becomes obsessed with death, even contemplating suicide at several points. He is visited by The Ghost of Christmas Past an old book salesman who explains to him that if your will is strong enough, you can cheat death. The two get in an argument and Kim stabs the old nutcase who...believe it or not...keeps on talking despite being stabbed to death. Even when maggots are pouring out of the man's wounds, he keeps on tacking. Some time later, Kim goes spelunking with a friend of his, who is currently working for a famous anthropologist. While hanging out in a cavern, they find a 2000-year-old skeleton of a young woman. They smuggle it out with the intent to sell it the anthropologist. While Kim is reassembling the skeleton in his house, it comes back to life in the form of a beautiful young woman from the Silla Kingdom. She informs him that she will love and cherish him, but in order for her to keep on living, she must eat a human liver...

The above summary covers about the first 40 minutes of the 117-minute film, which moves at a very slow pace. For a certain portion of the film, especially the first hour or so, it almost feels like you could cut the film into 15-minute pieces and you would have a completely different-looking movie for each piece. The second half settles into a more focused narrative involving Kim, the aforementioned anthropologist, and his kooky daughter. The story does have a few interesting turns, but it is all ruined by the ending.

The film is a meditation on life and death, and how people often obsess with either of the two. At least three people that Kim meets are obsessed with immortality, using differing means to achieve it. And then he meets people who are obsessed with death, which is interesting, since once Death comes a-knocking, they become deathly (heh) afraid of it. I think the general message, which is driven home to some extent in the last quarter during the camping segment, is that the best approach is to live life to its fullest and accept Death when it comes.

Some of the symbolism feels arbitrary, like the bit with the pastry machine. Kim and the resurrected girl make love on top of a mountain of pastries as the machine is indiscriminately shooting them all over the room. I think it is some commentary on how modernity can surround us with disposable food, but it cannot produce what we really need to nurture our bodies--see the fact that Kim subsists entirely on ramen noodles. But that theme is brought up in that moment, but it isn't really revisited, unless you consider Kim stuffing his face with all sorts of food once he starts working with the anthropologist. I don't know.

Woman Chasing the Butterfly of Death deserves some thought and pondering. It has some interesting food (heh) for thought, and the fake ending would have been deliciously ironic. But the film is not for everyone: it is long and slow and some of the imagery that might've been scary, but comes across as cheesy instead.

Young Hero (1980)

Young Hero (1980)
Chinese Title: 迷蹤霍元甲
Translation: The Mysterious Hero Huo Yuanjia

Starring: Yuen Miu, Hwang Jang Lee, Kwon Yung-moon, Yuen Chu, Tino Wong Cheung, Au-Yeung Yiu-Yam, Chan Lau, Chiang Kam, Lee Chun-Wa, Wang Sha, Chin Chun, Wo Seung
Director: Law Ka-Po
Action Director: Wong Shu-Tong, Tino Wong Cheung, Kwon Yung-moon

When we talk about the Seven Fortunes, the first three names that come to mind are Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao. No conversation about the best martial arts and Hong Kong action films of all time will be complete without discussing the works of those three men. Those three are followed in some distance by Yuen Wah, best known for his villainous roles in films like Eastern Condors; The Iceman Cometh; and Police Story III: Supercop.

At Yuen Wah’s level of recognizability is the late Corey Yuen. Although Corey did act onscreen on occasion, he is best known as a director and fight choreographer, whose career took him all the way to Hollywood on multiple occasions. Corey frequently worked with fellow Seven Fortune Yuen Tak, who was a talented onscreen fighter when given the chance (see Angel 2 and The Dragon From Russia), but was just as good an action director, too. A little lesser known, but no less prestigious was Yuen Bun, a frequent collaborator of directors like Johnnie To and Tsui Hark. Yuen Bun may had done some stuntwork at the Shaw Brothers in his early career, but his better known for his action direction, which spanned all the sub-genres of Hong Kong action: wire-fu, pure kung fu, bullet ballet, etc.

