Soon-to-be legendary director Chu Yuan had just joined the Shaw Brothers when he helmed this thriller of bickering bandits. Audiences loved watching three pairs of cunning male and female crooks trying to steal a million gold taels from the Fu Lai Treasury House … not knowing that one of them is actually an undercover hero. Even without him, there's no honor amongst thieves, so the double-crosses and deadly duels come fast and furious, all choreographed by Hsu Erh-niu.
Ivy Ling Po, Lo Lieh, Tsung Hua, Chin Han, Wang Ping
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."
This delightful action comedy featuring international favourite Alexander Fu Sheng premiered two years before the American hit Ghostbusters was released. Is it a coincidence? You be the judge as you enjoy this amazing showcase of wushu and wizardry.
In this horror anthology an old man dies from an overdose of virility pills, a cop goes on the run after extorting money from a hooker, and a mortician's ghost goes on the rampage.
There are martial arts epics and "brotherhood hero" films but then there is nothing out there that comes even close to THE WATER MARGIN. Based on the classic novel and true legend, ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS about how 108 rebels bravely fought against the Sung Dynasty, just about every big Shaw Brothers’ star around at the time, David Chiang, Ti Lung and Chen Kuan-tai to name a few, were called in to do this film to make it one of the most dynamic films in the history of cinema. The film exhausts you with its wild and wooly, yet heroically primitive battle scenes that ultimately end in sharp and visually effective images of death, defeat and heroism. It won Honorable Mention for Dramatic Feature at the 1972 Golden Horse Awards.
David Chiang, Ti Lung, Lily Ho, Chin Feng, Yueh Hua
Award-winning actor Ku Feng is Lei Chen-tien, a vicious, cunning, murderous brigand who wants the title treasure. Tsung Hua is Tai Tien-chou, the handsome swordsman who wants to avenge his father's death. Wang Ping is Wu Hsiao-yen, the lovely girl who must disguise herself as a boy to take on this pirate. Tien Feng both directs and co-stars as The Senior Master in this blade and battle-filled adventure of intrigue, treachery, and tragic triumph.
Director Hsu Cheng-hung, much credited with the revolution of wuxia cinema in the 1960s returns to offer up another genre-bending take on the martial arts movie. This time it's Romeo and Juliet in the Chinese underworld! When Grand Master student Yu Chien-wen (Chang Yi) falls for Chiao Chiao (the dazzling and energetic Cheng Pei-pei), the daughter of arch enemy, the Poison Master, we know they are in for trouble. And when Chiao Chiao kills another clan in Yu's name, the Grand Master's clan is unable to stand by. But Yu is too much in love to obey orders...
This sequel to The Empress Dowager surpasses its predecessor in some ways. The attention to historic detail in the sets and costumes is everything one expects from director Li Han-Hsiang, the master of the costume drama. Variety hailed the production as "lavish, the script tightly packed"; Variety also concluded that the "filmmaker's efforts to try to make things perfect, to put his audience back in the days of the Empress Dowager and her son, have come off once again."
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.
Sun Chung had been recognized as an expert comedy and crime thriller director, but he was to gain even greater acclaim for his soulful, powerful, intelligent, and beautifully-made martial arts epics. This stands alongside The Deadly Breaking Sword and The Kung-fu Instructor as one of his very best. It's not so much the plot - a master swordsman protects a treasure chest on a dangerous journey - that makes this great, but what Sun does with it, inspiring the cast and crew to some of their finest work.
This period horror movie stars 70s idol Hsing Hui and a young Yon Fan (Yon Fan, director Sense of Color, The Purple Pavilion) star in this fascinating spine chiller with one chilling reminder... never marry a possessed woman, she'll never let you go! Young business man (Yon) marries pretty, much sought-after young bride (Hsing), never knowing that she carries the spirit of a girl raped by her uncle and murdered along with her parents... Justice must be done, and it ain't pretty!
Long before CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON wowed the western world, COME DRINK WITH ME set an entirely new standard for martial arts movies in the Far East. Director King Hu not only broke new ground but set the groundwork for all the action films that followed, including CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. COME DRINK WITH ME tells the story of a mysterious swordswoman nicknamed "Golden Swallow", and the even more mysterious swordsman, "Beggar". They join forces to free a kidnapped official from a Buddhist monastery run by a corrupt abbot with incredible kung-fu powers. But the real attention-getters are the ingeniously staged action scenes and a cast of characters that looks as cool today as when the film burst upon the cinema scene in 1966.
A gritty, realistic Chinatown tale about the life of an illegal immigrant who went through a sham marriage is indebted to thugs in this critically-acclaimed film.
The 5th Hong Kong Film Awards: Best Director (Mabel Cheung)
