(archive footage)
Four Chinese germ warfare scientists are kidnapped by a Japanese organisation.
A murderer, with the help of Chinese vampires, does battle with the ghost of a dead gambling lord's wife and the gambling lord's living brother. A cut n paste movie that uses footage from The Stunning Gambling (Taiwan) mixed with new footage.
Director
Eight segments of opera films: Sheng Xinma performs a monologue from A King's Revenge (1955), followed by an excerpt of The Patriot's Sword (1958). Cibo Liang is featured in An Immortal Refuses Love (1958), and Yutang Bai appears in The Wonder Boy (1961). Segment five shows Xingbo Liang, Jiasheng Lin, and Cibo Liang in The Impartial Bao Gong (1967), while segment six is a performance by Northern opera actress Suqiu Yu. The last two are versions of Red Maid, The Matchmaker, first a 1958 film with Yanfen Fang and An Banri, followed by one titled The Little Go-Between, featuring Baobao Feng and Cibo Liang. It was originally double billed with South China Stars Special.
Writer
On a routine courier mission, the prestigious Chin Hu chief was murdered by four mysterious monks. When all evidence points to Ching Hua, his friend Lei Hsin is determined to clear his name by barging in the Shaolin Temple thrice, and gets intwined in an intricate web of deception!
Top Kung Fu actors, Phillip Ko, Ling Yun, and Robert Tai battle it out for turf supremacy in old shanghai. Note: special Triad codes are shown in this film for the first time.
A historical thriller directed by Cheng Kang.
Ximen Chei-Shue
Lu Shao Fung and Seeman Chelsea start a sword duel over one of the men's wives. Lu pursues Seeman, but loses him. This leads him to spend time in Death Villa, where he is both welcomed and challenged. Death Villa is run by a mysterious man who wears a cane basket on his head, with a bead curtain covering his face. He recruits Lu into his evil scheme....
Writer
Lu Shao Fung and Seeman Chelsea start a sword duel over one of the men's wives. Lu pursues Seeman, but loses him. This leads him to spend time in Death Villa, where he is both welcomed and challenged. Death Villa is run by a mysterious man who wears a cane basket on his head, with a bead curtain covering his face. He recruits Lu into his evil scheme....
Director
Lu Shao Fung and Seeman Chelsea start a sword duel over one of the men's wives. Lu pursues Seeman, but loses him. This leads him to spend time in Death Villa, where he is both welcomed and challenged. Death Villa is run by a mysterious man who wears a cane basket on his head, with a bead curtain covering his face. He recruits Lu into his evil scheme....
It's all action, all the time, in this seldom-seen kung fu extravaganza starring Tien Peng, who's all dressed up with somewhere to go: He's on his way to kick some butt! In the vaunted tradition of grind-house Hong Kong action flicks, this film features breathtaking thrilling battles and martial arts moves that have to be seen to be believed (and then you still won't believe them!).
Tit Ching Lam
A swordsman uses a specialized weapon made from a deformed sword, the lethal hook, to fight an underworld clan to clear his family name and save the girl he loves in ancient China.
Wang Tung
AKA Happy Hero - Follow the exciting action as 3 young men uncover the corrupted actions of the superintendents only to find further perils. Action packed martial arts flick.
Bai Yipeng
From the director known for giving Jackie Chan a break in his early kung-fu films, Ho Meng-hua strikes gold again with Swift Sword. Starring a menagerie of established Shaw Brothers' talent like kung-fu comedienne, Wang Yu, female kung-fu fighter Hui Ying-hung (the lady Michelle Yeoh tries to emulate) and perennial bad guy Lo Lieh, it's a movie about cross people and crossed swords where our heroes discover that gold is not as precious as friendship.
Li-Fan
1. A crash leaves a man dead, and his wife badly injured. Soon, he returns as a ghost to try to take her with him. 2. A caretaker wins the lottery thanks to the saucer spirit. Things begin to go wrong when he breaks his promise to it.
