Wang Chung was a valued actor long before he became a director, but as a filmmaker, he helped create some of the most interesting thrillers Shaw Brothers ever released - including this fascinating crime saga of a Sino-Vietnamese crime gang. Danny Lee stars as a misunderstood refugee while Ray Lui plays a cop struggling against his own conscience to ensure that justice is upheld.
Li Hsiu-hsien, Ray Lui, Cheng Tse-shih, Lin Chung-cheng
Take three of the most attractive women - Maggie Cheung Man-yuk, Cherie Chung Cho-hung and Rosamund Kwan, to ever grace the Hong Kong screen, mix them with two of the most lovable rogues (Kenny Bee and Nat Chen Pai-chiang), place them in the exotic beauty of Hawaii. Prince Charming is one of the first huge hits by director-writer Wong Jing, Hong Kong’s most prolific filmmaker of the past twenty years.
Arguably, the greatest kung-fu film director of all time is Liu Chia-liang. Unarguably the greatest kung-fu film character of all time is Huang Fei-hung. So what do you think would happen when you put these two titanic talents together? You get one of the finest "pure" kung-fu films ever made, with nary a character getting killed, but the thrills coming a mile a minute as two pugilism schools tests each other for a full hundred minutes. Following the director’s only other Huang Fei-hung film, CHALLENGE OF THE MASTERS, Lau returns his dynamic adoptive brother, Gordon Liu Chia-hui, to the leading role, then gives the king of screen villains, Wang Lung-wei, one of his few anti-heroic roles... just in time for a stunning climax unparalleled in its adeptness and invention.
Stephen Chow is a delight in this supernatural action comedy about a murdered cop returning from beyond the grave to persuade a rookie (Chow) into avenging his death.
Stephen Chow, Tung Piao, Fung Shui-fan, Chan Tak-yong
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
As its name implies, Songfest is an Eastmancolor-Shawscope costume musical, traditionally Chinese and timeless in content; yet revealing a spirited and modern technique. Shot on location at Taiwan's beautiful Sun-Moon Lake, it's a turbulent romance between a passionate tea picker Sung Yu-lan (Margaret Tu Chuan) and a charming fisherman Li Chun-yang (Chiao Chuang).
Margaret Tu Chuan, Julie Shih-yen, Chiao Chuang, Lily Ho
THE KUNG-FU INSTRUCTOR is martial arts film director Sun Chung's loose homage to Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo where unlike Toshiro Mifune's Sanjuro character being a snarling, bastard, drunk swordsman looking for a drink, popular actor Ti Lung's Huang Yang role, is an upright, righteous, weapon instructor looking to keep his limbs. Huang is a famous martial artist trapped into teaching kung-fu to the wrong clan while the opposing "good" clan tries to save him so he can instruct their members. Besides kung-fu comedienne Wang Yu starring in one of his few serious roles, Sun became the first Shaw Brothers' director to use a Steadicam which gives the film's action and editing style a unique brand of tension and rhythm. The pole fights are also out of this world.
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...
The Dancing Millionaires is of the most enjoyable musicals to grace the Hong Kong screens, starring husband & wife team Peter Chen Ho and Betty Loh Ti presenting some extraordinary performances.
Betty Lok Tih, Chen Ho, Kao Pao-shu, Landi Chang, Chiang Kwong-chao
When is THE BRAVE ARCHER movie a "Venoms" film? When it is this, the fourth in a series originally starring international favorite Alexander Fu Sheng as master martial artist Kuo Tsing. But Fu only appears here in a cameo as the son of a character played by Lung Tien-chiang (best known as a spear master in the "Venoms" film THE FLAG OF IRON). Kuo Chue is the new hero (as he is in the "Venoms" films as well) who is out to defeat the mass murderer of his martial arts masters. In fact, this fast-moving, action-packed, Venom-filled film is even choreographed by the three core "Venoms", making it a unique combination of grand "Martial Arts World" mayhem and special Venom-style high flying kung-fu.
Applauded director Li Han-Hsiang was one of few directors that made soft porn acceptable by mainstream audiences; using the thematic device of "sex on a mission" cynicism, suggesting that sex was the ultimate power. In the sex comedy The Scandalous Warlord, the true power that drove the country's many warlords were the prostitutes that these men would routinely visit. Therefore, the power in this film lies in the hands of the sassy Shirley Yu and the titillating Shaw Yin-Yin.
It's Meng Yuan-wen (star of The Master Strikes) versus Kuan Feng in this wild and wacky wushu saga of a priceless pole with a spectacular secret. A master martial artist's silly disciple struggles to save it from an evil white slaver, the slaver's duplicitous wife, and even his own bone-headed, but greedy, companion. Hsu Hsia choreographs the abundant action, as he had for both Five Superfighters and Drunken Master. The result is both sublime (for its kung-fu) and engagingly ridiculous.
Meng Yuan-wen, Chin Huang, Pan Ping-chang, Kuan Feng
Stephen Chow's special brand of very modern, very Hong Kong screwball comedy entered a new phase with JUSTICE, MY FOOT!, a costume farce set in imperial China. Chow is a shyster with an equally eccentric kung-fu ace of a wife, hilariously played by Anita Mui Yim-fong. Accompanied by Chow's number one screen sidekick, Ng Man-tat, he manages to bring justice to the court and laughter to the viewer. A resounding success, JUSTICE, MY FOOT! broke box office records to become the number hit of 1992. And it's no wonder, what with skillful direction by Johnnie To and a visual sheen provided by Peter Pao, who a few years later would become the first Chinese to win a Best Cinematography Oscar for CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.
Stephen Chow, Anita Mui, Zhu MiMi, Ng Man-tat, Carrie Ng
This refreshing musical comedy about teenage life stars a young Leslie Cheung & fresh-faced newcomer Elaine Chow. It earned a number of Golden Horse & HK Film Award nominations.
