House of Traps (1982)

As film fans, we all discovered our favorite directors as we’ve navigated through a sea of movies and each one’s specific filmography.  It usually starts with one amazing film and afterwards we must seek out the rest of this person’s output.  This is followed by a domino-effect of knocking off one great film after another until you reach the more obscure and less than perfect films released.  Selfishly, we want to turn our friends and family onto these filmmakers so that we have someone to discuss their work with, but also to take some credit for turning them onto great cinema.  Additionally, we want them to have the same thrilling experience we had when we saw these films for the first time and have them thank us for the recommendation.  That’s why when attempting to convert our friends to liking what we like, we always give them the best of the best.  It’s too risky to give them one of our favorite filmmaker’s lesser efforts if we intend on them continuing on with the rest of their works.  For instance, if you were trying to convince someone that they should check out the work of Brian De Palma you probably wouldn’t have them start with Raising Cain.  Not a bad film, but it likely won’t knock their socks off.  The masterworks should take priority over all others.  The flawed films should be explored once they’re hooked.  In the case of master martial arts filmmaker, Chang Cheh, his 1982 film, House of Traps, falls into the latter camp.  By no means a bad film, but rather one that should be seen once all of the classics have been viewed first.

Potential viewers of House of Traps should know one thing going in; the plot to this film is convoluted as hell!  We are quickly given the back story to a family feud that has raged on for generations.  The information dump is so quick that we as viewers are a bit confused if the current state of the feud is over greed and the desire for power or simply revenge.  A prince is planning a revolt against his uncle, the emperor, and anyone who wants to join the revolution must break into the emperor’s palace and steal one of the empire’s priceless valuables as a way of showing devotion to the cause.  Anyone who joins the rebellion signs a contract which is kept, along with the valuables, in the titular House of Traps.  This is when things begin to get complicated.  Numerous characters come in and out of the story, there are several double-crosses, and we’re not sure if we’re supposed to side with the prince who’s leading the rebellion or the emperor who has dispersed spies to infiltrate the enemy and learn the mystery of the House of Traps.  Because the plot is so confusing and Cheh is giving us perspectives from both sides of the feud, we’re given a lot of exposition and scenes of dialogue that I can only assume is an attempt to keep the viewer up to speed on everything that’s going on.  It makes for a frustrating watch, especially if you’re just looking for a kung-fu film that’s light on plot and heavy on fight sequences.  It’s best to just let the movie wash over you and not get too caught up with the overly-complicated plot.

There’s still plenty to like with this Shaw Brothers’ production, despite the confusing storyline.  House of Traps has the usual production value that makes these films so charming and what one comes to expect from the Shaw Brothers if you’re already a fan, especially of their kung-fu films.  You get the colorful costumes, stagey set design, awesomely fake facial hair, bright-red blood, excellent fight choreography, supernatural abilities, cool weapons, and cool characters with cool names like the Black Fox.  Most importantly, the movie has the House of Traps and it sure delivers on its promise.  The multistory house has three levels of potential death within it for all those who attempt to take back the emperor’s valuables and the rebellion’s list of supporters.  The ground level has guards hidden behind a sliding wall (How do they occupy their time waiting behind that wall the whole time?) and spikes that rise from the floor.  The second level has trapdoors and the third and final level has a spiked cage and one more surprise that I won’t disclose, as it’s not revealed until the finale of the film.  It’s a very cool set that’s utilized three or four times throughout the runtime and each time it is we learn more about the secrets that the House of Traps has in store.

House of Traps finishes on a high note with amazing fight sequences and plenty of bloodletting.   The very end is comedically ironic, immediately following all of the carnage that has just taken place.  It left a smile on my face and made it easier to forgive the convoluted plot.  It should be noted that this film features the Venom Mob in one of the group’s last films together.  If I were trying to turn a friend onto Chang Cheh’s films, or just classic kung-fu films, this isn’t where I would have them start.  The Five Deadly Venoms or The One-Armed Swordsman would definitely be a better option to begin your education on Chang Cheh, the filmmaker.  For those of us who’ve seen our share of martial-arts films, this is solid and definitely worth a watch if you’re a fan of the Shaw Brothers’ aesthetic.

