Ten Tigers of Kwangtung

source: Ten Tigers of Kwangtung

"Ten Tigers from Kwangtung," released in 1980 and directed by kung-fu movie legend Chang Cheh, is a movie that I partially caught during a martial arts movie marathon on The El Rey Network over the 2015 Thanksgiving holiday weekend; the event itself was meant to celebrate what would have been the 75th birthday of legendary martial arts master Bruce Lee, who died in 1973. (I also learned that dialogue from this movie was partially sampled in the song "Bring Da Ruckus" by the hip-hop super-group, the Wu-Tang Clan.) What "Ten Tigers from Kwangtung" suffers from the most are simply too many characters; the film was meant to be a celebration of sorts that brought together the top martial arts movie talents of the Shaw Brothers studio at the time. In theory, it's a good idea that should work; the only problem with that, however, is the fact that the film is only 90 minutes long, which is way too short for what I'm sure was the type of epic kung-fu grandeur that Chang Cheh was going for. If it had been a half-hour longer, perhaps, the film and story wouldn't seem so crammed and you can better keep track of the characters. The plot details two stories, one set in the present, the other regarding events of the past. The first story, the one set in the present and is what sets the film in motion, concerns two Ching Dynasty mercenaries who are hunting down the Ten Tigers and their disciples, the group of famous martial arts masters who years earlier had hid and protected a notorious anti-Ching revolutionary. The two Ching mercenaries are now seeking revenge for the Ten Tigers having killed one of their own years before. Of course, you don't go to a film like "Ten Tigers from Kwangtung" for a thought-provoking plot or deep characterizations. You go to a film like this for the fights, and this movie does serve up many, many fights. Because the film features an all-star cast of Shaw Brothers studio regulars, it can be extremely difficult to keep track of everybody (I know I certainly did). That's really the only thing that hampers an otherwise fun but typical kung-fu picture. 7/10

I bought this movie as part of the "Shaw brothers Volume 2" Blu-ray boxset. I hadn't heard of any of these movies before, but I really enjoyed the "36th chamber" movies (well, the first 2) and thought it was worth it just for these 2 movies, and the reviews on Amazon spoke highly of the other movies. Until now, I've enjoyed all of the movies, even more than I expected to, but this one is a big let down. It could be because I'm watching it in Mandarin with English subtitles (I always feel the English dubbing is laughable and can take away from the tone of a movie, especially if it's supposed to be more serious), yet that wasn't an issue with the previous movies in the set, only this one. The plot is all over the place. I'm an hour into the movie and I still don't have a clue what the story is about, and there's no clear distinction between protagonists and antagonists. I've just watched a scene that seems to be set further in time, and until now it's been a flash back to the formation of the Ten Tigers? Far too convoluted and the characters are all 2 dimensional, I have zero investment in any of the characters and don't care what happens one way or another to any of them. Completely missed opportunity and I'll definitely skip this one when I revisit this box set.

This film is supposed to tell the story of real-life 19th century pugilists but, not surprisingly, it doesn't have the slightest concern for historical accuracy. The hairdressing is terrible, to start with. Most actors don't have their hair combed back, let alone shaved pates, and there we have lots of Bruce Lee clones wandering around and even an Elvis Presley in Lung Tien-hsiang. Another disappointment is Beggar So played by Phillip Kwok, which stands far too superficial compared to more down to earth depictions of the character. On the other hand, what gets me really going is the bad guys, Wong Lik portraying a very successful archvillain while Chan Shu-kei appears in the underrated role of a small "death on two legs". As for martial arts credits; although this film has a brilliant choreographers' portfolio, the empty hand scenes are very very average, Sun Chien being even well below it. However, the day is saved by the display of many exotic weapons (concealed, flexible, etc.) including the genuine "femme fatale" Mermaid's Tail, which you won't see much in those films. Nevertheless, I want to emphasise that the cast is magnificent, bringing a distinguished selection of Shaw Brothers martial art actors together and making this film a perfect...8!

Forget the previous comment by the inknowleagible reviewer, this film is a classic on many levels. Ti Lung,Alex Fusheng,Chiang Sheng,Lo Meng, Lu Feng, Sun Chien,Wang Li, Wei Pai,Dick Wei(!),Wang Lungwei,Chin Siuho (!),Tien Shenglung, Ku Feng. This is one hell of a stellar cast, 1979, hong Kong! You even got the five venom's in there for Christs sake! The story is a basic one, with Wang Li hiding a government wanted man, for trying to bring down the Ching, Wang Li believes that he alone cannont protect and deliver this man to mainland China and so enlists the help of many kung fu masters to execute his plan. there is a sub plot also, that which is of revenge, a nice new thing for kung fu films! The fight scenes are bar none, with kicks aplenty and somersaults in every scene, highly recommended!

