Lieh Lo
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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Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre
Although director Chu Yuan’s collaboration with famed novelist Ku Lung is the stuff of legend, what is often missed was his titanic teaming with equally respected, equally inspired author Chin Yung – creator of this unforgettable saga. Set during the Yuan Dynasty, it tells the fascinating story of the “Sacred Fire” sect, the Wu Tang swordsmanship clan, the disciples of the Mei group, The Book of Chu Yang (which can make the reader immortal), and the destruction of Shaolin. And that’s just the start of the fascinating intrigues and ingratiating characters found here. Eminent martial arts instructor Tang Chia led a cast of screen idols, lovely starlets, and such veteran kung-fu artists as Lo Lieh on an incredible adventure that ranks as a favorite from Asia to America. And it’s just the beginning. Someone is wiping out all of Shaolin and the seven sects. Can they be stopped? Only the sequel knows for sure!
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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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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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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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Shaolin Abbot
After a remarkable career helming such diverse cult favorites as "The Flying Guillotine" and "The Mighty Peking Man", trusted director Ho Meng-hua started wrapping up his Shaw Studio career with this memorable kung-fu adventure starring internationally renowned David Chiang. While he was best known for his roles as a grinning, streetwise, fighter in many Chang Cheh-directed classics, David Chiang rarely played a noble warrior monk, making this production all the more notable. Here he portrays the great Chih Shim, the monk who saved the Southern Shaolin Temple from the Ching Government and traitors alike. Shaws’ first international star, Lo Lieh, returns to the role he also made famous – that of Shaolin renegade Pai Mei. Rounding out the superlative action cast is the “first lady of Shaw kung-fu,” Lily Li, as one of Monk Chih Shim’s best allies. They unite for a true martial arts epic of the first order.
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Mad Monkey Kung Fu
Besides his pioneering films based on authentic martial artistry and kung-fu comedies during the 1970's, acclaimed director Liu Chia-liang also embraced the master/pupil relationship to form the cornerstone of many of his other works where his characters exhibited physical and moral failure as a means to either "make them or break them". Besides directing "Mad Monkey Kung Fu", it's also Liu's debut as a lead actor playing down and out, monkey kung-fu master Chen, crippled by the ruthless villain Tuen (Shaw's penultimate bad guy Lo Lieh). Street boy Hsiao Hou (which means "little monkey" and played by popular martial arts aerialist Hsiao Hao) convinces Chen to teach him monkey kung-fu to avenge Chen's shame. The wacky training sequences and outlandish finale fight leave you stupefied.
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The Magic Blade
This exciting tale of two swordsmen vying with a power-hungry villain for possession of the dangerous “Peacock Dart” showcases brilliantly choreographed fights, glorious settings, superb cinematography and a final showdown that’s a highpoint in kung-fu cinema.
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Black Magic
Martial arts hero Ti Lung gets to flex his dramatic muscle in this horror movie about evil magic spells. In a departure from his normal roles, Ti plays Hsu Lo who runs up against an evil black magic practitioner San Kan-mi (Ku Feng). San Kan-mi wants to seduce Hsu’s fiancee Wang Chu-ying (Lily Li) and places a death spell on Hsu and a love spell on Wang, hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Matters are further complicated when sexy widow Lo Yin (Tanny Tien Ni) casts her lascivious eyes on the tall and handsome Hsu. Fortunately for the spellbound lovers, Wang’s friends manage to find another veteran witch doctor to take on the evil San Kan-mi. Supernatural battles of epic proportions ensue as this bone-chilling tale of good versus evil races to a heart-stopping ending.
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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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The Invincible Fist
Here Lo Lieh (future international star of 'King Boxer') plays a dedicated chief constable for Tsang Chou village, who falls in love with the blind daughter of a bandit who is wreaking havoc.
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The Chinese Boxer
Jimmy Wang Yu had become a star in 1965’s "Temple of the Red Lotus". He became a superstar in 1967’s "One-Armed Swordsman" and 1968’s "Golden Swallow". But this was his first fully realized personal kung-fu vision. Jimmy Wang Yu wrote, directed and starred in this classic favorite as the Chinese kung-fu superman, years before Bruce Lee would become famous for the same themes. He plays the famous Lei Ming, a noble young martial arts student who doesn’t know the meaning of giving up. He faces a treacherous, blood-thirsty Japanese karate expert, played, of all people, by Lo Lieh (who was to become The Shaws’ first international star in "The King Boxer" just months later). Featuring unforgettable training sequences and many fights, this box office smash would lead to a career unparalleled in its eccentricity and excitement.
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King Boxer
Months before Bruce Lee burst into the international scene with Enter the Dragon, this powerful story of tragedy, torture, redemption, and revenge premiered across America under the unforgettable title "Five Fingers Of Death". And, under that title, it went on to become the first international martial arts movie hit, and a perennial best-selling video. It made a continent-spanning star of Lo Lieh, and established the Shaw Brothers as the preeminent studio for high quality action and adventure. Now, finally, after more than thirty years, the original King Boxer takes its rightful place as the film that started it all for the Western world. Not surprisingly, the tale of an honorable fighter’s retraining in the “Iron Palm” style after corrupt invaders crush his hands remains as potent and exciting as when it premiered.