MVT: The actual house of traps, of course!

Make or Break Scene: The first introduction to the house of traps.

Score: 7/10

Karate Wars (1978)

Tatsuya (Hisao Maki) used to be the top Karate-ist in Japan, but a stint in prison for murder sent him into exile.  When former sensei Tetsugen is offered the opportunity to prove the worth of Japanese Karate in Hong Kong and Thailand, his former student takes up the mission.

Hideo Nanbu’s Karate Wars (aka Karate Daisenso aka Karate Great War) features Maki as the most stoic martial artist in the history of cinema.  Nothing surprises the man, and he is forthright in his undertaking.  One has to believe that this approach comes, at least in part, from Maki the person.  Before his death in 2012, Maki was known for three things, his manga work (he was the creator of WARU and co-writer of the Futari no Joe anime, amongst other titles), his devotion to Karate (he opened his own dojo), and the rumors that he was a yakuza.  Two of these things can be definitively proven, but the third seems to influence this film most of all.  Tatsuya betrays no emotion.  He is there not just to beat the champions in the other countries but to kill them.  He swaggers with every step he takes, and the vast majority of his reactions to danger is an icy sneer.  This plays into the film’s concept of honor (something which, some would say, yakuza are only tangentially concerned with, but which is intrinsic to Japanese culture).  Tatsuya went into hiding because he had lost face in the eyes of the Karate world.  He was no longer worthy of being public about his artform.  It doesn’t matter that the murder he committed was not only accidental (and against a luchador, no less) but also was done out of love for his sensei’s daughter Reiko (Yoko Natsuki) and his urge to protect her (that Tatsuya wants to kill his adversaries in foreign lands is antithetical to the whole reason he left the martial arts world in the first place, but never mind).  Tetsugen falls for the line of the Karate Association, as headed by bent politician Soma (Nobuo Kaneko), that they want to claim honor for Karate outside of Japan, but he’s not so gormless as to not be suspicious.  

In Hong Kong and Thailand, the opponents that Tetsuya faces do so out of honor, though they are not necessarily honorable people.  Chinese Kung Fu master White Dragon (Yao Lin Chen) knows that Tatsuya must be defeated in order to save face and his own Kung Fu school.  Yet, he doesn’t want to confront the Karate man himself.  He sends lackies like his wife Chin (who does a great disco/Kung Fu floor show in a Japanese club) and an assortment of Kung Fu goons to surprise attack Tatsuya at every turn.  He meets Tatsuya in bars and chats with him as if he were sympathetic.  It’s only when White Dragon’s legacy is directly threatened that he finally challenges Tatsuya to mortal combat.  In Thailand, Tatsuya is jumped again at several points, but their current Thai Boxing champion doesn’t command people to do so.  They attack because Tatsuya is a direct threat to the honor of Thai Boxing.  The former Thai champ, King Cobra (Darm Dasakorn), has fallen on hard times.  Like Tatsuya, he has recently been released from prison for an accidental murder.  Unlike Tatsuya, King Cobra has become a layabout and a drunk.  He sponges off his girlfriend and refuses to get a job.  Only when he sees that a Karate master defeated the Thai Boxing champ does King Cobra decide to contest Tatsuya and regain honor for his country.  It’s this same sense of honor and the ineffable drive that it sparks inside the martial arts masters that proves their undoing.  They cannot and will not back down.  Ever.  The pleas of their loved ones mean nothing in the face of possible dishonor.  Honor requires not only victory but also the death of an opponent.  On the one hand, the sense of honor in Karate Wars is virtuous, but, on the other hand, it’s also ultimately destructive.

