The reason for this special spotlight is that in spite of the fact that Mike Zeck is one of my favorite artists ( who sadly doesn´t get many jobs right now ) and that I mainly fell in love with his work reading the spanish issues of SHANG - CHI MAESTRO DE KUNG FU ( or how it was later called simply JUDO KARATE KUNG FU ) I haven´t yet made a post for his tenure on the book. For those who came in late and missed out on all the kung furying / karate chopping martial arts action I wrote two posts about the series in general, did three spotlight posts for two of the books main artists Paul Gulacy and Gene Day as well as a special post on Gil Kane who provided a lot of the early covers. I have been pimping the book like crazy and I like to think that I had a small part in convincing Disney to finally reprint this.
Right now I still haven´t read the third omnibus but I am thinking about getting the fourth and final volume since it is currently offered at amazon Germany for 70 bucks which is not only a huge discount from the regular price of 125 Dollars - 119 EUROS in german comic shops - it´s also less than what I paid for volume three. I guess I´m still waiting to see if it goes as low as 65 bucks which is usually the point where I order because that´s almost half price. Anyway, I would have probably already bought it if I hadn´t just ordered the second volume of BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS.
That being said, if you are thinking about getting volume four of the omnibus books and live in Germany now is probably a good time and I would not wait too long because as I said these bargain prices don´t last very long. And with that out of the way let´s get to Mike Zeck´s art on MASTER OF KUNG FU. As always I started with the black and white art but because I don´t have that much high quality original art I also tried to include some of my favorite scenes. I hope those that have already read the series get a kick out of it - no pun intended - and for all those who haven´t tried the series yet because they ask themselves Why should I read a series that came out in the 70s ? maybe this might convince you.
As longtime readers know I like to experiment with things to keep things interesting - as much for myself as for my readers - so I am skipping the birthdays of the day to correct a grave oversight since it ties into Today´s topic of martial arts action. With all the work I put into going through the various lists to make sure I pay homage to people who have had an impact in my life I still somehow managed to completely miss Cynthia Rothrock´s 61th birthday last Thursday. And if I hadn´t googled her on a whim I would have had to wait until next year - again - to write about Cynthia who was not only one the biggest martial arts ladies of the 80s and 90s, the sizzling sexbomb was also the main inspiration for Mortal Combat´s Sonya Blade.
Today´s SJW´s are always talking about female empowerment but back in the 80s Cynthia Rothrock was living it as she was not only a trailblazer for women - not only was she the first woman to be featured on the cover of a martial arts mag the still undefeated five time World Karate Champion who holds five black belts was the first to win a man´s championship - she also got paid to beat men up. And the better and more thorough she beat them up the more she got paid. That´s like the ultimate feminist dream. In all seriousness, at a time when most caucasians were cast in Hong Kong movies as either the villains or comic relief she played the main heroine.
Which brings us to Today´s Cynthia Rothrock movie Tiger Claws or how it is called in Germany Tigerkralle. Now while it is an apt translation the german title was also chosen because in Germany Enter The Dragon is called Der Mann mit der Todeskralle ( The Man With The Claw Of Death ) so there is the connection of the Tigerkralle with the Todeskralle. And while I don´t want to say that the Cynthia Rothrock vehicle is up to the quality level of the classic Bruce Lee movie it does feature Bolo Yeung as the villain ( who reprises his role in the sequel ). But more than that the real reason why I chose this movie is that I think this was the first time that Cynthia Rothrock brought out her sexier side and boy, does she ever.
One of the reasons why I was so peeved that I missed her birthday is that I already spent a few days making all the animated GIFs from Tiger Claws in advance. So let´s not let them go to waste and start. The movie opens on a typical metropolitan street where we see a big breasted hooker with black hair being followed by well, a slightly creepier and I like to think a less hygienic version of me. While we don´t exactly know who he is we get the impression right away that he is somebody who is obviously up to no good and doesn´t care if the busty hooker notices him following her.
We also see a police guy who is not very good at being undercover keeping tabs on the hooker who is obviously their bait for the pervert. But he gets distracted by some ass and I have to call foul on this because the hooker he was supposed to follow is way hotter than the woman who manages to distract him. Anyway, the hooker ends up in a deserted back alley where the guy who has probably not showered in a month makes some unwanted advances to her to which she responds by beating the crap out of him !
As the sex offender ( billed as Psycho Rapist in the credits which sounds a lot like those cheap 80s sexploitation movies ) is captured and arrested by the police guy - who arrives only after everything important went down which is a staple of movies as well as real life - we learn that the busty hooker was only wearing a black wig and that it´s really Cynthia Rothrock in disguise who . . . whoa wait a minute. The hooker IS Cynthia Rothrock ?