Taiwanese Wuxia
Hsiao Ma
Action / adventure with a period / feudal setting and an emphasis on swordfighting.
This blood tale of a feud between two sword fighting clans is full of betrayal and intrigue, will most probably please the fans of samurai sword fighting.
This is a brilliant Taiwanese movie adaption of "Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Blade." Li "Little Flying Dagger" Xunhuan comes back to his home after three years of wandering. He has decided to have a normal life, but a group of skilled fighters and leaders are bent on killing him, so they can be ranked top by Bai Xiaosheng in his renowned list of the best warriors in the martial arts world. Li Xunhuan battles them as he searches for his estranged friend A'fei, who is now married and living in seclusion. Li asks A'fei to join forces and fight against a new threat that wants to rule the world: the Money Clan.
This is the first starring role I've seen Casanova Wong play. He and the film's producers seem to be paying homage to Toshiro Mifune, Clint Eastwood, Jimmy Wang Yu et al. Casa is very much the taciturn, serious lone man on a mission. He is always focussed, apparently calm, until he explodes into action.
Hsiao Chu Lang
The forces of good and evil clash in this martial-arts picture, as personified by warriors and overlords from the Orient's past.
Big Land, Flying Eagles is a spaghetti western-sequel desert intrigue film set on the Mongolian-Chinese border. Xiao Fung, a notable swordsman, has killed the son of a local warlord, Lee San, and the 3,000,000 tael that Lee’s son was transporting, now seems to have gone missing. Xiao Fung is now marked for death by Lee San, but finds protection from “Killer Eagle” another swordsman of great repute, and a band of nomadic Mongolian traders. Nevertheless, Lee sends killers of unusual backgrounds, including Buddhist monks, to hunt Xiao Fung down, while Xiao Fung seems curiously preoccupied with a woman who’s embroiled in unstated conflicts with practically everybody.
Zhongyuan Yidianhong
Following "Clans Of Intrigue"'s success, director Chu Yuan, novelist Ku Lung, and superstar Ti Lung re-teamed for another adventure featuring sexy knight Chu Liu-Hsiang. This time, he travels to the mysterious Island Of The Bats, where he encounters treacherous monks, beautiful women, and a strange Prince. The movie is also a significant milestone in the amount of female flesh revealed on screen, proving that Shaw movies can balance the yin of cheesecake with the yang of beefcake.
Shi Zhongying
Sun Chung had made a name for himself directing satirical comedies and modern day crime thrillers when he started exploring the kung-fu genre with this fascinating tale which mixes music and martial arts. Revered choreographer Tang Chia leads a great action cast in a tale of conflicting clans and a mysterious song called "The Proud One" which leads to slowly blossoming love as well as sudden death.
Jin Juiling
The Embroidery Bandit is stealing treasures while blinding his victims. The hero Liu Xiaofeng is called in to solve the mystery. The evidence points to the all-woman Clan of the Red Shoes - but appearances can be deceptive.
After her entire family is wiped out by Swordsmen of various clans the young vagabond soon comes of age and sets out on her one woman vengeance trail. One by one she kills all the Swordsmen she dares to challenge with her trusted deadly blade. Her most feared and deadly foe is Peerless Swallow the top Swordsman in China Will she finally meet her match or will fate cast a dark shadow.
The setting for this tale is an inn where people come from all corners of China every 5 years to witness and participate in a prestigious horse race. However, the inn is also swarming with thieves and con-men looking to score. Angela Mao plays the innkeepers daughter and she sends the villains back to where they came from in a series of great fights. Angela Mao using the Snake fist is a must see.
Ko Tang
Set in early 20th century Shanghai, this Hua Shan actioner stars former Golden Harvest regular Nora Miao Ke-hsiu as Bobo, a village girl who has journeyed to the big city in search of her father. Not long after her arrival, Bobo witnesses a gang fight dominated by a man she was friends with as a child. Now known as Jaguar, he works as a bodyguard for mob boss Kam, who is having a row with one of his partners. Jaguar makes trouble at one of the man's casinos as a part of a plan to smooth over the situation. Ace gunman Ko Tang is also in town and the two strike up an alliance to take over Kam's empire. Jaguar's lust for power soon alienates Bobo, who realizes that she was simply a pawn in his plan to gain control of the Shanghai underworld. Held a virtual prisoner, Bobo's one hope for revenge is Luo Lie, another friend from childhood and now her fiancee, currently imprisoned in Germany.
