The Chi Sha Clan is made up of numerous killers and criminals who all know martial arts. No one knows who their leader is and efforts to stop them have been — up to know — futile. The Imperial Court charges Yang Zhen-Yu (Walter Tso Tat-Wah) with stopping them for good. To do that, he sends Fan Tao (Teng Wei Hao) to go undercover and become a member of the clan in the hopes that he can destroy it from within.

Directed by Sun Chung and written by Ni Kuang, this was a little seen Shaw Brothers film — until now. It doesn’t have the star power of other releases and has a lot of characters that don’t seem all that distinguishable, so maybe that’s why. It has a lot in common with Five Deadly Venoms but doesn’t have the wildness of that movie.

It does, however, have what all Shaw Brothers movies do. Great fights, horrific villains and no small amount of blood being spilled on all sides of the battle. I do love Sun Chung, however, and recommend that if you like his work here, you should track down Avenging Eagle, The Devil’s Mirror and Human Lanterns.

The 88 Films blu ray release of this movie has a slipcase with art by Sean Longmore and four collector’s art cards. I’m really excited that 88 Films has been releasing all of these Shaw Brothers films in the U.S., allowing me to have high quality copies of movies that were either once lost or that I’ve otherwise only seen on battered VHS tapes.

You can get it from MVD.

Frank Sharp (John Ozuna) had to leave America when he was charged with murder after him bouncing a drunk customer ended up with the man dead. He stays in touch with his sister Angie (Jackie Falcon), as his mother (Paloma Morales) is dying in a hospital. Frank’s trying to pay for it by working as a bouncer in Romania. The trouble is, he can’t avoid helping people, like Silvia (Rosmary Yaneva), who is being abused by sexual trafficker Kane (Costas Mandylor). Of course, his boss Carl (Simon Phillips) tries to warn him, but Frank just can’t help himself.

Watching the bad guy slap around a woman and threaten her with a knife is too much, so Frank beats the man into the ground, as well as his bodyguard before taking Silvia and stealing Kane’s car. If this seems like the worst idea ever, well, there wouldn’t be a movie otherwise.

Directed by Massimiliano Cerchi (The Penthouse) and written by Adrian Milnes, this has a cameo from Gerald Okamura, who is probably the best henchman in the history of action movies.

When this has fights happening, this is pretty solid. It takes too much time in between them, but if you grew up renting the levels below Seagal and Van Damme, venturing into the action films of Lundgren, Dudikoff and Rotchrock, then you’ll find a lot to enjoy here. Ozuna has some good moves and there’s a great fight with a hitwoman played by Tayah Kansik that makes up for any time that the movie drags, even if Frank basically chokes her to death while traffic drives by. Maybe life is cheap in Romania.

There’s also a moment where Kane stops two henchmen by basically squeezing their balls into bloody sacks. You have to appreciate that kind of brutality in a hero, even if he’s too dumb to realize that none of his friends are on his side. Or he was, until — as you’d expect — the bad guys kill him.

If this had a box that you were looking at it in a video store, it would let you know that Ozuna was a 2008 Guinness™ World Record Holder for Fastest Martial Arts Punch at 43.3 mph and Most Martial Arts Punches in a Minute of 713. That means that he can throw ten punches a second. More than ten. I can’t even figure that out.

Also: I can’t figure out why the climactic fight starts with stock footage of the sun coming up, but maybe they didn’t have coverage. I also can’t explain why Frank turns his head when someone has a gun on him. Then again, most of Frank’s martial arts concentrate on scrotum decimation, so there’s that, as he wins another fight handily.

This is a decent microbudget brawler. If you like discovering these movies as much as me, you’ll have a fine time.

Director Chun-Ku Lu (Holy Flame of the Martial World) is here to tell us the story of Yun Fei Yang (Norman Chui), an orphan who is given the worst tasks at Wudang, a martial arts school. Every privileged student abuses him, but he remains there, studying and working on his kung fu when he isn’t being treated like trash. There’s a real problem, however, as the rival Wu Di school and their best fighter, Kung Suen Wang (Meng Lo), is coming back to duel the school’s master swordsman Qing Song (Jung Wang) after having already defeated him twice.

Yun Fei Yang also is in love with the daughter — Fang Er (Yeung Jing-Jing) — of the leader of the school, Chief Dugu (Alex Man Chi-Leung), who has left for two years. As Dugu rests as a tavern, he’s attacked by four killers — Wind (Yuen Tak), Thunder (Wong Lik), Rain (Yuen Qiu) and Lightning (Kwan Fung), in case you ever wondered if John Carpenter watched these movies — and is saved by Fu Yu Shu. Yet after he’s attacked a second time, Yun Fei Yang is blamed and the school starts to tear itself to pieces A new master shows up, Fu Yu Xue (Tony Liu), and he soon steals away the school.

