SCFZ poll: Lau Kar-leung

[flip]

Polling the films of director Lau Kar-leung (or Liu Chia-liang on letterboxd)

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Lau films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Friday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline up to three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: wba, greg x, ofrene, greennui, evelyn, bure, mesnalty, umbugbene, roscoe, st gloede, brian d, kanafani, silga, oscarwerner, dt., nrh

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

[rischka]

dirty ho!
eight diagram pole fighter
executioners from shaolin
my young auntie
mad monkey kung fu



i've got at least 3 others lying around, maybe watch one today

[ofrene]

seen 2

Eight Diagram Pole Fighter

[nrh]

martial club
challenge of the masters
eight diagram pole fighter
dirty ho
my young aunty

hard to pick a very favorite from all of his films, but i think i'll go for the two low key films set in urban martial arts club world, martial club being one of the very rare martial arts films where not a single person dies. dirty ho and eight diagram on the other hand are very difficult, knotty films, eight diagram especially. dirty ho is the hamlet of martial arts film.

of the major films i haven't seen most interested in shaolin mantis.

[wba]

01. Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984)
02. Legendary Weapons of China (1982)
03. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)

Lau seen: 7

[kanafani]

Only 3. Will watch more in the near future.

8 diagram pole fighter

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

I've got zero seen at the mo, but I hope to watch a few for this poll ⁠— got Eight Diagram Pole Fighter and My Young Auntie lined up.

[...]

Dirty Ho
Legendary Weapons of China
Heroes of the East
Return to the 36th Chamber
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Got in my first Lau Kar-leung today: Eight Diagram Pole Fighter ! Enjoyable, even for someone fairly new to kung fu movies and unsure if they'll be my vibration. The fight choreography is theatrical and near-balletic. Next up, My Young Auntie.

[rischka]

i absolutely think of them as balletic!! gonna watch cat vs rat

[...]

Chor Yuen's Killer Clans was really interesting in that "balletic" sense, where the choreography of the fight scenes really stood in nice contrast to the drama. The difference in style made each element stand out and fed into some of the themes of group needs versus individual want.

[arkheia]

Only seen 3, I will resolve to watch at least 1 more by the end of the poll.

1. Dirty Ho

[john ryan]

seen 9

1. legendary weapons of china
2. executioners from shaolin
3. martial arts of shaolin
4. the 36th chamber shaolin

[flip]

have now seen two, but neither are on any ballots posted so far so i haven't seen the good stuff. i'll pick the one i found more interesting, but i'm sure it doesn't compare with his best work:

Breakout From Oppression (1973)

[flip]

i keep forgetting to ask for nominations - rischka, you can pick our next director if you like!

[rischka]

i dunno, someone else can go ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Watched My Young Auntie and it was better still. Loved it. And it makes the connection between dancing and fight choreography nearly explicit, too, in the middle section's masquerade ball fight scene! "Is it just dancing?"



Also Lau Kar-leung, aka Liu Chia-Liang, is credited as a 'Special Guest Star' in his own movie, lol..

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Voting for:

1. My Young Auntie

(seen 2)

Lau Kar-leung is a real talent and has proved a great entryway into appreciation of HK kung fu films - thank you to nrh for picking him, as it spurred me to finally encounter his work!

[flip]

Only

arkheia, you can choose the director we poll next if you like!

[nrh]

lkl is really i think the ideal film maker to act as an entryway to hk martial arts films, because martial arts are so often his actual subject (most famously 36th chamber actually teaches the viewer how to watch martial arts as the hero goes through each of the chambers) and because he treats it as a living, breathing tradition, one actively opposed to the kind of masculinist violence of bruce lee or cheh chang (whose best films lkl choreographed).

auntie and 8 diagram are probably the furthest polls in his body of work. 8 diagram was actually supposed to have a happy ending (or at least one not this apocalyptically bleak!), but alexander fu sheng died halfway through, and a heartbroken lau rewrote the rest of the film.

[flip]

seen 9

edit - heard from arkheia, so don't need a nomination

[arkheia]

I'll nominate Frank Tashlin

[---]

Sick!!

[flip]

not sure if we need to check whether tashlin has the views for a poll, but i guess we should - i've seen six, so i'm optimistic he'll work. if anyone has seen 8+ tashlin, please post here!

[...]

16 Tashlin not including all the cartoons. The cartoons should make it easier to reach the magic number if people want to dig into them a bit.

[---]

16 tashlin

[flip]

cool, thanks, i probably didn't need to bother checking - i'll start up the frank tashlin poll now!

[augusto]

dirty ho
eight diagram pole fighter
heroes of the east
executioners from shaolin
the 36th chamber of shaolin

[flip]

interesting - if i rank lau kar-leung films on letterboxd by 'film popularity', his #1 film is the legend of drunken master. but that film got no votes at all in our poll. i'm not sure if that's ever happened before.

i started this poll a day late, so if anyone still wanted to participate, i'll accept late ballots until tomorrow (though please try not to look at the results before posting, or at least ignore them when making your ballot).

results

1. Dirty Ho (1976) -- 22 pts
2. The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984) -- 21 pts
3. Legendary Weapons of China (1982) -- 10 pts
4. Executioners from Shaolin (1977) -- 8 pts
5. My Young Auntie (1981) -- 7 pts
6. Heroes of the East (1978) -- 6 pts
6. Challenge of the Masters (1976) -- 6 pts
8. Martial Club (1981) -- 5 pts
9. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) -- 4 pts
10. Return to the 36th Chamber (1980) -- 3 pts
11. Shaolin Temple 3: Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986) -- 2 pts
12. Mad Monkey Kung Fu (1979) -- 1 pt
12. Breakout from Oppression (1973) -- 1 pt

[Silga]

Funny enough, The Legend of the Drunken Master is the only one I’ve seen.