Yen Shih-San
The Third Master is considered to be the greatest sword master of the day. His displays of skill and strength bring armies of challengers to his door, seeking the title for themselves. Not to be defeated, the Third Master fights evil, saves damsels in distress, and duels rival swordsmen to the death.
Yi Tien Hung
Chu Liuxiang is having drinks with his friend, Monk Wuhua. Gong Nanyan of the Holy Water Palace suddenly appears and accuses Chu of having stolen the palace's Heaven's One Holy Water and committed a series of murders. She agrees to give Chu a month's time to clear his name, or else the mistress of the palace will kill him. Chu's curiosity and eagerness to prove his innocence spur him to investigate the case.
Chief Detective
Part 1 : 'Gun Snatchers' - Two criminals wanted for murder are turned in by one of their own. Part 2: 'Arson' - A Triad revenge plan to burn down a nightclub goes wrong and results in the deaths of five people.
Lo Wei / Paul Zhou
In the sixties, love stories portrayed women as sentimentalists or sacrificial lambs. Later on, directors like Chu Yuan replaced these themes of sacrifice with abandonment. The Forbidden Past is a heart tugging, rare Chinese Christmas story about a bar girl (Ching Li) serving drinks to a man that looks like her husband from five years ago. She convinces him to fulfill her son's wishes of having the father he's never seen, show up for Christmas.
Guo Jian-Zhong
A quasi-vicious motorcycle gang messes with the wrong man.
Yeh Hsiang
Based on a popular swordplay novel, this colorful and complex saga (whose Chinese title literally translates into the poetic Meteor, Butterfly, Sword) has enough conspiracies, stratagems, and sword fights to fascinate even novice kung-fu cinema viewers. The cast of Shaw Brothers' leading swordsmen and swordswomen are masterfully staged by Yuen Cheung-yan, the brother of Matrix and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping. The result is both a great action movie and an exceptional dramatic film.
Kang You Wei
Despite Kuang Hsu's enthronement as the last reigning Emperor of China, his ability to rule effectively is overshadowed by the ever-present power of the Dowager Empress. When his attempts to reform the Imperial system are thwarted by the Dowager Empress, he attempts to curb her power. His efforts are not successful, and this failure leads directly to his own death and the end of Imperial rule in China. The Dowager Empress, though, ends her days comfortably and in peace.
Ding Yi-Shan
Besides martial arts, Bruce Lee's contribution to Chinese society was instilling a strong sense of nationalism. After his death, anti-Japanese films found new breathe especially in Taiwan. Based on a King Hu’s script, Heroes Of The Underground tapped into Lee's nationalistic fervor and the Confucian ethic of country above family and starred the popular Ching Li as a World War II, Chinese secret agent planted into the Japanese Headquarters at Changsha. Tears flow in the name of country pride.
Philip Huang
A group of down-on-their-luck robbers pull off a spectacular job - only to find themselves hunted by cops and possible betrayers! Chan Koon Tai leads the diverse pack of criminals, which also includes such Shaw Brothers luminaries as Ngok Wah, Chung Wong, Ling Yun, and a young Danny Lee in one of his first featured roles. The group pulls off the robbery in action-packed fashion, but betrayal and the relentless police end up marking the five robbers for death.
Shaw Brothers comedy.