Yun Fei Yang starts to train with a stranger — Shen Man Jiun (Chan Si-Gaai) — and begins to master the signature style of the school, the Silkworm, all while running for the law, who thinks that he is a murderer. Yet despite the odds being against this “bastard,” the only way the true Wudang style will live on is through him.

Don’t think that this movie is rooted in our world. After all, Yun Fei Yang soon learns how to spin himself into a cocoon and emerge as a silver armored superhero who can shoot webs and emit blasts of energy. By the end, the final battle takes place inside his cocoon and it ends with the bad guy turned into a skeleton.

Based on a TV series, Reincarnated or The Transformation of the Heavenly Silkworm, this would be followed by a sequel, Return of the Bastard Swordsman.

The Arrow Video Shaw Scope Volume Three box set has a brand new 2K restoration of The Bastard Swordsman as well as commentary by Frank Jeng and a trailer.

You can get this set from MVD.

“Flaming Cloud Devil” Ku Han-hun (Alex Man Chi-leung) has learned the Buddha’s Palm from his master and is challenged by four masters of the Evil Fire God power: “Unpredictable Dashing Ring” Sun Pi-ling (Shaw Yin-yin), “Heavenly Foot” Wai Chein Tien-chun, “Nine Roped Rings” Lui Piao-piao and “Thunderbolt Devil” Pi Li Shen-chun. He’s left for dead and twenty years later, his hiding place is found by Long Jian-fei (Tung Shing Yee), a cocky young fighter who has just been saved by Dameng, a giant flying bearded dragon. Having been trapped in a cave for two decades, Ku Han-hun is a bit insane, but he tells Long that he will teach him his secret art if he gets him the egg of a Golden Dragon. Our hero goes one further and also brings him a dagger that could just be a lightsaber. Pretty good for a guy who starts the movie thrown off a cliff by the new boyfriend of his former girlfriend.

Along the way, Long rescues sword sisters Chu Yu-hua (Yu An-an) and Chu Yu-chan (Hui Ying-hung), angering their master Sun- Pi-ling, who imprisons him. Wai Chein has also gone on to create an army including an acid spitting dwarf.

Based on Palm of a Thousand Buddhas, this is a shot in studio film that has — at times — simple special effects, such as an obvious costume for the dragon. But you know, who cares? It also has neon colors and near psychedelic flourishes as the martial arts skills go beyond punches and kicks and become energy radiating from the hands of the fighters, turning them into superheroes battling caves filled with monsters, looking for mysterious object after object. How can you not love a movie that announces its ripped-off Star Wars weapon with the sound of Vader’s labored breath?

Lieh Lo is awesome in this, a goofball hero who is smarter than he appears and who announces himself every time he shows up, saying “Bi Gu of East Island is here!” Have you ever seen a movie where a magic McGuffin heals the acne of an angry female martial arts master before? Nope. You never will again.

This was Taylor Wong’s second movie but man, he already had some magic.

The Arrow Video Shaw Scope Volume Three box set has a brand new 2K restoration of Buddha’s Palm as well as commentary by critic and translator Dylan Cheung, an alternate English title sequence for Buddha’s Palm as Raiders of the Magic Palm and a trailer.

You can get this set from MVD.

In this movie, director Chih-Hung Kwei is remaking his frequent collaborator Chang Cheh’s The Invincible Fist and telling the tale of “Killer Constable” Leng Tian-Yin (Chen Kuan-tai). He’s been ordered by security chief of the Forbidden City Liu Jing Tian (Cho Tat-wah) — who has been commanded by Manchurian Empress Dowager Cixi — to bring back the five thieves that stole 2 million taels from the Royal Treasury dead or alive. When you’re called the Killer Constable, you never bring them back alive.

Trying to assemble his five best men, Leng learns that not even his brother, Cun Yi (Gam Sai-Yuk) wants to join him. He is tired of the brutal justice that his brother delivers. We witness this as Leng follows the thieves to a watermill and tortures one of them in front of his family. Yet you’re left to wonder if his rough style is warranted when one of his men, Peng Lai (Ai Fei), is rewarded for feeding the starving villagers by being staked and must be killed by Leng to ease his suffering. The thieves also hire Fan Jin-Peng (Jason Pai Piao), a killing master who murders elder constable Ma Zhong (Gam Biu) and injures Leng before being defeated.

