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Chang Cheh

A collection of 15 posts

A Martial Arts Triple-Feature at the Grand Illusion in Seattle

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Kung Fu Cult Masters

A Martial Arts Triple-Feature at the Grand Illusion in Seattle

The Shaolin Cinematic Universe

The Odd One Dies

The Shaolin Cinematic Universe

This was originally commissioned by the Vulgar Cinema website in July 2014, and was published in December 2015. Then, after that site disappeared, it was revised and republished at Frame.land in May 2019. Now that site too appears to be defunct, so I'm posting it once again

Chang Cheh: Visionary of Death

Chang Cheh: Visionary of Death

“Few in Chinese cinema, or in any other art forms for that matter, dare to ritualize or eulogize death, or see it as the heroic realization and the ultimate expression of life as Chang Cheh did. Death placed on such a lofty height is no longer a tragedy but self-fulfillment

The New One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1971)

The New One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1971)

Even at the warp speed of Hong Kong generic cycles, it’d be weird to remake a movie that came out only four years earlier, so Chang Cheh, in the midst of probably the most frenetic period of production of any great director ever, didn’t remake his smash hit

Chang Cheh Capsule Reviews

Chang Cheh Capsule Reviews

The Magnificent Trio (1966) — November 5, 2017 Chang Cheh’s second wuxia film, and the oldest one to survive. The first, Tiger Boy, was a low-budget black and white film for which he did the choreography himself. By all accounts it has been lost. The Magnificent Trio is in color

Masked Avengers (Chang Cheh, 1981)

Masked Avengers (Chang Cheh, 1981)

Masked Avengers was released in 1981, one of the latest in a series of films directed by Chang Cheh and starring a group of actors and stunt performers generally known as the Venom Mob, after the 1978 film in which they were first gathered, The Five Deadly Venoms. The plot

The Assassin (Chang Cheh, 1967)

The Assassin (Chang Cheh, 1967)

Jimmy Wang Yu starred in five films in 1967, three directed by Chang Cheh. The One-Armed Swordsman of course is a masterpiece and while this one doesn’t have that film’s wild emotional heights or studio-wrought beauty, it does represent a foundation for a couple of major areas Chang

Ten Tigers of Kwangtung (Chang Cheh, 1980)

Ten Tigers of Kwangtung (Chang Cheh, 1980)

Well, there’s actually 15, if you count the five descendants of the Ten Tigers. Which could make this a bit confusing, but Chang Cheh gives us some friendly faces and nicely spaced exposition to emphasize that this is actually a very simple story. In the present, a guy and

The Duel (Chang Cheh, 1971)

The Duel (Chang Cheh, 1971)

Every time someone talks about David Chiang in The Duel (aka The Duel of the Iron Fist), they use his full name: Jiang Nan, “The Rambler”. The film’s other star, Ti Lung (paired with Chiang again and again through the early 1970s) finds himself caught up in an overly

The Heroic Ones (Chang Cheh, 1970)

The Heroic Ones (Chang Cheh, 1970)

A lavish Chang Cheh fable set in the Tang Dynasty (in the late 9th Century) and based more or less on actual historical events. The Empire is in turmoil as an upstart general has rebelled and captured the imperial capital at Chang’an. The Emperor and his advisors call on

Vengeance! (Chang Cheh, 1970)

Vengeance! (Chang Cheh, 1970)

This Chang Cheh thriller provided star-making performances for Ti Lung and David Chiang, actors who had played small supporting roles in some prior Chang films (you can spot them clearly in 1969’s Return of the One-Armed Swordsman) but who Chang gave a big push to in 1970, where Chiang

Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1969)

Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1969)

Chang Cheh’s sequel to his hit 1967 superhero movie finds Jimmy Wang Yu’s hero happily retired to a farm life when he’s asked to join a competition. It seems the top eight local bandits have gathered under one leader and are holding a contest to see who

Five Shaolin Masters and Shaolin Temple (Chang Cheh, 1974 and 1976)

Five Shaolin Masters and Shaolin Temple (Chang Cheh, 1974 and 1976)

Five Shaolin Masters circles back and starts at the beginning of another 1974 Chang Cheh film, Heroes Two, with the destruction of the Shaolin Temple, but then goes off in the other direction. A narrator helpfully informs us that the Chen Kuan-tai character in that film went south and met

Heroes Two (Chang Cheh, 1974)

Heroes Two (Chang Cheh, 1974)

Chang Cheh’s take on the Fong Sai-yuk character has Alexander Fu Sheng playing him as a good-hearted but dim-witted boob who is quite easily gulled into capturing one of the few survivors of the destruction of the Shaolin Temple, Chen Kuan-tai’s Hung Hsi-kuan, and handing him over to

The One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1967)

The One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1967)

Probably not the first superhero origin story movie, or even the first great one, but it’s the earliest one I can think of and it remains one of the best in that now ubiquitous genre. After a bloody prologue, in which a man is killed protecting his master from