1980s List Discussion and Suggestions (Lists Project Vol. 3)

An ongoing project to survey the best films of individual decades, genres, and filmmakers.
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Mr Sausage
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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#676 Post by Mr Sausage » Thu May 01, 2014 2:25 am

Code of Silence (Andrew Davis, 1985): It surprised me to realize I'd never seen a Chuck Norris movie. I'd seen numerous Walker, Texas Ranger episodes and, of course, Return of the Dragon when a kid, but never a Norris-starring film. Since Andrew Davis is an action director with some talent--he made Seagal's two best films, Above the Law and Under Siege, as well as the excellent The Fugitive--starting here was an easy decision. While not up to Davis' usual standard, it's better than just about all the action film I've watched for the project. Yet my main impression was: I don't understand Chuck Norris' appeal at all. He has no screen presence or charisma. He plays every scene with the same concerned expression and reads all his lines with gentle soft-spokenness. Seagal could get away with it because he had that zen-master persona, but it makes no sense in Norris. Balancing this is a supporting cast full of colourful, authentic character actors (many of whom I recognized from bit roles in The Fugitive) who make up somewhat for the black hole that is its star. The plot is baggy and disjointed, with no clear narrative thrust, moving from investigating a drug bust gone awry, to trying to prevent a gang war, to protecting/rescuing a woman in distress. There's also a subplot about police corruption and the titular code surrounding the issue. The climax makes the aggressively silly choice to have Norris use a remote-controlled robot that looks like a mix of ED-209 and K9 from Doctor Who. I still can't quite believe I just saw that. Flawed, and memorable for perhaps the wrong reasons, but executed with skill and rather entertaining. With a better star and some narrative tightening, this could've been one of the best action movies of the decade.

Missing in Action (Joseph Zito, 1984): Former POW Chuck Norris returns to Vietnam to rescue the POWs that the government isn't sure exist, ie. a rip-off of Rambo, First Blood part II. It makes that movie look like a piece of genius. Why assign an action film to a director with no kinetic sense? There's a scene of Norris strafing enemy soldiers from a high powered speed boat composed mostly of long shots of the boat moving away from the camera and then turning around to come back again intercut with close ups of people shooting and being shot. Does it really take that much imagination to shoot some tracking shots, maybe mount the camera low on the boat for a few shots, and convey, I don't know, some sense of speed and movement? The movie's basic tactic is to have people just fire guns endlessly. I swear there was also a combined five minutes given to a machine-gunner on a moored boat firing at the camera intercut with shots of an enemy patrol boat getting incrementally closer. Firing, shot of boat, firing, shot of boat, firing--for a good five minutes! It takes Norris a whole hour to finally get going on his mission to save the POWs--an hour! This movie was popular? It's made worse by the fact that I've already seen this exact movie done much, much better. M. Emmet Walsh has a supporting role--would that it were lead role, as Norris once again makes Stallone look like...someone who overacts a lot. John Carradine?

Red Scorpion (Joseph Zito, 1989): The story behind the making of this one is more interesting than the film: made in South Africa despite the international boycott, and allegedly funded by the South African government in the hopes that it might serve as propaganda for them (it doesn't). I was expecting this to be awful, but as dumb and over-violent as it is, it showed some skill, enough for me to appreciate it and feel entertained. Zito surprised me with his deft handling of the action scenes. He also took full advantage of the beautiful African scenery, producing uniformly excellent cinematography. It was also nice to get a hero who goes through a (albeit limited) character arc after so many action films where the hero is an unchanging, uncomplicated totem of truth and justice. Lundgren doesn't do much besides look physically imposing, but at least he commands the screen as an action hero should. M. Emmett Walsh shows up again and spends most of his time screaming and swearing. The violence is pretty outrageous, but only became distasteful during a torture scene where Lundgren is slowly skewered with long needles while his torturer groans with sexual pleasure. I couldn't help feeling the filmmakers wanted the scene to produce the same feeling in its audience. My opinion should be understood in the context of the stuff I've been watching lately, but this is a cheerfully ridiculous movie that effectively delivers on its limited aims--a surprisingly uncommon quality, to judge by movies like Cobra and The Running Man. If Rambo and Commando amuse you, this one might, too.

