Chang Cheh
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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Have Sword, Will Travel
Legendary director Cheh Chang directs Ti Lung and David Chiang in the "heroic bloodshed" classic 'Have Sword, Will Travel'. As Hsiang Ting (Ti Lung) escorts silver to the capital, he runs into a mysterious knight, Le I (David Chiang), who becomes his savior.
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The Trail of the Broken Blade
Jimmy Wang Yu stars in Cheh Chang's 'The Trail of the Broken Blade', a sword hero tragedy similar to 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon'.
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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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Boxer Rebellion
The “godfather of the kung-fu film”, Cheh Chang, was given one of the highest budgets to date to tell this sweeping war story of disillusionment and revenge. Choreographed by Liu Chia-liang and starring international favourite Alexander Fu Sheng, it rates as a revelatory masterpiece.
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Blood Brothers
Made at the peak of the martial arts film craze, "Blood Brothers" stands out against the run-of-the-mill kung-fu flicks that flooded the market in the 1970s. It would be hard to find more legendary names in front of and behind the camera: director Chang Cheh, who virtually reinvented the genre; the brilliant martial arts choreography by Liu Chia-liang, before he himself embarked on a directorial career; and the number one buddy team in kung-fu, Ti Lung and David Chiang, joined by Shaw Brothers newest superstar, Chen Kuan-tai. Set in the waning years of the Ching Dynasty, Blood Brothers tells of one of the most sensational scandals in Chinese history, the assassination of a provincial governor (Ti Lung) by his lieutenant and sworn brother (David Chiang). Ti Lung, in a complex role that allowed him to flex his thespian muscles, was honored with Golden Horse Award of Outstanding Performance.
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The Weird Man
The Water Margin, Journey to the West and Romance of the Three Kingdoms are China's most famous literary classics. After director Chang Cheh's film adaptations of the first two classics wowed audiences, Chang completed the circle with The Weird Man, a bizarre variation of Romance Of The Three Kingdoms. Besides Cheng Tien-chi, who starred in Jackie Chan's Fearless Hyena, Chang uses a cast of unknowns and gives the story a ghostly-horror edge. Chang is known for his lone swordsman and hero movies and strangely The Weird Man still reflects this. Cheng plays a righteous, beheaded priest with supernatural powers that returns from the dead to wreak havoc against one of the corrupt kingdoms, making Cheng a heroic "swords-ghost". It is insane sanity to the maximum degree, a must see film.
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Brave Archer and His Mate
Brave Archer and His Mate is the fourth in a series originally starring international favorite Alexander Fu Sheng as master martial artist Kuo Tsing. But Fu only appears here in a cameo as the son of a character played by Lung Tien-chiang. Kuo Chue is the new hero who is out to defeat the mass murderer of his martial arts masters. In fact, this fast-moving, action-packed, Venom-filled film is even choreographed by the three core “Venoms”, making it a unique combination of grand “Martial Arts World” mayhem and special Venom-style high flying kung-fu.
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House of Traps
It all started with The Five Venoms, the internationally loved kung-fu thriller which introduced director Chang Cheh’s recurring cast of martial arts masters. It continued through more than a dozen high-flying, bloody good entertainment movies featuring the same action actors in pairs, trios, quartets, and, most memorably, quintets. While this is considered the last official “Venoms” movie, what a film it is. The title does not lie: an evil prince has secreted stolen imperial treasures in a building that practically bristles with booby-trapped blades. Bodies are pierced, limbs are cut off, and there’s one plasma-spurting attack after another as heroes and rogues alike try to solve the secrets of the hell house. The core Venoms themselves choreograph the gory fun in this fond farewell to their worldwide film series sensation.
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Masked Avengers
The "godfather of the kung-fu film," Chang Cheh, started a winning streak by making the internationally renowned "The Five Venoms". He followed that hit with many more high-flying "bloody good" entertainments featuring the same cast in new roles. But of all the "Venom" movies, this one stands out as perhaps the most chilling. Masked killers are wreaking havoc and instilling terror with their vicious weapons of choice: razor-sharp, gut-shattering tridents. Only three fearless fighters dare investigate, leading to mass murder and magnificent martial arts. Chien Hsiao-hou, future co-star of Yuen Woo-ping’s "The Tai-chi" Master joins the trio to get tri-pierced. The core "Venoms" themselves handle the intricate, always impressive, sometimes awe-inspiring, choreography in this unforgettable exercise in "grand guignol gung-fu."
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The Sword Stained with Royal Blood
The “godfather of the kung-fu film”, Chang Cheh, has made many famous films. He was also famous for creating the “Venom” film series, starting with The Five Venoms and ending with House Of Traps. But one of the most treasured and beloved of his later films is this unusual “semi-Venom” film – in that it showcased only three of the standard five venoms. The spectacular action and intrigue starts when Kuo Chue, as the only son of an executed anti-Ching patriot, uncovers a sword, training manual, treasure map, and a secret message. The kung-fu which ensues is as impressive as it is glorious.
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Two Champions of Shaolin
A team that ranks high in the pantheon of cult Kung fu flicks is a quintet of martial artists who burst upon the screen in The Five Venoms, followed by Crippled Avengers and other cult classics. The "five venoms" are reunited in Two Champions of Shaolin, with four of the fab five wreaking havoc on screen and the fifth venom active behind the camera as action choreographer. It's a battle between two Ching Dynasty clans, Shaolin and Wu Tang. The Shaolin champions are anti-Manchu and, naturally, represent the forces of good as they use their considerable force to crush the devious Wu Tang clan. The man behind the mayhem, director Chang Cheh, virtually invented the Shaolin genre of Kung fu movies and shows he has more than a few new tricks up his sleeve when unleashing his venomous heroes.
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The Flag of Iron
When director Chang Cheh found new talent and blood with “The Five Venoms” actors, most of which were trained in the highly acrobatic Chinese opera and well versed with exotic martial arts weapons, this created a new spark for his use of bizarre weapons in his films. 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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The Kid With The Golden Arm
When directors in the late '70s began jumping on the kung-fu comedy bandwagon renowned director Chang Cheh stuck to his guns of traditional brotherhood and moral code films made popular by him in the '60s. So in keeping with the spirit of the venomous success of the cultish The Five Venoms, Chang reunites the "Five Venoms" in arguably his second biggest cult hit in the West, "The Kid With The Golden Arm". As the film's lead martial arts instructor and one of the stars, it's also one of Lo Meng's finest moments on screen playing the righteous villain Golden Arms whose eventual showdown with the drunkard Hai Tao (Kuo Chue, fight choreographer for "Brotherhood Of The Wolf") is graphically artsy and balletically violent. You won’t be disappointed.
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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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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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