Likewise, the film is nationalistic.  The plot is sparked by the Japanese characters’ sense of superiority as represented by Karate.  They want to show the world that Karate is the best and expand its influence outside of Japan.  Soma even states that Karate’s triumphs will appeal to the Japanese people’s sense of nationalism.  When Tatsuya leaves Japan, he becomes a stranger in a strange land, so to speak, though he behaves exactly the same as he did in his home country (i.e. like he owns the place).  All of the non-Japanese characters are prejudiced against the Japanese in general (the use of the pejorative “Jap” is ubiquitous in their dialogue) and Tatsuya in particular.  Though he is befriended by a Thai man who becomes his guide and translator, this man also becomes an outcast due to their relationship.  When he lived in Japan, he was similarly ostracized for his ethnicity, something about which Tatsuya does not give one shit, and he would likely eschew this guy if he didn’t need him.  Tatsuya is even kicked out of his hotel for no reason other than his presence in Thailand and what that means as a menace to the Thai identity.  What’s interesting in the film is that Tatsuya is similarly nationalistic, and this, in combination with his slavish devotion to honor, is his fatal flaw.  The two characters who care the least about any nationalistic ideals are Tetsugen and his daughter Reiko.  Instead, they are motivated by love; Tetsugen’s love of Karate and Reiko’s (inexplicable) love of Tatsuya.  Because their love is unselfish it surpasses the self-absorbed nationalism that motivates all of the other characters.

Nanbu’s film is simple in its story and repetitive in its structure.  The characters outside of the three main fighters are nigh-inconsequential except for illustrating the self-destructiveness of these men.  The plan of Soma’s cabal never develops beyond being a motive to get Tatsuya back into Karate-ing.  Where Karate Wars excels is in the subtext of its story and in the style Nanbu brings to the table.  At various moments, the picture fades to black and white or becomes solarized.  The sound drops out except for the natural noise of the environment.  Nanbu isolates the minds of the fighters in these ways, giving the audience an idea of the focus and viewpoint of these martial devotees.  The director also makes extensive use of slow motion, long takes, and wide shots in the fight scenes.  The fight choreography appears to be, by and large, genuine, not stylized to a superhuman degree but idealized for what a human is capable of through the martial arts.  So, while the story is mechanical, the film satisfies as a showcase for Karate and a study of the pros and cons of honor.

MVT:  Maki, Dasakorn, and Chen all impress with their skills.

Make or Break:  The finale is a great summation of the film’s thematic elements and an enjoyable rumble.

Score:  6.75/10

Once Upon a Time in China (1991)

Directed by: Hark Tsui
Runtime: 134 minutes

This movie is about Doctor Wong Fei Hung. A skilled doctor, skilled martial artist, martial artist instructor, militia leader, and defender of the weak and down trodden. His life and deeds have been the inspiration for numerous films and television programs. So I'm willing to believe that he was able to break the laws of physics, flick a soft lead round hard enough that it can enter someone's skull, and can use a bamboo splinter to turn the human body into high pressure blood fountain. This is the fun madness that is Once Upon a Time in China.


The movie opens in a ship filled harbor somewhere in China in the late 19th century. Wong Fei Hung is an honored guest of the Black Flag army. The Black Flag army was a company of bandits that ended up becoming a celebrated regiment of the Chinese empire. The Black Flag army is about to head out and kick someone's ass so they celebrate by setting off firecrackers and a dragon dance. A near by French ship has it's marines take exception to this celebration and they open fire. This disrupts the celebration and causes all kinds of chaos on the ship.  Luckily Wong Fei Hung is on the ship and fixes the situation.


This is the majority of the conflict and resolution in the film.  There is some sort of problem,  other people try to fix it,  the fixing makes the problem worse,  and Wong Fei Hung shows up to kick ass and fix the problem. I understand that they are trying to put Wong Fei Hung on the biggest pedestal that they can.  But it's done on the backs of characters that historically were as interesting as the main character.


