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Shaw Brothers in 1971
After a few quiet years atop the box office Shaw Brothers had a tumultuous time in 1971. The year overturned the studio and became one of the most important in the studio’s entire history, and maybe one of the most important years in Hong Kong film.
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The Human Goddess
In the early 1970s there seems to have been a brief surge in ‘fox spirit’ movies. Li Han-hsiang may have kicked things off with A Tale of Ghost and Fox (which, sadly, seems to be entirely lost), and a few more followed (The Black Fox, Come Haunt with Me, etc.). I’m hedging my words here because fox spirit movies are a recurring genre in Hong Kong and Taiwan, so these movies may have just happened to come out around the same time.
more...The Angry Guest
Chang Cheh, pleased with how much of Duel of Fists’ runtime he filled with shots of driving cars, really tries to outdo himself in this sequel. There’s a chunk of my notes that reads “Driving montage. More driving. Fucking hell more driving. Yep, more driving.” There’s a bit where a car stops at a stop light and we watch the pedestrians cross the screen for about 20 seconds before we watch the light turn green and the car continue on. That’s cinema.
more...The Boxer From Shantung
The first co-direction collaboration between Chang Cheh and Pao Hsueh-Li. They would end up doing five more after this. And the first of Chang Cheh’s eight films to be released in 1972.
more...The Black Enforcer
A bit of a Franken-movie clearly stitched together from two different shoots with two different casts. Initially a lot of this was shot in South Korea during the winter of 1969 using a cast made up of Shaw and South Korean stars. But at some point the lead actress Chin Ping suddenly retired from filmmaking with the movie only partly complete.
more...The Champion of Champions
It’s difficult to know exactly where to start with this one. First, probably, is that this film is currently only available in a 4:3 cropped VHS rip with subtitles that struggle to remain legible. It’s not the worst quality rip I’ve ever watched, but it definitely impacted the film’s comprehensibility. So take that into account.
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