Yueh Hua, co-star of Clan Of Amazons and Clans Of Intrigue, tears up the screen as a corrupt magistrate, so obsessed with finding a hidden treasure that he not only jails and tortures his daughter's lover, but buries his daughter alive as well! Ironically, it is in her coffin that the secret to the hidden treasure is revealed, setting off a frenzy of destruction. Kung-fu choreographers Chen Ti-ke and Hsu Hsia have their hands full with this tale of martial arts masochism.
After making superstars of Jimmy Wang Yu, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Chen Kuan-tai, and others, esteemed martial arts movie master Chang Cheh decided it was time to cement the stardom of soon-to-be international favorite Alexander Fu Sheng. This film - following the director's SHAOLIN MARTIAL ARTS, FIVE SHAOLIN MASTERS, and DISCIPLES OF SHAOLIN - was clearly Fu's showcase. Rather than sharing the screen, as he had in the previous Shaolin trio, here he was clearly the sole hero, and took full advantage of that fact. He gives both a great dramatic and martial arts performance as an honorable carriage driver who finds love and death when he comes to the rescue of a girl being harassed by particularly venal, homicidal punks. This fight-filled thriller was made even more special by its introduction of the unusual 'Tsai' 'Li' 'Fu' kung-fu style - for which it had its own separate off-stage instructor (Yen Yat liang).
Alexander Fu Sheng, Jenny Tsang, Wang Lung-wei, Liang Chia-jen
This is Jenny Hu's stunning debut as a struggling singer who tries to keep her career and marriage intact. This movie also includes seven memorable hit songs.
Peter Chen Ho, Paul Chang Chung, Jenny Hu, Lily Ho
The "Venoms" were no more. After five years and more than a dozen films together, the only one of the original five who proved so successful for the director was the muscleman Lo Meng. But with just that one "venom" and his incredibly agile new star Cheng Tien-chi, he made this spectacular, internationally popular, favorite. Evil ninjas (who attack with, and from, fire, sun, wood, water, and the ground) brutally slaughter a noble Chinese kung-fu school's students. The one survivor finds a teacher and four students who are ninjitsu experts. The five graduates take revenge. With this strong structure and exceptional kung-fu choreography (from the star and co-star Chu Ke), Chang Cheh produced platinum. This film was one of the director's best of his superheroic, grand guignol period. By any name, it could be called, almost literally, "bloody good" entertainment!
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.
Accomplished film director Ching Siu-tung not only received international acclaim for his A CHINESE GHOST STORY film trilogy, but is also considered one of Hong Kong's top action directors and is regarded to be the father of the outlandish wire stunts and sight gags that Hong Kong film is so recently noted for. In MONKEY KUNG FU, Ching plays Wei Chun, a wayward underachiever that is given the key to unlock the secret of the gibbon fists tactic. Besides being the film's martial arts instructor, bearing first hand witness to Ching's remarkable martial arts skills on screen makes this movie a once in a lifetime catch.
After several years of marriage, Prof. Wu Te-sheng (Alex Man Chi-leung) and his wife Wan Chun (Patricia Ha Man-jik) decide to have children. Then a medical examination shows Wu is the cause of the couple's infertility, and Wu reluctantly adopts his doctor's advice to have his wife artificially inseminated in Hawaii.
The aggressive and dangerous Chin Empire conquers the hard-put Chao kingdom while the Wei empire is drained of its heroes and paralyzed by an indecisive ruler. Adventure, intrigue, death and tragedy reigns before the triumphant clash of the armies.
Award-winning drama featuring a passionate performance by Lisa Lu, enhanced by sumptuous costumes and sets, produces a powerful, fascinating story. In five thousand years of Chinese history, there was never a more fascinating woman than the dragon lady of the Ching Dynasty, also the Empress Dowager, who was the power behind the throne for the last half of the 19th century. The vast tapestry of palace intrigues is vividly brought to the screen.
A year before Lo Wei directed Bruce Lee in Fist Of Fury, he wrote and co-starred in this tale of a treacherous devil who wants nothing less than supreme power...and doesn't care if he has to murder the Emperor and use his own daughter as a deadly dupe to get it.
Chiao Chiao, Pai Yin, Tsung Hua, Wang Hsieh, Lo Wei
Sun Chung started exploring the kung-fu genre with this fascinating tale which mixes music and martial arts. It's a tale of conflicting clans and a mysterious song called 'The Proud One' which leads to slowly blossoming love as well as sudden death.
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."
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 traditional lion dance has never looked so good as in Lion VS Lion which captures the most impressive sequences of lion dancing on film. Besides being loaded with enjoyable martial arts chicanery, film historians can revel because it's also the first film that clearly demonstrates the intricacies and differences between the traditional Northern and Southern lion dancing techniques. The Five Venom alumnus and Chang Cheh discovery, Lo Meng, teams up with Liu Chia-liang protege Wang Yu, as they inadvertently turn from vagabond kung-fu school operators into anti-Ching, patriotic fighters.
Wang Yu, Chien Yuen-sheng, Wang Lung-wei, Lo Meng, Yang Pan-pan
