Derek Yee is a magic solar baby sent Earthbound by a benevolent god, raised by an old carpenter, has martial art superpowers and "green kryptonite" loses them during solar eclipses. That's when the evil baby counterpart shows up. Demon-paced martial arts action by Jackie Chan's kung-fu classmates Yuan Pin and Yuen Hua compliments Toho Studio style special optical effects.
With Hong Kong cinema's new wave, high flying, martial arts action of the 1980's, came a new wave of actors; teeny-bopper, canto-pop singer/stars with little or no martial arts background. However, when a film like LITTLE DRAGON MAIDEN intelligently mixes the old with the new, the results are pure golden magic. This costume-action, drama, love story features relative newcomer Leslie Cheung, who falls in love with the Dragon Maiden while learning the art of swordplay. The recipe is complete when veteran kung-fu stars Chen Kuan-tai and Lo Lieh add just enough weapon-wielding spice to make this film really cook. Cheung garnered international recognition in John Woo's A BETTER TOMORROW and Ronny Yu's THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR.
Leslie Cheung, Weng Tsing-tsing, Chen Kuan-tai, Liu Hsueh-yua
In The Sword And The Lute, Kwei Wu (Jimmy Wang Yu) and his partner (Chin Ping) are on a mission to destroy the "Phoenix Lute", a deadly weapon that shoots poisonous needles up to 500 paces and which can only be destroyed by the Kan curved sword...
Martial arts melodrama about a lady-warrior who raises the son of the swordsman who scorned her. Unknowingly, she also has a twin sister that has been raised by her enemy and trained to eventually kill her…
Fu Ping-chung (Ching Miao), a government official, is charged with making a misleading military report and is recalled from his position. He and his servant pack up his books and belongings and head for home. En route, they get into a squabble with a man (Chuan Yuan) at the inn, but the man proves to be such a good fighter that Fu persuades him to join his entourage as a body-guard. Soon they meet two girls, Shih Hsueh-lan (Shu Pei-pei) is s reluctant bride who has just run away from her wedding. They join Fu and his men for protection but then they all fall into an attack by a gang of traitors...
Laughter and action come fast and furious in Doubles Cause Troubles with Dodo Cheng and Maggie Cheung Man-yuk - two of Hong Kong's best actresses - as squabbling cousins who find themselves in over their heads after their tenant ends up dead. The gangsters are after them, the law suspects them, and they still don't know what they've done wrong! As the girls get more confused, they get drawn deeper into trouble. Will they be able to climb out again?
Carol Cheng, Maggie Cheung, Wilson Lam, Chan Pak-cheung
A heroic family is double crossed and massacred on the battle field with only two of the brothers surviving the slaughter. One of the brothers (Gordon Liu), escapes to a Shaolin temple where his bloodlust and thirst for vengeance puts him at odds with the monks. When he discovers his sister is captured by the same villains who destroyed his family he leaves the monastery in an attempt to rescue her and avenge what has come upon his family.
Liu Chia-hui, Fu Sheng, LiLy Li, Wang Yu, Mai Tak-lo, Hsiao Hou
Sun Chung had been recognized as an expert comedy and crime thriller director, but he was to gain even greater acclaim for his soulful, powerful, intelligent, and beautifully-made martial arts epics. This stands alongside The Deadly Breaking Sword and The Kung-fu Instructor as one of his very best. It's not so much the plot - a master swordsman protects a treasure chest on a dangerous journey - that makes this great, but what Sun does with it, inspiring the cast and crew to some of their finest work.
The chase may be long, but the action is fast and furious is this tale of a dart master-for-hire and the innkeeper’s daughter, Hsueh-niang (Li Ching) who loves him. Kou Ying (Yueh Hua) is under deadly threat from a police officer after he assassinates a Government Minister, while Hsueh-niang is the target of murderous local bandits. The consummately versatile director, Ho Meng-hua soon to be declared a master of the “esoteric weapon” kung-fu film, develops his style with this sharp thriller that really gets to the point.
The Deadly Breaking Sword elevated director Sun Chung to the martial arts directorial rank of Chang Cheh. Starring the incomparable Ti Lung and Jackie Chan's kung-fu comedic rival Alexander Fu Sheng, acclaimed fight choreographer Tang Chia had a field day increasing the stars' venomous fighting appeal. Armed with the "Deadly Breaking Sword" technique, Tuen Cheng-tsin (Ti Lung) joins forces with thief Ko Mun (Alexander Fu Sheng) to defeat an assassin being "acupuncturingly" controlled by the evil Dr. Kuo.
Cherie Chung headlines this sexy romance as the eponymous heroine, a fitness instructor who attracts the attentions of a wealthy businessman (Chu Yuan) and handsome artist (Tony Leung Ka-fai).
Kwan leads a double life as a waitress and as an infamous outlaw, The Black Butterfly. When she steals a cache of gold from the Five Devils Rock bandits, she soon has the bandits, and the government, on her tail.
The titanic team of Director Chu Yuan and Novelist Ku Lung chose to give their hero (Ti Lung) a whole new cliffhanger-fraught adventure featuring a mysterious swordsman, a sensual swordswoman, an imperial assassin, a ghost mansion, a booby-trapped tunnel, as well as double crosses and secret missions.
When directors in the late '70s began jumping on the kung-fu comedy bandwagon renowned director Chang Cheh stuck to his guns of traditional brotherhood and moral code films made popular by him in the '60s. So in keeping with the spirit of the venomous success of the cultish THE FIVE VENOMS, Chang reunites the Five Venoms in arguably his second biggest cult hit in the West, THE KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM. As the film's lead martial arts instructor and one of the stars, it's also one of Lo Meng's finest moments on screen playing the righteous villain Golden Arms whose eventual showdown with the drunkard Hai Tao (Kuo Chue, fight choreographer for BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) is graphically artsy and balletically violent. You won't be disappointed.
