Furious Swords and Fantastic Warriors: the Heroic Cinema of Chang Cheh (18) |Home Ents Review

A five-disc, ten movie boxed set that highlights the range of one of the most prolific and accomplished directors ever to emerge from the Hong Kong film industry. 

Distinguished by his penchant for bloodshed and a thematic concentration on the bonds of brotherhood and masculine sacrifice, Chang Cheh is often hailed as the “Godfather of Hong Kong cinema”. He enjoyed a career spanning six decades and worked in a multitude of genres, from Chinese opera to kung fu films via wuxia pian, historical epics and tales of folklore and the supernatural.

Presented here are ten films that reveal the range and versatility of Chang’s career as a filmmaker at Shaw Brothers, the numero uno Hong Kong film production company. 

It is fair to say that some of these films are merely competent exercises in genre. Others are better than that, deploying imaginative uses of frame space and resolutely epic or multi-strand storytelling. For me, the highlights are King Eagle, Trail of the Broken Blade and Iron Bodyguard. The first two of these are heroic stories where you really feel a sense of heroism and sacrifice. Iron Bodyguard is the fictionalised account of an historical period of reform and violent counter-revolution – which reflects Hong Kong’s own conflicted position with regard to China and Britain. 

The films are: 

Disc 1: Men from the Monastery / Shaolin Martial Arts

Disc 2: King Eagle / Iron Bodyguard

Disc 3: Fantastic Magic Baby / The Weird Man

Disc 4: Trail of the Broken Blade / Wandering Swordsman

Disc 5: Trilogy of Swordsmanship / New Shaolin Boxers