The Heroic Bloodshed - Thread

[Mondschein]

Heroic Bloodshed

Dear Community,
I'm currently discovering the cinema of Hong Kong through home media and one particular genre took my attention like a shot into the leg (genre metaphor: check ): the Heroic Bloodshed. I'm 100% sure that everyone of you knows much more about these kind of movies than I do but let me quote wikipedia just for having a nice introduction to the thread:

Heroic bloodshed is a genre of Hong Kong action cinema revolving around stylized action sequences and dramatic themes such as brotherhood, duty, honour, redemption and violence.

My plan for this thread is to comprehend a list of worthwhile movies, first of all to broaden my horizon and second to let this be somewhat of an introduction (or ultimate guide) for every visitor/user who might discover something that he never heard of.
So I'm asking for your help as I have only seen a few of these movies: which movies do you recommend? Why do you recommend that particular movie and can you suggest a specific DVD/BluRay/whatever release?

I'll edit this post every once in a while, I hope you all participate in this little project.

Thanks in advance and oh yeah: first post!

[HungFist]

Welcome to the forum. Glad to see a new human member (the previous 200 were all bots).

Good luck with this thread. Unfortunately I've managed to make my life so busy that I probably won't be posting all that much in the next few months.

As for recommendations... Mark and others can probably give you better recommendations than me.

[Masterofoneinchpunch]

Welcome. First question: what have you seen? Do you use a site like icheckmovies to keep track of your watches? Second: since we are discussing the basics: what John Woo films have you seen?

[Markgway]

Here's a bunch to get you started...

The Adventurers
Best of the Best (Herman Yau)
A Better Tomorrow [Trilogy]
Bullet in the Head
Century of the Dragon
City on Fire
Crime Story
Expect the Unexpected
Full Contact
Hard-Boiled
Just Heroes
The Killer
A Moment of Romance
Return Engagement
Tiger Cage
Wild Search

[HungFist]

＋ My Heart is That Eternal Rose. I recall that one being quite good, and slightly similar to Woo.

[Markgway]

＋ My Heart is That Eternal Rose. I recall that one being quite good, and slightly similar to Woo.

Oh, yeah. That's a classic.

[Mondschein]

Welcome to the forum. Glad to see a new human member (the previous 200 were all bots).

Thank you very much! Well, I guess internet forums are dying out and each forum that was once sparkling with activity is now kept at life support by a core group of 5 to 10 members ...
I'm feeling like I'm part of a small group of internet fallout survivors who are searching for a few left over places of fertile discussion.
Well, let me just stop here because it is getting really off-topic but I could go on (maybe in a different thread?).

Welcome. First question: what have you seen? Do you use a site like icheckmovies to keep track of your watches? Second: since we are discussing the basics: what John Woo films have you seen?

Thanks.
So far I have only seen a few: right now I can recall Bullet in the head (1990) and Fulltime Killer (2001) so you see I'm pretty much at the beginning of my cinematic journey
I don't use any sites like icheckmovies, I started to keep an personal movie journal where I write down my thoughts about a movie I have seen but as I just started this one only goes back for like a month or so.

Here's a bunch to get you started...

The Adventurers
Best of the Best (Herman Yau)
A Better Tomorrow [Trilogy]
Bullet in the Head
Century of the Dragon
City on Fire
Crime Story
Expect the Unexpected
Full Contact
Hard-Boiled
Just Heroes
The Killer
A Moment of Romance
Return Engagement
Tiger Cage
Wild Search

Thank you very much! This looks like a great list and so far I only know Bullet in the Head which was a great joy to watch. I'm on a tight budget but I'll see if I can order some of these movies in the next few days. Of course I'll write about what I've thought about them.

＋ My Heart is That Eternal Rose. I recall that one being quite good, and slightly similar to Woo.

Thanks again! This one looks interesting indeed but the Hong Kong DVD is long out of print, looks like I'm pretty late to the game. Nonetheless I'll keep my eyes open, maybe it'll pop up at ebay or somewhere

This has been a good start so far, I'm glad that I found this community.

[HungFist]

Welcome to the forum. Glad to see a new human member (the previous 200 were all bots).

Thank you very much! Well, I guess internet forums are dying out and each forum that was once sparkling with activity is now kept at life support by a core group of 5 to 10 members ...
I'm feeling like I'm part of a small group of internet fallout survivors who are searching for a few left over places of fertile discussion.
Well, let me just stop here because it is getting really off-topic but I could go on (maybe in a different thread?).

I lot of people are now just using facebook and twitter. I really hate that. In Facebook only your friends can see what you post (rather than the people who might really appreciate your stuff), and in both it's practically impossible to search for old posts. On forums if you make a good post, anyone can still find it 10 years later quite easily assuming the board is still online.

Welcome. First question: what have you seen? Do you use a site like icheckmovies to keep track of your watches? Second: since we are discussing the basics: what John Woo films have you seen?

Thanks.
So far I have only seen a few: right now I can recall Bullet in the head (1990) and Fulltime Killer (2001) so you see I'm pretty much at the beginning of my cinematic journey
I don't use any sites like icheckmovies, I started to keep an personal movie journal where I write down my thoughts about a movie I have seen but as I just started this one only goes back for like a month or so.

Well, in that case I think everyone would agree John Woo's films are the ones you need to see first. The Killer, Hard Boiled and A Better Tomorrow especially. Ringo Lam's Full Contact makes a good follow up, partly for being very different in tone (a lot less "heroic" you might say).

I recommend making an IMDb account and rating movies there. It's very convenient because you can later see from your profile all the films you've rated, and sort the search results in various ways (e.g. Hong Kong movies made between 1984 and 1989 from best to worst based on your rating). Some movies are missing from IMDb of course and I use Excel to keep track of those, but if you're watching relatively well known movies probably won't have that problem at all.

[Markgway]

Thank you very much! This looks like a great list and so far I only know Bullet in the Head which was a great joy to watch. I'm on a tight budget but I'll see if I can order some of these movies in the next few days. Of course I'll write about what I've thought about them.

All the titles I listed are available on DVD except Just Heroes... if you need subtitles, that is. There's a French DVD that offers no English translation. If you can play PAL VHS there was an uncut tape available in the UK that's worth tracking down.

The Mei Ah DVD for My Heart Is That Eternal Rose had a manufacturing glitch that meant it froze a bit after the hour mark. I don't know if there ever fixed it, but if not you may need to rip it and burn a DVD-R.