Kuan Tai Chen
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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Human Lanterns
Part horror, part kung-fu, 100% outrageous, Human Lanterns has a special place in the Cult Film Hall of Fame. Some of the biggest stars in Hong Kong martial arts movies enter the twilight zone in this over-the-top bloodfest, with Lo Lieh as an insane swordsman who comes up with a unique way to avenge past humiliations. He opens a lantern workshop with the lampshades made from the beautiful hides of his enemies’ sisters, courtesans, and wives.
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Killer Constable
Kuei Chih Hung was famous for his modern day crime thrillers, his horror flicks, and even his comedies. But if the only kung-fu film he ever made was this one, he’d still be spoken of with respect by even the most ardent martial arts movie fan. Many consider this real life martial arts champion Chen Kuan-Tai’s best performance. As a deeply, even obsessively, dedicated Chief Court Constable, he illuminates the screen with fighting skill and emotional passion. Award winning actor Ku Feng is his equal, playing an especially homicidal robber-chief who thinks nothing of throwing all his men at their relentless pursuer. Lu Tsun and Huang Pei-Chi choreograph the many battles featuring such action stalwarts as Pai Piao and Ai Fei.
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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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Heroes Two
Two of the most celebrated heroes of the Shaolin Monastery are brought to life in "Heroes Two", a landmark in the history of martial arts movies. Often cited as one of the top ten by the prolific action director Chang Cheh, "Heroes Two" is significant as the beginning of the Shaolin cycle and the collaboration between Chang and celebrated action choreographer Liu Chia-liang. In addition to kung-fu superstar Chen Kuan-tai, then at the height of his popularity, the movie confirmed the stellar status of 19-year-old Alexander Fu Sheng. The heroes they portray, Fang Shih-yu and Hung Hsi-kuan, are favorites with filmmakers and movie buffs. In the 1990s, both were portrayed by Jet Li in two separate movies, "Fong Sai Yuk" (1993) and "New Legend Of Shaolin" (1994), though even Jet’s fans will admit that Alexander’s youthful energy is hard to beat. Connoisseurs of the male form will agree with critic Karen Tarapata’s humorously titled list “Ten to Make Your Socks Roll Up and Down,” which includes the scene in "Heroes Two" where “Alexander Fu Sheng fights for righteousness while removing his clothes.”
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Executioners From Shaolin
Film lovers and critics went out of their way to praise this Liu Chia-liang version of the Shaolin destruction and revenge epic. Many called it the preeminent kung-fu director’s best and certainly his greatest on the theme of history, martial arts, and family. Little wonder, since, beyond the Shaolin story, it also shows how Liu’s own family style of kung-fu, Hung Fist, was created. There are unforgettable sequences throughout, highlighted by Hung Hsi-kuan (the mighty Chen Kuan-tai) and Fang Yung-chun’s (the wonderful Lily Li) wedding night … where the lovers inexorably test their Tiger and Crane kung-fu styles in a symbolic treatment of a couple’s power struggles. Almost equally unforgettable are the training sequences and a full three titanic confrontations with the White-Browed Hermit (the impressive Lo Lieh), betrayer of the Temple. The critics were right: Liu has out-done himself…as usual!
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7-Man Army
Another iconoclastic work from the action auteur Chang Cheh, and winner of Honourable Mention for Dramatic Feature at the 13th Golden Horse Awards, 7-Man Army retells the legend of seven patriots during the Sino-Japanese War. In 1933, 20,000 Japanese soldiers and 50 tanks invaded the Pa Tou Lou Tzu, a strategic key point of the Great Wall. With only seven men stationing, these heroes took on the entire army for five days before succumbing.
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The Flying Guillotine
Esteemed director Ho Meng-hua attained cult status among kung-fu film fans in the West with his wild and wacky martial arts hit "The Flying Guillotine". His unique directing approach focused more on the devastating nature of the horrific weapon than the kung-fu fights. One of Shaw Brothers’ biggest kung-fu stars at the time, Chen Kuan-tai plays the leader of the ‘Flying Guillotine Squad’ a group of hand picked killers, commissioned by the Ching Emperor Yung Cheng, that use a deadly, beheading weapon to carry out the emperor's assassination assignments. It's actually based on a true story. Interestingly, the weapon used in the film was a complete fabrication because in real life, no one ever survived to tell what the actual weapon really looked like.
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Man of Iron
“Godfather of the kung-fu film” Chang Cheh had made stars of Jimmy Wang Yu, David Chiang, and Ti Lung. With this film, the sequel to the smash hit "The Boxer From Shantung", he and co-director Pao Hseuh-li did the same for real life martial arts champion Chen Kuan-tai. Master of the “Monkey King Split and Deflecting Arm” style, Chen exuded incredible power on screen, which his directors used to great advantage in this fight-filled follow-up. All the title character did was win some money gambling with a Shanghai gang leader’s playboy son, but that’s enough for the father and child to want obsessive revenge. It all culminates in an incredible climatic fight, choreographed by the legendary Liu Chia-liang and Chen Chuan, co-star of Bruce Lee’s "Fist Of Fury".
