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Hand Of Death (1976 Film)
''Hand of Death'' (), also known as ''Countdown in Kung Fu'', is a 1976 Hong Kong martial arts film written and directed by John Woo. It stars Tao-liang Tan, Doran Tan and James Tien (actor), James Tien in leading roles, and features early supporting performances from Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. Yuen Biao also makes a cameo appearance. In addition to their acting roles, Hung also worked as stunt co-ordinator, whilst Biao also performed much of the stuntwork, including doubling for both of the principal stars. Plot During the Qing Dynasty the Shaolin Temple, Shaolin disciples are hunted down by a powerful warrior, Shih Shao-Feng, who wants to rid China of the Shaolin. At a remote training camp a group of Shaolin train together. Their best student Yun Fei is given the task of taking down Shih and his reign of terror. Along the way he befriends Jackie Chan, Chan Yuan-lung's character, Tan Feng, who is a blacksmith. Yun Fei arrives at Shih's camp and tries to take him, but fails. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Woo
John Woo Yu-Sen SBS (; born September 22, 1946) is a Hong Kong filmmaker, known as a highly-influential figure in the action film genre. He was a pioneer of heroic bloodshed films (a crime action film genre involving Chinese triads) and the gun fu genre in Hong Kong action cinema, before working in Hollywood films. He is known for his highly chaotic "bullet ballet" action sequences, stylized imagery, Mexican standoffs, frequent use of slow motion and allusions to ''wuxia'', film noir and Western cinema. Considered one of the major figures of Hong Kong cinema, Woo has directed several notable action films including ''A Better Tomorrow'' (1986), '' The Killer'' (1989), '' Hard Boiled'' (1992) and '' Red Cliff'' (2008/2009). His Hollywood films include ''Hard Target'' (1993), '' Broken Arrow'' (1996), ''Face/Off'' (1997) and '' Mission: Impossible 2'' (2000). He also created the comic series ''Seven Brothers'', published by Virgin Comics. He is the founder and chairman of the produ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stunt Co-ordinator
A stunt coordinator, usually an experienced stunt performer, is hired by a TV, film or theatre director or production company for stunt casting. Their job is to arrange the casting (stunt players and stunt doubles) and performance of stunts for a film, television programme or a live audience. Where the film requires a stunt, and involves the use of stunt performers, the stunt coordinator will arrange the casting and performance of the stunt, working closely with the director. In many cases, the stunt coordinator budgets, designs and choreographs the stunt sequence to suit the script and the director's vision. It is a stunt coordinator's responsibility to create an environment where open dialogue among cast & crew involved in stunts can occur (i.e., concerns and problems can be resolved without fear of retaliation, bullying or belittlement). They should ensure that adequate rehearsals and planning occur prior to filming on set, and also ensure that performer credentials are vetted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hong Kong Martial Arts Films
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Kong filmmakers combined with elements from Hollywood and Japanese cinema along with new action choreography and filmmaking techniques, to create a culturally distinctive form that went on to have wide transcultural appeal. In turn, Hollywood action films have been heavily influenced by Hong Kong genre conventions, from the 1970s onwards. The first Hong Kong action films favoured the ''wuxia'' style, emphasizing mysticism and swordplay, but this trend was politically suppressed in the 1930s and replaced by kung fu films that depicted more down-to-earth unarmed martial arts, often featuring folk heroes such as Wong Fei Hung. Post-war cultural upheavals led to a second wave of wuxia films with highly acrobatic violence, followed by the emer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Films Directed By John Woo
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and to the art form that is the result of it. Recording and transmission of film The moving images of a film are created by photographing actual scenes with a motion-picture camera, by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques, by means of CGI and computer animation, or by a combination of some or all of these techniques, and other visual effects. Before the introduction of digital production, series of still images were recorded on a strip of chemically sensitiz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1970s Martial Arts Films
Year 197 ( CXCVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Magius and Rufinus (or, less frequently, year 950 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 197 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * February 19 – Battle of Lugdunum: Emperor Septimius Severus defeats the self-proclaimed emperor Clodius Albinus at Lugdunum (modern Lyon). Albinus commits suicide; legionaries sack the town. * Septimius Severus returns to Rome and has about 30 of Albinus's supporters in the Senate executed. After his victory he declares himself the adopted son of the late Marcus Aurelius. * Septimius Severus forms new naval units, manning all the triremes in Italy with heavily armed troops for war in the East. His soldiers embark on an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1976 Martial Arts Films
Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Philadelphia Flyers–Red Army game results in a 4–1 victory for the National Hockey League's Philadelphia Flyers over HC CSKA Moscow of the Soviet Union. * January 16 – The trial against jailed members of the Red Army Faction (the West German extreme-left militant Baader–Meinhof Group) begins in Stuttgart. * January 18 ** Full diplomatic relations are established between Bangladesh and Pakistan 5 years after the Bangladesh Liberation War. ** The Scottish Labour Party is formed as a breakaway from the UK-wide party. ** Super Bowl X in American football: The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys, 21–17, in Miami. * January 21 – First commercial Concorde flight, from London to Bahrain. * January 27 ** The United States vetoes a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1976 Films