The main plot of the movie revolves around the influx of foreigners and the problems they are creating and a local gang who is enforcing aggressive protection racket. The problems with the foreigners is that locals getting shot because they get too close to foreign ships and the marines on these ships are too trigger happy. Also, a foreign company is exploiting Chinese workers by promising them great wages and a better life. Only to be thrown into slavery and are being worked to death. The gang is extorting stupid amounts of protection money out of the local merchants. This in turn causes the business to go under or fire their staff and in turn they seek out the company that exploits them.


So it is up to Wong Fei Hung to stop the gang and keep his own militia from being arrested. He also has to stop the exploitation of the Chinese people. He also has deal with the awkward romance with his Aunt Yee (or Aunt 13 according to the subtitles).


A lot going on in this movie aside from what I mentioned. All the slice of life in China in the late nineteenth century, the personal lives of the other members Wong Fei Hung's militia, and lots of impressive martial art fight scenes. Overall, a must see for anyone who is a fan of Hong Kong cinema, the Kung Fu genre, and Jet Li.

MVT: The work put into the numerous fight scenes throughout this movie.

Make or Break: The movie assumes that the viewer is well versed in the history of this time period. It can take you out of the movie if you want to know why the story focuses on this person or why the extras collectively loose their bowels because a character walks into scene.

Score: 7.55 out of 10

Kung Fu Zombie (1981)

AKA: Wu long tian shi zhao ji gui
Director: Hwa I-hung
Starring: Billy Chong, Chan Lau, Cheng Kang-Yeh

Oh Kung Fu Zombie, what a treat you are. In the realm of low-budget kungfu mayhem, it's shard to be a film this energetic, stupid, and loony. The under-rated, should-have-been superstar, Billy Chong, stars as a snotty, rebellious kungfu student who ends up fighting the undead, or at least two undeads. Things get crazy right out of the gate, as a gang of cut-throats employ the services of a black magic priest to resurrect some corpses to fight Chong. Something of a complex plan. Employ a priest to resurrect zombies that will, once given the cue, fly through the air and push Chong into a pit filled with spikes. A spike-filled pit also seems a rather conventional culmination for a plan that involves resurrecting the dead, but then I'm not really a martial arts bandit, so I guess it's not my place to question their machinations.

Chong dispatches the zombies without much difficulty, not to mention that he's unimpressed by the fact that he's being attacked by the living dead. For Chong, however, a gang of zombies is no different than any other gang. The evil gang leader and his legendary muttonchop sideburns gets pushed into the pit of spikes during the ensuing melee, being justly undone by his own treachery. Satisfied that the night of being attacked by creatures of the night returned from the grave for bloody revenge has ended, Chong heads off for the local tavern to make merry. The wizard is soon plagued by Muttonchop's ghost demanding resurrection., but complications arise because Muttonchop's body is badly mutilated after taking the tumble into the spike-filled pit.

While Billy Chong may not be an ugly ghost adorned with mangy muttonchops, his life still isn't perfect, either. Just about every interaction between Billy and his dad winds up with a few minutes of fighting that culminates in the father nearly dying of heart failure, muttering "You're killing me, you ungrateful son of a bitch!" which elicits a smirk from Billy, who will wave bye-bye and go out on the town with his pal Hamster.

Meanwhile, Muttonchops is busy haunting the priest, who eventually agrees to resurrect the punk, as the nightmarish haunting takes the form of things like the ghost pulling the priest's seat out from under him, constantly moving his wine out of reach, and other dastardly spooktacular shenanigans. Down at the local morgue, they find the freshly dead body of a powerful kungfu fighter who is obviously evil on account of his long hair and black cape. When the gang leader tries to inhabit the corpse of the super-baddie, they discover that the guy is, in fact, not quite dead. Awakened from his slumber, the villain makes a beeline toward Billy's home to extract a little revenge, as he has a blood feud against Chong's family.

