A 1982 Kung-Fu flick starring Jet Li, rumored to be his acting debut.
The Tang emperor is betrayed by one of his generals, who installs himself as emperor in the East Capital. The son of one of his slave workers escapes to the Shaolin Temple, learns kung fu, and sets out to kill the traitor, who killed his father. The monks have to help him, and in the process, they save the true emperor, who rewards them greatly. Based on a true story from Shaolin folklore, but highly fictionalized.
After you’re done peeping tonight’s SNS, sit back, relax and soak in this kung-fu flick. Not at all to be confused with the classic arcade game, nor the god-awful movie starring Van Damme.
Terry is a tough, mercenary, master of martial arts. When an important business magnate dies, leaving billions to his daughter, the Mafia and Yakuza try to hire Terry to kidnap the daughter. When they refuse to meet his exorbitant price, then try to kill him to conceal their secret plans, he promptly offers his services to protect her. Much ultra-violent martial-arts fighting action, as expected, ensues. This also includes a subplot of a family’s bloodfeud with Terry over a disputed debt.
Fourth installment of our Art of War Theater series is another classic which I’ve admittedly only seen for the first time a couple of years ago. Directed by the legendary Gordon Liu, this flick sees the conflict between the Shaolin Monastery and Wudang chuan schools of Kung Fu.
“A game of chess, is like a sword fight. You must think first, before you move.”
The third installment of 2dopeboyz’s The Art of War Theater features yet another Kung Fu classic: 1978′s 5 Deadly Venoms. Produced by none other than the legendary Shaw Brothers. The beginning of the film introduces the “five deadly pupils”: the fast moving Centipede, the speed and agility of the Snake, the deadly grasp of the Scorpion, the agile Lizard and mentally strong and intelligent Toad. This same film also heavily influenced The Abbot, which can be heard in various Wu related projects, including Masta Killa‘s No Said Date, as well as being the influence behind the short-lived, all female, Wu-affiliated group Deadly Venoms as well as the classic mixtape, 5 Deadly Venoms of Brooklyn (featuring Tony Touch, DJ Premier, PF Cuttin’, Mister Cee & Evil Dee) which I’ve uploaded for your listening pleasure. Peace to Tony Toca for sending me a personal dubbed copy with original insert / artwork. Enjoy!
I was originally going to feature Five Deadly Venoms for today’s installment of The Art of War Theater, however I chose instead to go with the 1979 flick, Mystery of Chess Boxing, a film directed by Joseph Kuo. This same film was inspiration for a wide range of Wu related cultural references, including the title track name for Enter the Wu-Tang’s Da Mystery of Chessboxin, Ghostface Killah’s name, which was inspired by Mark Long’s character, Ghost Faced Killer, and also dialogue sampled and used for Ghostface’s Poisonous Darts off Ironman. Enjoy!
“Let’s see you try the Water technique. The sky is high, the cloud is low. But my water technique is hard to beat.” “But the Earth, can absorb Water.”
Welcome to the premiere of a new Saturday (2)dope feature: The Art of War Theater. The goal here is to expose to those who may have never seen these classic Kung Fu flicks every Saturday, in similar fashion to what we saw as kids growing up in the 80s / 90s. I’m pretty sure every city and state had a form of this on Saturday afternoons, showing some of the illest flicks that would be thoroughly discussed and “imitated” at school the following Monday. With the Wu bridging the gap between martial arts culture and Hip-Hop, these flicks became a part of Hip-Hop’s identity, and just as important as new releases at record stores were on Tuesdays, so were kung fu cinema classics on TV on Saturdays. For the premiere episode, we set things off with the 1981 piece, The Prodigal Son. Sit back and enjoy. It’s fucking Saturday.
