Cheh Chang
Five Deadly Venoms
The most prolific kung-fu director in Hong Kong martial arts cinema, Chang Cheh, ushered in a new phase of his career and a new generation of action stars with The Five Venoms. The setting is ancient China’s School of Five Venoms, so named for its five types of kung-fu based on five venomous animals: centipede, scorpion, serpent, toad, and lizard. The school is notorious for the evil deeds of its disciples, leading to another classic battle between righteousness and depravity. This international hit, lauded in Ric Meyers' premiere, groundbreaking book martial arts movies as one of the greatest, spawned a series featuring the same actors in new roles which was also enjoyed from America to Asia.
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Five Elements Ninjas
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!
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Crippled Avengers
The “godfather of the kung-fu film”, Chang Cheh, hit upon a winning formula when he combined three Taiwanese Opera artists with a muscular Chinese and a Korean kicker. Their first “official” film as stars, "The Five Venoms" was a hit, so the director/co-writer decided to launch a series with the same actors in different roles. Supporting this beloved sequel was real-life kung-fu champion Chen Kuan-tai, who Chang Cheh had already made a star. He plays a martial arts master (driven insane by his wife’s death and his son’s dismemberment), who replaces his child’s missing hands with metal versions, then proceeds to blind, deafen, render retarded, and chop off the feet of anyone who even mildly annoys him. The abused bystanders band together and brilliantly train to take their revenge. The result is a totally unbelievable, but totally awesome, super heroic delight.
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The Trail of the Broken Blade
Jimmy Wang Yu stars in Cheh Chang's 'The Trail of the Broken Blade', a sword hero tragedy similar to 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'.
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The One-Armed Swordsman
Even non-kung-fu lovers will be mesmerized by Jimmy Wang Yu in the role that made him a superstar. As the mysterious swordsman whose one arm is more powerful than his two-armed rivals, Wang and director Chang Cheh revolutionized the Hong Kong kung-fu genre and broke box office records across Asia. The female leads, Pan Yin-tse and Chiao Chiao, went on to become some of Shaw Brothers most important lady fighters, and Wang followed up his "One-Armed Swordsman" triumph with numerous sequels. A film that always makes the “top ten” list of martial arts masterpieces, this 1967 classic is as timeless today as upon its original release.
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The Kid With The Golden Arm
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.
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The Heroic Ones
In 1970, swordsmen and kung-fu aces swept through the Hong Kong film industry as never before, becoming the dominant trend and conquering the box office. No screen team was more triumphant than the “iron triangle” of director Chang Cheh and his protégés David Chiang and Ti Lung.
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Shaolin Temple
There is no place more hallowed in the world of martial arts than China’s Shaolin Temple, birthplace of a special brand of kung-fu developed centuries ago by monks opposed to the Manchu rulers of the Ching Dynasty.
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The Magnificent Trio
This adventure reunited the director and cast of the groundbreaking 'Tiger Boy', and established both as pioneers of kung-fu cinema’s golden age. A fresh approach and great fight scenes make this one of the Shaw Brothers most memorable epics.
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Vengeance
One of the top rated films of the year and an instant classic, "Vengeance" is so loaded with Shaw Brothers filmmaking royalty, that even non-kung-fu fans will be left breathless with amazement. No screen team was more glorious than the "iron triangle" of director Chang Cheh and his dynamic duo of Ti Lung and David Chiang. The action mayhem created by acclaimed martial arts instructors Tang Chia and Yuen Woo-ping's younger brother Yuen Cheung-yan ("Charlie’s Angels" and "The Matrix: Reloaded" fight choreographer) gives David Chiang's hauntingly tense performance as the younger brother out to avenge his elder brother's death (Ti Lung) an even more mythical dimension. David Chiang won the Best Actor Award for his effort and Chang Cheh the Best Director Award at the 1970 Asian Film Festival.
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All Men Are Brothers
Also known as "Seven Soldiers of Kung-fu" and "108 Heroes", this sequel to the martial arts blockbuster "The Water Margin" is considered by many kung-fu cultists as even more action-packed than the original. Based on one of China’s enduring epic novels, written in the 14th century, "All Men Are Brothers" continues the patriotic story of righteous warriors battling despotic leaders, featuring mythic characters familiar to every Chinese, and with a cast that has achieved an equally celebrated status among Shaw Brothers devotees: Ti Lung, David Chiang, Chen Kuan-tai and Danny Lee. A hard-edged feminine touch is provided by Lily Ho and Betty Chung Ling-ling. The behind-the-camera line-up is also of mythic proportions, with direction by Chang Cheh and no less than four martial arts choreographers, including Liu Chia-liang and brother Liu Chia-yung.