The year 1976 in film involved some significant events. Highest-grossing films (U.S.) The top ten 1976 released films by box office gross in North America are as follows: Events *January – Paramount Pictures sets up a separate motion picture division and names David V. Picker as president. *March 22 – Filming begins on George Lucas' ''Star Wars'' science fiction film. In one of the most lucrative business decisions in film history, Lucas declines his directing fee of $500,000 in exchange for complete ownership of merchandising and sequel rights. *April 1 – ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' is officially re-released as a midnight movie at the Waverly Theater (Now the IFC Center) in Greenwich Village in New York City, starting through the run and still being shown in there all around the world. *April 9 – Alfred Hitchcock's last film, '' Family Plot'', is released. *August 11 – John Wayne appears in his final film, ''The Shootist''. *August 26 – Alan Ladd Jr. i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. History Random House was founded in 1927 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, two years after they acquired the Modern Library imprint from publisher Horace Liveright, which reprints classic works of literature. Cerf is quoted as saying, "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random," which suggested the name Random House. In 1934 they published the first authorized edition of James Joyce's novel ''Ulysses'' in the Anglophone world. ''Ulysses'' transformed Random House into a formidable publisher over the next two decades. In 1936, it absorbed the firm of Smith and Haas—Robert Haas became the third partner until retiring and selling his share back to Cerf and Klopfer in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yuen Wah
Yuen Wah (born Yung Kai-chi; 2 September 1952) is a Hong Kong action film actor, action choreographer, stuntman and martial artist who has appeared in over 160 films and over 20 television series. Early life Born Yung Kai-chi on 2 September 1950 in Hong Kong, Kai attended the China Drama Academy, a Peking opera school in Hong Kong in the late 1950s and 1960s. He was instructed by Master Yu Jim Yuen and became a member of the Seven Little Fortunes along with fellow students including Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Yuen Qiu and Corey Yuen. Like the other students, he took his sifu's given name – " Yuen". In his biography, Jackie Chan stated that Yuen Wah's martial arts ability was well respected among his fellow students. After leaving the opera school, many of the students entered the Hong Kong film industry. Yuen Wah was given an anglicised stagename, ''Sam Yuen'', but like Yuen Biao (Bill Yuen / Jimmy Yuen), the name was not used. Rather than reverting to their birth nam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carter Wong
Carter Wong (born Wong Chia-ta on March 22, 1947) is a Chinese actor and martial artist, who is mainly known for roles in Kung Fu action movies. The biggest movies he was featured in are ''Big Trouble in Little China'' (1986), and ''Yong zheng ming zhang Shao Lin men'' (1977). As an actor, he contributed to more than seventy martial arts films. He also worked as a stuntman in films, and was the fighting instructor for the movie ''Rambo III''. Wong is still active in martial arts. Acting Wong’s first substantial movie role was in 1972, for the movie ''He qi dao'', in which he played Kao Chang. Using several pseudonyms, Wong appeared in multiple martial arts movies for many years. The majority of his movies are shot in Hong Kong and Taiwan and spoken in his mother tongue Mandarin. With the growing popularity of Chinese kung fu films in the rest of the world, a great number of movies Wong played in were overdubbed in English, among which is the 1978 kung fu Hall Of Fame Classi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shaolin Temple
Shaolin Monastery (少林寺 ''Shàolínsì''), also known as Shaolin Temple, is a renowned monastic institution recognized as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin Kung Fu. It is located at the foot of Wuru Peak of the Songshan mountain range in Dengfeng County, Henan Province, China. The name reflects its location in the ancient grove (林 lín) of Mount Shaoshi, in the hinterland of the Songshan mountains. Mount Song occupied a prominent position among Chinese sacred mountains as early as the 1st century BC, when it was proclaimed one of the Five Holy Peaks (五岳 wǔyuè). It is located some thirty miles (about forty-eight kilometers) southeast of Luoyang, the former capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–534), and forty-five miles (about seventy-two kilometers) southwest of Zhengzhou, the modern capital of Henan Province.Shahar 2008 As the first Shaolin abbot, Batuo devoted himself to translating Buddhist scriptures and to preaching doctrines to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qing Dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaking ethnic group who unified other Jurchen tribes to form a new "Manchu" ethnic identity. The dynasty was officially proclaimed in 1636 in Manchuria (modern-day Northeast China and Outer Manchuria). It seized control of Beijing in 1644, then later expanded its rule over the whole of China proper and Taiwan, and finally expanded into Inner Asia. The dynasty lasted until 1912 when it was overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution. In orthodox Chinese historiography, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The multiethnic Qing dynasty lasted for almost three centuries and assembled the territorial base for modern China. It was the largest imperial dynasty in the history of China and in 1790 the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