Then there are the lesser known of the Seven Fortunes. Actress Yuen Qiu had a solid career moving back and forth between Hong Kong and South Korea before she retired in the 1980s, presumably after getting married. She returned with a vengeance after the huge success of Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle and found her career recharged, often alongside co-star and fellow Seven Fortune Yuen Wah. Then there was Ng Ming-Choi (aka Yuen Ting), who was introduced to Western audiences by getting killed by Bolo Yeung in Enter the Dragon. He had a busy career in the 1960s and 1970s as a stuntman and extra, although he did get play Lam Sai-Wing, student of Wong Fei-Hung, in the eponymous Butcher Wing (1979). He also did some action direction, including for the legendary director King Hu. He spent much of his career after the turn of the 1980s as a producer, presenter, and production manager. There was also Meng Yuan-Man, who set the genre alight with his memorable performance in Hell’s Wind Staff, and made a few more films (The Master Strikes; The Fighting Fool) before retiring early due to a heart attack.

Young Hero stars probably the two least-known of the Seven Fortunes: Yuen Miu and Yuen Chu (not to be confused with Yuen Qiu). The latter had only worked previous to this in Joseph Kuo’s The Fearless Duo, which also pit her against Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee. After this, she had some behind-the-scenes job in She Shoots Straight (1990), making it the last of her film projects. Yuen Miu spent much of his career in bit roles, usually as thugs and students. He also worked on the stunt teams of both Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung throughout his career, although I don’t think he was ever an official member of either—maybe the Hung Ga Ban. Yuen Miu also helped choreograph a number of Yuen Biao’s films, like Rosa and Kickboxer, so that’s his claim to fame. That said, Young Hero and Blood Child (aka Five Fingers of Steel) is probably the only film that allowed him to take on a starring role and show off his skills. And interestingly enough, both of those films also star Korean kickers Hwang Jang Lee and Kwon Yung-moon.

There isn’t much of a story in this film. Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee plays a Japanese karate fighter who is going around China challenging kung fu schools and shutting them down. He is accompanied by some other Japanese fighters and a couple of Chinese sycophants, played by Chan Lau (Dragon on Fire and Tiger Over Wall) and Chiang Kam (Snake Fist Fighter and Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow). One day, he challenges the school of Fok Jan-Dai (Mandarin: Huo En’di—played by Kwon Yung-moon, of Inheritor of Kung Fu). Hwang defeats Master Fok and his sons, except for the youngest son, Fok Yuen-Gap (Mandarin: Huo Yuanjia, played by Yuen Miu). Yuen-Gap was too busy getting his ass handed to him in a fight with a girl, Ah Ku (Yuen Chu).

So Master Fok is pissed at him and his family getting beaten by the Japanese. He’s even more incensed by his youngest son losing a fight to a girl. So, he tells Fok Yuen-Gap that he cannot train in kung fu anymore while he and his sons, including Tino Wong Cheung (of Secret Rivals, Part II and Invincible Armour), train for an eventual rematch with the Japanese fighter. The girl who beat him up turns out to be the niece of Yuen-Gap’s private tutor (Wang Sha, of Heroes Shed No Tears and Coward Bastard). The private tutor doesn’t know kung fu, but he has spent his life reading just as many kung fu strategy manuals as he has read the Classics. So, he starts teaching Fok Yuen-Gap kung fu “theory” while Yuen-Gap watches his dad and brothers practice in the distance.

One day, Yuen-Gap and his brother meet up with one of the Japanese fighters and Chiang Kam in the woods. A fight breaks out and the two Fok brothers are victorious, but the Japanese fighter is killed on accident by Chiang Kam. Of course, the fat little bastard tells everyone that the Foks were responsible, so Hwang Jang Lee and company show up at the school for some revenge. And from there, things spiral out of hand and bodies pile up on both sides.

During the 1970s, we got all sorts of movies about Chen Zhen, the fictional student of Huo Yuanjia (or Fok Yuen-Gap), but nothing (so far as I know) about Master Huo himself. This film predates the genre classic Legend of a Fighter, the “bullsh*t biopic” of Huo Yuanjia by two years. It makes me wonder if Young Hero is the first movie to actually tell Huo’s story. There was a TV series at around the same time called “The Legendary Fok,” which starred Bruce Leung Siu-Lung. And of course, there is Jet Li’s famous film Fearless and a number of series and Mainland films that followed that movie’s success.

