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Within the realm of martial arts, few directors enjoy the same cult status as Joseph Kuo. Thanks to his presence in pop culture, in music as well as other features, his features from the 1970s remain popular and will certainly be watched by new generations of cinephiles due to their presence in home cinema. However, to fully appreciate what Kuo has given martial arts cinema, it is worth taking a look at some of his features in closer detail, in this case his 1977 effort “7 Grandmasters”. While you might argue the plot is nothing to write home about, the fight sequences and the obsession with physicality, technique and status is an aspect which is quite fascinating and may add to the feature's cult status.

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

For a long time, Sang Kuan Chun (Jack Long) has been a renowned master in martial arts among his peers.

After the commercial success of wuxia-titles such as “Dragon Inn”, it was obvious there was an audience for swordplay and high drama. Many directors jumped on the trend, with many features being truly extraordinary and many rightfully forgotten, with Joseph Kuo's genre entries being from the first category. While having made a career for himself directing drama, Kuo employed this experience and many of the elements used by filmmakers such as King Hu to create his first major venture into wuxia, namely “The Swordsman of All Swordsman”. It is a movie which looks and feels very much like a typical genre entry, but at the same time Kuo's approach to themes such as revenge and honour is quite skillful and certainly deserves a closer look.

The Swordsman of all Swordsmen is screening at Old School Kung Fu Fest

Traumatised by witnessing the gruesome murder of his parents and the rest of his family,...

Which would you rather do in front of a massive audience: lose a board game, or get knocked unconscious? If you’re down for either, you can always accept a chessboxing challenge.

YouTuber Ludwig Ahgren — big enough to simply go by “Ludwig” — on Sunday broke his own viewership record with a live event called the Mogul Chessboxing Championship, held before 10,000 fans at the University of Southern California’s Galen Center in Los Angeles, with more than half a million people watching at home. Aside from representing the highest engagement for a Ludwig stream,...

Kung Fu movies can sometimes get a bit of a bad reputation. Bad VHS copies, poor dubbing etc. have created a legacy that can be hard to shift. Outside of the principle names, it can be hard to recognize them seriously but amidst all the schlock there were some pretty good movies that emerged from the golden era and are slowly getting re-released for a new audience to discover. Joseph Kuo created a whole series of lower budget spectacles in Taiwan during the 70’s that deserve a spot of re-evaluation. “7 Grandmasters” is one such production.

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Sang Kuan Chun (Jack Long) a grandmaster of the Bai Mei style is almost ready to retire from the martial world. Before he does so, he seeks to challenge 7 other masters in order to fulfil his legacy. As he commences his journey with his daughter Ming Chu (Nancy Yen) and three students,...

Eureka Entertainment will release Cinematic Vengeance! 8 Kung Fu Classics From Director Joseph Kuo, making their worldwide debuts on Blu-ray as part of the Eureka Classics range from 15 November 2021. Released in a Limited Edition 4-Disc set [2000 copies only] featuring a 60-page Collector’s Booklet and Facsimile Lobby Cards.

Although his name may not be as instantly recognisable as some of his contemporaries, Joseph Kuo was an incredibly successful filmmaker who consistently produced crowd-pleasing spectacles always in line with what audiences at the time wanted to see.

Often handling writing, directing, and producing duties, the success of this multi-hyphenate filmmaker is even more remarkable considering that the majority of his films were produced independently, at a time when the kung-fu genre was dominated by the big Hong Kong studios. Cinematic Vengeance! collects eight of these independent productions, all fully restored and making their worldwide debuts on Blu-ray.

8 Films across four Blu-ray discs, all fully...

Chicago – Both the Music Box Theatre and the Gene Siskel Film Center have continued their at-home screenings, due to the physical theaters staying closed for now. Below are the updates to their current offerings.

Music Box Theatre Presents Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, I Am Not Your Negro, Whose Streets?, The Grey Fox, Mysteries Of Lisbon, Mystery Of Chess Boxing, Mr. Topaze and Sometimes Always Never

One Night Only: June 12th, 2020

Photo credit: MusicBoxTheatre.com

The Music Box Theatre will get a percentage of the proceeds from any screening. Click site link below for details.

Scheduled: Now until the theater re-opens.

Description: Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, I Am Not Your Negro, Whose Streets? is three Magnolia Studios documentaries that are biographical (Morrison & James Baldwin in I Am Not) and activist. One price can get all three and a portion of the box office will go towards a Small Business Relief Fund.

