50 New Pulp Movies

Recently Derrick Ferguson announced that he was doing a list of 50 New Pulp movies.  The end result can be found here

When he announced it, it for shits and giggles I thought I'd try and see how well I'd go at predicting what would be on his list.

So here is my list the ones in red weren't on Derrick's list.

50 New Pulp Movies

1. Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins

2. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

3. Sahara

4. Indiana Jones Quartet

5. The Rocketeer

6. Sky Captain

7. Hudson Hawk

8. Our Man Flint/In like Flint

9. High Road to China

10. Darkman

11. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou

12. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

13. The Fifth Element

14. The Phantom

15. Romancing the Stone

16. Jake Speed

17. Dark Avenger

18. Dark Knight trilogy

19. King Kong 2005

20. Kong Skull Island

21. The Mummy Trilogy

22. The Goonies

23. Cutthroat Island

24. Sunset

25. Shoot em up

26. Captain America: The First Avenger

27. Atlantis the Lost Empire

28. The Punisher 2004

29. Big Trouble in Little China

30. National Treasure

31. Cast a Deadly Spell

32. The Black Mask

33. Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen

34. Brotherhood of the Wolf

35. The Black Samurai

36. The Black Scorpion

37. Billy Jack

38. Congo

39. Machete

40. The Man with the Iron Fists

41. Second Hand Lions

42. The Specialist

43. The Transporter

44. Cleopatra Jones

45. Coffy

46. Foxy Brown

47. Black Belt Jones

48. The Equaliser

49. The A Team

50. The President's Man

So with only 14 out of 50, I'm a poor prophet of Derrick's choices but it just shows the wide range of New Pulp movies out there (that is movies from after the 1950s in the pulp style)

Legend of the Fist; The Return of Chen Zhen (2010) starring Donnie Yen

I have a confession to make I haven't seen Fist of Fury (1972) starring Bruce Lee.  I know, I know it's surprising and it is something I'll have to rectify in the near future.

I had somehow gotten into my head that Lee's Chen Zhen was a real historical figure who fought against the Japanese imperialists but a quick check shows me that I was wrong.  Chen Zhen was a fictional character who has been played my many actors after that including Jet Li and Donny Yen.
Yen first played Chen Zhen in the TV series Fist of Fury.

I saw an ad for Legend of The Fist during SBS Kung Fu Festival and  said I have to watch this.

The movie opens in World War I, where ill equipped  Chinese labourers are caught in the fighting and Chen Zhen is kicking Hun ass in several different ways using a pakour-like style that reminded me of Oliver Queen in Arrow.  When one of Zhen's friends dies, Zhen swaps identities and returns to China.

The film then skips to Shanghai in 1925 whiuch has been divided amongst the other allied nations including Britain and Japan.  Tensions are high and the Japanese are starting their imperial designs.  Chen Zhen ingratiates himself into the Casablanca Club where everyone comes.

When Zhen comes across an attack by the Japanese on a Chinese General, he steals the outfit advertising the movie The Masked Warrior.  The fact that Masked Warrior's outfit looks like Kato's from the Green Hornet probably isn't a coincidence.

 

 

Suddenly, The Masked Warrior is facing the Japanese and being a symbol of the resistance.  Kids are wearing masks and mask graffiti appears around the city. Curiously nothing much is made of this where a movie hero seemingly comes to life (The Cape had a similar conceit did a little of this)

 

The Japanese have a Chinese Patriot Kill List. Interestingly, Zhen is unable to save everyone on the list but and there are some brutal deaths. At the end Chen Zhen faces down the Japanese army brigade as himself with a pair of nunchukas.

 

This is a great film that homages Bruce Lee and well worth seeing.  It is a Chinese film and I saw the subtitled version.