moonhangslow

[moonhangslow]

i absolutely love old 60s-80s wuxia movies and have watched probably close to a hundred of them just in the last year, especially if you include some of the more wuxia-adjacent kung fu films of the era, but without question my favorite wuxia subgenre is the string of films made mostly in the 80s plus a few from the late 70s and early 90s when hong kong and taiwan movie studios started to get really weird and high concept in an effort to stand out and were churning out all kinds of movies about wizards having laser battles and shit, but since computer graphics weren't really a big thing yet everything had to be done either with practical effects or just hand-drawing the effects on the film.

i say this without an ounce of irony or condescension. there is absolutely nothing "so bad it's good" about these movies. they genuinely fucking whip ass and the amount of effort and artistry put into such weird and wild concepts is mind-blowing, especially considering many of them were made to be practically disposable and some of them only survived to today by the grace of someone happening to save the original negative or just an intact 35mm print from being tossed in a dumpster.

to that end i've been compiling a list of films in this my most beloved of genres and if you love wizard shit then you really owe it to yourself to track some of these down and give them a watch:

EDIT: forgot to mention that many of these you can find on public torrent servers like rarbg and there's a surprising number just on archive.org and youtube. but also if you can spare the cash, many excellent old hong kong movies are starting to get really nice physical media releases from boutique DVD and blu-ray distribution companies

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Frank K. Morris (b. 1950) - Daycare, 1984

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Sawako Goda

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ROBERT LAPOUJADE /

Jeanne Moreau 1967

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Harald Sohlberg - Moonlight (1907)

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"It took Patrasche long to discover any scent." A dog of Flanders. 1927.

Internet Archive

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From the sea

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Carl Moll - Heiligenstaedter Kirche in Wien (ca. 1905)

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Charles Guilloux - The Water Way (1895)

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Gold brooch inscribed "NOSTRE ET TOUT DITZ A VOSTRE [D]ESEIR (Ours and always at your desire)", France, circa 1400

from The Victoria & Albert Museum

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Harald Sohlberg

Fiskerens hus

Harald Sohlberg

The Old Captain’s House, Winter Afternoon, 1909

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Flower Meadow in the North

(Blumenwiese im Norden)

Harald Oscar Sohlberg