The Shaw Brothers made over 1000 films before they left the film industry in 1987 to concentrate on television production. They resumed film production in 2009. The Shaw Brothers are best known in the west for Shaw Brothers martial arts films. The Shaw Brothers included Runje, Runme, and Runde and Run Run Shaw. This article covers Shaw Brothers martial arts films 1966-1967.
Editors note: The Shaw Brothers Martial Arts Film Project is a work in progress.
Shaw Brothers Martial Arts Films 1968
Shaw Brothers martial arts films 1966-1967
Temple of the Red Lotus (1965) [Jiang hu qi xia]
In Temple of the Red Lotus (1965), Yu Wang plays Kan Lien Chu, a youth who travels to Dragon Valley to meet a childhood friend who was promised as his bride. After arriving, he discovers that the family of the bride might not be an entirely honest. What is the story behind their feud with the monks at the Temple Of The Red Lotus, for a start? Read More
Director: Teng Hung Hsu [as Jang-Hung Siu]
Writers: Buxiaosheng Pingjiang (original story), Chiang Shen (screenplay)
Stars: Ping Chin, Jimmy Wang Yu, Bo-Bo Fung, Ivy Ling Po
The Twin Swords (1965) [Yuan yang jian xia]
The must see sequel to Temple of the Red Lotus (1965), The Twin Swords (1965) is about a couple, Gui Xiaowu and Gan Lianzhu, who are secretly eloping when they discover that women are being captured. They set off to help, but fall into a series of traps set by the Red Lotus Clan. When Lianzhu is captured, Xiaowu must return home to face Lianzhu’s father so he can get help from the rest of the Gan family – which is what the Red Lotus Clan had planned all along. Read More
Director: Teng Hung Hsu (as Sui Jang Hung)
Writers: Buxiaosheng Pingjiang (original story), Chiang Shen
Stars: Ping Chin, Yu Wang, Bo-Bo Fung, Lieh Lo, Ivy Ling Po
Come Drink With Me (1966) [Da zui xia]
Come Drink With Me is based on a Beijing Opera entitled The Drunken Beggar. A group of bandits kidnaps the governor’s son and demands their imprisoned leader to be set free in exchange. Read More
Director: King Hu (as King Chuan)
Writers: King Hu (as King Chuan), Shan-Hsi Ting (as Ye Yang)
Stars: Pei-Pei Cheng, Hua Yueh, Chih-Ching Yang
The Knight of Knights (1966) [Wen Suchen]
The Knight of Knights (1966) takes place during the Ming Dynasty in China where King Jing enters into an agreement with Imperial Eunuch Pei to increase Jing’s power and influence in southern China. King Jing has the ultimate goal of usurping the power of the Emperor. To make sure this happens, King Jing enlists the aid of bandits led by Minkong as well as Governor Wang, the Governor of the southern province of Haimin. Read More
Director: Chun Hsieh
Writer: Cheh Chang
Stars: Chuang Chiao, Lily Ho, Ching Lee, Lei Cheng, Liang Hua Liu
The Magnificent Trio (1966) [Bian cheng san xia]
The Magnificent Trio (1966) takes place during the late Ming Dynasty. A heroic swordsman named Lu Fang (Jimmy Wang Yu) returns home from battle to discover that several poor farmers have kidnapped a ruthless local magistrate’s only daughter in an attempt to force the magistrate to stop making them pay extremely high taxes causing them to live in abject povery. On top of the high rate of taxation, the magistrate has held back an important petition created by the towns people that should have been given to the Magistrate’s superiors. Lu Fang decides to join their cause and help the towns people.
The magistrate is unable to get his daughter, so he hires bandits, assassins, and another fighter named Huang Liang (Cheng Lui) to get his daughter back. Huang Liang quickly recognizes Lu Fang from past battles on the frontier and joins Lu Fang in fighting the bandits and assassins.
The standoff comes to an abrupt end when the magistrate threatens the life of one of the farmer’s daughters. Lu Fang convinces the magistrate to punish him in place of the farmers. Then Lu finds out that he has been lied to. The magistrate’s daughter (Chin Ping) and a peerless fighter (Lo Lieh), along with Huang, help Lu Fang to escape and recover the petition. Finally, our heroes make sure that the petition will get to a higher-ranking official so that the town’s suffering, starvation, and unfair taxation can end.
Director: Cheh Chang
Writer: Cheh Chang
Stars: Ping Chin, Margaret Tu Chuan, Fanny Fan, Jimmy Wang Yu
That Man In Chang-An (1967) [Meng mian da xia]
That Man In Chang-An (1967) is a romantic Han Dynasty adventure epic about a dying Emperor, an Evil Queen, a beautiful Princess, a dastardly royal nephew, and a masked hero, with plots and counter-plots galore, complete with cliffhangers and last-second rescues.
