Lau Kar-leung - The Chinese Cinema

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Lau Kar-leung

A collection of 14 posts

Drunken Master II (Jackie Chan & Lau Kar-leung, 1994)

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Drunken Master II (Jackie Chan & Lau Kar-leung, 1994)

Evil Cat (Dennis Yu, 1987) and The Cat (Lam Nai-choi, 1992)

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The Spooky Bunch

Evil Cat (Dennis Yu, 1987) and The Cat (Lam Nai-choi, 1992)

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

Glory to the Fat Dragon!

Glory to the Fat Dragon!

Since today is Sammo Hung's birthday, I figure it's a good time to repost this look at his career, originally posted on the now-defunct website Frame.land back in the summer of 2017. There were originally several video clips interspersed throughout the essay, but they

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

The Bare-Footed Kid (Johnnie To, 1993)

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The Bare-Footed Kid (Johnnie To, 1993)

The Tiger on the Beat Series (Lau Kar-leung, 1988 & 1990)

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The Tiger on the Beat Series (Lau Kar-leung, 1988 & 1990)

Lau Kar-leung Capsule Reviews

Lau Kar-leung Capsule Reviews

Challenge of the Masters (1976) — June 30, 2013 Gordon Liu as a young Wong Fei-hung, an origin story for kung fu cinema’s greatest folk hero. Lau Kar-leung plays the villain, as scared and desperate as he is merciless and dishonorable. The true climax though is a philosophical

Martial Club (Lau Kar-leung, 1981)

Martial Club (Lau Kar-leung, 1981)

In the prologue to this 1981 film, Lau Kar-leung himself comes on stage to tell us about some of the unwritten rules of lion-dancing, the ways one dancer can offend another and thus incite a brawl (blinking your eyes, lifting a leg, sniffing the other lion’s butt)

The Aces Go Places Series (1982-1989)

The Odd One Dies

The Aces Go Places Series (1982-1989)

Aces Go Places (Eric Tsang, 1982) — November 20, 2013 The first of the smash hit action/comedy series that was one of the first big successes of the Cinema City studio that dominated 80s Hong Kong. Pioneering Cantopop star Sam Hui plays a master jewel thief who helps a bumbling

The Spiritual Boxer (Lau Kar-leung, 1975)

The Spiritual Boxer (Lau Kar-leung, 1975)

The most interesting thing about this, Lau Kar-leung’s first film as a director after a distinguished career as action choreographer and stunt man, is the prologue, which takes a sidelong glance at the Boxer Rebellion, in which groups of disaffected Chinese men, apparently convinced that through rigorous kung

Dirty Ho (Lau Kar-leung, 1979)

Dirty Ho (Lau Kar-leung, 1979)

A twist on the master-student narrative, where the student, a petty thief and scoundrel (‘Dirty’ Ho Jen, played by Wang Yue) has to be tricked into following the master (Gordon Liu), who himself turns out to be a Manchurian prince. The Manchus are almost always the villains in these

Mad Monkey Kung Fu (Lau Kar-leung, 1979)

Mad Monkey Kung Fu (Lau Kar-leung, 1979)

If I had to pick a favorite Shaw Brothers director, and thankfully I don’t, Lau Kar-leung would be my choice. His visual style isn’t particularly innovative or beautiful, and he doesn’t bring the raw, anguished physicality that distinguishes the work of Chang Cheh, or the sense

Executioners from Shaolin (Lau Kar-leung, 1977)

Executioners from Shaolin (Lau Kar-leung, 1977)

The anti-Qing struggle and the destruction of the Shaolin Temple is a common narrative backdrop in kung fu movies. Respectively, they’re kind of akin to the role the Civil War and Little Big Horn play in American Westerns. The Temple story is a subset of the larger Qing-