Hong Kong Action Style Anime?

[Zethzen]

I am a huge fan of Hong Kong cinema, especially action movies. I've seen films by the greats, John Woo, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark and many others. Some of my favorites are: Hardboiled, directed by John Woo, starring Chow Yun Fat and Andy Lau, The Killer, also directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun Fat, Prison on Fire starring CYF and directed by Ringo Lam. There are others, but that is just off the top of my head. Now you may wonder how this is important. Well, I'll tell you.

Rarely does one see an Anime like Cowboy Bebop or Gungrave that exhibit a style similar to a Chinese action flick (e.g. diving, akimbo pistols, lots and lots of enemies dying in rapid succesion from just a few clips with seemingly infinite ammo). So is there any more out there? Gungrave personally reminded me more of the movie Equilibrium (Christian Bale, Taye Diggs), which is fine. Can anyone point me in the direction of some Anime with a "chinese action feel" to it? Thanks.

[Hatake Kakashi]

I am a fan of the Stormriders manhua (Hong Kong Comic) and I have seen some animation footage based on that. I am not sure if it aires on TV or is only on video.

Here is a link to it, if you have any questions about what is going on in it let me know:

http://www.asiaanimation.net/product.asp?code=wind ('http://www.asiaanimation.net/product.asp?code=wind')

That is the page, but here is the direct link to the video file

http://www.asiaanimation.net/product/wind/sample.wmv ('http://www.asiaanimation.net/product/wind/sample.wmv')

[Zethzen]

Hey, that looks pretty damn cool. When I was talking about the style I was looking for it was more guns and diving, but this series looks great anyways. Thanks for brining it to my attention. Oh yeah, and what is going on? I gathered 2 "brothers" (maybe friends, same martial arts school, you know, yin and yang seen from the black and white swords and the black cape vs white cape) were fighting some evil thrid party, probably not blood related. I don't know the context, but the style and fighting looked great. I woulda liked sound though http://www.gotwoot.net/forum/html/emoticons/dry.gif . No biggie, still good stuff.

[Hatake Kakashi]

Well that animation is based on the Stormriders a very popular Hong Kong Comic. It is on its 3rd series now in Japan, that animation takes place in the first comic series. It is set in a fantasy version of ancient China.

The guy with the eye patch is Nie Feng, AKA Whispering Wind. The dude with the Black Sword is Bo Ging Wan, AKA Striding Cloud.

They are not brothers by blood, but are martial brothers.

They were trained under a master named Conqueror. Conqueror wanted to rule the Circle of Fighters (the martial arts underworld in ancient China), so he got his future read to him by a prophet named Mud Buddha. Mud Buddha said that for the first half of Conquerors life, he would rule the world if he took in two disciples, Wind and Cloud. Through destiny it seems they come into Conquerors keep as young boys. He trains them in their fighting styles - Wind Kicks and Cloud Palms.
Mud Buddha then tells Conqueror the prophecy for the second half of his life, that he will be killed and defeated by Wind and Cloud. He realizes that he must force them to fight each other, but it doesn't work out so well, and to make a long story short, he dies. Wind and Cloud are on good terms after that.

The guy with red hair is named Duan Lang. He and Wind were childhood friends, even though their fathers were bitter rivals. Duan Lang was taken in by Conqueror too, but then outcasted and made a fugitive. The form that you see him in the animation is his after he eats some kind of Dragon Fruit. He gets really strong and as you saw it takes both Wind and Cloud to fight him. When Wind and Cloud combine like that, they are called the WindCloud. If you read the chinese kanji for wind and cloud side by side like that it can be interpreted as Storm. Hence the name the Stormriders here in America. In Hong Kong they just call it Fungwan.

Back to the fight, Wind uses his families heirloom called the Snowy Saber. Cloud used Ultimate Sword, forged from a black coal element. Duan Lang uses the Flame Kylin Sword, which takes its power from a scale of the Flame Kylin. Wind and Cloud also have powers related to the Flame Kylin: Wind's family has something called the Blood of Insanity. They go berserk at times due to the Flame Kylin blood in their veins. Winds great grandfather fought the Flame Kylin and accidentally swallowed some of its blood. After that he killed his wife and the rage has been passed down through the generations. Cloud recieves the Flame Kylin arm from a mad who fought the Red Kylin, and its blood dripped in his arm through the cut.

The Flame Kylin is a monster/demon that is really powerful, it lives in Lin Yin Cave and is known as the God of Death. Very feared by even the most powerful martial artists.

If you are interested in Stormiders then check out this site:

http://www.spcnet.tv/tinha/ ('http://www.spcnet.tv/tinha/')

Click on story and see if you dig it, their is also a cool gallery there.

www.comicsone.com

distributes the comic in the USA. Stormriders Volumes 1-12 have already been published and they renamed the series Stormriders: Invading Sun and their are two volumes of that out now. Invading Sun Volume 1 is really Stormriders Volume 13, Volume 2 is really 14, etc..

I am not sure about this animation, if it is a regular series or not, but I hope that explanation helps as do the links.

If you have any other questions let me know.



EDIT: For Hong Kong Style check out Gungrave. I haven't watched it, but it seems like it has some good heroic bloodshed type stuff in it. That is all I can really think of.

[ngbetter11]

you should try WONDERFUL DAYS. its a korean cartoon movie. i havent seen it, but judging by the trailer, it has guns and action.

here are some links:

main site
http://wonderfuldays.co.kr/english/ ('http://wonderfuldays.co.kr/english/')

trailer in high quality
http://wonderfuldays.co.kr/movie/6_high.wmv ('http://wonderfuldays.co.kr/movie/6_high.wmv')

[Zethzen]

thanks for the suggestions guys. Oh, and I have been watching Gungrave, I refer to it in my first post http://www.gotwoot.net/forum/html/emoticons/tongue.gif .

[Power PMV]

John Woo is a Hong Kong director? LOL

That's probably where the name of the pigeon in ROD TV comes from. That's hilarious. http://www.gotwoot.net/forum/html/emoticons/laugh.gif