Three young kung-fu warriors from wildly different backgrounds become students of Shaolin at the same temple. These three warriors are: Royal Guard Lo Lieh, fleeing soldier, Lo Meng, and villager, Wang Yu.
A year before he was to direct King Boxer -- the first Hong Kong kung-fu film ever to break into the international market -- Cheng Chang-ho both wrote and directed this powerful martial arts movie. Ling Yun, of Gun Brothers and Hellgate (among many others), ably plays a magician-warrior who initially protects the villain from an ambush by the title heroes. But after his wife's and friend's deaths, he must fight to set things right.
Costume drama auteur Li han-hsiang adapts thee erotic and mystic tales from the Chinese classical literatures and visualizes them on screen into an instant cult classic. Starring the hottest stars Tien Ni, Hu Chin, Chen Ping, Yang Chun, and Yueh Hua, the stories span across time from the Tang to Ming dynasties, filled with exotic characters such as emperors, concubines, monks, and fortune-tellers, intertwined in a world of adultery, lust and greed. Costume drama buffs should not miss it.
Skilled shadow boxer Ku Ting hides his skills by working as a construction worker. But when the thugs assault his girlfriend, Ku Ting has no choice but to use his teachings to show his enemies what it takes to keep justice in line.
Hsiu (Winnie Lau) is the girl willing to grow up while Hui Hua (Chan Tak-yong) is the obsessive girl who willingly steps on the road, but has to decide whether to bring her childhood friend with her.
Chan Tak-yong , Winnie Lau , Kwok Chun-on , Michael Tao
Martial arts film standout Leung Kar Yan brings the same animalistic intensity from his early heroic bloodshed films to Danger Has Two Faces. The tough, ex-cop character is now relegated to become a pet store owner. The stern Police Superintendent Liu is played by Chu Chiang, while newcomer Fei Hsiang must take risks to find out which cop is "paid for" by the mob.
Liang Chia-jen, Chu Chiang, Ku Chia-lu, Fei Hsiang
Acknowledged as one of the greatest Hong Kong musicals, this lavish movie starring Linda Lin, who won Best Actress for her performance, infuses its wispy plot with style and wit, and the results are pure pleasure.
This film was actually a lively forerunner to the gambling film craze, which eventually swept Asian cinema. Here, it's cardsharp versus cardsharp with a lot more kung-fu action, in a battle of wits and fists to become the king of the casino. The double stings and triple crosses raise in complexity and imagination until what started as an unusual box office risk became a top ten hit of 1976.
The Pure and The Evil begins with two teen girls who are inseparable but ends like Fatal Attraction where guttered sexuality leads to insanity. Rose and Fang were from opposite ends of the spectrum, but nevertheless were close. The refined Fang moves to America but returns years later to see her old buddy Rose who immediately takes an eye to her fiancé. Things quickly digress into erotic deteoriation as Rose's thorns begin to stick in Fang's and her fiancé’s sides.
In Lady With A Sword, Kao Pao-shu showed that women could successfully direct a "heroic swordsman" film using a swordswoman bent on revenge. Kao cast Shaw's darling Lily Ho as the embittered swordswoman searching for the man who murdered her sister. The man turns out to be her fiance' but her nihilistic fate stays true to lone swordswoman form, as to paraphrase Gary Cooper in High Noon, "A woman's got to do what a woman's got to do."
Lo Lieh was famous as Shaw Studio's first international kung-fu film star. He was famous throughout Asia for dozens of superlative performances in everything from horror to modern thrillers to martial arts. But it was the rare saga Lo also directed, and this was one of those special events. Following his huge success starring as the infamous Shaolin Temple traitor in preeminent kung-fu filmmaker Liu Chia-liang's Executioners From Shaolin, he returned to the role in this, a combination sequel and remake. Liu stayed on as choreographer, while his famed adoptive brother, Gordon Liu Chia-hui, and his discovery, Hui Ying-hung, stepped into the starring roles. The result is a lighter-hearted entertainment, as our hero learns "Embroidery Fist" and acupuncture to counter the evil White Lotus leader's deadly "Weightless Boxing" and "Nerve Centre Shutdown" techniques. The permutations of their fights are delightful to behold.
Julie Yeh Feng plays a devoted wife and a mother dying of an incurable illness. Her goal now is to find a new mother for her child and a new wife for her husband before she dies. Because of all her personal tragedies and on-going hard life off-screen, audiences connect with Julie on a personal level, hence making her one of the most beloved actresses of her time.
One of the top rated films of the year and an instant classic, VENGEANCE is so loaded with Shaw Brothers filmmaking royalty, that even non-kung-fu fans will be left breathless with amazement. No screen team was more glorious than the "iron triangle" of director Chang Cheh and his dynamic duo of Ti Lung and David Chiang. The action mayhem created by acclaimed martial arts instructors Tang Chia and Yuen Woo-ping's younger brother Yuen Cheung-yan (CHARLIE'S ANGELS and THE MATRIX: RELOADED fight choreographer) gives David Chiang's hauntingly tense performance as the younger brother out to avenge his elder brother's death (Ti Lung) an even more mythical dimension. David Chiang won the Best Actor Award for his effort and Chang Cheh the Best Director Award at the 1970 Asian Film Festival.
David Chiang , Wang Ping, Ti Lung , Ou Yen-ching , Ho Pin
This bizarre adaptation of the Chinese literary classic “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” by famous director Chang Cheh’s is about a heroic “swords-ghost” who wreaks havoc against one of the corrupt kingdoms.
