Inspired by another thread about great bad stuff we loved,
I must share my memories of the saturday morning Black Belt Theatre
Kung-Fu movies that were an integral part of my commupance and later
led to my appreciation of really, really bad stuff like early John Waters and
"B" drive-in movies about prisons and rubber suited monsters and demons.
Every saturday our block gathered in front of the Tv at about 11:00 am and remained riveted
until the last Shaolin Monk was standing. Crane and Mantis style, Drunken Monkey,
Cobra and other super cool fighting styles were represented with an amazing array
of hilarious sounds and effects. When two people were fighting, you could hear
about 20 people groaning and making "AAaaaaAAAaaaHhhhhHHhhhh" noises in
the background.......karate chops sounded like two pans clanging together or
a drunk guy beating on a flag pole with a stick.......These fighters had amazing abilities !
They could jump backwards from the grass to a roof top without even bending their
knees....when fighting their hands and feet could move faster than an airplane propellor !  ;D
Each sentence uttered by one of the fighters ALWAYS was prefaced with a long "heeeeeeeeeeeehhhh"
for a man or a short , terse "Humph" for a women, didnt even come close to lining up to
the mouth movements and as an added bonus, werent even translated correctly a lot
of the time. Saki was drunk, heads rolled, Masters were Avenged, honors were restored !!! 
These fighters could take Godzilla down with a pole  ;D
Most of these films were by the Shaw brothers and on UHF before cable Tv.  In Philadelphia,
if you were lucky enuff to be walking down Market St. when the morning matinee was
over you were treated to a mass riot of little kids emptying out on the sidewalk testing
all the newfound mad skillz they just learned with gleeful aplomb ! Very funny !  :D

Shaw Brothers...I salute you !!  Thank you for making my saturday mornings fabulous for many
years !

http://www.giantrobot.com/issues/issue16/master/images/mastera.jpg

The sound effects still kill me.  When a guy gets punched, it sounds like a thin piece of wood breaking in half.  In real life, if you got punched, it wouldn't sound like that ;D

And how come they make those "Whaaaaah" and "Haaaa-yaaa" sounds when they fight?  In a real fight, what better way to surprise your enemy than to make loud sounds to let him know you're coming ::)

When my little brother and I were kids we were watching some cheesy 70's kung-fu movie, and during one of the fight scenes the hero killed one of the bad guys by kicking him in the nuts. 

We were in tears after that.  ;D ;D ;D

The picture at the bottom of the post.  ;D  ;D

Master of the Flying Guillotine:

I just saw that movie last week, what a classic.  ;D

And how come they make those "Whaaaaah" and "Haaaa-yaaa" sounds when they fight?  In a real fight, what better way to surprise your enemy than to make loud sounds to let him know you're coming ::)


Actually, it's not as silly as it looks -- the Kiai is a traditional battle cry of Japanese martial arts. 

It's purpose in combat is the same as the sounds of Western combat: to verbally intimidate an opponent (as seen in every episode of COPS), to prepare for an anticipated impact (particularly important in a sport as choreographed as pro wrestling, where both participants know well in advance which hits are going to be delivered), or to stiffen the muscles of the trunk before lifting a heavy weight (as in both the power-lifting moves common to both wrestling and weightlifting).

I saw one called "Kill and Kill Again". (After doing a search on IMDB, I discovered it really came out in 1981-so it is not a 70s movie so sue me). I actually saw this at the movies-Why? Because I boyfriend at the time wanted to see it. I think this might have been the only movie we went to see. (Nice guy, Huh?) I do remember it was very cheesy and I remember this chick with hot pint hair. Other than that, I don't remember anything else about the movie-which is probably a good thing. I probably blocked it out of my mind. lol



Cat