There is some comedy in the movie, mainly revolving around Chan Lau and Fok Yuen-Gap’s beggar friend, played by Au-Yeung Yiu-Yam (who played Hwang Jang Lee’s monk friend in Hitman in the Hand of Buddha). But this is mainly a fight fest, with some training sequences thrown in here and there. There are no crazy training regimens here, just some forms work from Kwon Yung-moon and some sparring, too. And then the rest of the movie is almost pure action.

The fights were staged by Kwon Yung-moon (who had lots of experience from making Taekwondo films in his native South Korea), Wong Shu-Tong (who choreographed Tsui Hark’s The Butterfly Murders), and Tino Wong Cheung (who had assisted in the aforementioned Tsui Hark opus). That said, I am actually really impressed with the general quality of the action. After all, The Butterfly Murders is not the sort of movie that you tout on your résumé on account of its fight action—since the purpose of the film seemed like it was to be as unlike other wuxia films as possible. And doing great Taekwondo choreography is not quite the same thing as late 1970s/early 1980s shapes. I’m guessing that Tino Wong simply picked up enough from working extensively with Yuen Woo-Ping that he was able to bring his knowledge of shapes to the proceedings.

As expected, Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee steals the show with his awesome kicking skills. He opens the film by embarrassing a kung fu master (Wo Seung) and it isn’t long before he’s facing off with Kwon Yung-moon in their first duel. Shortly afterward, Tino Wong gets to fight against Chan Lau and one of the Japanese fighters and does some nice work with the sai swords, but is put down, too. There is a two-on-two fight between Tino Wong, Yuen Miu, Chiang Kam, and one of the Japanese fighters that has some solid acrobatics from the opera-trianed Yuen Miu. That leads into a big fight between the Japanese fighters and the Fok school, including Ah Ku—Yuen Chu impresses as a female fighter in this.

There is a brief fight in a town square between Yuen Miu and a spear-wielding opponent. This bleeds into another fight with Japanese fighters on the beach where the Japanese and their Chinese employers are involved in smuggling. This leads into the climax, where Fok, his father, and Ah Ku face off with Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee and two more of his fighters. The finale starts off at the new Fok kung fu school and leads into a field with high grasses. Kwon Yung-moon gets to perform some nice kicks—he does a lot of high roundhouse and side kicks, often performing several without letting his foot touch the ground. And Hwang Jang Lee does most of his trademark moves, although some of the camerawork doesn’t show off the moves like it should. Yuen Miu is more acrobatic, showing more of his Peking Opera training than any specific styles. But the two-vs-one choreography is quite good, which is surprising, considering the choreographers’ pedigree.

I thought this was middle of the road the first time I watched it. Watching it again, I think this is a lot better. Certainly above average by genre standards. It’s certainly miles ahead of derivative films like The Eagle’s Killer or more lackluster affairs like Ring of Death (which also featured Hwang Jang Lee and Kwon Yung-moon). So, I recommend that y’all give it a try.

Velvet Smooth (1976)

Velvet Smooth (1976)

Starring: Johnnie Hill-Hudgins, Owen Watson, Emerson Boozer, René Van Clief, Elsie Roman, Moses Lyllia, Frank Ruiz, James Durrah
Director: Michael Fink
Action Director: Owen Watson

I have been a follower of the B-Masters since the late 1990s. They are (or in a number of cases, “were”) a cabal of websites dedicated to reviewing B-movies, genre films, and sometimes just the “worst of the worst.” The original line-up included Cold Fusion Video (who hosted my site from 2009 – 2013); Stomp Tokyo; The Bad Movie Report; Jabootu; And You Call Yourself a Scientist; Teleport City; B-Movie Notes; Oh! The Humanity; and Badmovies.Org. A few of them entered “Emeritus” status in the early 2000s, being replaced by The Unknown Movies and 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting.

