Enter the Dragon
1973 · USA · 98m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyLee died six days before release. The mirror room still works.
Martial arts
1966–1985 · 27 films catalogued
Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest, and the grindhouse circuit that dubbed all of it badly.
Hong Kong martial arts cinema, and the Western exploitation circuit that imported it.
The studios
Shaw Brothers ran an actual studio system out of Clearwater Bay: contract players, standing sets, and a production line that turned out hundreds of films. Chang Cheh made the violent ones, Lau Kar-leung made the technically serious ones, and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) is the best training film ever made.
Golden Harvest broke away in 1970 and signed Bruce Lee, which decided the next decade.
How it reached the West
Through the grindhouse and the drive-in, usually in prints dubbed carelessly and retitled twice. American distributors cut them, rescored them, and sold them alongside blaxploitation on double bills, which is how Enter the Dragon and Black Belt Jones ended up sharing an audience.
Bruceploitation
Bruce Lee died in 1973 with an unfinished film. The industry responded by hiring lookalikes named Bruce Li, Bruce Le and Dragon Lee and making dozens of films with them, including several in which Lee's death is a plot point. It is one of the strangest episodes in film history.
Where to start
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, then Five Deadly Venoms for how odd Chang Cheh got.
Martial arts films on file
All 27 Martial arts films →
Fist of Fury
1972 · Hong Kong · 115m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyBruce Lee kicks a 'No Dogs and Chinese' sign to splinters. The crowd never recovered.
The Big Boss
1971 · Hong Kong/Thailand · 110m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyLee's first lead, and the star arrives fully formed.
Game of Death
1978 · Hong Kong/USA · 92m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyThe film Bruce Lee left unfinished, completed with a double, a cardboard cut-out, and his real funeral.
Drunken Master
1978 · Hong Kong · 110m
Obscurity: canon. watchable legallyJackie Chan finds the formula: comedy, pain, and visible competence.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
1978 · Hong Kong · 111m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyThe best training film ever made. Lau Kar-leung at the peak.
Come Drink with Me
1966 · Hong Kong · 91m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyKing Hu, Cheng Pei-pei, and the template for every wuxia since.
A Touch of Zen
1971 · Taiwan/Hong Kong · 200m
Obscurity: known. watchable legallyThree hours, a bamboo forest, and a Cannes prize. Barely exploitation.
The One-Armed Swordsman
1967 · Hong Kong · 115m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyThe film that made Shaw Brothers switch to male leads and stay there.
Five Fingers of Death
1972 · Hong Kong · 116m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyThe one that broke kung fu in America, months before Bruce Lee did.
Master of the Flying Guillotine
1976 · Hong Kong · 93m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyA blind monk, a bladed hat on a chain, and a tournament. Perfect.
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
1991 · Hong Kong · 91m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyA live-action gore manga where nobody has heard of restraint or arterial pressure.
The Man from Hong Kong
1975 · Australia/Hong Kong · 106m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyJimmy Wang Yu wrecks Sydney, with hang-gliding and a man actually on fire. Peak crossover.
Black Belt Jones
1974 · USA · 87m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyJim Kelly karate-chops the mob to save a Watts dojo. Blaxploitation meets kung fu, joyfully.
Five Deadly Venoms
1978 · Hong Kong · 101m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyChang Cheh's oddest. Five styles, five masks, one whodunit.
Heroes of the East
1978 · Hong Kong · 105m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyChinese kung fu versus Japanese martial arts, as a marriage. Lau Kar-leung's most good-natured film.
The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter
1984 · Hong Kong · 98m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyLau Kar-leung's brutal last great Shaw film. A massacred family, and pole fighting as grief.
The Street Fighter
1974 · Japan · 91m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallySonny Chiba tearing people apart. First film rated X in America for violence alone.
Executioners from Shaolin
1977 · Hong Kong · 98m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyLau Kar-leung's revenge epic. A survivor spends years learning the one style that can beat the villain.
The Chinese Boxer
1970 · Hong Kong · 87m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyJimmy Wang Yu invents the empty-hand kung fu film. No swords.
Dirty Ho
1979 · Hong Kong · 103m
Obscurity: cult. watchable legallyA prince and a thief, master and pupil in disguise. Lau Kar-leung's wittiest choreography.
Crippled Avengers
1978 · Hong Kong · 99m
Obscurity: obscure. watchable legallyFour men maimed by a tyrant learn to fight through their disabilities. Chang Cheh at his most inventive.
Five Element Ninjas
1982 · Hong Kong/Hong Kong · 107m
Obscurity: obscure. watchable legallyChang Cheh spills more guts here than in any Shaw film before it, and grins the whole way.
They Call Her... Cleopatra Wong
1978 · Singapore · 110m
Obscurity: obscure. watchable legallyThe girls-with-guns spy picture Tarantino keeps name-checking, and rightly.