Blog Archives

The Wuxia Stories: Heroes of Ancient China (DVD box set) (1970)

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Posted on February 10, 2008 by Justin

Now that Siren have a large catalogue of releases from the celebrated Shaw Brothers studio in Hong Kong, they’ve started boxing them up into box sets, all the better to tempt you with. Wuxia Stories is the first one, showcasing five films from Shaws’ prolific swordplay director Chu Yuen and one from Cheng Kang, father of action director Ching Siu Tung.

For those readers who aren’t aware of it, wuxia refers to a particular genre of Chinese film and literature, … (read more)

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The Way of the Dragon (1972)

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Posted on July 23, 2006 by Justin

Way Of the Dragon was Bruce Lee’s directorial debut, after making The Big Boss and Fist of Fury with director Lo Wei. I’ve never been that much of a fan of Lo Wei’s direction, and it is interesting to see how this film differs under Bruce’s complete control.

As the film starts, the most obvious change is Bruce’s infusion of comedy into the mix. Gone is the tightly-coiled sombre hero of Fist of Fury: here he plays Tang Lung, … (read more)

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Clans of Intrigue (1977)

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Posted on January 29, 2006 by Justin

Clans of Intrigue is a later (1977) wuxia/swordplay film from a specialist in this genre, Chu Yuan. And he was a specialist — according to the documentary on the disc, he was generally making seven or eight films at once at any given time for Shaw Brothers, and I can count at least thirty wuxia/swordplay films in his filmography from the mid-seventies to mid-eighties. A large number of these were adaptations from the work of novelist Ku Lung, and this … (read more)

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Fist of Fury (1972)

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Posted on November 25, 2005 by Justin

Fist of Fury was Bruce Lee’s second film in Hong Kong, after The Big Boss made him a superstar across Asia. It’s a much bigger film, shot with a larger budget and higher production values by the same director, Lo Wei. It follows the story of fictional character Chen Zhen, a junior student at the Jing Mo school run by real-life martial arts master Fok Yun Gap (Ho Yuan-chia in Mandarin). It’s been remade and referenced many, many times since … (read more)

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