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Tommaso
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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#677 Post by Tommaso » Thu May 01, 2014 7:55 am

Two films about Berlin:

Berlin-Jerusalem (Amos Gitai, 1989): Gitai's second feature film shows the parallel stories of German-Jewish poet Else Lasker-Schüler and Tania Shohat, a Russian revolutionary who goes to Palestine to help founding some of the first kibbutz and prepare for the creation of the state of Israel. The film contrasts the coming of the nazi era in Berlin with the increasing fragility of the Utopian dream in Palestine, especially in Lasker-Schüler's disappointment when she finally flees from the nazis and reaches Palestine. Like Esther, this is a reflective and uncomfortable film which I found quite good - although Gitai reuses the 'coup' from the earlier film when he suddenly sets the final moments in the present day, which I found a little foreseeable and less convincing here - especially in the Berlin parts, which turn the 'Weimar look' into something highly artificial which probably shows a certain Fassbinder (or even Ottinger) influence. Brecht's there, too. Fantastic camerawork by the great Henri Alekan, btw. Very good, even though all in all I do prefer Esther and especially the third part of Gitai's "Exile Trilogy", the outstanding "Golem, l'esprit de l'exil", which however must wait for the 1990s list.


But now for my first SPOTLIGHT:

Cycling the Frame
(Cynthia Beatt, 1988): This has been a favourite of mine ever since I first saw it on TV in the late 80s. I almost feel like calling this half-hour film a city symphony for a solo instrumentalist. It shows a very young Tilda Swinton - who is already pretty iconic - cycling around 'the frame', i.e. the Berlin Wall, on a hot summer's day. From the Brandenburg Gate we quickly follow her into lesser known parts of the city and get her thoughts about the divided city via voice-over. She's clearly a stranger to the town, bringing a fresh view to the cityscape (and it's very charming when she tries to read German posters, for instance), and her reflections often have a lyrical and meditative character. It's a pretty simple but very beautiful film, showing us unusual sights of the town, and it also makes you aware how 'green' Berlin actually is. But with the 'frame' always looming, it's also a testament to an era which thankfully would be over only two years later.
The film is available as an extra on a German disc which has "The Invisible Frame" (2009) as its major item, which is basically a re-make of the same bike tour twenty years later. It's also good, but still Cycling The Frame is the more immediately touching film. The disc seems to come with all sorts of subs, but you won't need them, as the film is in English in spite of being a German production.

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domino harvey
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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#678 Post by domino harvey » Thu May 01, 2014 7:52 pm

Lethal Weapon (Richard Donner 1987) Boy, Shane Black sure loves Christmas, huh? Not really sure how this film jump-started a franchise, though some of the component parts are tolerable on their own. Having a suicidal detective throw himself into dangerous situations because he doesn't fear the consequences is a promising premise, even if the film doesn't quite capitalize on it enough. And it was fun to see Greg's dad from Dharma and Greg as a villain! But I could have done without all the torture and the constant exploitation of a young teenage girl who's entire function is to be either a hee-larious starry-eyed crush for Mel Gibson to "charmingly" evade or a victim in constant need of rescuing. And what a silly fist-fight finale (Though it was already pretty absurd-- I can't remember since both films ran together in my memory a bit, but doesn't Danny Glover actually drive or direct a police car into his own house?)

