Cheng Pei-pei, the screen's greatest swordswoman, teams with Lo Lieh, the star of Shaw's first international mega-hit to claim the famous "Jade Dragon Sword" in this fast-paced "Martial Arts World" adventure where everybody wants the famous "Jade Dragon Sword", no matter who they have to kill to get it. They all face death in the title location as the "Roaming Knight" takes on the Master of Dragon Swamp in this family feud which takes place over more than twenty years of attack and vengeance. In addition to many spectacular fights, this production is all the more special for the emotional wallop at the finale.
When Jianying discovers the Zhao clan's fortune will be left to his brother Yulong, he engineers his parents' death and sends his own son out to kill Yulong.
There are martial arts epics and "brotherhood hero" films but then there is nothing out there that comes even close to THE WATER MARGIN. Based on the classic novel and true legend, ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS about how 108 rebels bravely fought against the Sung Dynasty, just about every big Shaw Brothers’ star around at the time, David Chiang, Ti Lung and Chen Kuan-tai to name a few, were called in to do this film to make it one of the most dynamic films in the history of cinema. The film exhausts you with its wild and wooly, yet heroically primitive battle scenes that ultimately end in sharp and visually effective images of death, defeat and heroism. It won Honorable Mention for Dramatic Feature at the 1972 Golden Horse Awards.
David Chiang, Ti Lung, Lily Ho, Chin Feng, Yueh Hua
Filled with amazing sword-fighting and martial arts movements, David Chiang plays the 13th Prince, a powerful young fighter whose prestigious status provokes jealousy, leading to a gruesome family feud.
David Chiang, Ti Lung, Chin Han, Lily Li, Nan Kung-hsun
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.
In 1975, Ho Meng-hua, master of the "esoteric weapon" kung-fu thriller, started an international sensation with The Flying Guillotine. But while he went on to direct such further "crazy cutlery" hits as The Dragon Missile, popular demand insisted upon a sequel to the original decapitator-on-a-chain. So, first, they got a script by a trio of writers, featuring a new, improved "Ring-Chain Flying Guillotine" and the only weapon that can stop it, the "Toothed Wheel". Next they matched Cheng Kang, the director of their popular true crime thriller The Criminals, with Hua Shan, the director of their superheroes Super Inframan, to double-team the project. Then they cast some of the best martial arts actors in their repertory - all ably choreographed by the often unsung, but universally respected Tang Chia. Finally they filmed Ti Lung as a fugitive from the emperor’s cruelty, against the whole F.G. gang in a blade-on-blade battle to the headless death!
Ask any martial arts movie aficionado for his or her list of all-time action greats, and there's a good chance that Killer Clans ranks somewhere near the top. Based on a popular swordplay novel, Killer Clans (whose Chinese title literally translates into the poetic "Meteor, Butterfly, Sword") has enough conspiracies, stratagems, and sword fights to make even non-action fans happy. They are masterfully staged by Yuen Cheung-yan, brother of Matrix martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping. The cast includes some of Shaw Brothers' leading swordsmen and swordswomen, and they bring to life the novel's epic battles between underground clans, where the line between good and evil is not always so clear-cut or obvious.
One of Hong Kong's top directors reunited with its biggest comedy star after several previous hits (ROYAL SCOUNDREL, JUSTICE, MY FOOT) – only this time their subject was the gods themselves. Internationally proclaimed comic genius Stephen Chow plays petty, arrogant god Dragon Fighter Lo Han, who is changed into "Monk Chai" and ordered to alter the fates of three bad people on Earth, lest he be retransmigationized. Unfortunately for him (but to any viewer's delight), the trio he finds are a prostitute (played by the radiant, remarkably talented Maggie Cheung Man-yuk), a beggar (played by award-winning actor Anthony Wong), and a cold-blooded killer. Chow and To wring honest pathos and many laughs from this wonderful scenario, ably supported by the star's welcome sidekick Ng Man-tat and vaunted action director Ching Siu-tung (the director of A CHINESE GHOST STORY and the producer of THE HEROIC TRIO).
Stephen Chiau, Maggie Cheung, Ng Man-tat, Anthony Wong
Action auteur Chang Cheh accomplished one of the most memorable historical dramas to come out of Shaw Brothers in the 1960s, and became a pioneer at the golden age of martial arts cinema. Featuring the 20-year-old swimming champion and future action star Wang Yu. Set in the final years of the Ming Dynasty, three brave heroes stand against a power-hungry official, and cross-path with three gorgeous beauties. It's two magnificent trios in one film!
Tu Ku (Alex Man Chi-leung), having mastered the fatal skill, leads his eight section chiefs to Wu Tang to challenge Yun Fei-yang (Hsu Shao-chiang). But Yun has already gone into seclusion with his lover Lun Wan-erh (Liu Hsueh-hua). At this moment Tu receives a challenge from Chief Mochitsuki Soryu Han (Chen Kuan-tai) of the Japanese Ega clan.
Tsui Siu-keung, Liu Hsueh-hua, Chen Kuan-tai, Alex Man
In Lady With A Sword, Kao Pao-shu showed that women could successfully direct a "heroic swordsman" film using a swordswoman bent on revenge. Kao cast Shaw's darling Lily Ho as the embittered swordswoman searching for the man who murdered her sister. The man turns out to be her fiance' but her nihilistic fate stays true to lone swordswoman form, as to paraphrase Gary Cooper in High Noon, "A woman's got to do what a woman's got to do."
This sequel to The Empress Dowager surpasses its predecessor in some ways. The attention to historic detail in the sets and costumes is everything one expects from director Li Han-Hsiang, the master of the costume drama. Variety hailed the production as "lavish, the script tightly packed"; Variety also concluded that the "filmmaker's efforts to try to make things perfect, to put his audience back in the days of the Empress Dowager and her son, have come off once again."