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The Boxer From Shantung
The movie that firmly established Chen Kuan-tai as a kung-fu superstar, The Boxer From Shantung was a top ten hit for 1972 and is now considered a martial arts classic. Chen is perfectly cast as “Ma Yung Cheng” (which is also the film’s Chinese title), an early 20th century patriotic youth from Shantung (northern China) who moves to Shanghai and gains fame as the first Chinese to defeat a professional Russian wrestler. When he refuses to become a hired assassin for the city’s leading gang, he finds life on Shanghai’s mean streets far riskier than the boxing ring. With the help of martial arts choreographers Liu Chia-liang and brother Liu Chia-jung, Chen shows that he’s more than equal to any boxer in or out of China. “Hong Kong Action Cinema” cites this as one of director Chang Cheh’s ten best, describing it as an “intense actioner, featuring bloodletting of Sam Peckinpah proportions.” This is also one of the first movies on which John Woo worked as assistant director, and it is interesting to see the Shaw Brothers influences on his later works like "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off".
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The Water Margin
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.
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Opium and the Kung Fu Master
Tang Chia is considered one of the greatest Kung fu choreographers ever, but he only directed three movies of his own. The first two were weird and wonderful Kung fu phantasmagoricals, but this, his last, is not only his greatest, but one of the greatest ever. Ti Lung, in one of his finest performances, plays Tieh Chiao-san, head of the Ten Kwangtung Tigers, who falls victim to opium, the title drug which crippled China.
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Challenge of the Masters
Unarguably the greatest character in kung-fu film history is Huang Fei-hong. Arguably the greatest director of pure kung-fu films is Liu Chia-liang. Putting the two together was natural, since Liu started his career working on the classic Huang, and his family was trained by students of the real Huang Fei-hong! So after his first film as director, "The Spiritual Boxer", was a huge hit, Liu decided to make the greatest tale of Huang and his “sifu” (teacher) ever filmed. He made a star of his adoptive brother, Gordon Liu Chia-hui, in the leading role, and filled the cast with family members, friends, students, and the best Shaw Brothers had to offer. He even played the villain himself. The result was more Liu magic, with an honorable message of righteousness that rings true through the decades.
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Little Dragon Maiden
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.
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Four Riders 四騎士
Chang Cheh had established himself as the “godfather of kung-fu films” with such historical, costumed classics as "One-Armed Swordsman", "Golden Swallow", "The Deadly Duo", "Blood Brothers", and many others. But his fans also revered him for his superlative modern day martial arts thrillers, such as "Vengeance" and "Chinatown Kid". This prime example takes place in Seoul right after the Korean War, as a kung-fu master, combat instructor, explosives expert, and missile specialist must forgo the city’s pleasures to take on a venal, murderous drug smuggling gang. Representing the Book of Revelation’s four riders of war, famine, disease, and death as heroes against murder, corruption, jealousy, and greed, it’s a brutal battle where the one true winner is the audience. Featuring an international kung-fu cast guided by master choreographers Liu Chia-liang and Tang Chia, it remains a special production in Chang Cheh’s filmography.
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Iron Bodyguard
Following the director and star’s landmark successes 'The Boxer from Shantung' and 'Man of Iron', came this powerful, exciting tale of a patriot committed to ending the corruption of the Ching rulers.
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Men from the Monastery
Shaolin firebrands Fang Shih-yu, Hung Hsi-kuan, and Hu Huei-chien are as famous in Asia as the Three Musketeers are in America and Europe. So when the “godfather of the kung-fu film” Chang Cheh decided to tell their stories with Alexander Fu Sheng, Chen Kuan-tai, and Chi Kuan-chun in the roles, it was cause for celebration. The resulting film is one of the most lauded and beloved in the director’s filmography, and remains a highlight in all the stars’ careers. Each hero is given his own story, but when they all come together in a final, day-long battle with hundreds of troops, the effect is unforgettable. Although known and loved by American fans as Disciples Of Death, that cropped, dubbed, edited version cannot compare to this magnificent original.
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Rendezvous with Death
This tale of a swordsman’s treacherous journey is considered one of director Sun Chung’s very best martial arts movies. It’s not so much the plot that makes it great, but what Sun does with it, inspiring the cast and crew to create some of their finest work.
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The Spiritual Boxer
A con artist uses Kung Fu to swindle villagers for money by pretending to be possessed by angry gods. However, when the villagers are later threatened by bandits he must use the same skills for good.
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