Lethal Weapon 2 (Richard Donner 1989) Dropping most of the dramatics in favor of buddy cop comedy and increased action, this ends up only being about as successful as the first, which is to say not very. I definitely didn't care for the new love interest for Gibson who's only function was to sleep with him before almost immediately dying. Glover is charming enough in both films in an role both underwritten and long since adopted as a shorthand mantra ("I'm getting too old for this shit"). The retconing to push in a connection between the sequel's baddies and Gibson's earlier tragedy is clumsily handled, and I don't think this film has any idea what diplomatic immunity means. But I did appreciate the film's attempts at political relevancy and the scene where Danny Glover and Joe Pesci go to the South African consulate is probably the only part of the film that actually works.

For those like me who didn't enjoy these films, or even if you did, I strongly recommend National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, which runs the series over the coals and is probably the best non-ZAZ ZAZ-style film. I revisited recently and was shocked at how funny even its worst gags are.

Power (Sidney Lumet 1986) I have literally never heard of this film despite the fact that it was directed by Lumet and stars Richard Gere, Julie Christie, Gene Hackman, and Denzel Washington among others, and it didn't take long to figure out why. Inexplicably scored to "Sing Sing Sing" (I'm not exaggerating when I estimate that 9/10 musical cues were just "Sing Sing Sing"), this embarrassing expose of political campaign managers is so toothless that it quickly becomes kind of sad, especially from the director of Network, which this film even dubiously tries to evoke by hiring Beatrice Straight. The movie is the product of filmmakers who have no grasp or insight into their topic and the appearance of time passing everyone involved by is depressingly apparent. Dramatically inept and laughable in its self-satisfied delivery, this is a film with not a single thing to recommend about it. So, go back to never having heard of this.

Weird Science (John Hughes 1985) Well, as per our earlier Hughes discussion, here's my last remaining "big" Hughes title and despite a premise that sounded cringe-inducing and all of the potential for a film about two geeks who somehow make their own dream woman to be sexist and bring all other sorts of baggage with it, I loved this and would rank it second in the Hughes cannon only behind the Breakfast Club. Part of its success is that of course their dream woman, despite being completely open for business as it were, never actually violates the teenage boys, and instead helps them earn self-respect and the respect of their peers and the ability to get two non-created girls of their own age. The movie has lots of set pieces and wacky gags, some of which are refreshingly off-kilter (At one point the entire kitchen turns blue), and it is a testament to the worthlessness of the MPAA system when this movie, which is filled with a surprising amount of nudity, gets a PG-13 when Breakfast Club gets an "R" because they said "Fuck" too many times. But the MPAA being idiotic is not news. So, anyways, good work John Hughes on getting this past the censors.

What makes Weird Science work is that it deftly pounces on the inherent comic possibilities of two losers getting what they've always said they wanted, and many of their troubles are filtered through a perfectly realized teenage sensibility. Take the scene where Kelly LeBrock threatens Anthony Michael Hall's parents at gunpoint to make them okay with her taking him out. This would be tonally bizarre and inexplicable in its lack of a comic focal point unless you think of how effectively this functions as teenage wish fulfillment. The whole film is like that. And the leads are likable and not irredeemably dorky, their desired dates cute and nice (this is not "Convert the stuck up bitches"), and the villains nicely sketched in. Plus, any film where Anthony Michael Hall speaks in a "black" voice for like fifteen minutes and still ends up a good movie has some kind of magic mojo working in its favor!

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#679 Post by bamwc2 » Fri May 02, 2014 8:09 pm

Out of curiosity, does anyone else plan to do director spotlights for this decade? There were some great ones in the last project. I still intend to cover Fassbinder, but other than him I've only seen a handful of other director's complete works for the 80s and am probably too busy with school work to do too many anyway.

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knives
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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#680 Post by knives » Fri May 02, 2014 8:38 pm

My '80s knowledge is basically nothing so I'm not even in the position to.

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Mr Sausage
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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#681 Post by Mr Sausage » Fri May 02, 2014 9:00 pm

I'm working on a lengthy guide to Kurosawa's 80's films.

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knives
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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#682 Post by knives » Fri May 02, 2014 9:10 pm

Any mention of how Honda aided him during that period?