As the years passed, more and more of the member sites stopped updating consistently, to the point that today, only two member sites—The Unknown Movies and 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting—are consistently posting new reviews. I think And You Call Yourself A Scientist still updates, although Lyz doesn’t post them to the B-Masters blog.

And then there is Jabootu, who hasn’t posted a new review in a decade or more, but updates his site with Monster of the Day pix (which he'd been doing for about 15 years now). That said, Jabootu grandmaster Ken Begg stays active in the B-movie world as regular attendee of B-Fest, T-Fest, and T(ween)-Fest, plus his daily posts about monsters. He also does bi-monthly Discord (or Amazon or whatever) movie nights, in which he subjects his faithful readers and friends to crappy movies. It was in this context that I watched Velvet Smooth.

The movie doesn’t have a whole lot of plot to speak of. A group of masked goons have been going around “da’ hood” beating people up. The victims are connected in one or another to the local crime boss, Lathrop King (Owen Watson, of Force Four), who runs the local numbers racket. And yeah…do not ask me to explain how “numbers” works. I’ve seen this in a number of Blaxploitation films and I still do not get it. Whatever. Anyway, Lathrop decides to bring in some hired muscle from outside to fight off the new gang.

Enter: Velvet Smooth.

Velvet Smooth (Johnnie Hill-Hudgins, whose other claim to fame was playing Whitney Houston’s stand-in in The Preacher’s Wife, a film known for its exhilarating stuntwork) is a karate-kicking badass whose skills…well…lemme put it this way: While watching the movie, the Rev remarked, “I don’t think Michelle Yeoh is going to lose sleep at night.” I responded, “Forget Michelle Yeoh, I don’t think Sharla Cheung Man is going to lose sleep at night.” She has two fellow female fighters to join her in her mission: Frankie (René Van Clief, whom I wonder if she’s Ron’s sister) and Ria (Elsie Roman, who was the hot face of karate back in the 1970s).

The rest of the movie is a series of karate battles between the three heroines and the evil gang. There are a pair of detectives—Lt. Ramos (Frank Ruiz, of Force Four and The Devil’s Express) and Sgt. Barnes (Moses Lyllia, also of The Devil’s Express)—who are investigating the beatings and Barnes acts like a bigger asshole to Lathrop than Ramos, who is actually pretty chill. There is also a turncoat in Lathrop’s organization: Calvin (James Durrah), King’s second-in-command. Also, Velvet has a boyfriend (or boytoy) named Matt (played by the awesomely-named Emerson Boozer), but I barely know who that guy is or why I should care about him.

Velvet Smooth is a very bad movie. It is a fun film when watched in the right circumstances (i.e. with a bunch of like-minded snarky people), but there is nothing about the movie that can be construed as good. Perhaps the only praise you can give it is, “It has a lot of fight scenes,” but even that has its limitations (which I’ll get into in a moment). The story does not make much sense: bad things happen, Lathrop brings in some outside help, fights ensue (often for no reason), people find out who the bad guys are (somehow), and more fights ensue. Add goofy dialog delivered “actors” of questionable ability.

My favorite exchange goes along the lines of:

Velvet Smooth: We need to find out if there is a connection. I can just feel it.
Me: No, you dumb broad. You were hired to find that stuff out. You don’t need to feel anything. Do your damn job!

I also found it amusing when Velvet Smooth is dismissing her two homegirls for the evening and we get this exchange:

Ria: I need to go home and do laundry.
Frankie: I need to go home and undo some laundry.
(Get it? It means she’s feisty in the sack)

The fight scenes were staged by Owen Watson—who is billed as Owen Wat-son (does that make him part Chinese?)—who also played Lathrop King. Watson was a former Navy SEAL and one of the original students of the Nisei Goju-Ryu System, under the tutelage of Frank Ruiz (who plays Lt. Ramos). One of his colleagues was Ron Van Clief, who had a limited (but memorable) career in Hong Kong during the mid to late 1970s. For those who are unfamiliar with the in’s and out’s of karate, Goju-Ryu is one of the major karate systems, known for combining the “hard” elements of Okinawan native styles and the “soft” movements of Chinese kung fu, notably Fujian White Crane. I studied it for 2 years as a teenager. Other big names associated with Goju-Ryu are Japanese actress Yukari Oshima, the late Richard Norton, and The Perfect Weapon’s Jeff Speakman, who studied it before moving on to Kempo.

