By Matt L. Reifschneider of Blood Brothers Film Reviews === In terms of Shaw Brothers films, The Dragon Missile is about as straightforward as it gets and, for better or worse, it doesn’t necessarily strike out as particularly top notch in any of the genre categories. Even the biggest gimmick...
By Kim August In 1982, director Chang Cheh unleashed one of his greatest examples of super-heroic mayhem with Five Elements Ninjas. Calling back to a favorite theme of China vs. Japan, this no-holds-barred example of Peking Opera acrobatics and traditional Japanese ninjutsu remains a fan favorite...
By Matt L. Reifschneider Blood Brothers Film Reviews === The scene was much more electric than I could have imagined. People were spilling out of the front of the Paramount Theater, just off of one of the iconic pieces of downtown Denver that is 16th Street, and the energy...
“Living isn’t that important, but drinking is.” The Proud Youth is director Sun Chung’s take on Jin Yong’s The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. This is a movie I was half expecting not to like. The source material is long, with lots of characters, and an hour and...
In many movies, heroes may suffer, but joining them on their journey is easy. In What Price Honesty?, the director, Patrick Yuen Ho-Chuen, paints a bleak moral world that forces the viewer to ask themselves just how far along the hero’s path they’d be willing...
“I don’t feel like messing around with you. Please excuse me!” In this Robin Hood style early Chang Cheh wuxia, none of our heroes are who they seem to be. Lily Li’s Miss Jiang is not quite the damsel in distress she seems-despite her crying- Miss...
February 16, 2018 – - LOS ANGELES - - On Lunar New Year, Celestial Pictures will launch the first ever movie recommendations bot on Facebook, developed by Stashimi. Anyone who clicks the message button on www.facebook.com/shawbrothersuniverse will be greeted with a prompt system that will...
There are plenty of Shaw Brothers films that are based on famous texts, legends, and historical moments from Chinese history and often they are interpreted into an entertaining and cinematic manner for the sake of the silver screen. In the early 70s, iconic director Chang...
Even by 1969, Chang Cheh has established himself as the cornerstone of creative foundations for the Shaw Brothers. He had delivered a handful of dynamic and effective films like The Assassin or Golden Swallow and he was responsible for the next level box office boom...
Rivals of Kung Fu was released in 1974, but because of the way it focuses on story over action, it feels like it could have been made a few years earlier. It is a cause-and-effect story that slowly moves forward on small details and slight...