Billy and the bandit fight for hours, and Hamster whiles away the time by constantly dumping buckets of water on Billy for no real reason other than it makes Billy's muscle glisten a bit more. Chong eventually kills the bad guy and collecting a sizable reward, which his father promptly takes for himself. The wizard-priest and Muttonchops figure they can try to use the bandit's corpse again for another resurrection attempt. They mess up again, discovering this time that the bad guy is simply too evil to be killed by normal means such as breaking his neck. The failed possession attempt also transforms the baddie into a super-invincible mega-bad zombie still bent on killing Billy Chong.

Kung Fu Zombie is crude and cheap, but it also has great energy behind it, not to mention some spectacular kungfu and a few creepy seconds scattered throughout the madcap zaniness. Chong is a more than capable performer who manages to be charismatic and utterly loathsome as a character (par for the course in this type of film). By the time of its release, this style of kungfu film was going out of style, ushered out the door by the stunt films of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung (himself making Encounter of the Spooky Kind and producing Mr. Vampire around this same time). But there is still a boundless amount of joy to be mined from Kung Fu Zombie's nutty pile of kungfu, screaming, blood-drinking zombie kungfu villains, and wizards with giant leaf hats.

Make or Break: It's one thing to have a fanged vampire-zombie kungfu villain as your foe; It's another thing when that zombie gets frustrated by your kungfu ability and reacts by causing its own hands and feet to burst into flames.

MVT: Billy Chong. The guy never hit the big-time the way many of his contemporaries did, but he was still a great martial arts movie star who brought a perfect blend of physical talent, natural charisma, and smug condescension to his roles.

Clash (2009)

Starring:Veronica Ngo, Johnny Nguyen

Directed by: Le Tranh Son

In this kung fu caper, a prostitute turned assassin codenamed Phoenix (Veronica Ngo) must pull one final job to secure her freedom from powerful crimelord Black Dragon. Her mission is to steal a highly valuable laptop containing defense codes that control VINSTAT-1, Vietnam's satellite system. To ensure cooperation, Black Dragon incentivises Phoenix further by leveraging her daughter's life against the success of this heist.

With her daughter's life at stake, Phoenix assembles a squad of ex-cons to help her -- and by assemble, I mean they all suddenly show up out of nowhere -- and bestows them all with aliases such as Hawk, Tiger, Snake and Ox. She coldly lays out the ground rules, namely demanding no questions about their job. This scene is clearly derivative of Reservoir Dogs insofar as it involves a group of criminals meeting at a remote location, receiving codenames and, like Mr. Pink, one team member takes issue with his embarrassing codename.

After locating the sought-after laptop with some dangerous Frenchmen, whose bald heads and ripped musculature makes them look like a contingent of Georges St. Pierre impersonators, Phoenix's crew hatch their intricate plan; they march straight into a hotel and tear their way through St. Pierre wannabes with guns blazing and punch-kicking ferocity. Despite such a meticulous plan, the laptop manages to slip through Phoenix's hands and into Snake's grasp, who turns on the group and boosts the laptop to presumably sell it off to the highest bidder. I guess Phoenix was completely blindsided that the guy she named Snake wasn't trustworthy.

As the laptop search continues, a romance develops between Phoenix and Tiger to help her cope with the heartache and pad the running time between fight scenes. We're given the whole melodramatic love story shebang; Vaseline-soaked lenses, sorrowful color-tinged filter flashbacks and a sex scene set to some distractingly poppy groove music. Then we discover that Tiger isn't a genuine criminal, but rather an undercover agent trying to takedown Black Dragon and prevent those satellite codes from falling into the wrong hands. I can't lay the blame on Phoenix's doorstep for not seeing this one; a codename like Tiger carries no connotation toward someone working undercover (although, I believe Tiger's original moniker was Chameleon in a roughcut version of the film). Now, if Tiger had chewed an effeminate magician's face half off to her surprise, I'd have to start looking at resumes on Monster.com for thieves with laptop pilfering expertise and skills with assigning codenames without bad omens.