Sadly, despite being the “real deal” when it came to martial arts and real-life combat situations, Owen Watson was not a very good action director. What I mean is that Velvet Smooth has some of the worst martial arts sequences on record. As we all stated during the watch party: This is the sort of movie that makes Kill Squad look like Yuen Woo-Ping (personally, I found Kill Squad to be a lot of fun, even though it isn’t a very good movie). The punches and kicks delivered by lead actress Johnnie Hudgins-Hill are so weak and lacking in power that you would be right to think that Watson had asked the actors to play-spar and just film that.

The thing is, you can tell that a lot of the stuntmen are actual trained martial artists. You see them performing a few nice spin kicks and whatnot, so you know those guys know their stuff. But, that is not the case with the lead actors. I don’t know if René Van Clief was a student of Frank Ruiz like Ron was, but she is at least spirited in her fights, even if they struggle to reach the level of an early 1970s basher film. Elsie Roman was a big thing in the 1970s karate scene, and her best moment is a simple exchange of moves involving a pool cue. And the lead actress: Good lord, she’s bad.

Velvet Smooth is the sort of movie that makes you pine for TNT Jackson. That movie has questionable fight scenes, but they were better than the ones here and that movie had legitimate exploitation elements, including a legendary topless fight involving Playboy Playmate Jean Bell. Velvet Smooth just has Johnnie Hudgins-Hill fighting off scores of thugs set to choreography that suggests the filmmakers just filmed the actors’ practice sessions.

Shogun's Ninja (2025)

Shogun's Ninja (2025)

Starring: Himena Yamada, Kanon Miyahara, Nashiko Momotsuki, Fumi Taniguchi, Raiga Terasaka, Ryuma Hashido, Katsuya Takagi, Julia Nagano, Seiji Takaiwa, AKANE
Director: Koichi Sakamoto
Action Director: Koichi Sakamoto, Alpha Stunts Production

I get the feeling that Koichi Sakamoto works in a manner similar to Steven Soderberg in Hollywood. Soderberg is known for directing guaranteed crowd-pleasers, like the Ocean's films, and then using the money and goodwill generated from those films to fund his more personal projects. Sakamoto seems to do something similar, where he works on various successful Tokusatsu franchises, like Super Sentai and Kamen Rider, and then uses the money he and his team make from that for smaller, more personal projects. Like this. And Ninja vs. Shark. And Girl's Blood. Oh, Sakamoto, you sly dog, you.

Despite the title, this is not a remake of the 1980 film starring Hiroyuki Sanada, Etsuko Shihomi, and Sonny Chiba. Instead, we get one of the most Progressive chanbara films ever made. It is fascinating because this is based (to some extent) on historical fact. It is accepted that the third Shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Tokugawa Iemitsu (played here by Ultraman Trigger's Raiga Terasaka), was bisexual. He had relations with both men and boys--the latter led to the banning of wakashu kabuki, in which the female roles were filled by young boys. And as in this film, his heir was not the product of his first marriage to Lady Takako (who is mentioned in the film, but never shown), but to his first concubine, Lady Oraku. Outside of those details, the film really does its own thing with history.

The Shogunate has a problem: the current shogun, Iemitsu, is a homosexual. He has not touched his wife, Lady Takako, and prefers to touch his kenjutsu teacher, Matajuro Yagyu (Ryuma Hashido, of "Wingman" and Assassination Classroom), instead. This is a problem for his caretaker, Lady Ofuku (AYANE, of Ultraman Orb), and the head of the Yagyu Clan, Munenori Yagyu (Seiji Takaiwa, of Kamen Rider Fourze and Mirai Sentai Timeranger). Ofuku knows that for peace to continue in Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate needs to continue. And if the Shogun cannot produce an heir because his backdoor shenanigans with a Yagyu clan scion, she is not afraid to de-legitimize the ninja clan and kick them out of the castle.