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Golden Swallow
The indomitable martial arts team of director Chang Cheh and stunt choreographer Liu Chia-liang bring the "Golden Swallow" of King Hu’s "Come Drink With Me" back to life again in this sequel of heartbreaking romance, intrigue and stunning action. The original queen of swordplay epics Cheng Pei-pei reprises her role as Golden Swallow, now content to lead a quiet life with swordsman Han Tao (a young and rugged Lo Lieh). Her peaceful life is shattered when her unrequited suitor Silver Roc (Jimmy Wang Yu) starts a killing spree to draw her out of seclusion. An outraged Golden Swallow and Han return to the jianghu world to investigate but find more trouble than they bargained for as Silver Roc’s devious plots start getting out of control. As conflicts threaten the martial arts world, Han and Silver Roc also race towards a final showdown to win the woman they love.
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Clan of the White Lotus
Lo Lieh was famous as Shaw Studio’s first international kung-fu film star. He was famous throughout Asia for dozens of superlative performances in everything from horror to modern thrillers to martial arts. But it was the rare saga Lo also directed, and this was one of those special events. Following his huge success starring as the infamous Shaolin Temple traitor in preeminent kung-fu filmmaker Liu Chia-liang’s Executioners From Shaolin, he returned to the role in this, a combination sequel and remake.
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The Web of Death
It’s back to the Shaolin Monastery for one of the most unusual action-packed tales to invade its hallowed halls. Lo Lieh is the ringleader of the Snake Sect, intent on reviving a particularly deadly faction known as the “Five Poison Web” (which is also "The Web Of Death"’s Chinese title). To achieve his ends, he has an affair with the sexy ringleader of the Scorpion Sect, Angela Yu Chien. But there is also the Centipede Sect to contend with, as well as other assorted martial artists, among them such top Shaw Brothers talents as Yueh Hua, Ching Li, and Lily Li. Under the fluid direction of Chu Yuan and action choreographers Tang Chia and Yuen Cheung-yan (member of the martial arts world’s esteemed Yuen Family and brother of "Matrix" master Yuen Woo-ping), "The Web Of Death" goes places where no other Shaolin kung-fu movie has gone before or since.
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The Vengeful Beauty
Of all the many kinds of films Ho Meng-Hua directed for the Shaw Brothers, quite possibly his most internationally popular was The Flying Guillotine. While he did not direct its like-titled sequel, he did helm this great flying guillotine follow-up, which critics considered among his best. It was also one of his last for the studio before continuing his filmmaking career in Taiwan. It stars the gorgeous Chen Ping as the sole survivor of a despotic emperor’s latest foray into decapitation. Fearlessly she takes on the entire flying guillotine gang, despite the fact that she’s pregnant! Lo Lieh, Shaw Brothers’ first international superstar, is brilliant as the vindictive gang boss, while revered action choreographer Tang Chia mounts stupendous battles between the soaring beheaders and an astonishing wushu woman warrior with child.
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Black Magic 2
The director, writer and three of the stars from the original blockbuster 'Black Magic', return for a pitched battle between pure good and perverted evil as a zombie master makes men his work drones and women his sex slaves.
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The Dragon Missile
Only the Shaw Brothers Studio could conceive and produce such a spectacular clash of esoteric weapons. Fans of the internationally popular "Flying Guillotine" films will appreciate the continuous kung-fu confrontations with some of the most intriguing and exciting martial arts machinery ever seen on screen. The studio’s first international action star, Lo Lieh (who burst upon the scene before even Bruce Lee in King Boxer) leads the charge as holder of the title tool - an ultra-cool flying boomerang with blades. He must take on the terrible Iron Ball Chain, Golden Net, and other deadly devices to gain control of a special elixir which will cure an all-too-treacherous royal official. Tang Chia and Yuen Cheung-yan, the underrated giants of kung-fu choreography, stage some of the best sword on shield action ever in this fun and unusual fight-fest. There are double crosses and ambushes galore before the culminating clash of sizzling steel that has to be seen to be believed.
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The Flying Dagger
“Godfather of the kung-fu film” Chang Cheh, is famous for introducing the revolutionary concept of “yanggang” (macho) martial arts movies – paving the way for Bruce Lee, among many others. Until then, female stars (often in male swordsmen roles) ruled the screens. So this collaboration between writer/director Chang and swordswoman supreme Cheng Pei-Pei (now famous for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) is exceptional indeed. Here she plays a righteous woman warrior who incurs the wrath of a “flying knife” master after she kills his rapist son. Lucky for her that an honorable dagger master played by Lo Lieh (the star of Shaw Brothers’ first international kung-fu hit King Boxer) is on her side. Although extremely attractive when she only played heroes, Cheng could hold her own with any man, freeing Chang to create the best of all possible martial arts worlds.
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