RZA introduces his Dream Double Feature
RZA introduces his Dream Double Feature
By RZA
In June 2016, RZA joined Metrograph to present his Dream Double Feature of two Shaw Brothers kung fu classics.
The Man with the Iron Fists screens as part of Late Nites: Hong Kong Goes International on Friday, May 27 and Sunday, May 29.
RZA: Well it’s Saturday evening, Manhattan, New York City.
Aliza ma: We’ve got an undisputed kung fu cinema expert in the house.
Exactly. But the cool thing is we also got two films from the great Shaw Brothers.
You know, New York, this city is a great city. And you know, we watch it grow and change and develop itself over the years. And it’s always been a great place for cinema. I was fortunate to come up in the early ’80s when they still had triple-feature kung fu movies on 42nd Street. And you got to think about the times—you had some of the biggest films, maybe Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), I recall, being something that all the kids in school were hoping to go see. And I guess around this time you started getting some manifestation of Cannon Films, which released movies like American Ninja (1985) or Enter the Ninja (1981), these type of films, right? But I remember when the film we’re gonna watch today—called Super Ninja back then; the real title was Five Element Ninjas (1982), but when it came to America it was called Super Ninja—I remember seeing Enter the Ninja and Enter the Dragon (1973) and American Ninja and Ninja III: Domination (1984), and all those Cannon releases, but when I saw Super Ninja, you know, I was blown! And this particular film played on 42nd Street for maybe 30 weeks. Then they took it off and bought it back with a double feature, took it off and bought it back with a triple feature. It became one of the cult classics, one of the favorite cinema experiences. So when I talked to Aaron Sachs and the Celestial Team about which movie could we bring to Metrograph, I was like, you know, on a Saturday evening, just for the fun of it, let’s bring Five Element Ninjas, aka Super Ninja.
Do you remember how old you were when you first saw this?
Maybe I was 13, 14 years old. When I saw it, usually these films would be out about two years before they reached the American circulation. So you’ll see a film like Five Deadly Venoms (1978)—exactly Channel Five, there you go, Channel Five Drive-In Movie every Saturday. And Channel 11, WPIX, they had Ocean Shore movies, wasn’t it? They weren’t as good as the Show Brothers. But if you wanted to get something, you’d turn to Channel 11, and that’s where you had the Jimmy Wang Yu collection after the One-Armed Swordsman (1967).
"Martial arts and kung fu is something that attracts us because it’s a great part of the human experience."
But the cool thing is that when you watch this film—of course, we’ve seen many movies over the years, and so cinema has incorporated martial arts into them; when we watch our superhero films now, we’re watching martial arts movies. But now with characters that we also grew up with from iconic books, and a lot of those Asian choreographers like Corey Yuen, and Donnie Yen, and many others, they bring them in to help make these films. And now, we even have great stunt teams, American-born, who have mastered the craft—we’re seeing all this different product come out of Hollywood. But there’s always still a few gags that haven’t been utilized. And I think one of the things we haven’t done yet in Hollywood is that we haven’t really mastered the Asian style of weaponry. What I mean by that is, when you look at some of the pole fighting, some of the acrobatics and the natural talent of the actors and the stuntmen in the film, you’ll notice that we haven’t incorporated those elements yet into our movies. And I think we will. When you watch the great Marvel movies, Avengers and all that, you’re seeing great action, and in the last Captain America: Civil War when Captain America was switching the shield with Bucky, that had me zoned in. But when you watch Lo Mang in this film, who’s also known as ‘The Toad,’ when you watch him do his bare arm technique in this film against a samurai swordsman, you will see some great choreography. And when you see the sword against the staff, all the different elements you’re going to see, I think it will inspire and entertain you. I would like to say also that some of the gags in the blood may not be as sophisticated as we’re now used to. But the ideas and the attempt that Chang Cheh had always strived to give the audience is present there. So there’s limbs coming off. And there will be some guts.
Let me say one last thing before I zone out. Martial arts and kung fu is something that attracts us because it’s a great part of the human experience. A lot of the techniques of martial arts were taken from nature, taken from animals—you know, tiger-style, crane-style, snake style. But also this movie is called Five Element Ninjas because they recognize what gold, and wood, and water, and fire, and earth does, and how it relates to the spirit. Movies are really techniques practiced by true martial artists—and I have a true martial artist here in the room with me tonight who took time from his busy schedule to come hang out, he’s gonna come up and say hello, this is Shifu Shi Yan Ming from USA Shaolin Temple.
Aliza Ma: This is RZA’s Shifu.
SHIFU SHI YAN MING: Amituofo. Good evening.
RZA: He knows many styles. When you think about, there’s a martial arts style course Xing Yi which uses 12 animal forms and also five elements. So this movie is kind of based on that theory of the five elements, it’s called Five Element Ninjas. Please enjoy.
House of Traps (1981)
Good evening for those who saw the first film as you stay for the double feature, and for those newcomers who just got in, welcome to the Metrograph, one of the coolest theatres in New York. We want to thank Celestial Pictures and Shaw Brothers for providing us with these 35 millimetre prints. Very hard to come by, these films. Well, House of Traps (1981) actually never played in a New York cinema. So this would be the first time.
It was made during the time that Shaw Brothers was going through a financial crisis. And there was a new generation of martial arts films making it to the cinema, with the likes of Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan changed them from being strictly about chivalry, and he was able to mix martial arts and comedy together, and had a lot of box office success, and Golden Harvest and Raymond Chow, their company, started to rekindle that flame. Bruce Lee was one of the first artists on Golden Harvest with Raymond Chow to cause a martial arts explosion from Asia but also to make it to the American cinema. Lo Lieh was the Shaw Brothers artist who, with the Five Fingers of Death (1972), had the highest box office until Bruce Lee, of course. But Shaw Brothers, through the director Chang Cheh and what we call the Five Venom Mob, made many movies with a lot of success. And then of course as everything rises, there came a time of decline. House of Traps was one of the films that was made during the decline. We chose this film for various reasons. One, it has never played in a New York cinema in a 35 millimetre print. And two, it is one of the final movies where you see the Venom Mob working together with Shaw Brothers; after, a lot of these actors leave the Shaw lot. They go on and make independent films with other studios. Sun Chien, who in this film plays ‘The Scorpion’ of the five venoms, was actually a Korean actor taking on Chinese roles, and Joseph Kuo—the guy who made Mystery of Chessboxing (1987)—and then Philip Kwok, and most of the other Venom mob, were Taiwanese, so most of them returned back to Taiwan and started their own production companies and started making films.
So the cool thing about this film, similar to the Five Element Ninjas, this film specialises in the use of weaponry. The final sequence was, during the time, I think, one of the best weapons sequence choreographed. Of course, this movie was 1982, and we’ve seen so many different things since then that has potentially taken away from the fascination of seeing something—once you see a guy jump six feet, you know, the guy who do five feet doesn’t work for you, right? But like I said, I really think the weapons display at the end of this film is first class, and I think you guys will really enjoy it.
Another reason why I chose both the films for tonight is that they both were very inspirational and very influential in making my movie The Man with the Iron Fists (2012). When I had a chance to sit down with my co-writer, Eli Roth, he wasn’t very familiar with a lot of the martial arts genre. We went to his screening room at his home and I showed him House of Traps. And when he saw this one, he was like, “Okay, I see what you’re aiming at, what you’re trying to do.” It opened up his brain to be coincided with my brain, and to help me write my first feature film. So on behalf of the Metrograph, Celestial Pictures, and Shaw Brothers, I present to you House of Traps.
The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)
