This iconoclastic film retells the legend of seven Chinese patriots, who sacrificed their lives to defend against 20,000 Japanese soldiers and 50 tanks for 5 days, at a strategic key point of the Great Wall known as Pa Tou Lou Tzu.
David Chiang, Ti Lung, Chen Kuan-tai, Alexander Fu Sheng
Tou Kuan (Chang Chan-peng) is a wealthy Kwangtung brat with a good kung fu background, he has only one ambition: to pit his wits against three shady masters of the North. The first, conman Che Tsai (Alexander Fu Sheng). The second, a professional romantic dubbed The Terrific (Nat Chen Pai-chiang). Terrific introduces Tou Kuan to his third rival, Thief Shih San-shou (Wang Yu).
The martial arts world is plunged into terror when a mysterious figure known as the 'Embroidery Bandit' starts to attack convoys of precious materials. Seemingly unstoppable, the frightened clans decide to call on the expertise of Lu Xiaofeng (Liu Yung), an inquisitive fighter and detective to find the culprit.
When reputable fight choreographer Liu Chia-liang debuted as a director with THE SPIRITUAL BOXER, it not only established him as a superb director, but it also encouraged other martial arts instructors to turn to directing. Plus, it was the first film to introduce comedy into kung-fu so it made sense for Liu to return to that foundation with the same bumbling idiot Wang Yu still not quite getting it when it comes to the affair of ghost control in THE SHADOW BOXING. Liu also brings in both of his brothers Liu Chia-yung and Gordon Liu Chia-hui, which guaranteed that the fights would be an extra notch above magnificent further ensuring that the audience had never seen anything like it before. THE SHADOW BOXING was twice as successful as THE SPIRITUAL BOXER.
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
The Liu Chia-liang trained Hui Ying-hung was considered the top action martial arts female star in the 1980s. It is her martial arts abilities that Michelle Yeoh tries to emulate. In The Tiger and the Widow, Hui Ying-hung is somehow mixed up in a salt smuggling ring that stinks of missing persons and rotten dilemmas. The film gathered two Golden Horse Awards in 1981; Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction.
The legendary hero Wu Sung (Ti Lung) is sent to a prison in Meng province after murdering his sister-in-law and her lover. While in prison, he becomes acquainted with the prison officer Shih En (Tien Ching), who saved Wu from the baton punishment required for new prisoners. Owing Shih En a favour, Wu Sung finds out that Shih's restaurant "Delightful Forest" was taken over by a local thug (Chu Mu), and decides to help Shih get his restaurant back at all costs.
As the names of Chang Cheh and Liu Chia-liang became legendary, all-too-often the name of their equally valued collaborator, Tang Chia, is omitted. That may be, because, unlike the previous pair, the veteran kung-fu choreographer only went on to direct three movies of his own. Of course, that makes this trio all the more special, and this first effort perhaps the most special of all. It may be an eye-filling, mind-bending martial arts tale of two royal princes battling for the rightful recovery of the throne, but it's also a party, where Tang invites two cinematographers, three editors, and no less than five other choreographer friends to almost literally shoot the works. The results are kung-fu configurations not only never seen before, but never even imagined!
Years before he was to become famous for directing Bruce Lee in FIST OF FURY and Jackie Chan in NEW FIST OF FURY, Lo Wei was a popular actor and filmmaker. He had already directed many successful films when he joined Shaw Brothers in 1965. It was there that he directed his first major martial arts movie, but this was one of his last for the studio. It was also one of the last times he teamed with superstar swordswoman Cheng Pei-pei (who is even more famous now for her role in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON). Here she stars as Yen Lai, the one woman who can reunite the Kao brothers to rid the Teng Lung Manor of attacking killers as well as take revenge for the murder of their father. Aided by Shaw Brothers' first international star, Lo Lieh, and award-winning actor Ku Feng, Lo and Cheng collaborate for another high-action winner of brotherly love…and death.
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
An amusing insider's look at the Hong Kong film industry; this is auteur Li Han-hsiang's version of Truffaut's Day for Night and Fellini's 8. It is a homage paid to Li, with a 30-year landmark in this business. Based on the director's highly popular newspaper column, this is a potboiler of some of his funniest and most surreal film gossips of the era. Filled with fictional plots and hardcore facts, this is definitely a must-see for any Hong Kong cinema aficionado!
One of Liu Chia Liang’s classics, Cat VS Rat is almost a full-scale slapstick comedy, as well as a tailor-made showcase for the "odd couple" of Fu Sheng and Adam Cheng. The two equally matched martial artists’ constant squabbling for wushu supremacy ultimately imperils an incognito emperor, and they have to work together to recover the royal seal.
Director Hsu Cheng-hung, much credited with the revolution of wuxia cinema in the 1960s returns to offer up another genre-bending take on the martial arts movie. This time it's Romeo and Juliet in the Chinese underworld! When Grand Master student Yu Chien-wen (Chang Yi) falls for Chiao Chiao (the dazzling and energetic Cheng Pei-pei), the daughter of arch enemy, the Poison Master, we know they are in for trouble. And when Chiao Chiao kills another clan in Yu's name, the Grand Master's clan is unable to stand by. But Yu is too much in love to obey orders...
