Movie Details
| Title: | Fistfull of Talons | |
| Director: | Chung Sun | |
| Year: | 1983 | |
| Genre: | Kung-Fu | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 09.16.05 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 09.16.05 | Alamo Downtown | This Screening is part of event: QT6 The night ended with a good-ol kung-fu flick, directed by (QT: he's like the Kubrick of the Shaw brothers stable) Chung Sun and starring Billy Chong. Before the movie started, Quentin mentioned (along with like 15 other things that I'm not mentioning (the same goes for every film I'm writing up here)) that the last shot, not the last scene but the last shot, might give Tobe Hooper's last shot in Texas Chainsaw Massacre a run for its money as the Best Last Shot of a Movie Ever. "It wouldn't win, but it would give it a run." I have to say he's right. As far as the plot's concerned... some angry manchurians want to overthrow the republicans (HUGE cheer from the crowd), but there's this one soldier dude or something that stole the emporer's seal.. and he's hiding out next to where Billy Chong washes his horse. Fighting, training sequence, weird kinda-romance with chinese Cher-lookalike, and epic final battle set on a huge statue of a loungin Buddha ensues. Some of the shot compositions during the fight scenes are really impressive, and the movie adheres to a strict ruleset of like... guys fight until they spit blood. Once they spit blood, they are out of it. The wire-enhanced mega kick- and punch-recoils were spare enough to make them look really cool and not get old, especially coupled with the spitting of blood previously mentioned. There were definitely some pretty effective sequences here... and then the last scene. After a huge long final battle, the Cher-lookalike calls upon her mystical control over eagles and a few of them fly into the bad guy's face and start pecking/scratching away. Of course they use a real eagle for the shots of the dude tussling and rolling around, gripping this eagle so it won't fly away... but then this last shot: The bad guy stands up and, gripping an eagle-leg in each arm, rips the bird apart at the seam... splitting it right the fuck in half. As this happens (in slow-mo), Billy Chong is flying through the air set to connect in the biggest jumpkick-to-back-of-head ever... then the film literally stops, becoming a still, and the credits role. End of fight right there, I guess... but then again after you split an eagle in half what more can you really do? So there I have it. If tomorrow night's Encore Night is in fact made up of encore presentations, this concludes the new QT films of the fest. The week has absolutely flown by. Part of me really wishes this could go on forever, despite it being hot in the theater tonight and my ass just about being out of cushion, it's really really great to live the lifestyle of waking up, eating, going to the theater, coming home and writing it up, sleeping, and repeating. Of course i have all sorts of real-life stuff backed up for a week, but it has been so worth it. I learend tonight that 9-day badges sold out roughly at 8:30 am... i got mine at 8:20. I feel so lucky... and am already dreading the mad rush to get one next time... otherwise I will be waiting in standby with everyone else :( |