Finally, after a battle with the leader of these thieves, Fang Feng-Jia (Ku Feng), and are helped by the intervention of Cun Yu. Leng is almost killed but is nursed back to health by Fang’s blind daughter Xiao Lan (Yau Chui-Ling). When Fang enters his home, instead of fighting, the Constable and he pretend to be friends in front of his daughter. In truth, it was Liu Jing Tian who stole the gold and sent Leng after him, as he knew that no one would survive. Another group of killers attack and Fang sacrifices himself to allow Leng to live, making him promise to care for his daughter. However, the Constable is driven with rage after his brother is killed, so he attacks Liu Jing Tian, killing many of his guards before wiping out the corrupt man. However, a trap also kills Leng, leaving Xiao Lan waiting for a father and protector who never arrives.

Kuei said that, “I simply wanted to depict how insignificant commoners are and how, under totalitarian rule, they turn out to be the victims.” While showing off the violence and combat that one expects from a Shaw Brothers movie, this also goes beyond to show the very real suffering that comes from that same brutality. As the only good person in the film is a blind woman — a scene repeated in The Killer as Ah Jong and Li Ying pretend to be old buddies for the benefit of the sightless Jennie — the moral is simple. The only pureness in this bloody universe can’t witness it.

Kuei was also inspired by another classic film: “I love Dr. Zhivago. In Killer Constable, I want to create a character like Zhivago. Despite his position in the high court, the protagonist is a righteous man. Yet in the corruption and poverty-stricken era at the end of the Qing dynasty, there is not much good he can do on his own. Hence he is deluded by society and lives his life foolishly.”

And yet in America, the most violent country in the world, all of this complexity struggles to be understood, as this played under the exploitation title Karate Exterminators.

Killer Constable was Chih-Hung Kwei’s only period wuxia film. He’d make his mark on many other genres, including women-in-prison (The Bamboo Dolls), modern crime (The Teahouse and its sequel Big Brother Cheng), women in trouble (The Bod Squad), comedy (Rat Catcher) and of course, his many horror films such as The Killer Snakes, Hex and Corpse Mania. In the 1990s, he moved to the United States where he opened a pizza shop. Yes, at one point in our reality, you could order a pizza made by the visionary director of The Boxer’s Omen.

His son, Ming Beaver Kwei, a producer of movies like My Lucky Star and The Meg, said of his father: “He’d bitch about his work every day, never quite satisfied how his work had turned out, or how it was being distributed. He was only ever happy when he knew for a day that a film had worked at the box office, then he’d start worrying again. He’d be so happy to know that his films were getting a second look today.”

The Arrow Video Shaw Scope Volume Three box set has a brand new 2K restoration of Killer Constable as well as three commentary tracks one by film critic and historian Tony Rayns, one by Frank Djeng and another by martial arts cinema expert Brian Bankston; alternate scenes from the South Korean version; an alternate English title sequence and a trailer.

You can get this set from MVD.

Eagle Chief Yoh Xi-Hung (Ku Feng) leads Iron Boat Clan, a gang made up of orphans that he has raised to be his personal army — Eagles — of killers. His toughest “son” is Chik Ming-sing (Ti Lung), who loves combat. After being injured by Golden Spear Tao De-biu, he nearly dies and is nursed back to health by the family of lawman Wang An. Now, Chik Ming-sing sees that the life he has known since he was a child is a lie. He deserves love and to have a family.

Of course, the Iron Boat Clan then kills Wang An and Chik Ming-sing is targeted by them. As he wanders, he meets wrist knife fighting master Cheuk Yi-fan (Alexander Fu), who wants to destroy the Iron Boat Clan for killing his wife and children. He suspects Chik Ming-sing, but they make a good team as they both starts to fight back against the gang. Things take a turn when Chik Ming-sing reveals that he killed a man’s wife years ago — guess who? — and wants to be killed by that man to atone for his crime.

Of course our heroes get their revenge, even if Yoh Xi-Hung attempts to turn them against one another. The end, however, is still surprising and poignant, as our heroes are honor bound and have a path that they must follow. The last fight is astounding and both lead characters are so worthy of a movie on their own. Together, this is perfect.

Directed by Chung Sun, this movie knocked me out. Everyone’s weapons, from Yoh Xi-Hung’s claws and Chik Ming-sing’s staff to Cheuk Yi-fan’s wrist blades are so unique to each character and perfectly used. I can’t wait to watch this again.

This was remade in 1993 as The 13 Cold-Blooded Eagles.

The Arrow Video Shaw Scope Volume Three box set has a brand new 2K restoration of The Avenging Eagle as well as commentary by Frank Djeng, an English title sequence and a trailer.

You can get this set from MVD.