So, Lady Ofuku has Munenori send his other two children, Samon (Katsuya Takagi, of Ichi and Ultraman Trigger) and Akane (Julia Nagano, of Ninja vs. Shark), to round up candidates for concubines around Edo. One of their targets is Oran (Nashiko Momotsuki, of Mashin Sentai Kiramager and GARO: Versus Road), the daughter of a landlord and one of the prettiest girls in Edo. One of the guy's tenants is a "business" called Odd Jobs Kyoka, which is run by a pair of kunoichi from the now-eradicated Fuma Clan: Okyo (Kanon Miyahara, of Ninja vs. Shark and Kamen Rider Gotchard) and Kagaribi (Himena Yamada, of Red Blade and Rise of the Machine Girls). They are low-level assassins and vigilantes-for-hire and have a close friendship with the Oran. When the Yagyu clan shows up to kidnap Oran (and kill her parents), Okyo and Kagaribi step in to defend their friend, but turn out to be no match for the Yagyu Clan, especially Akane.

The shogun and Matajuro decide to flee the castle together, freeing Oran and another intended concubine, Oshizu (Fumi Taniguchi, of Kamen Rider Gotchard). Oshizu is actually the daughter of the founder of the Itto-Ryu style of swordplay, who fought with Munenori Yagyu for the position of royal kendo instructor. When he died at the hands of Yagyu, the daughter went temporarily insane. But if you put a katana in her hand, she becomes a completely different person. In the end, Matajuro, Oshizu, and our ninja girls, Okyo and Kagaribi, team up and fight the Yagyu so that (gay) love may prevail...

Shogun’s Ninja is a fun little action film with very little pretension, save for the message that “Love is fluid” and “We should be able to love who we want.” That is very much a progressive message by today’s standards, although it seems a little disingenuous to place it in a movie about historical figure whose (real-life) tastes extended to underage boys. The tone is actually rather light whenever swords aren’t clashing, with Odd Jobs Kyoka girls constantly bickering with each other, like how Okyo is always making long-winded speeches whenever confronting an opponent. That part of the film in endearing.

The movie has pretty good pacing, too. There are a number of shorter fights throughout the first half. Once the film reaches the forty-minute point, there is a final twenty-minute climax with the heroes fighting the legions of Yagyu Clan retainers. I like the idea of Yagyu Clan being portrayed as a ninja clan that happened to ally itself with the right clan in order to legitimize itself after Tokugawa Ieyasu united Japan and established a period of peace. That said, according to the film, they had do some really underhanded stuff to make it to that point.

As you might expect from a Koichi Sakamoto film, the fights are generally solid. This movie has more action than a lot of those no-budget “Ninjas in a forest” movies that Japan made in the 2000s. There is some CGI—one power move and a few explosions—that is obvious, but those moments are few and far between. The fights have some very bloody moments, but never feels all-out gory like the skirmishes in Ninja vs. Shark.

Our ninja heroines use tanto daggers in most of their fights until the finale, when they bust out the ninjato swords (which are shorter than katana blades). Kanon Miyahara has several throwdowns with fellow Ninja vs Shark co-star Julia Nagano, with the latter always coming out on top until the finale. Stealing the show from the leading ladies is Fumi Taniguchi as Oshizu, who acts like a little girl until she touches a katana, at which she goes into Ogami Itto mode and slaughters her opponents with extreme prejudice. I loved her character. That said, the best fight is when Okyo and Kagaribi have a duel with Munenori Yagyu at end, which has some really good two-on-one swordplay and open-handed choreography. It was a great way to end the action portion of the film.

Finally, there is the denouement, which wraps up the dramatic and historical aspects of the story and lasts almost 15 minutes. This is interesting considering that this is a genre that often ends (or just “stops”) as soon as the main villain has been dispatched. But considering this film’s pseudo-historical trappings, I was interesting to see how it would handle the love story against actual history. Long story short: Oran becomes the real-life Lady Oraku and thus the mother of the next shogun.