Hsu Chih-wen
Danny Lee is Hsu Chih-yuan, the youngest son of strict patriarch Hsu Hui-tang (Cheng Miu). A sailor, Chih-yuan incurs his father's wrath when he tells the latter of his girlfriend Susan's (Ai Ti) pregnancy. Pressured to leave her by his father, Chih-yuan finally agrees to continue his studies overseas. Eldest brother Chih-wen (Ling Yun) volunteers to raise money but ends up losing the family fortune in the stock market. It starts a roller coaster of tragedies for the family that ends with bitter disillusionment for Chih-yuan. It's a battle between tradition and youthful rebellion that leaves everyone a little poorer off.
General Tsai Song-Po
The plot follows the titular gang of misfits, gathered together by Chen Kuan Tai (a real life martial arts champion who starred in many films for the studio) in order to protect a patriotic general from a scheming usurper. To this end, the unlikely heroes act as the general’s escorts on a dangerous journey to a distant British consulate, beset by enemies and sinister Japanese interference along the way.
Yang Zhi Xiang, 2nd Master
shaw production
Ling Chien Chun
shaw production
Mr Chung
As the Heng Seng Index reaches unprecedented heights, people from all walks of life go stock speculation crazy. A security guard and his landlord learn firsthand that money is ‘Easy Come, Easy Go’ as their fast fortune disappears overnight in a Macau casino. Meanwhile, greedy neighbours and infidel couples cheat each other and even blue-collar workmen dive into the frenzy. Inevitably, the market tumbles as do the people’s bittersweet lives. A hilarious but ironic tale featuring some of Shaw’s biggest stars.
Du Zhichao
Accredited director of erotica and kung-fu films Chu Yuan, combines stars from both genres in Sex, Love And Hate, a masterpiece about Hong Kong society's differing emotional views on love and what women want when it comes to happiness in love. The provocative Ching Li (Chu Tai), the exotic Lily Ho (Pai Mei) and the princess of kung-fu films Hsu Feng (Yao Yao), play three women who live together and compare notes as to what would make them happy in love, in life, then go out to find it. Pai Mei wants money at all costs, Chu Tai will marry as soon as the opportunity arises and Yao Yao is saving her virginity for Mr. Right.
Shih Hsin-Chiao
Shih Hsin-chiao (Ling Yun) is a journalist who trained under mentor Lu Tao-jan (Chin Han). Lu's daughter, Chih-pai (Tien Niu) is infatuated with the good-looking and intelligent Shih, but Shih sees her only as a child. When he returns from a long stay abroad, he finds that things have changed. Chih-pai is now an attractive young woman in a relationship with rich boy (Wang Yu). A miscarriage and Lu's death throw Shih and Chih-pai back together again.
Huo San
A roadside bandit reluctantly agrees to become the muscle for a traveling gambler/cheat. In an attempt to steal from traitorous warlords, they get involved with rebel fighters who hope to use the riches to fund their revolution.
Yuan Ping
Lily Ho and Ling Yun are star-crossed lovers who suffer untold agonies before finally being united forever.
Yan Zi Fei
Plotting to obtain the Yen family's land, dastardly Japanese plutocrat Omura bribes Yen nephew Hsu Chien to steal the family seal and land deed. When Hsu Chien is caught in the act, he viciously beats elderly Master Yen to death to cover his actions. Determined to avenge the wrongs committed on his family and his country, young master Yen Tzu Fei blazes a knife-throwing path of revenge that leads him to his love Yue Hua's father, who has corrupt connections with the Japanese
Lin Min
Under false pretenses, Zhenzhen marries Mr. Lin, who happens to be her teacher. She wants to still study and wants to enroll in his school in Hong Kong. The head of the school agrees to this under the condition that they conceal the fact that they are married. Zhenzhen finds out right away that her husband is fawned over by the girls, they all have a crush on him, as also does the spinster librarian. However, Mr. Lin finds that that the boys in the school (they are late teens, 17 or so) really like Zhenzhen. This leads to hurt feelings, questions about fidelity and even, in Zhenzhen's case, innocuous dates with one of the boys who rides a motorcycle.
Gao Lang
This is a film about three pretty young ladies from Hong Kong who work as sales agents who travel to a resort in Japan for the sole purpose of meeting and wooing millionaires.
