The Killer Meteors - 88 Films - Blu-ray Forum

Killer Meteor · 06-18-2022, 10:21 PM

Besides being hardly anyone's favourite Jackie Chan film, THE KILLER METEORS was an odd introduction for me, and likely a fair few fans, to Jimmy Wang Yu. Instead of his usual basher antics with lenghty tournaments, we get a wu xia mystery, likely cashing in on the interest in Shaw Brother's recent Gu Long adaptations by getting the author to pen what I think was a new script.

Jimmy is The Killer Meteor, who appears to be some sort of boss of a gang of crooks OR a government agent - it really isn't clear which. He is hired by a rich man, Hua Wu-Bin (jackie Chan), to obtain the antidote for a rare poison, said poison having been inflicted on Hua by his wife, Madame Tempest.

I'm not really sure what Lo Wei was going for here (not for the first time am I thinking this). Wang Yu is rather limited by the more acrobatic choreography, and the frequent wirework and doubling gives the impression to many a novice of him being a phoney. Frustratingly, the film sets up four martial experts for him to fight, and he deals with them in mere seconds - to a certain extent this makes him appear a bad-ass, but it also suggets no-one wanted to risk him getting clobbered for real by Phillip Ko Fei. Giving Wang Yu TWO lovely women to fawn over him also highlights his inability to convery adequate emotion.

And yet, I'm a fan...

Oh right, Jackie is in this! For three scenes, and 10min max. Most of which he spends sitting down, in a role likely intended for an older actor. The sight of Jackie cackling evily is strange in retrospect, but he does look rather dashing and probably could have pulled off a career in wu xia better then Wang Yu.

The finale, taking place on a pit of pillars and spikes, is pretty damn good, except it cops out with Wang's "Killer Meteor", the silliest solution to a kung fu film...ever, I think

And the KING KONG music is in this too!

The transfer on the 88 Films release looks very good, revealing some interesting use of coloured lights that were less evident on the old VHS release. And it's always nice to see people having conversations without the frame pan'scanning rapidly to keep up.

The Mike Leeder/Arne Vernera commentary is their first Wang Yu one (they were absent from both ONE-ARMED BOXER and CHINESE BOXER) and though you won't learn much specific about the film, there are some corking Wang Yu anecdotes. As ever, I'm a bit baffled by their pronunciation of Lo REI...and ammusingly they fail to recognise the KING KONG music, saying they think the score might be original.

Dudes, you need to watch KING KONG, it's my favourite film!

06-18-2022, 10:21 PM	#1
Killer Meteor Banned Member since:Jan 2013 4K collection:- Blu-ray collection:- DVD collection:-	The Killer Meteors - 88 Films Besides being hardly anyone's favourite Jackie Chan film, THE KILLER METEORS was an odd introduction for me, and likely a fair few fans, to Jimmy Wang Yu. Instead of his usual basher antics with lenghty tournaments, we get a wu xia mystery, likely cashing in on the interest in Shaw Brother's recent Gu Long adaptations by getting the author to pen what I think was a new script. Jimmy is The Killer Meteor, who appears to be some sort of boss of a gang of crooks OR a government agent - it really isn't clear which. He is hired by a rich man, Hua Wu-Bin (jackie Chan), to obtain the antidote for a rare poison, said poison having been inflicted on Hua by his wife, Madame Tempest. I'm not really sure what Lo Wei was going for here (not for the first time am I thinking this). Wang Yu is rather limited by the more acrobatic choreography, and the frequent wirework and doubling gives the impression to many a novice of him being a phoney. Frustratingly, the film sets up four martial experts for him to fight, and he deals with them in mere seconds - to a certain extent this makes him appear a bad-ass, but it also suggets no-one wanted to risk him getting clobbered for real by Phillip Ko Fei. Giving Wang Yu TWO lovely women to fawn over him also highlights his inability to convery adequate emotion. And yet, I'm a fan... Oh right, Jackie is in this! For three scenes, and 10min max. Most of which he spends sitting down, in a role likely intended for an older actor. The sight of Jackie cackling evily is strange in retrospect, but he does look rather dashing and probably could have pulled off a career in wu xia better then Wang Yu. The finale, taking place on a pit of pillars and spikes, is pretty damn good, except it cops out with Wang's "Killer Meteor", the silliest solution to a kung fu film...ever, I think And the KING KONG music is in this too! The transfer on the 88 Films release looks very good, revealing some interesting use of coloured lights that were less evident on the old VHS release. And it's always nice to see people having conversations without the frame pan'scanning rapidly to keep up. The Mike Leeder/Arne Vernera commentary is their first Wang Yu one (they were absent from both ONE-ARMED BOXER and CHINESE BOXER) and though you won't learn much specific about the film, there are some corking Wang Yu anecdotes. As ever, I'm a bit baffled by their pronunciation of Lo REI...and ammusingly they fail to recognise the KING KONG music, saying they think the score might be original. Dudes, you need to watch KING KONG, it's my favourite film! Last edited by BigNickUK; 06-19-2022 at 08:49 PM.

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