A semi-tragic love story about a scholar named Lao Chih-Chiu (Anthony Wong) who saves a golden swallow that transforms into a beautiful female ghost (Cherie Chung). The two fall in love, but their romance is threatened when her true identity is revealed, and Lao Chih-Chiu could end up a demon's dinner!
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.
When super director Chang Cheh found new talent and blood with "The Five Venoms" actors, most of which were trained in the highly acrobatic Chinese opera and well versed with exotic martial arts weapons, this created a new spark for his use of bizarre weapons in his films. The Flag Of Iron is one of 20 movies that he directed featuring the utterly flabbergasting and physically exhausting action bits created by these five dudes. You have the good guys from the righteous clan versus the bad guys from the villainous clan and it's so filled with "don't-blink-or-you-will-miss-something" gags, you will need to watch it over and over again so you can see the things you missed.
Kuo Chui , Chang Sheng , Wang Li , Lu Feng , Lung Tien-chiang
Cantopop king Aaron Kwok shows that he can kick and chop with the best of them. As THE BARE-FOOTED KID, he's an innocent country bumpkin/martial arts whiz in the Ching Dynasty who proves more than equal to the city slickers whose path he crosses. Ably assisted by director Johnnie To and with martial arts choreography by the legendary Liu Chia-liang, Aaron Kwok - generally acknowledged to be the best dancer among the pop idols - proves that he's equally graceful at kung-fu. The ladies in the bare-footed kid's life are impressive as well, with Maggie Cheung Man-yuk an introspective widow and Jacklyn Wu a rambunctious rich girl. Most imposing is Ti Lung, playing a mysterious fugitive, showing that he still possesses the screen presence that first brought him to kung-fu superstardom over twenty years earlier.
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.
Martial arts genre auteur Chang Cheh teams up with action stars Ti Lung and David Chiang again. Ti Lung is the "armour" of an armoured carriage taking silver to the capital. Along the way a mysterious knight (David Chiang) begins to stalk him. As Ti Lung is surrounded by various bandits, Chiang has to save his new friend and risk his own life. Later, the two happen to be involved in a love triangle with Li Ching.
Li Ching, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Ching Miao, Ku Feng, Chen Hsing
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.
When Chang Cheh created "heroic bloodshed" swordsman films, he changed martial arts cinema by having more male than female characters in the genre. The Silver Fox is a throwback, the last of its kind where the heroic swordsmen are women. Lily Ho (before she became one of Shaw Brothers' great erotica actresses) portrays the feared swordswoman Silver Fox, who witnessed her father senselessly wounded and her mother raped. It's 18 years later and it's payback time.
Filmmaker Wong Jing produced Mercenaries From Hong Kong, his very first modern-day adventure drama. In the dramatic plot he wrote, he sends superstars Ti Lung, Chen Hui-min, Wang Lung-wei, Lo Lieh and Wang Yu on a deadly mission. The film's action sequences are all closely guided by three great kung fu choreographers, led by Tang Chia!
The subtle repackage of the most filmed Ching Dynasty novel, The Dream Of The Red Chamber by renowned director Li Han-hsiang has earned public acclaim by attaining The Best Art Direction of The 15th Golden Horse Award, The Best Costume and The Best Art Direction Of The 24th Asian Film Festival. Brigitte Lin and Sylvia Chang play the adorable yet sorrowful couple Bao Yu and Dai Yu; playing their roles to the hilt in this gloomy love story of their uncontrollable destinies.
Brigitte Lin , Sylvia Chang , Deborah , Michelle Mei Suet
It's a no-holds-barred battle to the death for possession of the invaluable Purple Sword. Assistant director Wang Po-yi also wrote this entertaining and exciting adventure which could have also been called "The Five Tigers" since there's no doubt that this quintet is the highlight of the action. Huang Tsung-shun is "Fierce Tiger," Hung Liu is "Drunk Tiger," Hsu Erh-niu is "Lame Tiger," award-winning actor Ku Feng is "One-eyed Tiger" and respected director/actor Wu Ma is "Sick Tiger" in a tangle of tussles and thrills.
Chang I, Chen Hung-lieh, Shu Pei-pei, Essie Lin Chia
Director Wong Jing is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of the gambling genre films, and now Shaw Showcase brings to you one of his earliest blockbusters from two decades ago. Starring genre icon Shih Hsien with the stellar cast of Wang Yu, Huang Chin-sang, Chen Kuan-tai and Huang Hsing-hsiu. Embedded with Japanese spies, Shanghai tycoons, beautiful starlets, and enough twists and turns on the gambling table, Challenge Of The Gamesters promises to deliver superb entertainment.
Wang Yu, Huang Chin-sang, Shih Hsien, Chen Kuan-tai, Huang Hsing-hsiu
Kuo Ching-chung (Ling Yun), an office worker, his wife, Chen Mei-chuan (Terry Liu) and his sister, Carrie (Chiang San), are passengers on a ferry bound for an outlying island of Hong Kong. On board the same boat are a group of young hooligans who form the so-called 'speed gang' of motorcyclists. One of them called Michael makes advances to Carrie, but is stopped by his brother Johnny, the ringleader. On the island, the trio goes joy-riding on a car, while Carrie's boyfriend Huang Szu-wei (Danny Lee) goes fishing. The 'speed gang' harasses them by driving their motorbikes around their car at breakneck speed. In the evening the gangs take part in a motorcycle race organized by Johnny. The winners are given the company of girls from the 'speed gang'. Kuo and Huang plan to take Chen Mei-chuan and Carrie back to town to avoid being molested, but the gangs stop them by playing different tricks including the deflating of their car tyres. In an ensuing scuffle, Chen Mei-chuan is assaulted and Carrie is killed. Jumping on a motorbike, Huang races it against the hooligans, knocking them down, but is killed by a stone hurled at his head. Michael again tries to rape Chen Mei-chuan in a forest, but is overpowered by her husband who arrives in the nick of time. He is then tied up and took to Kuo's house. The teddy boys led by Johnny subsequently arrive to storm it and succeed in breaking into it after a series of attempts. However, they meet with stubborn resistance from Kuo and his wife. Fortunately, the Marine Police arrive just in time to arrest the teddy boys.
There is no Chinese novel more famous than Journey To The West; and while there have been many movie adaptations, this memorable version presents a unique interpretation with humour, action, and fantasy galore. Ho Fan (who later became a celebrated erotic film director) plays the monk who undertakes a journey for Buddhist scriptures, encountering Monkey, Pigsy, and a damsel in distress (played by the actress named "The Most Beautiful Creature In China"), among many fun and fascinating others.
