This week on Total Movie Recall, Steve and Ryan discover that there’s actually an antidote to getting punched really, really hard. The cultural divide proves too much for Ryan in this wild, fantastic, hallucinatory Kung Fu epic of many names. The story is incomprehensible, the fights are nonsensical, but Steve still finds it defensible, while Ryan finds the editing reprehensible. There’s no reason for this rhyme.

Kung Fu Cult Master (1993)

d. Jing Wong, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung

Starring:
Jet Li
Man Cheung
Chingmy Yau

Set during the Yuen Dynasty, many sects compete for possession of the two golden swords which contain the secret to dominance of the world of martial arts. The first faction, led by Shaolin, consists of Shaolin, Wu Tang, Ngo Mai, Kun Lun, Hung Tung and Wah Shan. The second is the Ming Sect, otherwise known as the Fire Sect or Evil Sect, led by branch leaders Queen of Purple Dragon, King of White Eagle, King of Gold Lion and King of Green Bat. A student of Wu Tang, befriends Gold Lion and marries the daughter of White Eagle. He is killed for the secret of the location of the missing sword. His infant son witnesses this and vows revenge on the heads of the sect. Unfortunately he has a jinx which prevents him from learning martial arts.

Brian Rawnsley

Things discussed in the show:

Tom Clancy & Jack Ryan vs World War 3

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (Carlton Cuse, Graham Roland, John Krasinski, Wendell Pierce, John Hoogenakker)

Wargames (John Badham, Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, John Wood)

Breakfast Club (John Hughes, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy)

The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy)

Deutchland 83 (Anna Winger, Jörg Winger, Jonas Nay, Maria Schrader, Ulrich Noethen)

Operation Able Archer

Wind of Change podcast (Patrick Radden Keefe, The Scorpions)

Wong Kar-wai

Raise the Red Lantern (Yimou Zhang, Li Gong, Jingwu Ma, Saifei He)

The Great Wall (Yimou Zhang, Matt Damon, Tian Jing, Willem Dafoe)

American Factory (documentary, Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, Junming 'Jimmy' Wang, Robert Allen, Sherrod Brown)

The Queen's Gambit (Scott Frank, Allan Scott, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chloe Pirrie, Bill Camp)

The Thomas Crown Affair 1968 (Norman Jewison, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke)

Casino Royale (Texas Holdem, Martin Campbell, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Judi Dench)

Get Shorty (Barry Sonnenfeld, Elmore Leonard (novel), Scott Frank (screenplay), Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Danny DeVito)

The Lookout (Scott Frank, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode)

Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, Philip K. Dick (short story), Scott Frank (screenplay), Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton)

A Walk Among the Tombstones (Scott Frank, Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour)

Godless (Jack O'Connell, Michelle Dockery, Scoot McNairy, Scott Frank)

Auteur Cinema

The Witch (Robert Eggers, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie)

Emma (Autumn de Wilde, Eleanor Catton (screenplay by), Jane Austen (based on the novel by), Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Mia Goth)

The New Mutants (Josh Boone, Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton)

Love Actually (Richard Curtis, Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson, Thomas Brodie-Sangster)

The Maze Runner (Wes Ball, Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter, Thomas Brodie-Sangster)

Leonard DiCaprio & Liam Hemsworth

The Vow (NXIVM, Anthony Ames, Sarah Edmondson, Bonnie Piesse, Mark Vicente)

Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (Leah Remini, Mike Rinder, Mary Kahn)

The Raid Redemption (Gareth Evans,  Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy)

Kung Fu (NES video game)

Double Dragon (video game)

The Night Comes For Us (Timo Tjahjanto, Joe Taslim, Iko Uwais, Julie Estelle)

The Raid 2 (Gareth Evans, Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, Arifin Putra)

Apostle (Dan Stevens, Richard Elfyn, Paul Higgins)

Lovecraftian horror / Folk horror

Gangs of London (Gareth Evans, Matt Flannery, Ray Panthaki, Joe Cole, Lucian Msamati)

Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis, John C. Reilly, Liam Neeson)

Peaky Blinders (Steven Knight, Cillian Murphy, Paul Anderson, Helen McCrory)

The Warriors (Walter Hill, Michael Beck, James Remar, Dorsey Wright)

The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre

The Shaw Brothers & Hong Kong Cinema

Wu Tang Mountain

Takashi Miike

CINEphile Video Archive in Los Angeles (Shoutout to Paul!)

