1974 • Japan • Directed by Teruo Ishii

When a priceless jewel owned by rich heiress Sabine is stolen, along with her daughter, Professional thief and hired killer Ryuichi Koga and his gang are hired to retrieve both. At a ransom exchange, the team save the girl but lose the money and the jewel. ...

1979 • United States • Directed by Charlie Ahearn

Before Charlie Ahearn shot his seminal hip-hop film "Wild Style" in 1982, he was directly exposed to the bourgeoning hip-hop, break-dancing and graffiti movement, while shooting his super-8 martial arts epic "The Deadly Art of Survival" around th...

1977 • Hong Kong • Directed by Chor Yuen

One of director Chor Yuen’s crowning achievements, The Sentimental Swordsman epitomizes the lone, virtuous, heroic swordsman with a twist. Swordsman Li Xunhuan, magnificently played by the highly respected and popular Ti Lung, is also a hero with weakness...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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 ...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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 ...