Thereafter, Phoenix and Tiger continue to mow down henchmen and chase Snake as he attempts to peddle the laptop. Their pursuit leads them back to Black Dragon as they square off against Snake, more cronies and Black Dragon in hopes of safeguarding VINSTAT-1 and saving Phoenix's daughter.

Clash (Bay Rong) is most entertaining when allowing Veronica Ngo's Phoenix to be a fiercely scowling hard-edged high kick girl. It's refreshing to witness a strong female presence, exerting her dominance over ex-con male counterparts, threateningly commanding them both with words and fists. She's apt to smack them around as evidenced when Ox gets beaten into begging for mercy after suggesting a new codename for Phoenix, Horny. I love one moment in an early fight scene where the action pauses and a random thug shatters a bottle over Phoenix's head to which she no sells completely, not feigning even the slightest reaction or flinch. This type of imperviousness is often relegated to male action stars so it's great to see the female lead given such a moment. Ngo sells herself well as a believable action star and impressively holds her own in comparison to co-star Johnny Nguyen, who brings a hefty martial arts rep to the table from The Rebel and stuntwork on various big budget Hollywood productions.

It's no surprise that Clash loses steam as Phoenix's steeliness softens and the character falls captive to horribly designed and overly predictable story trappings. Phoenix loses the majority of her crew early on, leaving no one to command other than Tiger, who is elevated from bossed-around thug to the love of Phoenix's life. Not only is the romantic slant badly drawn and cheesily conceived, it thrusts Phoenix into a paint-by-numbers subservient woman-in-action role, albeit one that throws some nice kicks, that must be redeemed by a superior male that comes to her rescue in the end. It's hard to keep interest from waning because the two leads exhibit scant magnetism. It's also odd that Ngo and Nguyen have little chemistry since they are or were apparently an off-screen item. Admittedly, martial arts films are a little bit of a cinematic blindspot for me, but I understand that diehard fanatics of this genre primarily measure these films by the action on display and care far less about the bland narrative threads.

Clash has many well-constructed fight scenes filled with aerial takedowns and high-flying strikes amidst continuous henchmen droves. This is a credit to first time director Le Tranh Son's craftsmanship that all the fighting appears to be practical without wirework or any CG enhancements. The camera captures the action without flash, supporting a grittier feel over sensationalism. There's also a uniqueness in the fight choreography through an abundance of submission maneuvers utilized, ranging from neck cranks, leglocks and armbreakers. The downside here is that the combat may be too choreographed, working against the naturalistic exchanges and making the grappling more closely aligned with a MMA bout due to the quick array of submission reversals and escapes. If there's one prime criticism, it's that all the fight scenes are crafted in a similar fashion; there's very little differentiating the fights, leaving each one without any definitive identity of its own. The fight scenes try to keep the film afloat, but the script is like a pair of cement shoes sinking the entire picture.

Make or Break scene - The Reservoir Dogs-inspired assembling the crew scene makes the film. If not for this scene, it would be hard to stick with Clash after the sheer fun factor dips off so severely. For her part, Ngo's at her best here, exuding an icy glare and forceful command of the crew gathered. It's a lot of fun as well when Mr. Pink deja vu kicks in when the roly poly Ox complains about his codename then receives a stern face-bashing from Phoenix for doing so.

MVT - Quite easily, the fight scenes. While they never approach greatness, they are firmly in the very good category despite the aforementioned flaws. In short, the fight scenes are the glue holding together this anemically plotted film. There's just enough action bursts to keep you from nodding off or ejecting the disc. At least, in part, the fights were enough to drive this film to the #1 position in Vietnam for the 2009 box office.

Score - 6.25/10