Ghost Spy (Image Comics, Steve Albertson, Jacob Elijah aka Oh Oozi, Puppy Grenade)

Tai Chi Master (Woo-Ping Yuen, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Siu-Ho Chin)

Once Upon a Time in China (Hark Tsui, Jet Li, Rosamund Kwan, Biao Yuen)

Dragon Ball Z (

Things discussed in the show:

Tom Clancy & Jack Ryan vs World War 3

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (Carlton Cuse, Graham Roland, John Krasinski, Wendell Pierce, John Hoogenakker)

Wargames (John Badham, Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, John Wood)

Breakfast Club (John Hughes, Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy)

The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy)

Deutchland 83 (Anna Winger, Jörg Winger, Jonas Nay, Maria Schrader, Ulrich Noethen)

Operation Able Archer

Wind of Change podcast (Patrick Radden Keefe, The Scorpions)

Wong Kar-wai

Raise the Red Lantern (Yimou Zhang, Li Gong, Jingwu Ma, Saifei He)

The Great Wall (Yimou Zhang, Matt Damon, Tian Jing, Willem Dafoe)

American Factory (documentary, Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, Junming 'Jimmy' Wang, Robert Allen, Sherrod Brown)

The Queen's Gambit (Scott Frank, Allan Scott, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chloe Pirrie, Bill Camp)

The Thomas Crown Affair 1968 (Norman Jewison, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke)

Casino Royale (Texas Holdem, Martin Campbell, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Judi Dench)

Get Shorty (Barry Sonnenfeld, Elmore Leonard (novel), Scott Frank (screenplay), Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Danny DeVito)

The Lookout (Scott Frank, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode)

Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, Philip K. Dick (short story), Scott Frank (screenplay), Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton)

A Walk Among the Tombstones (Scott Frank, Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour)

Godless (Jack O'Connell, Michelle Dockery, Scoot McNairy, Scott Frank)

Auteur Cinema

The Witch (Robert Eggers, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie)

Emma (Autumn de Wilde, Eleanor Catton (screenplay by), Jane Austen (based on the novel by), Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Mia Goth)

The New Mutants (Josh Boone, Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton)

Love Actually (Richard Curtis, Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson, Thomas Brodie-Sangster)

The Maze Runner (Wes Ball, Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter, Thomas Brodie-Sangster)

Leonard DiCaprio & Liam Hemsworth

The Vow (NXIVM, Anthony Ames, Sarah Edmondson, Bonnie Piesse, Mark Vicente)

Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (Leah Remini, Mike Rinder, Mary Kahn)

The Raid Redemption (Gareth Evans,  Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy)

Kung Fu (NES video game)

Double Dragon (video game)

The Night Comes For Us (Timo Tjahjanto, Joe Taslim, Iko Uwais, Julie Estelle)

The Raid 2 (Gareth Evans, Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, Arifin Putra)

Apostle (Dan Stevens, Richard Elfyn, Paul Higgins)

Lovecraftian horror / Folk horror

Gangs of London (Gareth Evans, Matt Flannery, Ray Panthaki, Joe Cole, Lucian Msamati)

Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis, John C. Reilly, Liam Neeson)

Peaky Blinders (Steven Knight, Cillian Murphy, Paul Anderson, Helen McCrory)

The Warriors (Walter Hill, Michael Beck, James Remar, Dorsey Wright)

The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre

The Shaw Brothers & Hong Kong Cinema

Wu Tang Mountain

Takashi Miike

CINEphile Video Archive in Los Angeles (Shoutout to Paul!)

Ghost Spy (Image Comics, Steve Albertson, Jacob Elijah aka Oh Oozi, Puppy Grenade)

Tai Chi Master (Woo-Ping Yuen, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Siu-Ho Chin)

Once Upon a Time in China (Hark Tsui, Jet Li, Rosamund Kwan, Biao Yuen)

Dragon Ball Z

Game of Thrones (David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Iain Glen, Gwendoline Christie)

Chinese history

The Evil Cult (Ming Dynasty)

Quintin Tarantino

Star Crossed Lovers

The Golden Lion

House of Flying Daggers (Yimou Zhang, Ziyi Zhang, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau)

Master of the Flying Guillotine (Jimmy Wang Yu, Tien Wu Chu, Kang Chin)

Crippled Masters (Chi Lo, Sung-Chuan Shen, Chao-Ming Kang, Chiu Ho)

Riki Oh The Story of Ricky (Ngai Choi Lam, Siu-Wong Fan, Mei Sheng Fan, Ka-Kui Ho)

John Woo (director)

Johnnie To (director)

Exiled (Johnnie To, Nick Cheung, Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Francis Ng)

Drug War (Johnnie To, Louis Koo, Honglei Sun, Yi Huang)

Dirty Gambler genre of Hong Kong crime cinema

Jackie Chan

Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris

Willow vs. Wicket (Star Wars) vs. Leprechaun

Mel Gibson vs. Cancel Culture

Tom Cruise vs. Keith Raniere

Zoroastrians (Persia)

Cult of Mani (Manichaeism) - The Gospel of Mani aka the Book of Giants

The Book of Enoch

300 (Zack Snyder, Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham)

Next week: Any Given Sunday