DVD Reviews

“In this world of guns and knives, Tang Lung is the one who walks the lonely road.” Mixed with a solid sense of comedy that Jackie Chan would later use in his films, Bruce Lee’s The Way of the Dragon is a non-stop barrage of unarmed fighting as he plays Tang Lung who has traveled from China to Rome to  ...

Meteor. Butterfly. Sword. For myself, any interest that I had in Hong Kong cinema began here. Killer Clans is a martial arts masterpiece which remains stunning in its use of the shawscope lens, proving to be both spacious and gorgeous to revisit on 1080p, and, storywise, absolutely obliterates souls with its  ...

What do Pam Grier, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin’s Gordon Liu, Dave Bautista, and legendary fight choreographer Corey Yuen have in common with the Wu-Tang Clan’s beatmaker the RZA? This film, my Chop Socky Brothers and Sisters, this badass film right here. The Man With The Iron Fists ... ...

Unbeknownst to the Shaw Brothers and acclaimed director Lau Kar-leung (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin), The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter would be Alexander Fu Sheng’s final performance. Fu Sheng was one of Hong Kong's finest performers in the martial arts genre and his kung-fu films for the Shaw Brothers ...

An even better way to lose your head! That’s right, not content to let other production companies have all the fun with the flying guillotine routine, the Shaw Brothers put forth a copycat effort with yet another flying instrument of ...

Well, that’s one way to lose your head! While no one knows what the weapon at the center of this classic film can tell you what it looked like, The Flying Guillotine offers one possible and completely unforgettable design that continues to cause knees to knock. It’s little wonder that the company spent  ...

Ever wanted to watch someone fight with a bird cage before? If so, Monkey Kung Fu is the action spectacle for you! Flawed but absolutely gonzo with its wall-to-wall action sequences which involves chairs, bowls, a bed, and all sorts of interesting props, the film is energetic and absolutely off its rocker as two prisoners  ...

Beginning in the middle of the burning of a Shaolin Temple, Heroes Two throws the audience right into a fight sequence in which a whole lot of burning things becomes obstacles for our heroes Alexander Fu Sheng and Chen Kuan Tai to duck and dodge as they take on the oppression of the Manchurian  ...

It’s time to get spooky, Chop Socky fans! The Bride from Hell might be tonally inconsistent, running the gamut between horror tropes and comedy in a very clunky (but lovable) way, but it is damn revelatory in its take on gothic tropes as the Shaw Brothers tackle Hammer Studios-like atmosphere with ...

“The wall may be low, but the buddha is high.” The ultimate martial arts film when it comes to training, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin remains an amazing watch.  Here, we get an intense look at the steps in the Shaolin style of martial arts, which includes lightness, balance, arm strength, wrist technique, eyesight ...

Let the street brawls begin!  Cue the funk music because it’s time to kick some serious ass and look badass while doing it, too.  Man of Iron has arrived on sparkling blu-ray! ...

The Shaw Brothers made a lot of martial arts films covering Shi Nai-An’s The Water Margin,  the 14th-century Song Dynasty novel, but it is here, with 1972’s Chang Cheh adaptation (covering chapters 64 through 68 of the novel, if memory serves me correctly), where they struck gold.  The film is  ...

There are a lot of firsts involved with the legacy of The One-Armed Swordsman, which is now on blu-ray thanks to Nova Media.  Obviously, it’s the first in the trilogy of Swordsman films, but (and more importantly) for Hong Kong cinema, this was the first film to make a million bucks in its initial domestic  ...

Secret passageways!  Zombie-looking baddies!  Corpse worm pills!  Evil dungeons!  And Hammer Studio-like atmosphere galore!  Also featuring an impaling from a peg leg, The Devil’s Mirror is bananas!  It definitely puts the SOUP in the supernatural ...

Written by Ni Kuang, Chang Cheh and Chin Shu-mei, The Delightful Forest is actually a restaurant in a small town. It is also a place where gambling and prostitution is accepted. But, wuxia fans know it as the movie in which Ti Lung steals the show as Wu Song, a lone warrior who believes wine makes  ...

