Category: movies
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The Shanghai Thirteen Movie Review
Despite having numerous Shaw Brothers alumni and Chang Cheh as the director, The Shanghai Thirteen (1984) was not a Shaw Brothers production. Instead, it was produced by someone named Chan Hsi-Fan, whom I don’t recognize, and was written by Chang Cheh himself. I read elsewhere that around this period, Chang Cheh was 60 and nearing…
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The Five Venoms Movie Review
One of the most revered kung fu movies is the Shaw Brothers/Chang Cheh classic The Five Venoms. While there were previous movies involving various members of this particular cast, it was The Five Venoms that really skyrocketed the careers of five individuals that became Chang Cheh’s next round of superstars in his kung fu classics.
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A Long Way Home 1981 TV Movie Review
Ages ago, I had seen this movie probably just once on a network broadcast. Back in the day (not sure about now) they would have these specials at night from time to time, made for TV movies, usually a dramatization of an issue plaguing society. A Long Way Home 1981 focuses on a few issues…
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Shaw Brothers Five Elements Ninjas Review
This is a cult classic in the Shaw Brother library. It’s got elements (pun intended) of weapons, ninjas, crazy effects, gore and some extreme violence as well as Chang Cheh directing it. In a way, it’s near the tail end of the Venom mob era with only Lo Meng remaining (unless you count the 7th…
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Shaw Brothers The Chinatown Kid Review
I haven’t done a movie review in a while especially my inconsistent but ongoing Shaw Brothers reviews, but I did get a chance to watch the English edition of The Chinatown Kid starring Fu Sheng. At first, I started watching the Chinese edition but ended up just swapping since it requires more concentration in reading…
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Ninja Masters of Death Review
I stumbled across this movie the other night (actually I knew about it but only had seen the ending a few times, which we’ll get to) and decided to watch it in order to put myself to sleep. It’s another Godfrey Ho concoctions, this time where he takes the alias of Bruce Lambert. But I…
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The Magnificent Ruffians (1979) Review
The Magnificent Ruffians (1979) aka The Destroyers is another Venoms classic movie. It doesn’t have Wei Pai and that slot is filled by the 7th Venom of Wong Lik, who actually is a good guy in this. This movie is possibly Lu Feng’s magnum opus when it comes to him being able to fully display…
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Shaolin Hand Lock (1978) Review
This movie really should be renamed David Chiang on a Thailand vacation. It’s not a particularly great movie especially in the genre of kung fu but if you like David Chiang and/or Lo Lieh, you might want to check it out as another Shaw Brothers movie. But it’s surprisingly not a Chang Cheh flick which…
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Dynasty (1977): Kung Fu Movie Review
As with Rage of the Dragon, Dynasty (1977) was a movie I had been searching for, taking no less than four decades to discover. It was through a very obscure scene and the fact that I vaguely recalled it coming on channel 13 during one of those kung fu weeks/weekends where they had five special…
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Return of the 18 Bronzemen: Review
After checking out that Rage of the Dragon movie, I decided to give another Carter Wong movie a chance: Return of the 18 Bronzemen. I think my family had this or the one before it but I didn’t have any interest in watching it until now. The only Carter Wong movies I’m really familiar with…