Customer Reviews

The Bells Of Death: Shaw Bros (Special Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Vintage Shaw Brothers movie from '69, given the first class treatment from Image Entertainment. Samo Hung is NOT in this movie, nor did he work on it, but don't let that stop any of you Shaw Brothers/fu fans from checking out this cool nugget of a film. Very well-done, although I'm not familiar with the director. A very young Chang Yi has the lead role & looks good here. Actor Ku Feng is almost unrecognizable. The fu is sword swinging old skool; no wires, fairly exciting, just DO NOT expect the Venoms or Lau brothers choreography. Despite not being directed by the maestro, Chang Cheh, it's quite bloody, and there are quite a few good set-pieces.

Image, as usual, did a fabulous job; re-mastered, blemish free, widescreen picture; re-mastered audio & easy to read subtitles. Personally I liked this movie, if you read any of my other reviews you'll see I'm a hard-core fu fan, and my preference is Shaw Brothers/old-skool. I would definitely recommend this to like-minded fans, but not to people who only saw "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and think it's the last word on martial arts movies. I just don't think they would get it, and that's my opinion, like it or lump it.

3 bloodthirsty bandits slay the family of a young peasant man, which in turn sends him on a quest for vengeance (as is normally the case). Not much new here in the way of storyline, but director Yueh Feng gives us enough great characters and dramatic beats to keep things fresh and interesting throughout. Chang Yi plays the lead well, showing us the stark change from the simple woodcutter to stoic and nearly emotionless vigilante. The villains are great as 3 vicious brothers who are each proficient in a different weapon (9 foot battle ax/sword/bow and arrow) and equally dastardly. The fights in the film are much more about style and the gruesome demise of the loser than the intricate and awe-inspiring battles of some of its peers. For instance, a battle in a bamboo forest where every swipe sends trees crashing to the ground, or a truly inventive scene where the fighters have lit candles at the ends of their swords and must fling them into the air and catch them again (without extinguishing the flame!) in between short bursts of swordfighting. Released only one year after the genre classic The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), this film shows much less sign of it's age. Probably the fact that there are far less sets used and more actual countryside (which is shot beautifully)... also the blood here is very well done; it's color and effect when limbs are removed or heads are gashed is really impressive. So yet another great film from the Shaw Brothers studio released nicely by Image Entertainment... see it!

This is one Chang Yi's best roles and the martial arts in this film are of japanese quality. Ku Feng is one of three villians who've brutally murdered Chang Yi's family. Chang meets a master martial artist and is honored by him with being taught how to fight with exceptional talent. Great film. We're talking japanese quality fight and sword play choreographing here. Extremely well done.

This is truly a classic Kung Fu movie from the Shaw Brothers movie archives. I have been waiting for some time for an original Mandarin language/English dubbed version. A bootleg of this can be found on Ebay, but this is an official release from Celestial Pictures and Image Entertainment. If you like such classics like "King Boxer aka Five Fingers of Death," or "36 Chambers of Shaolin aka Master Killer," then this might be right down your alley. Yes, the English dubbed is comparable to that of KF movies that came out at this time. But, an enjoyable escapism none the less. I regard this movie as quintessential Shaw Brothers.

This is a warning to anyone who purchases this DVD is the anamorphic isn't working properly. That is were the image is squeezed together and then the wide-screen is opened up by the DVD player. It stays squeezed. I purchased this DVD twice, from two different sellers and the result is the same.

Amazon needs to pull this DVD and have Image Entertainment fix it properly.

Note: This is primarily the video watched on standard analog TV's. A lot of HD TV's and projectors have a Full Mode, which stretches out the image to it's exact aspect ratio. On regular TV's this isn't the case. Great on HD projectors and HDTV's.

This movies picture was excellent and the movie was good. Good story line and good cast. Fight scenes were great and you will enjoy this flick!@

Seller was prompt. Material arrived when predicted. Material was in excellent shape as advertised. Material was as adveristed, good olde kung-fu movies. I am not a movie expert, except in what I like. I just enjoy kung-fu movies as a great mental break from humdrum. I especially enjoy these period pieces. This is fun movie.

Its mighty strange that after I bought the movie I wanted to double check how others felt about it. Seems that everywhere I go people want to give this a "fair" rating. I guess the "fair" ratings are so people will buy the movie instead of run away from it. Im trying to understand how this even earned a "fair" rating.

Now I know things like these go on on Amazon, but it seems to go on on other websites too. So what I'll do from now on is check all of the one and two stars and find out as much about the movie as possible. This movie was terrible and I had to sit there and take it. I had to watch this awful movie because I purchased it and Im now stuck with it.

For one the camera zooms in too close on most of the fights. You cant really see whats going on. The so called special "candle fight" between the star and one of the villains wasnt so special. You cant even see the final blow. A candle flies in the air and you hear a strike and thats it. What a epic battle!

The plot was the usual corny kung fu story. Some ruthless villains come to a town and slay some innocent family for no good reason at all. Some young boy survives and seek revenge. Same ole same ole. I know this is the regular, but it gets repetitive, corny, and just plain stupid. Especially when the movie doesnt have good fights.

The end almost got respectable when the guy infiltrates the gang of the last guy he seeks to kill. It almost got interesting. Yet the last fight was terrible and it ended with a simple blow. I dont find it extraordinary to see body parts chopped off and so forth. I would like that if the fights we're cool. But since these fights we're garbage, that credibility is shot.

In the end this movie is NOT worth even a rental. It is corny and ridiculous. If you are new to kung fu classics or movies in general, check out my listmania. http://www.amazon.com/Must-nbsp-see-nbsp-kung-nbsp-fu-nbsp-classics/lm/RTUB6UP72926M/ref=cm_srch_res_rpli_alt_1

You'll notice that majority of the movies I picked all have good ratings. If you havent seen these movies then this is where you want to start. Dont be fooled into buying half behind terrible movies like this one. I'd say that out of every 5 kung fu movies I purchase, only maybe just maybe 1 of them is valuable enough to keep. But they all get decent ratings on here.

I intend on double checking all these movies and giving them their rightful ratings. So kung fu loving people like myself wont get screwed over.