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Mainland born Lo Wei was an actor whose film career flourished after migrating to Hong Kong. After directing “The Black Butterfly” for Shaw Brothers, he followed it up with “Death Valley” starring the same pair of male leads. He is best known as the director who launched the kung fu film careers of Bruce Lee in “The Big Boss” and “Fist of Fury” and also Jackie Chan in “New Fist of Fury”.

Master Chao Yun Yang (Lo Wei) of the Chao Manor in Death Valley is getting old and thinking of retiring. Since he has no children, he wants to give everything he owns to his nephew Chao Yu Lung (Yueh Hua), a righteous swordsman who wields a pair of deadly short swords. Before the opening credits roll, we see him easily dispatching a group of bandits and he even pays for their burial. Furthermore, he also picks up a cowardly lone traveler,...

In 1985, Jackie Chan grabbed an umbrella and ran towards a moving bus. Here’s how Police Story changed action cinema forever.

There had never been an action scene quite like the one that appeared in the first few minutes of 1985’s Police Story. Jackie Chan’s plucky cop, in dogged pursuit of crime boss Chu Tao (Chor Yuen) engages in a wildly destructive car chase through a hillside shanty town, demolishing rickety buildings and detonating gas bottles in his wake. When Tao and his goons then make their escape on a stolen bus, Chan’s Sergeant Kevin hooks onto the back with the help of an umbrella, his body flung to and fro as the vehicle lumbers through traffic.

The scene is brilliant not just because Chan’s risking his neck by doing his own stunts. It’s not just brilliant on a technical level (the planning that went into...

For many around the world, there’s one name at the top of the action totem pole: Jackie Chan, and today marks his 70th birthday.

If you only know him as a goofy martial arts comedian from the Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon series, then consider this a wake up call. Because when Jackie did things His way on his home turf, he churned out some of the best action movies you’ll ever see.

Many would point to Drunken Master II as Jackie’s magnum opus. Fair enough, that is an all-timer, but for an example of his best modern day martial arts action, mixed in with some crime drama and his signature comedy, one of his absolute best outings is 1985’s Police Story.

In the 1970s, Jackie Chan soared to fame internationally once he was finally able to break out of the shadow of Bruce Lee. When Chan...

Vintage martial arts film fans rejoice as the 70s classic, The Shaolin Plot, is set for a 2K restoration release on Blu-ray. The Mvd Entertainment Group has just released a trailer for Arrow Video’s new physical copy release of the Sammo Hung film. The Shaolin Plot comes from director Huang Feng (director of Lady Whirlwind & When Taekwando Strikes), the father of modern Kung Fu films and a mentor to John Woo (Face/Off) and Stanley Tong (Rumble in the Bronx). The cast features Sammo Hung, James Tien and Cassanova Wong.

The release details read,

“In 1977, fight choreographer Sammo Hung made one last film under his mentor, director Huang Feng before graduating to the director’s chair himself with The Iron-Fisted Monk. That film was the rarely-seen martial arts ensemble thriller The Shaolin Plot, which sees the pair reunite with Hong Kong heavy Chan Sing (New Fist of Fury). Prince...

Whether you’ve heard the term or not, chances are you’ve seen an exploitation film somewhere in the wild. From sharksploitation megahits like Sharknado, to culture-defining classics like ozploitation’s original Mad Max, or carsploitation’s Death Race 2000, the quality of these carefully marketed mockbusters – built entirely around audience trends with huge, eye-catchingly stupid titles – has always been up for debate. But it’s rare there’s a moral dimension too; after all, no one owns the copyright on cars or sharks or post-apocalyptic bikers. It’s a little different when the genre being exploited though, is an actual person.

Bruce Lee is arguably the most famous and accomplished martial arts performer that’s ever lived. Despite a tragically truncated filmography, cut short at just four features, by his sudden death in 1973, he had co-birthed the entire kung-fu genre, which continues to live and thrive half a century on.

A couple of days into the new month and we've still got time to let you know what is coming to the Arrow Video Player in August.    Subscribers will get two currated selections from League of Gentlemen's Reece Shearsmith and filmmaker Roger Avery. There is the classic Jackie Chan flick New Fist of Fury. It is the action icon's first leading role, from the original film's director Lo Wei.    Arrow Offers Classic and Cutting Edge Cult Cinema   August 2023 Lineup Includes a Lost German Gem, Reece Shearsmith Selects, Revenge, Paul Joyce Docs and More!   August 2023 Seasons:   Revengeamatics, Reece Shearsmith Selects, Access All Areas: The Documentaries of Paul Joyce, Renegade Cops, Roger Avary Selects, This is Torture!   Arrow Video is...

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Having worked with Bruce Lee on “The Big Boss” and “Fist of Fury” was one of the great achievements in the career of Hong Kong director Lo Wei, as it propelled the actor’s reputation as well as the filmmaker’s. However, while shooting the latter, he also collaborated with one of the future stars of the martial-arts-genre, as Jackie Chan did some of the stunts on “Fist of Fury” and left quite an impression with Wei who followed his career, until he was certain Chan could be the next star on the horizon. Since he also saw something of the charisma and talent of Lee in Chan, it was perhaps logical to make him star in “New Fist of Fury”, a somewhat loose sequel to the 1972 original. While it is not on the same level as the former, it has a few qualities worth mentioning, especially in the second half,...

In 1978, Yuen Woo Ping and Jackie Chan sent shockwaves through the martial arts movie industry with Drunken Master. Up until this point, Chan had been starring in low budget films for director Lo Wei and, like many other performers, often been forced into the box of trying to be ‘the new Bruce Lee’ (most nakedly with New Fist of Fury). Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow had hinted at how this new collaboration with Yuen Woo Ping would allow Chan to be himself, and it made him a star. Drunken Master made him a phenomenon, and suddenly it was the film that the industry was trying to replicate.

Sammo Hung had been a director in his own right since 1977’s Iron Fisted Monk, and working at a furious pace, and it’s not hard to imagine some jealousy at how his younger kung fu brother had suddenly somewhat eclipsed him being the fuel for Knockabout,...

Robert P. O’Brien is an American self-taught artist/illustrator that works in various mediums, creates shirt designs for 36styles.com and helps run the Kung Fu Fandom Forum hosted by that site. Nicknamed “Kung Fu Bob” because of his love of that cinema genre, in recent years he has created a lot of new, original artwork for DVD and Blu-ray film releases, in addition to book and CD cover art. In 2020 he recorded his first audio commentary for 88 Films’ release of Jet Li’s The Master and also joined Hong Kong cinema expert Brandon Bentley for a commentary on 88’s Blu-ray for New Fist Of Fury.

We speak with him about how he begun martial arts, drawing how he combines the two, the procedure he follows every time he deals with an artwork, his work with 88 Films, Midori Implus and Arrow, and many other topics.

How did...