(History note: Tokugawa Iemitsu actually got along well with his first wife, Lady Takako. He impregnated her thrice, but she had a miscarriage each time. Here, the script suggests that he never consummated his relationship with her because of his homosexuality)

Executioners from Shaolin (1977)

Executioners from Shaolin
Aka: Executioners of Death
Chinese Title: 洪熙官
Translation: Hong Xiguan (or “Hung Shi-Kwan” or “Hung Hei-Gun” or “Hung Hey-Kwun”)

Starring: Chen Kuan-Tai, Lily Li Li-Li, Lo Lieh, Wong Yu, Cheng Kang-Yeh, Chiang Tao, Dave Wong Kit, Shum Lo, Gordon Liu Chia-Hui, Lee Hoi-Sang, Tin Ching, John Cheung Ng-Long
Director: Lau Kar-Leung
Action Director: Lau Kar-Leung

Executioners from Shaolin was Lau Kar-Leung’s third directorial effort and is really where the man hit his stride. It is not exactly perfect, but the general direction feels more assured, the action is stronger, and his voice as a filmmaker is more evident than in his previous movies. The movie suffers from a fourth—yes, fourth—act that is both underdeveloped and that breaks the general rule of storytelling that your main character should not suddenly change later in the narrative. The climax also feels a bit rushed and the movie doesn’t end so much as it stops. The latter is a common flaw of old school kung fu movies, but it stands out as being particularly bad in an otherwise well-made film.

The movie opens with a fight set against a red background—standard 70s procedure—showing us a throwdown between the Shaolin abbot, Gee Sim (the late Lee Hoi-San), and Pai Mei (Lo Lieh, of In the Line of Duty V and Web of Death). The context is that Shaolin has been burned down and the big traitor who assisted in the raid was Pai Mei, a former senior monk (presumably turned Taoist). Gee Sim is killed by Pai Mei after he attacks the latter’s groin and the Pai Mei’s ability to suck his genitals into his body traps the abbot’s hand, leaving him vulnerable to a death blow.

The story proper puts us in the immediate aftermath of the burning of Shaolin, with a couple of dozen laymen survivors fanning out as they try to escape from the Manchu soldiers. Several of them die from wounds sustained during the assault itself, while the others rally behind their senior student, Hong Xiguan (Chen Kuan-Tai, playing the same role he did in Men from the Monastery and Heroes Two). When they are cornered by Qing archers, fellow Shaolin student Tong Qianjin (Gordon Liu, of Cheetah on Fire and Marco Polo) steps in to fend the soldiers off while the others escape. He manages to injure Governor Kao Chen Chung (Chiang Tao, of 5 Shaolin Masters and Bruce and the Dragon Fist), but eventually succumbs to his wounds.

Hong Xiguan and his brothers, including his close friend Xiaohu (Cheng Kang-Yeh, of Heroes of the East and Challenge of the Masters), reorganize their anti-Qing movement into the Red Boats. Basically, they travel along China’s rivers on junks with red sails, posing Peking Opera troupes. While stopping in one port, their antics interrupt a martial arts demonstration given by a female martial artist named Fong Wing Chun (Lily Li, whose character should not be confused with Yim Wing Chun, credited as founding the eponymous style). Fong insults the performers’ kung fu, leading to a friendly duel between her and Hong Xiguan. Both Wing Chun and her uncle (Shum Lo, who spent much of his career playing a clerk or innkeeper) are invited to join the heroes, which they do.

As the days pass, Hong Xiguan and Fong Wing Chun start falling in love, ultimately culminating in their wedding. In a very strange subplot, Wing Chun refuses to let her husband consummate the marriage unless he can break her super powerful horse stance. Yes, it really does sound and come across as a sort of rape roleplay: “You can have sex with me only when your kung fu is good enough to force my legs open.” It is played for laughs here, and would be played for laughs again in 1979 in Chia Ling’s The Crane Fighters. It takes him a while, but he is ultimately able to split her stance…and something else, too.

