Chu Liu-hsiang, the charming, capable, and, yes, sentimental, swordsman is back in action for this extremely well-named third installment of the hit box-office series -- which won majestic star Ti Lung a whole new legion of fans. The titanic team of director Chu Yuan and novelist Ku Lung wisely choose to give their hero a whole new, non-stop, cliffhanger-fraught adventure featuring a mystery swordsman, a sensual swordswoman, an imperial assassin, a Ghost Mansion, the Bat Island, a booby-trapped tunnel, double crosses, and secret missions. No fewer than three martial arts choreographers are on hand to guide the amazing mayhem, featuring such favorites as award-winning kung-fu actor Ku Feng and Shaw's first international star, Lo Lieh.
Chen Kuang (David Chiang) and Tu Fa (Wang Chung) are good friends who make an honest living as taxi drivers. Ma Hsiang-lung (Shih Chung-tien), a tenant in the same house as Chen, plots a bank robbery. They set a trap for Chen and the police identifies Chen as one of the robbers. Aided by his friends Tu Fa, Chen goes into hiding, trying at the same time to track down the real robbers.
Of all the classics maximal martial art moviemaker Liu Chia-liang made, this one really stands out. It is almost more a slapstick comedy than any film he had previously created, and a tailor-made showcase for the "odd couple" skills of international favorite Alexander Fu Sheng and the elegant "Cary Grant of kung-fu" Cheng Shao-chiu (ZU WARRIORS FROM THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN, SHAOLIN AND WUTANG). Their wushu squabbling for supremacy ultimately imperils an incognito emperor, leading to a bang-up battle featuring the participation of both the director's and star's brothers (Gordon Liu Chia-hui, Liu Chia-yung, and Chang Chan-peng). Also in the mix are MY YOUNG AUNTIE Hui Ying-hung, MAD MONKEY KUNG FU Hsiao Hou, and Shaw villain supreme Wang Lung-wei. The result is a sparkling, unexpected family affair from the king of kung-fu filmmakers.
An unspeakable act of cruelty that tortures a beautiful woman to her death sets the stage for vengeance and horror in Sex Beyond The Grave. The betrayed beauty Hua (Kuang Mei-pao) haunts her persecutors from the Tao Tao Mansion. Terror and death even continue to pursue a professor and his family as they tussle with spirits who want to claim the life of his son!
Liu Yung, Chien Hui-yi, Ku Kuan-chung, Kuang Mei-pao
Chen Kuan Tai heads an impressive ensemble cast in The Big Holdup, a story about five bank robbers being hunted down and killed by the police, who in turn are tipped off by the man that masterminded the robbery. Filled with some amazing Sam Peckinpah-ish gun battles and brutal fight sequences, the film also features a very young Danny Lee as a criminal rather than the dashing police inspector that won him critical acclaim in John Woo's The Killer.
This third installment in Shaw Brothers' acclaimed adaptation of the classic novel, Journey To The West is possibly the most exotic of all. Sex and spectacle are combined as our heroes find themselves trapped in the home of the seductive Seven Spiders, who are bent on achieving immortality by eating monks' flesh. There are weird fun and wacky adventures from beginning to end, with the sets and costumes belonging as much to the psychedelic 60s as ancient China.
The “Venoms” are back in action again! After creating an international sensation in The Five Venoms, Taiwanese Opera artists Kuo Chue, Chiang Sheng and Lu Feng reteamed with Chinese muscleman Lo Meng and superkicker Sun Chien for this politically charged thriller. Set in the early Republican years, some skilled refugees run afoul of a powerful traitor, and from then on it’s one amazing battle after another.
This glorious pageantry was awarded Honourable Mention for Drama at the 2nd Golden Horse Awards. Li Li-hua gives a magnificent performance as Wu Tse-tien, the most famous woman in China's more than four thousand year history. The screen fairly bursts with royalty, intrigue, tragedy, and triumph as the script charts her from her teenage years to old age.
Li Li-hua, Chao Lei, Chiao Chuang, Lo Chi, Yu Feng-chi
Like many of the swordsman films of the sixties, The Magnificent Swordsman centers on the hero vowing vengeance against evil bandits that killed his family when he was a child. Influenced by Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, the hero (played by Huang Tsung-shun who starred in Bruce Lee's Fist Of Fury), recruits several friends to help peasants rid their village of marauding bandits, the leader of course being the man that killed his family.
Shu Pei-pei, Huang Tsung-hsing, Tien Feng, Ching Miao
This erotic comedy features three lotharios who vie to become principal of the Macho Man Training School -- an extremely sexy institution dedicated to extremely non Shaolin-types of physical exertion.
In the same year, director/writer Chang Cheh and star Jimmy Wang Yu revolutionized Hong Kong kung-fu cinema with One-Armed Swordsman, they also collaborated on this epic of the Six Kingdoms era. Here, Yu is a two-armed swordsman who is also a Wei Empire patriot. Inside the Han Empire, Han Kuei who comes from the royal family, is actually assumed full power and he wants to eliminate loyal officer Yen Sui. Later, our main character is betrayed by a jealous rival and becomes a village butcher. When he meets Yen Sui accidentally, he is sent back on the road of vengeance. Chiao Chiao, the lovely and talented costar of One-Armed Swordsman, here plays Hsia Ying, the love of the hero's life, and the strong woman who survives to protect their child.
Wang Yu, Chiao Chiao, Li Hsiang-chun, Tien Feng, Huang Chung-shun
Taking a refreshing break from his usual villain roles, the great Shih Chien (Shek Kin) plays a comedic ghost who befriends a young boy in this heartwarming tale. Famous for the hall of mirror battle scene with Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon, Shek Kin is a kindhearted spirit who brings the kid's separated parents - a fashion business woman (Josephine Siu) and a rich merchant (Ti Lung) back together. If you've never seen Shek Kin play goofy and wacky, this movie is for you.
After making superstars of Jimmy Wang Yu, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Chen Kuan-tai, and others, esteemed martial arts movie master Chang Cheh decided it was time to cement the stardom of soon-to-be international favorite Alexander Fu Sheng. This film - following the director's SHAOLIN MARTIAL ARTS, FIVE SHAOLIN MASTERS, and DISCIPLES OF SHAOLIN - was clearly Fu's showcase. Rather than sharing the screen, as he had in the previous Shaolin trio, here he was clearly the sole hero, and took full advantage of that fact. He gives both a great dramatic and martial arts performance as an honorable carriage driver who finds love and death when he comes to the rescue of a girl being harassed by particularly venal, homicidal punks. This fight-filled thriller was made even more special by its introduction of the unusual 'Tsai' 'Li' 'Fu' kung-fu style - for which it had its own separate off-stage instructor (Yen Yat liang).
Alexander Fu Sheng, Jenny Tsang, Wang Lung-wei, Liang Chia-jen
Veteran director Lu Chun-ku leads handsome Liu Yung, pretty Liang Yun-hsin, and “Thundering Mantis,” Liang Chia-jen on a madcap mixup filled with cons, double crosses, and triple plots. It’s starts in sickly comic style as the trio’s fathers are poisoned by Lady Wu so she could steal the rare artifact known as the Double-Faced God. Extracting a deathbed promise from their wives to train their children to take back what is rightfully theirs, the siblings grow up to exact a vengeance that is more hilarious than horrific.