To the guy that said bypass this movie, just stop watching kung fu movies all together. I mean you couldn't even get the plot right, no wonder you didn't like it. The real story is that a rebel against the army is on the run, to make a long story short he is protected by the ten well-known fighters whom later becomes considered as the Kwangtung Ten Tigers. But after the head officer of the Ching Army is killed, years later his son and sworn brother plot to kill off the students of the famous Ten Tigers. The martial arts in here are nothing short of excellent as always plus all the Venoms were in this one, all 6 of them. Kuo Chui, Lo Meng, Wei Pai, Lu Feng, Sun Chien, and my favorite of them all Chiang Sheng rest in peace. Ten Tigers is a definite pick up for any one whom likes classic kung fu films, I own a whole lot of them so I know personally, but give this movie a peek, you can't go wrong. On a special note don't listen to these hard to please reviewers waiting on something to hate, they already have dislike on their mind before they even watch the film.........................For Shame.

When I watch Kung Fu films I usually like to take off my thinking cap and drown myself in action and cheesy plots. Very rarely do I encounter a Kung Fu film where I find myself confused when the ending comes, and this is exactly where I found myself at the end of Ten Tigers of Kwangtung. This film has one of the greatest Shaw Brothers casts of all time. Ti Lung, Fu Sheng and the Venoms are the lead actors and are all in top form. In case you haven't see it is about a group of fighters teaming up to protect a Ching loyalist. The group of fighters will eventually come to be known as the Ten Tigers and safely guide this Ming rebel to the South to meet with his troops. There are a lot of plot twists and betrayls in between all of this. There are a lot of flashbacks in this film. It starts off in the present time with Ming loyalists trying to kill off the disciples of the Ten Tigers and flashes back to why they want to kill them. The flashbacks show in detail how the Tigers were formed and the film does it's best to develop each character. The knock on this film is that there are too many characters, flashbacks and plot twists. These are the reasons why this film is great IMO and maybe even the greatest. There aren't many Kung Fu films that you have to watch a few times to really understand and the fighting is top notch. If you haven't seen it be sure to watch it and if you have seen it watch again, more than once

It seems that there is actually a cult audience that likes to simply watch meaningless acrobatics for an hour, but for most of us, the best kung fu films are those which simply use such acrobatics as vehicles for the characters to perform actions. This is one of those movies that is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. It's simply non stop kicking and striking, with no direction. It's like the monotonous 3 minute car chase that feels like it never ends, or the gunfight with guns that never run out of bullets, and you have a headache after about a thousand shots are fired. This is one of those. There are other problems as well. It tries to establish some characters, but it fails, because the director has too many characters. Ordinarily, this could work, but here there is the relentless, repetitious acrobatics that would bore you even at a circus, that leaves no time to develop anything to identify a character with, save for one young hothead, who does come across as lightly likable in a comic hothead way. The chief problem here is that we have the ten tigers, all good guys, and their 5 young disciples, all good guys, along with their schools full of students, along with a rebel leader, against one bad guy. He is killed, and then his son looks for revenge, along with his uncle, and another guy who is never explained. The three bad guys represented the law, while the good guys seem to be outlaws. Yet we're to side with the majority of outlaws against 3 lawmen working on their own. Clearly, they can't claim to be underdogs, nor can they claim to be likable. There just isn't any way to watch this and pull for the multitude of outlaws we are supposed to like. We just never buy into their cause. Another huge problem is the final scene, a decapitation meant solely for gore, to impress the sickos and psychos, beavis and butthead, plus the victim is the last of the trio seeking revenge, against what appears to be an army. I tried to like this movie, but it pushed me away at every stop. You really have to hypnotize yourself into liking this. This is not good. This is how not to make a kung fu movie.

This is one of those rare times when almost all of the great martial arts actors from the 70s are in the same flick. Great action sequences and a more than passable plot (by Kung Fu standards) make this one of the better kick flicks of all time.

1st watched 8/17/2003 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Cheh Chang) Kung Fu fighting from start to finish in this Hong Kong film. So I guess if you enjoy this, then you may like the movie, but I personally couldn't follow who was fighting for who from one scene to the next. From what I could tell this movie was about a couple of rival tribes battle over bragging rights for something(I'm not sure what). There was a lot of interesting props used in the fighting sequences which made it interesting to watch at times with a few bloody surprises thrown in for free. But all-in-all as a movie, this was not that exciting. It was kind of like watching a Kung Fu match with different costumes and in a way and was more like watching a sporting event instead of a movie. With that said, bypass this one if you can.