The New York Asian Film Foundation

Announces lineup for

The First New York Asian Film Festival Winter Showcase

Feb 1-3, Feb 8-10, 2019

Co-presented with Sva Theatre

New York, NY –The New York Asian Film Festival launches “Crazy Broke Asians”-themed first Winter Showcase, names Korean actress Han Ji-min as Inaugural Ambassador

For the inaugural edition of the New York Asian Film Festival Winter Showcase we’ve chosen a very timely theme. Everyone’s talking about “Crazy Rich Asians”, but what about the other side of the tracks? The showcase offers an alternate perspective on the continent with films that range from pure entertainment to profound introspection, stories about the 99% and the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, which might be from halfway across the world but are more relevant than ever in our troubled times. A deeply moving epic of despair, raw tales of the streets, crime thrillers, redemptive boxing dramas,...

On Thursday, 6 September 2018, Kino Lumière in Bratislava screens the first of the eleven films included in the Programme Cycle “Taiwanese Season“ that brings Taiwanese films spanning from the 1960s till today. The screenings will include introductions and are scheduled for Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6.15 Pm, with the last film programmed for 18 October.

“Taiwanese cinema offers many works by recognized film-makers as well as artistically influential films, many of which are not known to Slovak audience,” says Kristína Aschenbrennerová of the Slovak Film Institute, Curator of Taiwanese Season. “Our intention is to present Taiwanese films as a part of Taiwanese cultural identity, as well as an integral part of the popular entertainment. That is also why the line-up of Taiwanese Season spreads over different decades and genres and lists art house films, social realist ʻblack filmsʻ and wuxia films alongside romantic films or socially critical films from the 1960s until today.

Like millions of you around the world, i love Kung Fu movies. It is the only real genre that keeps me going back for more and that is why i will always love Kung Fu movies.

I know many of you have probably seen many of the movies i will post about, but this is also for anyone new to the genre of Kung Fu and even Swordplay and looking for other movies to enjoy. I hope you enjoy the movies i have listed and please feel free to comment about any of the movies.

 

1. Drunken Master 2 (1994)

Director: Jackie Chan, Lau Kar Leung

Cast: Jackie Chan, Lau Kar Leung, Ti Lung, Anita Mui, Andy Lau, Chin Kar Lok, Ken Lo

Fight Choreographer(s): Jackie Chan, Lau Kar Leung

Studio:  Golden Harvest

 

2. Broken Oath (1977)

Director: Jeong Chang Hwa

Cast: Michael Chan, Angela Mao, Chiu Hung, Bruce Leung, Wang Lai

Fight Choreographer(s): Hsu Hsia,...

Like millions of you around the world, i love Kung Fu movies. It is the only real genre that keeps me going back for more and that is why i will always love Kung Fu movies.

I know many of you have probably seen many of the movies i will post about, but this is also for anyone new to the genre of Kung Fu and even Swordplay and looking for other movies to enjoy. I hope you enjoy the movies i have listed and please feel free to comment about any of the movies.

The Skyhawk (1974)

Studio: Golden Harvest

Director: Jeong Chang Hwa

Cast: Kwan Tak Hing, Sammo Hung, Carter Wong, Wang In Sik, Nora Miao

Action Director(s): Sammo Hung

 

Legendary Weapons of China (1982)

Studio: Shaw Brothers

Director: Lau Kar Leung

Cast: Hsiao Ho, Lau Kar Leung, Kara Hui, Gordon Liu, Lau Kar Wing, Fu Sheng

Action...

The Mighty One

Written by Tyrone Hsu Tien-Yung

Directed by Joseph Kuo Nan-Hong

Hong Kong, 1971

For as fast and furiously as Shaw Brothers studio churned out its action films and made stars of previously unknown actors, the number of names people recognize heavily favour the male performers. There were certainly women who became famous as a result of starring in Shaw pictures and receiving star billing, but much fewer in number and even fewer of them were the principle warriors of a picture. One such name that kept appearing in the late 1960s and into the 70s was Ivy Ling Po (Sword and the Lute, Twin Swords), who could deliver a really solid performance based on the script and hold her own with the boys when the rough stuff started. One of those starring roles was in the fantasy-laden The Mighty One, from 1971.

Master Lung (Liu Ping) is storming the...