Latest Reviews
The Deadly Duo
A fairly shameless copy & paste of The Rescue, with all of that film’s complicated plotting replaced by Chang Cheh-core speeches about how honorable it is to die for a cause and many, many shots of dudes putting those speeches into action by being impaled.
more...The Oath of Death
Pao Hsueh-Li becomes the 9th, and final, new Shaw Brothers director of 1971. Of those 9, only 3 (Pao, Chor Yuen and Chang Tseng-Chai) would stay for long. Pao had been with Shaw Brothers for about 4 years by this point, working as a cinematographer. Before that he worked in Taiwan shooting Hokkien films, including an early film for Joseph Kuo.
more...Come Haunt With Me
Sit Kwan is a bit of a mystery. Online sources provide almost no biographical details beyond the basics: born in China, moved to Hong Kong after the war, worked in Cantonese film in the 1950s and early 60s, joined Shaw Brothers in 1964, left Shaw Brothers in 1971, retired shortly there after. The Shaw Screen barely mentions him at all, saying only that his film The Knight of Knights didn’t make much money.
more...Sunset
Similar to previous entries in Shaw’s “tragic love” genre like A Place to Call Home and The Younger Generation it’s tempting to read the confusing mishmash of tones in Sunset as commentary, as if we’re supposed to draw some sort of deeper meaning from the whiplash between scenes of frothy youth romance and tragic death.
more...Duel for Gold
Lo Wei closed a door and Chor Yuen opened a window. Just a week ago Shaw Brothers had released the last of their movies directed by the prolific Lo Wei. And now, seemingly from out of the blue, here’s Chor Yuen to pick up Lo Wei’s role as Shaw’s standard bearer for wild wuxia action.
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