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#683 Post by swo17 » Fri May 02, 2014 9:24 pm

Fingers crossed domino is working on a mermaids in the '80s guide.

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domino harvey
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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#684 Post by domino harvey » Fri May 02, 2014 10:42 pm

Annie (John Huston 1982) Hmm… I don't think this one quite works but I wouldn't place the blame on Huston, whose approach here is livelier than some other classic directors who finally got around to making a musical. Despite the popularity of "Tomorrow" and "It's the Hard Knock Life," none of the other songs here are any good, and indeed most are bad, though I learned afterwards that the worst songs were new additions replacing numbers from the Broadway musical, which couldn't possibly have been a good idea. The musical numbers are occasionally staged with wit, though you can see Huston struggling in the famous "It's the Hard Knock Life" number to work around the limitations of child actors (though there's at least one dynamic shot of long-take transition). Aileen Quinn got a bad reception to her titular performance but she's about as close as I can envision this iteration of the character, and why complain about the poor kid when there's Carol Burnett's immediately tiresome drunk/randy performance to beat up on instead? Ugh. Albert Finney's take on Daddy Warbucks is… I don't know, I can't decide if I liked it or not. I guess that's something? That's kind of where I am on the film as a whole. It's certainly not a disaster, but I wouldn't take anyone trying to sell it as a newly discovered masterpiece too seriously either. At least we can all see it in 'Scope again thanks to the Blu-ray. Thanks Blu-ray. You're the best Blu-ray. LYLAS Blu-ray.

Ladyhawke (Richard Donner 1985) Gorgeous-looking (Storaro didn't get his hands on the 'Scope international Blu-rays at least) fantasy pic with a good central plot hook regarding Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfieffer as lovers who piss off a Bishop so much that he conspires with the Devil to come up with their sad punishment! Top-billed Matthew Broderick is ultimately the cinematic "Nice Guy" who helps everyone else secure a happy ending, and I'm not quite sure what his accent is supposed to be, but all three central actors are quite charming in their fashion and help the lowkey setting and plot move along briskly. Will be curious to see how it stacks up to Willow and Legend, but it's better than Labyrinth and below the Princess Bride on my current High Profile 80s Fantasy Ranking Board. Wait, y'all have one of these too, right?

Mayflower Madam (Lou Antonio 1987) Quickie TV movie capitalizing on a high class call girl scandal no one even remembers anymore with Candice Bergen as the real-life pilgrim-lineaged madame who builds a short lived enterprise on arranging for struggling young women to sleep with rich old men in return for money. The movie is dumb and takes every simplistic narrative shortcut you'd expect from a MOTW, and never shows any interest in any of the details of the case, instead focusing on dopey cheats like Mean Job Interviewers and Boring Lawyer Boyfriends and so on.

Two Moon Junction (Zalman King 1988) Quite a strange erotic pic from King, with decidedly unsexy occurrences like multiple(!) dog burials and Hervé Villechaize croaking out proto-rap lyrics about loving women and money rubbing shoulders with the more conventional s-e-x-y fare. Though it has the misfortune to have that guy who will always be the sleazebag from Kindergarten Cop as the shirtless object of attraction, there's also Twin Peaks' Sherilyn Fenn as the rarely dressed southern belle who finds herself all in a tizzy over a brash carny. No, really, that's the plot, Miss Priss falls for a sweaty day-laborer at the fair. Did I mention that this smut pic somehow also has two Oscar winners and a third nominee in its cast? Unlike the King-scripted 9 1/2 Weeks, the sexual dynamics are in the arena of strong sexual flirtations rather than whatever Rourke was into (though I'm still hearing "No" in most of these encounters), and the film balances its cheesecake with plenty of beefcake in a way that feels it was at least designed with women in mind, which is something. I especially liked the early scene in the shower wherein Fenn pulls a reverse Porky's, which shows objectification in movies doesn't have to be limited to men. So, as far erotic films directed and shot like a commercial for jeans go, this is at least never boring and often just weird enough to merit a very mild recommendation for those susceptible to these kind of things.

