Li Ching plays, Ah Chiao, a girl from a rural village stranded in the city, who befriends a kind-hearted tramp and a retired actor. They are all poor, but Ah Chiao’s fortune change for the better when she becomes a singer. However, she ultimately learns money can't buy happiness.
While director Chu Yuan is known for his high-flying tales of the "Martial Arts World," inspired by the great novelist Ku Lung, he is also famous for introducing elements of murder mysteries, detective tales, and emotional melodrama into kung-fu films. This is one of those moody, character-driven thrillers, complete with the atmospheric sets and costumes audiences had come to expect. He uses two editors and three martial arts choreographers to tell the tale of two unique detectives following strange omens to prevent the death of a fiancée. The kung-fu takes on a macabre, horrific flair as kidnapping, murder, frame-ups, and even being buried alive fill this stunning story of swordsmen and women struggling to save their true loves... and their sanity.
Beloved comedian Yi Lei stars in this horribly amusing 1980 comedy. Yu Nan (Yi Lei) is a compulsive gambler. When his debt collector decides he wants Yu's wife as down payment, a reluctant Yu agrees. But when Yu's wife discovers the trade-off, she leaves him. Yu decides that it's best to kill himself but is stopped when he's offered the hand of a beautiful ghost (Pei Ju-hua) as his new wife...
Award-winning actress Li Ching teams up with the villain Lo Lieh in The Fugitive, a film heralding the lesser of two evils...at the expense of a tragic love story leaving the audience buried in their handkerchiefs.
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!
This film was actually a lively forerunner to the gambling film craze, which eventually swept Asian cinema. Here, it's cardsharp versus cardsharp with a lot more kung-fu action, in a battle of wits and fists to become the king of the casino. The double stings and triple crosses raise in complexity and imagination until what started as an unusual box office risk became a top ten hit of 1976.
Part horror, part kung-fu, 100% outrageous, HUMAN LANTERS has a special place in the Cult Film Hall of Fame. Some of the biggest stars in Hong Kong martial arts movies enter the twilight zone in this over-the-top bloodfest, with Lo Lieh an insane swordsman who comes up with a unique way to avenge past humiliations. He opens a lantern workshop with the lampshades made from the beautiful hides of his enemies’ sisters, courtesans, and wives. Liu Yung steps down from the Emperor roles that made him famous to play a deliciously evil bad guy, and Chen Kuan-tai matches him in pride and power-lust. Lust of another kind is supplied by Tanny Tien Ni and Linda Chu, two ladies whose beautiful skin proves to be a most unwelcome asset. A rare entry in the horror-kung-fu genre, and one of Hong Kong’s most distinctive action films.
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.
Linda Lin Dai struggles with The Blue forces of freedom, love, the sea and the sky, and The Black, the bottomless pit of evil. Lin’s poignant performance is memorable, however, it is that of newcomer Angela Yu Chien, who was named Best Supporting Actress. Part I ends with a literal cliffhanger, setting the stage for the equally memorable Part II.
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
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.
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.
David Chiang teams up with Chang Cheh's acclaimed screenwriter Ni Kuang (who has written over 300 screenplays) to continue his epic "heroic brotherhood" caricature in his second directorial feature, The Condemned. In the film, Chiang plays a righteous character who helps an injustly imprisoned swordsman accused of stealing. Together they break out of prison and serve notice to all the evil men in their lives that a new deadly duo is in town.
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.
