Kuang Ni
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
There have been many kung-fu movies set in the famed Shaolin Temple, but none have captured the monastery’s martial arts world quite like "The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin". Liu Chia-liang, a legendary director of the genre, made a star of his brother Gordon Liu Chia-hui in this look at anti-Ching Dynasty rebels and their revolt against the Manchus. Gordon Liu Chia-hui attains the ultimate knowledge of kung-fu by arduously mastering one chamber after another, eventually reaching the fabled 36th chamber. Armed with this knowledge, the monks engage in some of the most exciting battles ever staged in the history of martial arts movies. The film was Shaw Brothers’ number one hit of 1978, and won the Best Martial Arts Award at the 24th Asian Film Festival.
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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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The Deadly Breaking Sword
The legendary Ti Lung unites with Jackie Chan's kung-fu comedic rival, Alexander Fu Sheng, to defeat an assassin being controlled by the demented Doctor Guo Tiansheng. Acclaimed choreographer Tang Chia's action scenes and sight gags are bewitching to behold.
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Return to the 36th Chamber
This follow-up to the classic "The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin" shows kung-fu’s the illustrious Liu brothers at their lethal best. Director Liu Chia-liang has more than a few new kung-fu tricks up his monk’s sleeve as he transports brother Gordon Liu Chia-hui back to the Ching Dynasty and the Shaolin Monastery. And not just any part of the monastery, but the clandestine 36th chamber, where the most advanced methods of kung-fu are taught to the deserving few. Alas, Gordon is not one of the anointed elite and must find a way to covertly observe the secret training in order to obtain the skills necessary to battle the hated Manchus. Though the movie’s conclusion is never in much doubt, the Liu Brothers have a lot of fun getting from points A to Z with plenty of murder and mayhem in between.
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The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter
What started as masterful kung-fu filmmaker Liu Chia-liang’s homage to the heroic Sung Dynasty Yang family became an angry, even savage, rumination on heroic sacrifice when international idol Alexander Fu Sheng died in a car accident midway through production. Fu’s death was not only tragic because he was such a close friend, but because the role he was playing was one of only two survivors of an ignominious betrayal by a jealous General. Knowing that he had to immortalize Fu’s final, unfinished performance, Liu carried on, having co-star Hui Ying-hung step into the action. The finished film is unique in the director’s extraordinary filmography for the intensity and power of its emotions and kung-fu. There are heartbreaking references to the tragedy throughout, but the climax is truly unforgettable as the other family survivor, now a Shaolin-trained warrior faces his betrayers amid a pyramid of coffins. What he, and his Shaolin masters, do then has to be seen to be believed….
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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 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 Battle Wizard
A brother who loves books and a sister who loves swords must face a yellow-robed warrior, the Red Python: a sinuous snake-charmer, and a silk-masked beauty (who must kill or wed the first man to see her face) in this special, cliche-smashing production.
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Dirty Ho
Master martial arts moviemaker Liu Chia-liang wanted to make a movie about Chinese royalty’s relation to the common people. He accomplished it with one of the greatest kung-fu adventures ever made, incorporating at least three of the most brilliantly conceived and executed fight sequences ever caught on film. Wang Yu is the streetwise title character while the director’s adopted brother, Gordon Liu Chia-hui, plays an incognito prince who uses Ho as a dupe to try avoiding court intrigue. But any description of the plot cannot communicate the beauty and ingeniousness of Liu’s invention and vision. Combining laughs and thrills, the monumental director adds to his legend with a film that only gets more impressive with each successive viewing.
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Heroes of the East
Whether it’s known as "Heroes Of The East" or "Shaolin Challenges Ninja", this ranks as a special favorite among even the most avid fans of legendary director Liu Chia-liang. Ric Meyers, author of Great Martial Arts Movies, the premiere, groundbreaking book on the genre, dubbed it the “Kramer VS. Kramer of kung-fu films” -- only instead of drama, there’s action galore as a Chinese groom and Japanese bride create a loving “kung-fu family feud”. Watch, in appreciative awe, as one Nipponese expert after other tests the skills of Gordon Liu Chia-hui in one maginificent bout after another -- with swords, spears, pikes, karate, and even Sai Seui. The result is a dazzling delight featuring the great “Shoji” Kurata (Fist Of Legend).
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The Shaolin Plot
Den ondskapsfulle kung fu-mesteren Prins Daglen lager planer om å oppsøke og samle kampsportmanualer fra hele Kina for å bli enda sterkere og mektigere. Når wu tang-studenten Little Tiger ved en tilfeldighet får vite om planene, står studenten opp mot mesteren i en kamp som kan avgjøre hele landets fremtid.
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The Avenging Eagle
Avid international kung-fu films fans have a special place in their hearts for this outstanding martial arts drama, which marked the ascension of director Sun Chung and action choreographer Tang Chia to legendary status. Tang also appeared as the “Chief Security Officer” in this powerful tale of the Thirteen Eagles Assassination Sect of the infamous Iron Boat Clan. Ku Feng is excellent as the poisonously patriarchal leader of the killers, but conflicted “son” Ti Lung and vengeful victim Alexander Fu Sheng command the screen as consummate warriors united in tragedy. Everything is exceptional in this endlessly entertaining production: from the cinematography of Lan Nei-tsai, to the script by Shaw Brothers’ writing wizard Ni Kuang, to the editing of Chiang Hsing-loong and Yu Hsiao-feng, which deservedly won the Golden Horse Award.
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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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Brothers Five
The terrific team of director Wei Lo (who helmed Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan’s first major movies) and superstar swords woman Pei-Pei Cheng (famous for 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon') create another high-action winner of brotherly love... and death.
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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 Super Inframan
Imagine pint-sized Godzillas fighting the DC Comic superhero "Ironman," have Shaw Brothers improve on this outrageous mix by adding kung-fu choreography, and then you have "Super Inframan", one of the most far-out, fantastical films ever made. Starring the up and coming Danny Lee (who achieved international superstardom in John Woo's "The Killer"), the film pits Lee as the thunderbolt-fisted Inframan battling maniacal monsters from the Earth's center lead by the evil Demon Princess (Terry Liu). Adding to the psychosis is the fast paced fights choreographed by the acclaimed action director Tang Chia, beautiful camera work by He Lan-shan (Bruce Lee's cinematographer in "The Way Of The Dragon"), and fights that feature an actor who later starred in kung-fu flicks under the moniker of Bruce Lee.
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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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