Martial Arts Mayhem
If you like highly-trained kung-fu masters with hands that should be registered as lethal weapons beating the heck out of each other in the coolest and most incredibly choreographed ways then you are going to love Martial Arts Mayhem.
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The Jade Tiger (Mandarin version)
1977 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chor Yuen
The headless corpse of the Chao Clan patriarch and the theft of a jade tiger set in motion another noteworthy collaboration between three of the biggest names in swordplay action dramas: director Chor Yuen, martial arts novelist Gu Long, and kung-fu super...
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The Magic Blade (English version)
1976 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chor Yuen
As all wuxia and kung-fu fans know, action is supreme but a good story helps keep things moving. Gu Long, the most famous marital arts novelist, provides The Magic Blade with just the right plot to give the brilliant swordplay an interesting context, and ...
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Clans of Intrigue (Cantonese version)
1977 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chor Yuen
The story of legendary swordsman Chu Liuxiang has been a favourite of Hong Kong filmmakers, but the roguish knave’s most stylish cinematic reincarnation is undoubtedly Clans Of Intrigue. How could it be anything but, with a story by celebrated martial art...
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Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (English version)
1972 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chor Yuen
The most famous erotic film in the history of Hong Kong cinema, Chor Yuen’s Intimate Confessions Of A Chinese Courtesan shocked Chinese audiences in 1972, and even today exerts a raw power. Lily Ho, in her most daring role, is an aristocratic maiden abduc...
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Enter The Drag Dragon
2023 • Canada • Directed by Lee Demarbre
Get ready to go on a Drag-Fu odyssey, filled with face-crunching action, corset-busting comedy, gut-munching horror, and soul-touching musical numbers! You've never experienced anything like Enter the Drag Dragon! This blast of true of independent cinema ...
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The 14 Amazons (English version)
1972 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheng Kang
Long before feminism made it to Hong Kong, women proved themselves more than equal to men in this martial arts classic set in ancient China, where a matriarchal clan uses sword, fist, and gravity-defying leaps to avenge their fallen menfolk. The cast is ...
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The Lady Hermit (English version)
1971 • Hong Kong • Directed by Ho Meng-hua
Shaw Studios knew a good thing when they teamed their remarkable star Cheng Pei-pei with versatile director Ho Meng-hua. This wuxia film was considered one of the director’s most notable from a filmography spanning more than forty films. Cheng plays the...
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The One-Armed Swordsman (English version)
1967 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chang Cheh
Even non-kung-fu lovers will be mesmerised 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 revolutionised the Hong Kong action genr...
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King Boxer
1972 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chang-hwa Jeong
Already firmly established as the most successful film studio in Hong Kong, Shaw Brothers’ worldwide commercial breakthrough would not come from one of their lavish epics, but instead from King Boxer, a lean, mean and bloody B-movie by a Korean dire...
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The Boxer from Shantung
1972 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang, Hsueh-Li Pao
By 1972, Chang Cheh was already Shaw Brothers’ most prolific and well-known director with a plethora of box office hits (including the One-Armed Swordsman franchise) to his name and renowned for discovering the hottest young talents to star...
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Five Shaolin Masters
1974 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang
After directing a non-stop string of box office hits for Shaw Brothers, the studio gave Chang Cheh his own mini-studio (Chang’s Film Co) and the freedom to produce his own martial arts masterpieces, escaping the usual Hong Kong studio backlot to shoot in...
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Shaolin Temple
1976 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang
Returning to Hong Kong filmmaking after a spell in Taiwan, director Chang Cheh closed out his ‘Shaolin Temple Cycle’ with arguably the most star-filled and action-packed instalment yet in Shaolin Temple. Ostensibly (though not strictly) a prequel to Five...
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Mighty Peking Man
1977 • Hong Kong • Directed by Meng-Hua Ho
When Hollywood announced a big-budget remake of King Kong, Shaw Brothers followed suit with perhaps the most unhinged giant monster movie ever made: Mighty Peking Man. Fresh off directing the smash hit Black Magic horror series for Shaw, director Ho Men...
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Challenge of The Masters
1976 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chia-Liang Liu
After masterminding the spellbinding martial arts choreography on dozens of Shaw Brothers’ biggest hits, Lau Kar-Leung became an extraordinary director in his own right. His second film, the thrilling and deeply personal Challenge of the Masters, dra...
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Executioners from Shaolin
1977 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chia-Liang Liu
Having choreographed the action for many of Chang Cheh’s ‘Shaolin Temple’ films, director Lau Kar-leung used his inimitable talents and deeply-felt understanding of kung fu history to create his own idiosyncratic take on the same historical legends i...
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Chinatown Kid
1977 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang
One of director Chang Cheh’s most inarguable talents was discovering new on-screen talent and catapulting them to stardom, and few stars shone brighter than the cheeky, handsome Alexander Fu Sheng. A very contemporary deviation from the usual period sett...
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The Five Venoms
1978 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang
After over a decade of discovering some of the hottest talents in Hong Kong action cinema, director Chang Cheh outdid himself with the formation of the all-powerful posse of kung fu experts known to fans as the Venom Mob. Though the members of the group ...
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Crippled Avengers
1978 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang
After achieving instant icon status as the stars of The Five Venoms, the Venom Mob collaborated with director Chang Cheh once again in their most unhinged and spectacular effort yet, Crippled Avengers, which also saw the return to Shaw Brothers of kung f...
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Heroes of the East
1978 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chia-Liang Liu
Decades after World War II, the Japanese were almost always portrayed as villains in Hong Kong cinema, but one of the first films to buck the trend was Lau Kar-leung’s Heroes of the East, which pits Japanese and Chinese martial arts against one anoth...
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The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Mandarin version)
1978 • Hong Kong • Directed by Lau Kar-leung
The anti-Ching patriots, under the guidance of Ho Kuang-han, have secretly set up their base in Canton, disguised as school masters. During a brutal Manchu attack, Lui manages to escape, and devotes himself to learning the martial arts in order to see...
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Return to the 36th Chamber (Cantonese version)
1980 • Hong Kong • Directed by Lau Kar-leung
The workers of a dye factory have their pay cut by 20% when the factory owner brings in some Manchu thugs to try and increase production. Desperate to reclaim their full wages, the workers hire an actor to impersonate a priest and kung-fu expert from ...
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Disciples of the 36th Chamber (Cantonese version)
1985 • Hong Kong • Directed by Lau Kar-leung
Gordon Liu reprises his famous Monk San Te role as he tries to support and protect Shaolin her Fang Shih-yu who purposely attacks corrupt Ching officials.
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Mad Monkey Kung Fu (Cantonese version)
1979 • Hong Kong • Directed by Lau Kar-leung
A disgraced former Kung Fu expert makes a living as a merchant with the help of a hot headed friend. When the men are harassed by gangsters, the merchant decided to teach his friend monkey boxing so they can defend their business.
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Five Superfighters (Cantonese version)
1979 • Hong Kong • Directed by John Law Ma
Three young martial arts students and their teacher are beaten up badly by a wandering man who proclaims himself "a corrector of bad kung-fu."Determined to avenge their teacher and regain their honor, the three students all go their seperate ways to fin...