Lin Tzu-chia
shaw production
Mu Jun-Jie
A magician-warrior who protects a man from an ambush, not knowing of his true villainous nature. But he discovers the truth after his wife and friend are killed and must now fight to set things right.
Kenneth Cheung (Sir Night)
Legendary jewel thieves "Nocturnal Earl" (Ling Yun) and "Fragrant Night" (Lily Ho) are set on a collision course for destiny when both arrive in Japan to get their hands on the famous "Venus Tear Diamond." But sparks fly between the jewel thieves and the two fall instantly in love, without knowing that their beloved is after the very jewel each is seeking! To make matters worse, the diamond is in the possession of a randy widow who has her eye on the debonair male thief, and there's even a mystery man interested in the widow, too. Who's going to get the Venus Tear Diamond, and will it mean the end to a perfect love?
Water Knight Hsiang Kuei
The famed Ivy Ling Po (Temple Of The Red Lotus) stars as a mysterious swordswoman dedicated to keeping the five volume "Five Generations Fighting Methods" kung-fu manual out of evil-doers' hands. She joins Ling Yun, star of The Iron Buddha, who plays a hero known only as the Roving Knight to fight, train, then fight again -- facing such characters as The Six-Armed Giant and The 1000-Cut in this action-packed adventure.
Luo Han
After a notorious rapist kills his master and entire clan, the Iron Buddha sets out for revenge. He'll need a magic sword first though, naturally.
Chiang Chu-Jen
shaw production
Tang Peng Nan
A remake that doesn't disappoint, the Shawscope color Love Without End is as touching as the classic black and white original. Excelling in the tragic role made famous by Linda Lin Dai in 1961, Jenny Hu was honored with the Special Award for Best Acting in 1970.
Chang Wen-Chiang
Private eye Chang Wen Chiang receives a telephone call from his girlfriend Li Lan Hsing. He rushes over and finds her dying in a pool of blood.
Director
During the Sung regime, the Chins executed Yao Fei without giving him a trial. Li Pao and Liang Hsing who were Yao Fei's generals receive a treasure map which they divide into halves. Thus the drama begins.
Zhao Yu-Pang
A sensitive love triangle helmed by one of Shaw era's top directors, Chin Chien. A psychiatrist taking a room at an old friend's apartment soon discovers an insane woman living in a neighboring flat. As the doctor gradually heals the woman he also falls in love with her. The problem arises the friend's daughter confesses her love to him as well. Misunderstanding and mistaken passions soon lead to broken hearts and an emotional confrontation to the love triangle.
Chang Qi Lang
A kung fu knight walks the road to vengeance after the evil Ghost Gang kills his wife and son. The swordsman known as "Twin Blades" must take on a quartet of color-coded cutthroats to set things right.
A young tutor, miss Chen, is sent to home school in a dysfunctional household head by a wealthy patriarch. She befriends his ambulatory disabled young daughter Ming Chu and becomes embroiled in her struggle to walk again. She also has problems and with her angst ridden artist brother, they search for their birth mother and their cruel spoiled half-brother. Meanwhile at home, the tutor's own fellow border house mates (a single mother Shen Chiu Meng and her nightclub singer son Chiang Hui) also possess guarded secrets that gradually resurface as Chen unwittingly becomes a catalyst for those in her life as they all converge towards the bridging of deep rooted familial gaps and resolving past estrangements.
Chi Yiu Tung / Chi Yiu Nam
Welcome the "Bandit with a Thousand Faces" to the ranks of the great screen "outlaw heroes". Like Zorro, he uses a secret identity as a playboy to foil tyrannical Shan Yung county authorities. Bringing this swashbuckling adventure to the screen is a cast and crew fairly bursting with talent - including directors who were also popular actors and writers, and an actor (Ling Yun) - playing the lead dual role of twin brothers - who was also the director/ writer of some of the greatest martial art epics ever made!