When did she get such huge melons and where has she been hiding those amazing sweater puppies all the time ? I did a bit of research and it is rumored that she got some enhancements ( 34C - 25 - 34 ) but when I first saw that movie I was not prepared for Cynthia´s giant double airbags.
At that moment I was ready to see Cynthia Rothrock slutting it up a few notches and going undercover to use her hardbody to lure more sexual predators into a trap - with the occasional smart one getting the upper hand on her so we see some hot sex scenes or at least Cynthia naked - but my hopes were dashed pretty quick as we learn that she was just on loan to the vice police for this case and there will be no encore performance.
So we have to say goodbye to Cynthia´s hooker outfit but she makes up for this with a nice pink sweater and boy, does she know how to wear it.
The plot of the movie is told very quickly : because of a series of murders using the Tiger Claw technique the resident martial arts specialist of the police and Cynthia Rothrock are brough in to investigate. This being the 80s the guy is of course played as a loner who doesn´t want a partner ( they still do that in cop movies ) and especially not a woman because this kind of work is too dangerous. So Cynthia has to prove herself to her new partner and ultimately they become a good team. I don´t remember if they also become romantically involved but it´s possible. I mean, she is built like a brick sh*t house and with that haircut and the way Cynthia stretches out the sweater I´m getting almost Power Girl like vibrations.
In any case, the main appeal of the movie lies less in the intricate story and more in the execution. Especially the parts with Cynthia Rothrock who shows that she not only has great martial arts skills and a great rack but also the great ASS - ets to go with it. Ming - Na Wen redeemed herself later through Marvel´s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but I still think that Cynthia Rothrock would have been a better Chun Li in the Street Fighter movie.
Now I was a bit disappointed that we didn´t get to see more of Cynthia Rothrock in this movie but it totally not her fault. As I only learned later was Cynthia Rothrock always wanted to do riskier scenes and was willing to show more skin ( after all what is the use of training your body to physical perfection if you can´t show it ? Especially if you are an actress where your body is one of your main factors determining what roles you get and what you are paid. ) but that her agent always vetoed it who for some reason thought it would hurt her market value as a female martial arts star if she did nude scenes. Thankfully Cynthia did manage to get her way in many Femme Fatales issues much to the delight of her male fans.
Cynthia Rothrock also finally was allowed to strut her stuff on screen in movies like Fatal Passion, Undefeatable and especially Sworn to Justice which I already included in an earlier post ( together with the german version ). But I know that there are some readers who are just too lazy to go through the old post so you can also watch the movie on YouTube .
I originally had two bookmarks for Tiger Claws but the german version was deleted or blocked because of some copyright thing. It probably would have been censored anyway as most martial arts movies are in Germany.
As usual I tried to find a Shang Chi video on YouTube but it seems that I have already posted all the good ones. So instead here is one of the best samurai series out there - even if most people say it is not a manga - I am still reading. It´s all done by Stan Sakai and it´s one of the few titles that is on my pull list and will remain there as long as he keeps putting it out.
I already did an extensive post on Usagi Yojimbo way back in 2010 but since I can´t pimp this book enough I have at least two more posts in the pipeline. Now originally I wanted to safe this video for one of these posts but since there are two more about Usagi Yojimbo´s guest appearances on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Fiction Addiction and I have so far always included one video from the cartoons I think it´s okay to post it here. By the way, I finally found the three episodes where Usagi guest stars and I cannot believe that they still haven´t done an Usagi Yojimbo cartoon.
You know that I just had to include a k - pop video and it really gets harder and harder ( no pun intended ) to find one where I don´t have a few different versions of a live performance. After going through my long list of bookmarks I found Rania with Dr. Feel Good. I have no idea if the song title is related to the british pub rock band of the same name though.
And if that´s still not enough asian persuation for you here is a fitness competition ( I think ) with more hasians than you can shake a stick at. Although I have no idea why anyone in their right mind ever wanted to shake a stick at any of these lovely ladies. In any case it makes Subzero wonder if you can have too much of a good thing because even I would be hard pressed to fully exploit all of them sexually. At least in one night.
We are closing things out with another episode of Samurai Champloo to stay with the theme of easterns. I thought about posting the first episode of Cowboy Bebop instead - to switch things up - but they cut the opening off which is the best part of it. Also I don´t want to start with too many things and since I also posted some episodes of Samurai Pizza Cats I will hold off with that at least until I have finished with Samurai Camploo.
New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest / best of the best
Throughout my life, I´ve been opening the door for other women to get involved with martial arts movies. I was the first woman to be on the cover of a karate magazine and the first woman to win a men's championship.
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