When this amazing movie premiered, Stephen Chow was already one of Hong Kong's biggest stars and a comic icon being compared with everyone from THE MARX BROTHERS to BUGS BUNNY. His director, Jeff Lau, had helmed Chow's breakthrough film, ALL FOR THE WINNER, so their collaboration was tried and true. Having already lampooned such subjects as gambling, kung-fu, the justice system, the educational system, James Bond, and even Chinese mythology, Chow and a great cast of new faces as well as old favorites take on ghostbusting. It starts when a couple kill the man’s mother, then die themselves trying to kill the exorcist who uncovers their crime. They vow vengeance, leading to a duel to end all duels between the living and the dead. There are thrills and laughs galore in this Chow winner, who is now taking his rightful place as an international comic genius.
An Iron Bodyguard (head of a security firm) called Wang Wu (Chen Kuan Tai) meets a scholar (Yueh Hua) and forms a strong friendship with him after fighting some villains together. The scholar is a member of the reformists – a group of scholars pressing for social reform in China towards the end of the Qing dynasty. The Emperor is actually all for reforms, and appoints this group to run the country. This doesn’t suit the Empress Dowager though, as she has no intention of losing her power. She orders the reformists to be arrested, and Wang Wu gets drawn into
the politics despite having no real political views himself.
Based on a famous Chinese opera, this period drama stars the beloved screen pairing of the wildly popular Ivy Ling Po (Vermillion Door) and Li Ching, one of Hong Kong’s most famous on-screen couples. Ling Po was renowned for playing male Cantonese opera roles while the child star Li, plays the enchanting female lead. While visiting a temple, a young impoverished scholar, Zhang Sheng, is enchanted by the daughter of an influential family, Hong Niang. When the safety of Hong Niang is threatened by revolutionaries, Zhang does all he can to keep her from harm. Seeing the love between the young couple, Hong’s maid (Fang Ying) helps bringing the young couple together, who secretly have their rendezvous in the West Chamber, in spite of her family's objections! It is romance, tears and classic melodrama as the couple fight for love.
The lovely Li Hsiang-chun stars as a poor beauty who has been drugged, ravished, lied to, locked in a burning store room, left to drown, and chased by sword-wielding ruffians. Her only hope is her betrayer's new wife, played by the strong and sensual Ivy Ling Po. Dawn may come, but the question is: will it be too late?
When directors in the late '70s began jumping on the kung-fu comedy bandwagon renowned director Chang Cheh stuck to his guns of traditional brotherhood and moral code films made popular by him in the '60s. So in keeping with the spirit of the venomous success of the cultish THE FIVE VENOMS, Chang reunites the Five Venoms in arguably his second biggest cult hit in the West, THE KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM. As the film's lead martial arts instructor and one of the stars, it's also one of Lo Meng's finest moments on screen playing the righteous villain Golden Arms whose eventual showdown with the drunkard Hai Tao (Kuo Chue, fight choreographer for BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) is graphically artsy and balletically violent. You won't be disappointed.
Young Chang Shun (Ti Lung) meets Wen Jou (Li Ching) when her sports car breaks down, drives her home and falls in love with her. Dancing with Wen Jou at a nightclub, Chang meets her brother Wen Chiang (Chen Hung-lieh) who dislikes him intensely. Wen Chiang's gang is after Chang and Wen Jou is forbidden to see him again. When Chang and his pals are beaten up by Wen Chiang's crowd, the humiliated Chang takes the pistol he's found and heads for Wen's home. He shoots him dead. Chang next dates Jou and the two go for a drive. Their car is tailed by the cops and soon surrounded. Chang reaches for his pistol and is gunned down, but his weapon is not loaded...
Lo Wei's reputation was cemented by his being credited as director on both Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan's first major starring roles. But before The Big Boss and New Fist Of Fury, Lo Wei was acting, writing, and directing at Shaw Studios. This, however, was his very last Shaw Brothers film - the fabulous tale of a frostbitten swordswoman out to get her parents' murderers. An audience can only marvel at Li Ching's talent as she struggles to cure her hypothermia in time for the final "snow-down."
Li Ching, Yueh Hua, Chang Chung, Tien Feng, Chiao Chiao, Ku Feng
Da Yung is the son of an entrepreneur of a big corporation. Lian Lian is the niece of a Kindergarten’s principal. Fate has brought them together as Da Yung loses his wallet by mistake when they first met. Further misunderstanding occurs when Da Yung tries to use Lian Lian as an excuse to drive the two women he does not love away. Legendary actress and Golden Horse winner Joan Lin stars in this romantic comedy.
This intriguing effort has more than a touch of both westerns and detective films in the martial arts mix. It lives up to its title as a noble guard is both attacked by bandits as well as betrayed by a relative. Then it's nephew against uncle, daughter against father, concubine against hero, and the law vs. vigilante justice before the last plot is exposed and the lovers are able to ride off into the sunset...
One of the most respected, long-lived and powerful emperors in Chinese history, Chien Lung, travels to one of the most scholarly cities in China incognito, and there he indulges his interest in gambling and a certain courtesan.
In a rare reversal of typecasting, Shaw Brothers' perennial bad guy Lo Lieh breaks tradition to play the honorable and noble swordsman in The Swift Knight. Similar to Danny Kaye's The Court Jester without the jest, it's tale of brave knights, chivalry and fair maidens where the Swift Knight (Lo Lieh) finds himself involved in romance, court intrigue and deadly jousts while trying to protect a baby who is the Emperor's secret heir apparent.
Lo Lieh, Margaret Hsing Hui, Huang Tsung-hsing, Chin Han
Monk Tang San Zang, Monkey, Pigsy and Sha Wu Jing find themselves in Womanland, where women give birth to baby girls by drinking the magical spring water.
In the Yuan Dynasty, martial artists everywhere battle for the Heaven Sword and the Dragon Sabre, as only when these two powerful weapons combine can a secret be revealed to help one become the king of the martial arts world. Director Chu Yuan teamed up with famous writer Louis Cha to create this unforgettable saga.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon could be called "Swordswomen Two." Three decades earlier, Shen Yi, Essie Lin Chia, and Pan Ying-tzu took on Shaw's first international superstar, Lo Lieh for the Han Family Sword - making this a four-star treat for action fans.
Shen Yi, Essie Lin, Pan Ying-tzu, Chang I, Lo Lieh
