A couple of Hong Kong films today, first up the sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, CTHD: Sword Of Destiny. It was a Netflix original that I'd already seen but not since it came out last year. John Fusco wrote the screenplay from Du Lu Wang's book and Woo-Ping Yeun is the director. It's got Michelle Yeoh, Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee and a bunch of other people I mostly didn't know.
Jason wants the Green Dragon Sword and he sends Harry Shum Jr to steal it. Harry gets caught. Donnie gathers some fighters and brings them to the house where the Green Dragon Sword is held. Michelle shows up there and so do the bandits. There's plenty of martial arts and flying about. There's some family drama among the members of the martial arts world. Nearly everyone dies. I liked it better the second time and it's more re-watchable than the first film.
The Fate Of Lee Kahn is a 1973 King Hu film that I hadn't seen before. Sadly, it's on a VCD and the quality is pretty poor, the subtitles are pretty hard to read. This copy on YouTube is much better than that VCD we watched. It was directed by King Hu, who co-wrote the script with Chung Wang. Hu is most famous for directing A Touch Of Zen, Come Drink With Me and Dragon Gate Inn. All interesting films worth seeing.
The story in The Fate Of Lee Kahn is about a group of rebels fighting against Mongol rule. They're being hunted by Mongol Official Lee Kahn and his soldiers. Most of the action takes place at an Inn where the rebels operate. When Lee Kahn shows up things get dicey and people start dying. It's not one of Hu's best films but it's a pretty good action film with some nice court intrigue. You can check it out on YouTube for yourself. Check for a link in the first paragraph.
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