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...
As I mentioned in my post about Teenage Dreamers, I'm a huge fan of Hong Kong delinquent youth films. When On the Wrong Track began with Andy Lau's face superimposed over slow-motion fire and crashing cars, I was instantly reminded of the 1973 Chang Cheh/Kuei...
The Celestial Pictures' EXCLUSIVE interview with Shaw Brothers Superstar, Lo Meng, is now LIVE on our YouTube. Watch and Subscribe now! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLevffY6p5VkpDkXpsmIqpIb--zSu7f3Us ...
Teenage Dreamers is a charming example of the Hong Kong youth film, a genre that has endeared itself to me over the years. Films about youth are common around the globe (we are all human, after all), but the movies out of Hong Kong have...
Hong Kong horror might be known, mostly, for its insane and scattered uses of homages and styles of popular horror films from other countries. Those splatter films like Seeding of a Ghost or even the more cohesive Black Magic films might be the better-known films...
For the most part, Shaw Brothers horror films are usually enjoyed for the sheer outrageousness that they encompass. The focus of the Shaw Brothers studio when it came to films was their ability to make money in theaters and through their horror films they could...
Ti Lung and kickboxing are the common threads in Duel of Fists and Destiny’s Champion. The protagonists in each could not be more different but both movies deal with the role of fighting in shaping or revealing character. And at the heart of each film...
Any self-respecting fan of black magic films owes it to themselves to check out the film that spawned countless imitators and an entire sub-genre of Hong Kong horror films: Ho Meng-Hua's Black Magic. The dark arts show up here and there in earlier films, such as the incredible 1972 Sun...
Today is Alexander Fu Sheng’s birthday. Star of films like the Brave Archer Series and My Rebellious Son, he tragically died in a car accident in 1983 while filming Eight Diagram Pole Fighter. Today I wanted to pick a film to help celebrate his career....