Director: Chun Yen
Writer: Shan-Hsi Ting (screenplay) (as Yang Erh)
Stars: Jin Kyu Kim, Yin Fang, No-shik Park
No Video Trailer Available
The Assassin (1967) [Da ci ke]
In The Assassin (1967), a famed swordsman is forced to go into hiding after his school is destroyed by rivals.
Director: Cheh Chang
Writers: Cheh Chang, Kuang Ni
Stars: Yu Wang, Chiao Chiao, Hsiang Chun Li
King Cat (1967) [Qi xia wu yi]
King Cat (1967) takes place during the Song dynasty. After the upright prefect Bao Zheng executed Pang Yu for embezzlement, the grand tutor Pang Ji sent assassins to avenge his son’s death. A chivalrous man, Zhan Zhao the “Southern Hero”, saved Bao and was conferred the title “King Cat” by the emperor. This title invoked the jealousy and anger of Bai Yutang the “Brocade-Coated Rat” – as rats were considered cat food – who went to the capital Kaifeng (also known as Bianjing) to challenge Zhan.
Director: Teng Hung Hsu
Writers: Yu-Kun Shi (story), Shan-Hsi Ting (screenplay)
Stars: Pat Ting Hung, Chuang Chiao, Yi Chang
The One-Armed Swordsman (1967) [Du bei dao]
In The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), a noble swordsman, whose arm had been chopped off, returns to his former teacher to defend him from a villainous gang of rival swordsmen.
Director: Cheh Chang
Writers: Cheh Chang, Kuang Ni
Stars: Yu Wang, Chiao Chiao, Chung-Hsin Huang
Rape of the Sword (1967) [Dao jian]
In Rape of the Sword (1967) an experienced heroine, Li Li-Hua, plays a swords-woman out to reclaim her murdered husband’s “Green Sword,” the sharpest blade in the world. Li Li-hua’s student, (Li Ching) must take up the fight when her teacher falters.
Director: Feng Yueh (as Griffin Yueh Fung)
Writer: Po Yi Wang
Stars: Li Hua Li, Ching Lee, Chuang Chiao
No Video Trailer Available
The Silent Swordsman (1967) [Ru xia]
In The Silent Swordsman, a young swordsman takes on the leadership of a patriotic secret society whose task it is to fight a traitorous general who is conspiring with the enemy to invade their country. In due course, he meets two pretty sisters from a rural tribe and is caught between the affections of the two girls.
Director: Li Kao
Writer: Chun Yuan (screenplay)
Stars: Yi Chang, Jeanette Yu Wei, Pei-Pei Shu
The Sword and the Lute (1967) [Qin jian en chou]
The Sword & the Lute (1967) is the third film in a trilogy preceded by The Temple of the Red Lotus (1965 Jiang hu qi xia) and The Twin Swords (1965 Yuan yang jian xia), although each film can stand alone.
Director: Teng Hung Hsu
Writers: Buxiaosheng Pingjiang (original story), Chiang Shen (screenplay)
Stars: Yu Wang, Ping Chin, Margaret Hsing Hui
The Thundering Sword (1967) Shen jian zhen jiang hu (1967)
In The Thundering Sword (1967) a clan sends out two of their members (Lo Lieh and Chang Yi) to retrieve a powerful sword to prevent its misuse. Along the way they encounter a skilled swords-woman who is also after the sword (Cheng Pei-pei). A complex love tragedy develops when she falls in love with one of the men and thoughtlessly wounds the other. Though the sword is found it becomes secondary to the love story and the guilt of the woman over her hasty and violent actions towards her lovers clan.
Director: Teng Hung Hsu
Writer: Chiang Shen
Stars: Pei-Pei Cheng, Yi Chang, Pei-Pei Shu
Trail of the Broken Blade (1967) Duan chang jian (1967)
In Trail of the Broken Blade (1967), a young aristocratic knight Li Yueh renounces his sword, identity and the woman he loves after going on the lam for assassinating a corrupt official responsible for his father’s demise. While living incognito as a lowly stable-hand in a country tavern, Li’s past catches up with him when he meets by chance Fang Chun Chao, a platonic benefactor of Li’s betrothed whom he assists to reunite with Li. Meanwhile Fang himself is trailed by his own sworn enemies, the Tu clan of Flying Fish Island who would all converge to Li’s sanctuary and is forced out from his undercover existence and back to the way of the blade.
Director: Cheh Chang
Writer: Cheh Chang (screenplay)
Stars: Jimmy Wang Yu, Ping Chin, Chuang Chiao
Shaw Brothers Martial Arts Films 1968
Editors note: The Shaw Brothers Martial Arts Film Project is a work in progress.
