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.
After making such successful thrillers as THE CRIMINALS 2 - HOMICIDES, such well-received action films as BIG BROTHER CHENG, and such popular comedies as MR. FUNNY - BONE, director Kuei Chih-hung put his first "hex" on the audience. This eerie, frightening, supernatural mystery thriller was so effective, it led to HEX VERSUS WITCHCRAFT and HEX AFTER HEX. But this was the original, starring the lovely Tanny Tien Ni in a challenging role of a wronged, bed-ridden wife who is at the mercy of her evil husband... and so much more. What starts as an Asian variation of the classic Fench suspense film DIABOLIQUE becomes an exercise in fervid and frightening Hong Kong horror as one ghost after another appears to wreak havoc, insanity, and death.
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.
Esteemed director Ho Meng-hua attained cult status among kung-fu film fans in the West with his wild and wacky martial arts hit THE FLYING GUILLOTINE. His unique directing approach focused more on the devastating nature of the horrific weapon than the kung-fu fights. One of Shaw Brothers' biggest kung-fu stars at the time, Chen Kuan-tai plays the leader of the ‘Flying Guillotine Squad’ a group of hand picked killers, commissioned by the Ching Emperor Yung Cheng, that use a deadly, beheading weapon to carry out the emperor's assassination assignments. It's actually based on a true story. Interestingly, the weapon used in the film was a complete fabrication because in real life, no one ever survived to tell what the actual weapon really looked like.
Auteur Lo Chen helmed this tragic love story of the famed Peking Opera star Chiu Hai-Tang, his beautiful stage partner, and the warlord who stands between them. The superlative stars' traditional musical skills give an extra layer of professionalism to the film's fascinating music and intense interpersonal drama.
The "Venoms" are back in action in this thriller of Shaolin versus corrupt Ching soldiers... with the help of the Lama, Black Tiger, and Mantis clans... headquartered at a pugilism school, a dyeing mill, and a beancurd shop. The five men director Chang Cheh made famous in more than a dozen similar high-flying, blood-splattered adventures (starting with The Five Venoms) are all here. There’s the Taiwanese Opera artist Kuo Chue, his fellow light-skill acrobat Chiang Sheng, the evil Lu Feng, the Chinese muscleman Lo Meng, and Korean kicker Sun Chien, whose skills are specially spotlighted in this production. Together they create another wonderfully fun kung-fu showcase, filled with show-stopping sequences of martial arts expertise.
An amusing insider's look at the Hong Kong film industry; this is auteur Li Han-hsiang's version of Truffaut's Day for Night and Fellini's 8. It is a homage paid to Li, with a 30-year landmark in this business. Based on the director's highly popular newspaper column, this is a potboiler of some of his funniest and most surreal film gossips of the era. Filled with fictional plots and hardcore facts, this is definitely a must-see for any Hong Kong cinema aficionado!
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...
Directed by Chu Yuan, the film follows the ups and downs and love and losses of the large Yang clan. Set in the early 1920s, the household with the four distinctly different brothers go through love and heartaches, taking the audience along on a richly emotional ride. It is a classic tale of tradition versus individualism and family values versus freedom.
Li Ching, Wang Ping, Tsung Hua, Yueh Hua, Ching Li
Yeh Yung-tsu only directed a precious few films, making each all the more distinguished. This is one of his first, a sword-filled thriller centering on the title location - an inn where the down and dirty meet to plot nefarious doings. Award winning actor Ku Feng stars as the "Whip Devil," while the luminous and lethal Shih Szu plays "The Lady Hermit" who has a surprise in store for all the double-crossing masters of mayhem.
Shih Hsin-chiao (Ling Yun) is a journalist who trained under mentor Lu Tao-jan (Chin Han). Lu's daughter, Chih-pai (Tien Niu) is infatuated with the good-looking and intelligent Shih, but Shih sees her only as a child. When he returns from a long stay abroad, he finds that things have changed. Chih-pai is now an attractive young woman in a relationship with rich boy (Wang Yu). A miscarriage and Lu's death throw Shih and Chih-pai together...
In attempting to rescue some innocent people, swordsman Chiang Tzu-chao (Fang Mien) slays the son of Tsao Kang (Wang Hsia), leader of the ruthless Crimson Charm gang.The enraged father promises vengeance on the day of Chiang's 60th birthday...
Ivy Ling Po, Chang I, Shih Szu, Ku Feng, Wang Ching-ho
This tale of hidden treasure and a young wushu warrior in the Valley of Villains is considered among the best from director Chu Yuan and celebrated author Gu Long. Making the production even more special is the presence of international favourite Alexander Fu Sheng.
Director Chu Yuan teams with star Ti Lung and famed novelist Chu Yu for this intriguing, exciting production which weaves mystery and suspense in with the kung-fu action. Ti plays a framed kung-fu master who's seeking revenge after fifteen years in prison, and must survive one attempt on his life after another...