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Shaolin Rescuers
The "Venoms" are back in action in this thriller of Shaolin versus corrupt Ching soldiers, with the help of the Lama, Black Tiger and Mantis clans, headquartered at a pugilism school, a dyeing mill, and a beancurd shop. The five men that were made famous - by director Chang Cheh, in more than a dozen similar high-flying, blood-splattered adventures (starting with The Five Venoms) - are all here. There’s the Taiwanese opera artist Kuo Chue, his fellow light-skill acrobat Chiang Sheng, the evil Lu Feng, the Chinese muscleman Lo Mang, and Korean kicker Sun Chien, whose skills are specially spotlighted in this production. Together they create another wonderfully fun kung-fu showcase, filled with show-stopping sequences of martial arts expertise.
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The Flag of Iron
The Flag of Iron is one of 20 movies that he directed featuring the utterly flabbergasting and physically exhausting action bits created by these five dudes. You have the good guys from the righteous clan versus the bad guys from the villainous clan and it's so filled with "don't-blink-or-you-will-miss-something" gags, you will need to watch it over and over again so you can see the things you missed.
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Blood Brothers
Made at the peak of the martial arts film craze, "Blood Brothers" stands out against the run-of-the-mill kung-fu flicks that flooded the market in the 1970s. It would be hard to find more legendary names in front of and behind the camera: director Chang Cheh, who virtually reinvented the genre; the brilliant martial arts choreography by Liu Chia-liang, before he himself embarked on a directorial career; and the number one buddy team in kung-fu, Ti Lung and David Chiang, joined by Shaw Brothers newest superstar, Chen Kuan-tai. Set in the waning years of the Ching Dynasty, Blood Brothers tells of one of the most sensational scandals in Chinese history, the assassination of a provincial governor (Ti Lung) by his lieutenant and sworn brother (David Chiang). Ti Lung, in a complex role that allowed him to flex his thespian muscles, was honored with Golden Horse Award of Outstanding Performance.
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The Brave Archer 2
"The Brave Archer 2" is a classic martial arts film sequel, blending thrilling action and intricate storytelling as it continues the saga of martial artists facing treacherous challenges in ancient China.
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The Brave Archer
Chang Cheh is known for his revolutionary teen angst kung-fu films, his superheroic, grand guignol 'Venoms' series, his sweeping martial art epics, and the likes of this: 'Martial Arts World ' phantasmagoricals featuring demi-dieties of mythical kung-fu. The great international idol Alexander Fu Sheng stars as a wushu warrior who must learn the '18 Palms', the 'Nine Secrets', and be taught by the 'Seven Evils', to take vengeance on the man who killed his father - the Prince of the invading Chin Kingdom. With dazzling costumes, sets, and martial arts to fall back on, the director tests the mettle of future superstars Hui Ying-hung and Kuo Chue, who was to become the star of the 'Venoms' series as well as one of the most respected action choreographers in the world.
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The Masked Avengers
The "godfather of the kung-fu film," Chang Cheh, started a winning streak by making the internationally renowned "The Five Venoms". He followed that hit with many more high-flying "bloody good" entertainments featuring the same cast in new roles. But of all the "Venom" movies, this one stands out as perhaps the most chilling. Masked killers are wreaking havoc and instilling terror with their vicious weapons of choice: razor-sharp, gut-shattering tridents. Only three fearless fighters dare investigate, leading to mass murder and magnificent martial arts. Chien Hsiao-hou, future co-star of Yuen Woo-ping’s "The Tai-chi" Master joins the trio to get tri-pierced. The core "Venoms" themselves handle the intricate, always impressive, sometimes awe-inspiring, choreography in this unforgettable exercise in "grand guignol gung-fu."
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Two Champions of Shaolin
A team that ranks high in the pantheon of cult Kung fu flicks is a quintet of martial artists who burst upon the screen in The Five Venoms, followed by Crippled Avengers and other cult classics. The "five venoms" are reunited in Two Champions of Shaolin, with four of the fab five wreaking havoc on screen and the fifth venom active behind the camera as action choreographer.
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Marco Polo
When Shaw Studio decided to produce an epic about the famous Italian explorer Marco Polo and his meeting with Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan, they turned to one of their most famous and respected directors. Chang Cheh, who had already proven himself by making such sweeping sagas as All Men Are Brothers, co-wrote this adventure of four Han blood brothers and their quest to avenge their comrade's killing at the hands of three sadistic Mongol warriors. He then surrounded famed Caucasian actor Richard Harrison (as Marco Polo) with the best the Shaw Brothers kung-fu film units had to offer, including future lead 'Venom' Kuo Chue, 'Master Killer' Gordon Liu Chia-hui, and 'Thundering Mantis' Liang Chia-jen. The result is a splendid historical tale as well as a superlative martial arts thriller.
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