Sun Chih-Chiang
Ling Yun plays the replacement hired for a popular band whose egotistic drummer quit to join a rival group. When the new arrival becomes a hit, he earns the jealous wrath of the predecessor. Meanwhile, the young drummer's mother is fervently against his music career. With the gorgeous Lily Ho as the manageress of the band and some terrific drumming set pieces, the whole thing, needless to say, comes off with a bang.
Shaw production
A musical about 3 sisters, singers and dancers, and their dad, a magician performing in nightclubs until they make their own life.
Ling Jia-Liang
Not a love triangle but a love rectangle, Rose, Be My Love is a romantic drama that represents the high standards achieved by Shaw Brothers in both star power and technical polish. Set on the eve of Pearl Harbor and Hong Kong's invasion by the Japanese, the tragic romance takes on added poignancy in light of the future fate of leading lady Li Ting, the "Rose" of Rose, Be My Love who committed suicide a mere three months after the movie's release.
Da Hai
Young love and its comedy of errors. Hsiao Fang, played by Li Ching, is a spunky young girl not afraid to fight back against hooligans. Unfortunately, she mistakes the handsome Ma Ta-hai, for one such hoodlum. The two are immediately attracted but refuse to admit their true feelings. The real hooligans are from a rich family led by a devious Madam who devise a revenge plot. With plot twists, mistaken identities, along with some terrific musical numbers, romance has never been this much fun.
Zhang Zhi Ping
The socialite Pai Li-Lan's life is disrupted when she contracts tuberculosis.
Director
Kau Yuk-kuen is delivered to safety by the mythical condor with one of the tripods while her foster father, Ku, continues the fight until his last breath. The Three Evils brutally beat and cripple Auyeung to intercept his scheme to appropriate the tripods but fail to prevent him from shoving two of them down into the deep valleys in frustration. Finding themselves no match for the Three Devils, the fellowship seek help from Lau Piu-piu. But the master declines out of a grudge against Suen Bik-ling with whom she was locked in a bitter love triangle which resulted in disfigurement of her face. Undaunted, they embark on a perilous journey in quest of the tongue of a mythical dragon and eyes of a crimson python for her cure.
Director
Lung Kim-fei and Kau Yuk-wah seal their nuptials following the reconciliation between their masters, Ku Hon-wan and Suen Bik-ling, but the auspicious day is marred by the assassination of Suen. Eager for revenge, Kau Yuk-kuen visits Ten Thousand-hand Lohan who reveals the killing weapon to be a silver thunderbolt shuttle and supplies a list of martial arts suspects. On her way to track down Lau Piu-piu, the helmswoman of Heavenly Fragrance Sect, Yuk-kuen is abducted by Auyeung Ho and the protege of the Three Invincible Palm.
Director
Distressed by her sister Yuk-wah’s sacrifice for lover Lung Kim-fei, Kau Yuk-kuen pacifies their granny Suen Bik-ling with the scheme to lure out Wicked God of Fiery Cloud, Ku Hon-wan, using Lung as bait while devising a strategy with Luk Yu. The duo secure help from But Ku in their rescue plan but before they can reach Lung, he has already broken free despite sustaining an injury. Garbed in the Fiery Cloud armour, Yuk-kuen beguiles the guards into a futile chase but is struck down the cliffs by the elder.
Tang Liang
Xiaofeng is selling medicinal herbs in Longshan Temple, but is at first driven away by Taiwanese peddlers upset by the intrusion of a mainlander into their business. Later, Xiaofeng auditions for a radio station, where a young Taiwanese man is attracted to her and finds he is soon in competition with a photographer from a mainland family.
Deer Warrior
The happy lives of animals in the forest are stirred by the sudden attack of a pack of wolves. Uncle Deer comes to the rescue, and asks Birdy to notify his son, the Deer Warrior. Deer and his rival, Sika Deer fight for the love of Miss Deer while Foxy mingles with the leader of the wolves, desiring to be the prettiest in the land. A truly bizarre family (?) film from critic and pioneer Chang Ying.
A Taiwanese language film
黃振英
Director