Chop Socky Cinema

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  ...

Golden Swallow (Cheng Pei-pei) is just not having it when a mysterious agent from her past returns and starts framing her for some serious heinous activity! She’s ready to take matters into her own hands in 1968’s Golden Swallow (aka The Girl With The Thunderbolt Kick) ...

Meet the meanest and most lethal karate master ever to rule the streets. He's Sonny Chiba, one of the greatest martial arts actors to ignite the screen. In The Street Fighter, Chiba stars as Terry Tsurugi, a mercenary who has been hired by both the yakuza and the mafia to kidnap a wealthy  ...

She’s a one woman army! There are a lot of differing opinions on The Thundering Sword.  Released by The Shaw Brothers in 1967, this martial arts classic (as its Cheng Pei Pei’s first starring role!) flips the script on the whole sword-killing machismo that was dominant in the martial arts ...