Three Shaws with two of them being bad and the third being okay when it wasn't failing at being funny.
Duel of the Century (1981) Hardly. Another Chor Yuen hiccup about trying to make a messy, convoluted story as to why the title duel happens.
Coward Bastard (1980) A comedy (trying to cash in on Jackie Chan's success elsewhere) which just isn't funny. In its favor Coward Bastard offers one of Yuen Wah's earliest extended roles where you clearly see why he was hand picked by Bruce Lee to be in Bruce's core team of stuntmen. He was superb and the fighting was surprisingly grounded for the most part. Added bonus, Kwan Fung as one of the big bads who pushed Wah's character into his title state.
Bloody Parrot (1981) My watching a native language non-English sub version on YouTube should have been warning enough. I plowed through this English subtitled version anyway. Oops. The director was obviously enamored of Lucio Fulci's gruesome gore, Leatherface, demonic possession and an awful young lady who ran around most of the film topless if not completely naked (which doesn't bother me), but her acting stunk on ice. Let's see: vampire (where?), cannibal (there!), graphic autopsy with organs being worked on, demonic possession, a poison slinging witch and a cameo by John Carpenter's Halloween score. All of this boils down to a rather convoluted Unrated Scooby Doo mystery (without Scooby) about what happened to the 13 cases of jewels bound for the Emperor's palace. Um...next.
My problem with these horror laced mystery Shaw Brothers films is the horror elements turn out to be fake. I want all these crazy animal demons to exist. China is supposed to have a lot of hells and that, so why not go there? This wasn't so bad in the superior Black Lizard (1980), but it's disappointing to be led down the WTH rabbit hole and ultimately find out it was nothing at all. That said, I am staying away from several very gruesome go-for-broke SB horror films. I don't need to be grossed out alone, I want story too.
Duel of the Century (1981) Hardly. Another Chor Yuen hiccup about trying to make a messy, convoluted story as to why the title duel happens.
Coward Bastard (1980) A comedy (trying to cash in on Jackie Chan's success elsewhere) which just isn't funny. In its favor Coward Bastard offers one of Yuen Wah's earliest extended roles where you clearly see why he was hand picked by Bruce Lee to be in Bruce's core team of stuntmen. He was superb and the fighting was surprisingly grounded for the most part. Added bonus, Kwan Fung as one of the big bads who pushed Wah's character into his title state.
Bloody Parrot (1981) My watching a native language non-English sub version on YouTube should have been warning enough. I plowed through this English subtitled version anyway. Oops. The director was obviously enamored of Lucio Fulci's gruesome gore, Leatherface, demonic possession and an awful young lady who ran around most of the film topless if not completely naked (which doesn't bother me), but her acting stunk on ice. Let's see: vampire (where?), cannibal (there!), graphic autopsy with organs being worked on, demonic possession, a poison slinging witch and a cameo by John Carpenter's Halloween score. All of this boils down to a rather convoluted Unrated Scooby Doo mystery (without Scooby) about what happened to the 13 cases of jewels bound for the Emperor's palace. Um...next.
My problem with these horror laced mystery Shaw Brothers films is the horror elements turn out to be fake. I want all these crazy animal demons to exist. China is supposed to have a lot of hells and that, so why not go there? This wasn't so bad in the superior Black Lizard (1980), but it's disappointing to be led down the WTH rabbit hole and ultimately find out it was nothing at all. That said, I am staying away from several very gruesome go-for-broke SB horror films. I don't need to be grossed out alone, I want story too.
