The Best War Games can reveal an exclusive preview of Hong Kong Fight Club, a new FAST channel by Shout! TV. The upcoming channel is set to offer Hong Kong cinema classics featuring stars such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li, available in 4K for free.
Shout! TV is a streaming service launched by Los Angeles-based Shout! Factory in 2015. While well-known for offering classic movies, its curated content catalog also includes TV shows, comedy specials, and original programming. Shout! TV offers both subscriptions and FAST channels, an acronym for "Free Ad-supported Streaming Television."
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Shout! TV has recently announced another such channel, Hong Kong Fight Club, with The Best War Games securing an exclusive video preview of its offerings. The clip highlights two Hong Kong cinema classics that will be available on the upcoming channel: Fist of Legend and Shaolin Wooden Men. Shout! TV’s Hong Kong Fight Club Channel will be available beginning August 1, featuring the absolute greatest in action cinema from Hong Kong’s cinematic golden age.
Released in 1994, Fist of Legend stars Jet Li as Chen Zhen, a fictional kung fu hero who was originally portrayed by Bruce Lee in the 1972 classic Fist of Fury. The Gordon Chan-directed movie serves as a more modern interpretation of that earlier work, with an updated setting and choreography, but while retaining its themes of opposition to Japanese imperialism in early 20th-century China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Despite achieving modest domestic box office success, the film was internationally acclaimed and highly influential. Its choreographer, Yuen Woo-ping, later worked on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Matrix, with the latter's fight choreography sharing some resemblance to Fist of Legend.
Shaolin Wooden Men is a 1976 classic directed by Chen Chi-Hwa and starring Jackie Chan in one of his early dramatic roles, filmed long before his trademark comedic style was established. The movie follows a mute Shaolin monk-in-training who endures a variety of harsh trials, including an iconic wooden dummy hall, with the goal of avenging his father's murder. Shaolin Wooden Men is nowadays considered a cult classic, though its initial commercial reception was modest, and it didn't start gaining a significant following until after Jackie Chan had his breakout roles in Drunken Master and Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, both released in 1978. It stands out with its kung fu mysticism, elaborate training sequences, and experimental story structure.
Hong Kong Fight Club FAST Channel Launches August 1
Shout! TV's Hong Kong Fight Club channel is scheduled to launch this Friday, August 1. Apart from Shaolin Wooden Men and Fist of Legend, the ad-supported offering is set to deliver a varied catalog of Hong Kong action cinema from the '80s and '90s. The entirety of the upcoming channel's library has been restored from new 4K scans.
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