Eventually, the Manchus figure out the whole scheme involving the red boats, causing Xiguan and the other anti-Qing rebels to spread out all over the countryside. His wife is pregnant at the time and eventually gives birth to a son, Hong Wending (in Cantonese: Hung Man-Ting). Following the birth of his son, Hong Xiguan remembers that he needs to avenge the abbot’s death and starts brushing up on the Tiger Style, which manual he was able to smuggle out of Shaolin. But as Pai Mei has been practicing what is essentially the Iron Vest style, he may be completely impervious to attack…except in one place.

As most fans are already aware, Lau Kar-Leung was a master of the Hung Gar style of kung fu. The term Hung Gar basically means “Hung Family,” referring to the fact that Hong Xiguan is credited as being the style’s founder. Lau Kar-Leung learned the style from his father, Lau Charn; who had learned it from Butcher Lam Sai-Wing (the character Sammo Hung plays in The Magnificent Butcher); who learned it real life Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-Hung; who probably learned it from his father, Wong Kei-Ying; who supposedly learned it from Luk Ah-Choy, who was a contemporary of Hong Xiguan.

The general story is that Hong Xiguan had indeed specialized in the Tiger Style while studying at Shaolin. After leaving the temple, he met and married Fong Wing Chun, who was trained in the (Tibetan?) White Crane style. Hong Xiguan combined both styles to create Hung Gar, or Hung Kuen (“Hung’s Fist”). Hung Gar is best known for its Tiger-Crane form, although it does have a solo Tiger form (reflecting Hong’s original training) and a Five Animals Form, which probably would have been part of the Shaolin curriculum at the time.

Executioners from Shaolin seems to take a few liberties with that story, suggesting that it was Hong Wending, not Xiguan, who actually founded Hung Gar. This may be a liberty that Lau Kar-Leung took with the material in order to develop a theme he had about open-mindedness in learning different styles. Throughout the film, Hong Xiguan is adamant that he stick to his Tiger style and his wife to her Crane style, without ever mixing them.

When Hong Wending starts training in the Crane style under his mother’s tutelage, Hong refuses to “cross the streams” and instruct him in the Tiger style, too. But in the end, that proves to be Xiguan’s undoing because the soft movements and pointed “beak” of the Crane style is just what was needed to ferret out Pai Mei’s weak point. Interestingly, Lau Kar-Leung’s brother, Lau Kar-Wing, had starred in and choreographed the Jimmy Wang Yu film Tiger and Crane Fists (the basis for Kung Pao: Enter the Fist) the year before. That film also addressed that theme, where an invincible villain could not be defeated by one style, but by a combination of the two animal styles. This movie takes the same approach, although the plot point of the rat gnawing away the pages of Hong Xiguan’s kung fu manual does raise an issue with the film’s historicity: if Hong Wending could not learn the Tiger Style completely, how did Hung Gar come to have the “Taming the Tiger Fist” set?

Executioners from Shaolin was followed up by a sequel-cum-remake, Clan of the White Lotus, in 1980. It was directed by Lo Lieh, with Lau Kar-Leung working as the film’s action director (look for him in Executioners as a Qing fighter wielding a three-section staff). The main character of that film is Hong Wending, this time played by Gordon Liu, who is takes it upon himself to take down the head of the White Lotus temple (Lo Lieh), who was a martial brother of Pai Mei. That film does feature a seemingly invincible main villain, although Hong Wending is portrayed as being more open-minded in learning different styles and techniques (including a soft “feminine” kung fu style) to add to his repertoire in order to beat his opponent.

Beyond that, Chen Kuan-Tai puts in one of his all-time great fighting performances here, beating his other two outings as the legendary hero Hong Xiguan. Lily Lee puts in a great performance, one of her best. She would play a crane stylist a couple of years later in the Taiwanese film One Foot Crane. Lo Lieh is absolutely iconic as the white-haired Pai Mei, so much so that Quentin Tarantino included the character in Kill Bill Vol. 2 (played by Gordon Liu). The action, from the fights to the training sequences, are almost uniformly excellent throughout. I don’t consider Executioners from Shaolin to be one of the top old school films of all time, but watching it a second time, I can see why some might think it is.