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#685 Post by matrixschmatrix » Fri May 02, 2014 10:54 pm

bamwc2 wrote:Out of curiosity, does anyone else plan to do director spotlights for this decade? There were some great ones in the last project. I still intend to cover Fassbinder, but other than him I've only seen a handful of other director's complete works for the 80s and am probably too busy with school work to do too many anyway.
I could probably do Scorsese, since I think I've seen all his 80s films in any case. De Palma and Demme might be fun, but I don't want to make any promises.

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domino harvey
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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#686 Post by domino harvey » Fri May 02, 2014 11:02 pm

Directors Guides make more sense for directors everyone hasn't already seen everything by, if you ask me (no one asked me). And Mr Sausage, I've only seen one Chuck Norris, the early 90s kids movie Sidekicks. I just went to Amazon to see about revisiting it and discovered that the cheapest copy is going for $119. So, it will remain a great film that I can't remember anything about and is probably not a great film

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#687 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Fri May 02, 2014 11:59 pm

The Chuck Norris movie ingrained in my memory the most is The Delta Force, but that's mostly because of the Alan Silvestri theme.

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#688 Post by Forrest Taft » Sat May 03, 2014 5:42 am

domino harvey wrote: For those like me who didn't enjoy these films, or even if you did, I strongly recommend National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, which runs the series over the coals and is probably the best non-ZAZ ZAZ-style film. I revisited recently and was shocked at how funny even its worst gags are.
Good call on Loaded Weapon, a film I always liked. Even the score is funny here, a perfect send-up of the Saxophone scores that dominated so many of the action pics that came out in the wake of Lethal Weapon.

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Mr Sausage
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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#689 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat May 03, 2014 6:29 am

domino harvey wrote:Directors Guides make more sense for directors everyone hasn't already seen everything by, if you ask me (no one asked me). And Mr Sausage, I've only seen one Chuck Norris, the early 90s kids movie Sidekicks. I just went to Amazon to see about revisiting it and discovered that the cheapest copy is going for $119. So, it will remain a great film that I can't remember anything about and is probably not a great film
The whole thing is on youtube, if you feel like setting your childhood memories against sober reality.

Also, I hope no one actually thinks I'm doing a guide to Kurosawa's two 80's films...

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#690 Post by bamwc2 » Sat May 03, 2014 7:35 am

RobertAltman wrote:
domino harvey wrote: For those like me who didn't enjoy these films, or even if you did, I strongly recommend National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, which runs the series over the coals and is probably the best non-ZAZ ZAZ-style film. I revisited recently and was shocked at how funny even its worst gags are.
Good call on Loaded Weapon, a film I always liked. Even the score is funny here, a perfect send-up of the Saxophone scores that dominated so many of the action pics that came out in the wake of Lethal Weapon.
Ugh. I saw this around the time that it first hit home video and remember my teenage self finding it painfully unfunny (and yes, I loved the ZAZ comedies as a kid). I want to give you guys the benefit of the doubt, but I can't imagine it getting any better with age.

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#691 Post by colinr0380 » Sat May 03, 2014 8:06 am

domino harvey wrote:Will be curious to see how it stacks up to Willow and Legend, but it's better than Labyrinth and below the Princess Bride on my current High Profile 80s Fantasy Ranking Board. Wait, y'all have one of these too, right?
Yes, I have one of those - I love Ladyhawke (especially the funky title sequence!) and so far am ranking it above Dragonslayer and Krull but below The Dark Crystal and Excalibur!

It is interesting to see John Wood amongst the great supporting cast of British character actors in Ladyhawke - he had previously starred opposite Broderick in WarGames in probably his best known role (other than when he was doing an early form of cyber-dating with Whoopi Goldberg in Jumpin' Jack Flash!)

