Exploitation films

Bamboo House of Dolls

Shaw Brothers takes on the WIP film. As strange a combination as it sounds.

Human Lanterns

A Shaw wuxia that turns into a slasher, with lanterns made of human skin.

TNT Jackson

Cirio Santiago's Manila blaxploitation at full tilt, remembered for one fight staged in the dark.

Crippled Avengers

Four men maimed by a tyrant learn to fight through their disabilities. Chang Cheh at his most inventive.

Five Element Ninjas

Chang Cheh spills more guts here than in any Shaw film before it, and grins the whole way.

They Call Her... Cleopatra Wong

The girls-with-guns spy picture Tarantino keeps name-checking, and rightly.

Dirty Ho

A prince and a thief, master and pupil in disguise. Lau Kar-leung's wittiest choreography.

Executioners from Shaolin

Lau Kar-leung's revenge epic. A survivor spends years learning the one style that can beat the villain.

The Chinese Boxer

Jimmy Wang Yu invents the empty-hand kung fu film. No swords.

Heroes of the East

Chinese kung fu versus Japanese martial arts, as a marriage. Lau Kar-leung's most good-natured film.

The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter

Lau Kar-leung's brutal last great Shaw film. A massacred family, and pole fighting as grief.

The Street Fighter

Sonny Chiba tearing people apart. First film rated X in America for violence alone.

Black Belt Jones

Jim Kelly karate-chops the mob to save a Watts dojo. Blaxploitation meets kung fu, joyfully.

Five Deadly Venoms

Chang Cheh's oddest. Five styles, five masks, one whodunit.

Five Fingers of Death

The one that broke kung fu in America, months before Bruce Lee did.

Master of the Flying Guillotine

A blind monk, a bladed hat on a chain, and a tournament. Perfect.

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky

A live-action gore manga where nobody has heard of restraint or arterial pressure.

The Man from Hong Kong

Jimmy Wang Yu wrecks Sydney, with hang-gliding and a man actually on fire. Peak crossover.

The One-Armed Swordsman

The film that made Shaw Brothers switch to male leads and stay there.

A Touch of Zen

Three hours, a bamboo forest, and a Cannes prize. Barely exploitation.

Come Drink with Me

King Hu, Cheng Pei-pei, and the template for every wuxia since.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

The best training film ever made. Lau Kar-leung at the peak.

Drunken Master

Jackie Chan finds the formula: comedy, pain, and visible competence.

Game of Death

The film Bruce Lee left unfinished, completed with a double, a cardboard cut-out, and his real funeral.

Fist of Fury

Bruce Lee kicks a 'No Dogs and Chinese' sign to splinters. The crowd never recovered.

The Big Boss

Lee's first lead, and the star arrives fully formed.

Enter the Dragon

Lee died six days before release. The mirror room still works.