DVD Reviews

In which the cave of the Golden Snake is introduced! The Sword Stained With Royal Blood is a certifiable classic of Kung-Fu madness.  It’s an adventure with a strong narrative which sees Yuan Cheng-chih (Phillip Kwok) whisked away from tragedy and raised right so that he might avoid the same fate as his  ...

Revenge, thy name is Sammo Hung!n The Iron-Fisted Monk is some good ol’ kung-fu delivered with all the grit and the glory one would expect from its talented cast.  Produced by Raymond Chow (who was still licking the wounds made by Bruce Lee’s death) and made when Hong Kong cinema  ...

It’s East meets WestERN when Sammo Hung comes to town! With dynamic fight sequences throughout and a genuine goofiness in its DNA, Millionaires’ Express, written and directed by Sammy Hung, continues to deliver the comedic good from station to station.  It looks absolutely beautiful ...

Let the blood flow freely! And boy does it ever in Masked Avengers, a martial arts bonanza which features blood drinking, satan worshiping, and a whole lot of bloody trident action!  Not for the faint of heart, Masked Avengers, once again directed by Chang Cheh, features three of the “venoms” in some  ...

In which Philip Kwok has to wear one of the most ridiculous-looking (possibly) knitted caps throughout the entire film!  Whatever it is, it’s horrible. House of Traps might be for “Venom” completists only.  Oh, sure, if you can follow the twisting plot you’ll get side-switching ...

In which Angela Miao, Whang Ing-Sik and Sammo Hung (in the roles of Yu Ying, Kao and Fan), coming from a small Korean school of Martial Arts, all take turns breaking boards and cracking skulls with their Japanese competitors!  And all they wanted was to start a school of their own! ...

Golden Harvest, Shaw Brothers first major competitor for Martial Arts action, hit it big when they landed Bruce Lee in The Big Boss.  Could they strike again with a female leading lady, Angela Mao Ying? Yes.  Yes, they could.  It helped when director Huang Feng (The Shaolin Plot) jumped ship ...

It’s the return of the supernatural to Shaw Brothers!  Well, sort of, as this wuxia extravaganza turns relatively spooky really quick-like thanks to two ornamental figures - one ghoul in red robes (Yuen Wah) and another in white (Chan Man-Na) - haunting a young swordsman (Long Fei) and foretelling of his fiance's  ...

By 1980, it was time for Shaw Brothers to start experimenting with their subject matter.  The straight-up action movies seemed to be slightly out-of-step with what audiences wanted (or at least director Chang Cheh was running out of gas as one of the most overworked directors for the studio), so the  ...

There’s a wonderfully on-point scene in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, a co-production between Hammer Studios and Shaw Brothers, in which Hsi Ching (David Chiang) and his seven kung fu-trained siblings, including the only sister, Mei Kwei (Shih Szu), hop into the camera’s frame as they display their  ...

In which the killer kung fu acrobatics turn super silly! Directed by Chen Chi-Hwa (Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin) and starring a young Jackie Chan (who had complete creative control over the project), Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu is probably not going to be for every one out there.  Its comedy is Looney Tunes inspired and  ...

In which Alexander Fu Sheng fights against the exploitation of textile workers! Directed by the one and only Chang Cheh and featuring some stellar choreography from Lau Kar-leung, Disciples Of Shaolin is, ultimately, a very sad story.  Oh, it’s got some great scenes of ass-kicking audacity along ...

Dragons Forever, also known as Cyclone Z, is the final “three brothers” film but what a high note these three titans of Hong Kong Cinema - Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao - go out on!  They play against type - with Chan as the sleazeball lawyer, Hung as the Con Artist, and Biao as the accidental thief - and it  ...

Opening with an animated sequence of the main cast fighting each other, Two Champions of Shaolin takes its use of montage quite seriously as  the on-going feud between the Shaolin disciples and the Wu-Tang Clan expands to include flying razor-sharp boomerangs! Starring Venom Mob’s Lo Mang and ...

In which the five venoms return to save China from mass-starvation as ruthless thugs take over the land, leaving thousands of refugees in their wake! Directed by Chang Cheh and featuring explosive fight sequences throughout, The Rebel Intruders presents ...