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#692 Post by domino harvey » Sat May 03, 2014 9:28 am

What's the pool we're drawing from here? These are the ones I can think of: the Beastmaster, the Conan movies, the Dark Crystal, Dragonslayer, Dune, Excalibur, Ice Pirates, Krull, Labyrinth, Ladyhawke, Legend, the Neverending Story, the Princess Bride, Willow, and Xanadu (and Flesh+Blood and the Name of the Rose if just the setting counts)

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#693 Post by colinr0380 » Sat May 03, 2014 10:19 am

Would The Keep count, despite being World War II set?

None of the following are up to the calibre of your core list, but there is Red Sonja in addition to the Conan movies (apparently Arnie was upset that there was an attempt to try to tie it in with the Conan films, but it was a fantasy film so what did he expect?). Plus Hawk The Slayer, starring Jack Palance!

If you are really desperate you could try Yor: Hunter From The Future or Sorceress, though I've only seen their trailers on the 42nd Street Forever discs so far!
Last edited by colinr0380 on Sat May 03, 2014 3:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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domino harvey
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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#694 Post by domino harvey » Sat May 03, 2014 10:51 am

Looking some of these up, Amazon suggests we also add in Ator the Fighting Eagle, Fire and Ice, and Sword of the Valiant into the mix

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#695 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat May 03, 2014 11:26 am

There's also The Sword and the Sorcerer.

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#696 Post by Feego » Sat May 03, 2014 11:49 am

Don't forget Return to Oz, an underrated film in my book and one I plan to revisit and write up soon.

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#697 Post by YnEoS » Sat May 03, 2014 1:29 pm

There's also a pretty huge sinkhole of lower budget fantasy films around the world in the 1980s. If anyone's curious to explore here are several titles worth checking out.

Hong Kong
Buddha’s Palm (Taylor Wong Tai Loy, 1982)
The Miracle Fighters (Yuen Wo Ping, 1982)
Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (Tsui Hark, 1983)
The Peacock King (Ngai Kai Lam, 1989)

India
Mahabali Hanuman (Babubhai Mistri, 1981, India)

Indonesia
The Devil's Sword (Ratno Timoerm, 1984, Indonesia)

Taiwan
Kung Fu Wonderchild (Lee Tso Nam, 1986)
The Child of Peach (Chan Jun Leung, 1987)
Magic of Spell (Chiu Chung Hing, 1989)

And I haven't seen it yet, but The Ginseng King (Ru-Tar Rotar, 1989) from Thailand has been on my radar for a while.

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#698 Post by bamwc2 » Sat May 03, 2014 6:25 pm

I'll second YnEoS's recommendation of Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain, which I reviewed rather tongue in cheek a couple of weeks ago. It's insanely good fun. If we can add films with contemporary settings to Domino's list of 80s fantasy films, then I'd also like to recommend Chih-Hung Kuei's The Boxer's Omen, a ridiculously awesome fantasy/horror/kickboxing mashup (review forthcoming).

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Mr Sausage
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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#699 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat May 03, 2014 6:37 pm

The Boxer's Omen was one the highlights of my viewings for the horror genre list, although it's hard to describe the film beyond cataloging its endless insanities. I second your recommendation.

If you want more baffling HK insanity, bamwc2, make sure to track down Ngai Kai Lam's The Seventh Curse.

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Re: 1980s List Discussion and Suggestions

#700 Post by bamwc2 » Sat May 03, 2014 6:45 pm

Mr Sausage wrote:The Boxer's Omen was one the highlights of my viewings for the horror genre list, although it's hard to describe the film beyond cataloging its endless insanities. I second your recommendation.

If you want more baffling HK insanity, bamwc2, make sure to track down Ngai Kai Lam's The Seventh Curse.
Thanks, Sausage. I greatly value the recommendations that I get on this forum, and will be sure to track it down. In fact, I believe that I was only aware of The Boxer's Omen's existence because someone (Mr. Sausage?) voted for it in the horror genre project. The deep cuts on these lists are absolutely invaluable.

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