Written, directed, and starring Jimmy Wang Yu and made for Raymond Chow’s Golden Harvest (and not the Shaw Brothers after he left them), One-Armed Boxer takes its kung-fu leanings as seriously as it does its villains' row.  Recognizing this, Arrow Video presents the film in a special limited  ...

Cheng Pei-Pei is back in action!  This time she wields a whip instead of a sword and, as it is time for the Shaw Brothers to experiment with their brand of wuxia, one shouldn’t be surprised that its take of revenge comes across as paper-thin. ...

Decapitations!  Impalements!  It’s time to let the limbs fly!  Early on, it really feels like this wuxia is going to deliver something altogether different as a martial arts film.  There are a bunch of early highlights as the crimson charm gang is confronted among crypts, corpses, and a skull which seems to float into  ...

Brothers Five, directed by Lo Wei, is a definite early high water mark for the Shaw Brothers as the production design is absolutely through the roof and the locations are far and wide, making this violent story a beautiful canvas for a whole lot of bloodletting which is Wei’s specialty ...

Get those fists ready!  It’s time for some hand-to-hand combat as one family is absolutely brought to its knees due to an Emperor’s secret mission. Shaolin Mantis, distributed from 88 Films, opens with David Chiang shadow fighting against ...

Lady of Steel features one of my favorite fight sequences as its co-headlining stars - Cheng Pei-Pei and Yueh Hua - “fight” each other to determine just where their allegiances lie.  The set design of this village is cool.  From balancing on the top of a bridge to running on water and flying to rooftops ...

Snake pits!  Swordplay!  Cheng Pei-pei having great fun with a secret clan of deadly women!  Also featuring a lively song and dance number from Pei-pei herself, one would think The Golden Sword would constantly be one of the most energetic Shaw Brothers productions out there.  It’s not.  In fact ...

The Flying Dagger, written and directed by Chang Cheh, takes its homage to filmmaker Akira Kurosawa quite seriously and opens with a monochrome romp in the reed fields as two lovers take some time to enjoy each other.  It’s tastefully done, but - because this is a wuxia film - is interrupted  ...

Jumping right into the 20-year drama of this family saga, Dragon Swamp opens with an attack from a group of angry monks who want the Jade Dragon Sword returned to their monastery.  To say they are annoyed by the thieving ways of The White-Faced General, Tang Dachuan (Huang Chung-Hsin) ...

In which, a watermelon becomes a dangerous weapon!  Or at least its seeds do!  All joking aside, The Invincible Fist is a wonderfully realized wuxia flick that deserves to be recognized.  If not for the incredible use of leafy, green reed fields, then for the fight choreography which has Lo Lieh battling it out  ...

A female-led wuxia film is nothing new.  I know a lot of people want to give that credit to Ang Lee, but history suggests otherwise.  Just because popular American cinema failed to notice what Asian cinema was doing (for a long time!!!) doesn’t mean that it wasn’t happening.  Just look at 1966’s Come  ...

Opening with a gloriously brutal raid on a village, Killer Dart sets the stage for this multi-layered revenge story with gusto.  It is bold with its drama, dynamic with its action sequences, and strong with its characters.  And it is no wonder why, especially when you consider just who is behind the camera ...

And, just like that, the coin-targeting trickshot is introduced!  Now, a lot of people have complained and bellyached about what you have to sit through in order to get to the brutal killing in The Sword of Swords, but - come on, now - the bloodletting begins early on and it never stops, splashing gallons  ...

The blood spatter!  The fearless faces of the warriors!  The sparks as the swords slam together!  The brilliant choreography!  Fighting on top of trees!  The Jade Raksha, directed by Ho Meng-Hua (Killer Darts) has it all!  And, quite honestly, it makes Crouching Tiger, Hidden  ...

Chang Wei Fu (Chang Yi) never should have given Yang Kang (Ku Feng), Ying Tien (Tien Sheng), and Chief Tao Ching Lung (Lam Kau) the directions they needed.  Fu is a simple woodcutter.  He lives by nature’s rules with his family in an isolated location, outside of the nearest  ...