In which fight choreographer (and soon-to-be director) Sammo Hung, making his last film with his mentor, director Huang Feng (Lady Whirlwind, Hapkido), gets a headlining part as a mad monk who wields two golden cymbals as flying guillotines.  How deliciously evil!!! The Shaolin Plot, while 15 minutes too long, is one hell of a  ...

There’s no return to normal cinema viewing after being exposed to ANY of director Yuen Woo-ping’s films.  This is an indisputable fact.  While most audiences know the director’s work 1977’s Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and 1978’s The Drunken Master due to his collaborations with a young  ...

Opening with the capture and the lopping off of legs and arms for the wife and son of To Tin Tao (Chen Kuan-tai), Crippled Avengers leaves quite the impression.  First, you might feel sympathy for To Tin Tao but, as he is skilled in tiger arts, he quickly disperses the would-be assassins and, turning to his now crippled son ...

In which the IRON MAIDEN is introduced as a torture device and several sparkling costumed fights take place while standing on walls!  Chang Cheh’s The Five Venoms is already a renowned cult classic and fans of chop socky flicks know the reasons ...

In which an opening credits lion dance against a blazing white backdrop sets the rules of this challenge!  Martial Club, courtesy of 88 Films, has arrived! Directed by Lau Kar Leung and featuring Gordon Liu as Wong Fei Hung (again), Martial Club is a film which seems to be forgotten by many ...

No, not the Jet Li film.  We aren’t quite there yet, Chop Socky Cretins.  This film, produced by Shaw Brothers, assembles a new wave of fighters to assist freedom fighters after the destruction of the Henan monastery.  Due to the changing times, we have fan favorites Ti Lung, Wang Chung, and David Chiang playing  ...

In which Bryan Leung’s ponytail ruthlessly kills! It’s no secret that director Chang Cheh and wuxia screenwriter I Kuang, who wrote over 300 screenplays for the Shaw Brothers, revolutionized the action films coming out of Hong Kong.  Especially for Shaw Brothers, Cheh especially was changing the face of their heroes ...

Capitalizing on the death of Bruce Lee has never been so damn out of control as the Special Branch of Investigations takes brain tissue samples from Bruce Lee, immediately after his death, and hires a mad scientist (Jon T. Benn from Way Of The Dragon and Jet Li’s Fearless) to create three clones of the deceased  ...

It’s time to enter the bizarro world, my Chopsocky connoisseurs! This is a world where, in the wake of Bruce Lee’s death, many film companies - including Golden Harvest, the production company that launched Lee into the world’s consciousness with Fist of Fury, The Big Boss, and Way of the Dragon - started  ...

It’s a rags-to-riches story by way of the fist! Directed by Chang Cheh and Pao Hsueh Li and featuring a stellar performance from Chen Kuan Tai as Ma Yung Chen, who heads to the big city seeking his own path to fortune and fame, this Hong Kong gangster epic (clocking in at almost 2 and a half  ...

In which Jackie Chan takes down a hovercraft trashing the streets of NYC with an antique samurai sword while driving a doorless Lamborghini Countach (with a broken ankle)! For many Americans, Rumble In The Bronx was their first taste of Chan’s explosive style of fighting when it came to his choreography and his stunts, with Chan performing most of them ...

It’s a rags-to-riches story by way of the fist! Directed by Chang Cheh and Pao Hsueh Li and featuring a stellar performance from Chen Kuan Tai as Ma Yung Chen, who heads to the big city seeking his own path to fortune and fame, this Hong Kong gangster epic (clocking in at almost 2 and a half  ...

In which some very nimble fingers pluck out a man’s eyeballs from their sockets! King Boxer remains a powerhouse of hard-hitting kung-fu action. It is, at once, a full force blast of cinematic energy that hits you square in the jaw. This iconic movie, released in the early 1970s, takes no prisoners as  ...

Okay, okay. So, Dirty Ho is unfortunately titled but that doesn’t stop this kung fu film from being a masteract in comedy and martial arts choreography and, thanks to the usual high production values of Shaw Brothers, it has aged tremendously well. Directed by Lau Kar-leung and starring  ...

It’s East vs East in this Martial Arts tournament movie by way of an arranged marriage! Heroes of the East, directed by Lau Kar-Leung and filmed by Arthur Wong, focuses on an arranged marriage between a student of Kung Fu and the Japanese daughter of one of his father’s business  ...