My last article for this site was dedicated to Executioners from Shaolin, so I felt it was fitting that I follow it up with a brief look and discussion about the themes of Chang Cheh’s 1976 overlooked classic, Shaolin Temple. While the former film looked...
The historical setting of the Shaolin temple burnings and the aftermath of such is one of the more common backing stories used in Shaw Brothers films. Yet, of all of them, it seems that Executioners from Shaolin is easily one of the most popular. Directed...
“One person getting fame over thousands of dead bodies. For this vain title, how many lives have been sacrificed?” There is an ultimate question the plagues the film industry. How do you make a sequel to a film that breaks barriers, connects with its audience, and...
There are a couple moments in Sword Stained with Royal Blood where it’s hard to accept where the film is going, including most of the first act. However, in the case of a film like this, there are three things to remember before one starts...
Fifteen minutes. It took me about fifteen minutes into watching Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman before I realized I had no idea what world I walked into. Now, at this point I could be referencing Chor Yuen’s patented style of just throwing his audience into...
There is a large part of me that simply wanted to take this article, write a brief introduction, and then proceed to list everything in The Magic Blade that is absurd. However, that’s a lot of work. For those of you that haven’t had the...
Chang Cheh is an icon for a reason. While so many film makers in their careers try desperately to make entertainment out of the art of cinema, Chang Cheh set a standard to make art out of cinematic entertainment. It’s this approach that has heavily...
There was always a line that Shaw Brothers productions liked to ride. A line between the gimmicks of their entertaining aspects and the dramatic tales they wanted to tell of heroes, loyalty, and bloodshed. When it comes to their martial arts films, it’s a fine...
“Killers are like shooting stars. They appear in brilliance and vanish in no time. And besides that, they’ve no name.” The opening of Killer Clans takes two mysterious killers and pits them in a brief duel on a dark shadowy bridge. One is a hired assassin...
Out of the first batch of Shaw Brothers films announced by 88 Films for their newly christened 88 Asia line up, it was Killer Constable that stuck out the most. The film still made sense for their demographic as it’s directed by Kuei Chih-Hung who...