Best Picture, Best Director, Best Music, Best Editing, Best Actress and special awards for outstanding performance, this sumptuous adaptation of a Chinese folk tale won them all. Glorious Betty Loh Ti stars as a beauty that disguises herself as a boy to get forbidden education. This sort of pre-Yentl gender-bender role-playing is traditional when it comes to Chinese opera, yet there is nothing old fashioned about the superlative screen treatment given to this all-time classic.
Co-directed by Chang Cheh and Pao Hsueh-li, and written by Ni Kuang, Chang Cheh and Chin Shu-mei, THE DELIGHTFUL FOREST revolved around the legendary hero Wu Sung (Ti Lung), who was sent to the prison in the Meng province after murdering his sister-in-law Lotus Pan and a local ruffian Hsi Men-ching. There he was acquainted with the prison officer "Golden Eye" Shih En (Tien Ching), who saved Wu from the baton punishment required for new prisoners. Knowing he had owed Shih a favor, Wu decided to offer any help in return. It turned out that Shih's restaurant "Delightful Forest" was taken by the local thug "Door God" Chiang Chung (Chu Mu), with the support from the Meng officials and military trainers. The furious Wu decided to get Shih's restaurant back at all costs...
Connecting all the antics of bosses, monks, beggars, and thieves is the slippery and sinuous efforts of three pickpockets so adept at their chosen skill that they can even trick three beauties of their underwear without missing a step.
For lovers of the Shaw's sumptuous production and martial arts expertise, this action adventure in the "Jackie Chan style" is a special treat. A persecuted waiter turns to a "drunken master" for help when a restaurant customer turns out to be a kung-fu harbinger of doom!
Meng Yuan-wen, Yuan Hua, Wang Sha, Yu Tsui-ling, Wang Lung-wei
Director Sun Chung was the first Shaw Brothers' director to use the Steadicam and in the mid-70s was one of the most productive directors Shaw Brothers ever had. His action films had strong tension, snappy editing and slow motion, the things that influenced up and coming martial arts director John Woo. Sun Chung joins forces with kung-fu comedienne Wang Yu, a ballistic kid on a mission to clear his father's name, in THE KID WITH A TATTOO which also features plentiful ripsnorting martial arts at the hands of Liu Chia-liang's 10-year, exceptionally creative, choreographer partner Tang Chia. Jackie Chan's long time kung-fu classmates Yuen Hua and Yuan Pin along with best martial arts fighting villain Wang Lung-wei, add wickedly wild altercations to the melees of death.
Double Bliss tells the story of two students who fall in love and want to wed, but there is one small snag: their parents don't agree! The two ingenious lovebirds come up with what they think is a foolproof plan...They play dead!
Liang Hsing-po, Ching Li, Chin Feng, Kao Pao-shu, Wei Ping-ou
After his lengthy training nears completion, expert swordsman Kao is entrusted with an unusual mission by his elderly master: taking the fabled 'Teardrop Sword' down into the martial world and solving the petty squabbles of a few supremely skilled individuals, while also deciding the fate of the seemingly cursed weapon.
This witty romantic comedy features the wacky attempts of three bachelors trying to get girls without buying rings. The Hong Kong Playgirls have other results in mind. The fast-paced complications and gambits are made bittersweet by the performance of renowned kung-fu hero, Alexander Fu Sheng, who proved to be an utterly charming comedic star. Sadly he was soon killed in a tragic car accident, essentially making him the 'James Dean of Hong Kong'.
Fu Sheng, Shih Hsien, Chan Pak-cheung, Cherrie chung
Director Chu Yuan has been hailed as the premiere screen interpreter of famed author Ku Lung's martial arts novels, and this is one of their best. This is an exciting tale of two rival swordsmen in imperial China vying with a power-hungry villain for possession of the dangerous "Peacock Dart"It showcases brilliantly choreographed fights, glorious settings, superb cinematography, exceptional scenes, and a strong cast. It all leads to a final showdown that stands out as a highpoint in kung-fu cinema.
Chang Cheh's classic adaptation of the popular fantasy stars Fu Sheng in his signature role as legendary super-teen Na Cha, reincarnated to save his people from an evil emperor.
Fu Sheng, Lu Ti, Chiang Tao, Feng Ko-an, Yuan Man-tzu
Besides his pioneering films based on authentic martial artistry and kung-fu comedies during the 1970's, acclaimed director Liu Chia-liang also embraced the master/pupil relationship to form the cornerstone of many of his other works where his characters exhibited physical and moral failure as a means to either "make them or break them". Besides directing MAD MONKEY KING FU, it's also Liu's debut as a lead actor playing down and out, monkey kung-fu master Chen, crippled by the ruthless villain Tuen (Shaw's penultimate bad guy Lo Lieh). Street boy Hsiao Hou (which means "little monkey" and played by popular martial arts aerialist Hsiao Hao) convinces Chen to teach him monkey kung-fu to avenge Chen's shame. The wacky training sequences and outlandish finale fight leave you stupefied.
Respected veteran director Li Han-hsiang capped it all off with this fascinating period drama of royal intrigue. Li Kun plays the ingenious Lord Liu, whose intelligence is envied by the Emperor (Liu Yung).
It's mid-autumn festival, and hunchbacked, Liu To, out to avenge his sworn-brother, Chin Piao's death, calls for Li Kuei. (Who killed Chin Piao ten years earlier in a fight to possess a document about the "Poisonous Dragon Sword.") Later, the two fight, and Liu To loses his right arm, and swears vengeance on Li Kuei, during mid-autumn in ten years' time. Near death, Li Kuei asks Madame Chen (his sister) to send his daughter, Li Pao-chu, to learn the fighting tacties of the poisonous dragon sword. Ten years pass, and Li Pao-chu, now highly respected and feared for her swordplay skills, is called "The Young Avenger". Her quest is to avenge the death of her father. She meets her swordsman cousin, Chen Shih-lun. Mid-autumn comes, and with it Liu To and Chen Shih-lun, who leads the local villagers in an attack against marauding thugs. A bitter fight ensues between Liu To and Chen Shih-lun, with Liu getting the upper hand in spite of help from Li Pao-chu. At a critical moment in the fight, they are aided and inspired by Li Pao-chu's teacher (Chen Shih-lun's paternal uncle) and Liu To is finally killed by Li Pao-chu. The quest of the Young Avenger is at last over.
Fresh from his smashing directorial debut comedy Let's Make Laugh, Alfred Cheung Kin-ting returns to the screen with this seriocomic look at the clash of cultures which result when a Mainland Chinese peasant brings his family to Hong Kong. Family Light Affair, whose Chinese title literally translates as "City Lights", is the director/writer's warm-hearted memoir of street life back in the early 1980s, featuring an eclectic cast of pop music and kung fu stars who shine in their poignant roles.
