The best Wang Han-Chen’s adventure movies

The anti-Ching patriots, under the guidance of Ho Kuang-han, have secretly set up their base in Canton, disguised as school masters. During a brutal Manchu attack, Lui manages to escape, and devotes himself to learning the martial arts in order to seek revenge.

There is no place more hallowed in the martial art world than China's Shaolin Temple. This special place deserves a special epic, which is what the martial arts maestro delivers in this battle between a brave brand of Chinese boxers and literally thousands of Ching troops - complete with betrayals, intrigues, and such novel fighting machines as 108 wooden robots. The conflicts grow in complexity, intensity and even suspense as monks struggle to stay alive in the face of overwhelming odds.

Word of a monster ape ten stories tall living in the Himalayas reaches fortune hunters in Hong Kong. They travel to India to capture it, but wild animals and quicksand dissuade all but Johnny, an adventurer with a broken heart. He finds the monster and discovers it's been raising a scantily-clad woman, Samantha, since she survived a plane crash years before that killed her parents. In the idyllic jungle, Johnny and Samantha fall in love. Then Johnny asks her to convince "Utam" to go to Hong Kong. Lu Tien, an unscrupulous promoter, takes over: Utam is in chains for freak show exhibitions. When Lu Tien assaults Samantha, Utam's protective instincts take over: havoc in Hong Kong.

This internationally popular tale of a brother and sister seeking vengeance for the death of their parents through the mythical yin/yang Holy Flame technique is an eye-filling epic. Kuo Chue (a.k.a. Philip Kwok), famous as the star of Chang Cheh's internationally famous "Venom" film series, both co-stars and choreographs this impressive tale - leading to a vaunted "action director" career with both the 007 thriller Tomorrow Never Dies and the cult classic Brotherhood of the Wolf to his credit.

Budding comic book artist Yu Shu (Chin Kar-Lok) finds himself living out the fantasies of his alternate world when he saves a young girl from an illegal prostitution racket. With the aid of his fecund imagination -- and the help of an aging kung fu expert -- Yu Shu becomes something even he had never dared dream -- a hero in real life.

Due to his own extreme ideals, famed swordsman Li has lost everyone dear to him. After his life is saved by a rival swordsman, Li's overwhelming pride means he forsakes the woman he loves and lets her marry his saviour. Li's only comfort is alcohol and the simple life he has now accepted. On one such journey, the lonely swordsman befriends the exceptionally skilled, yet secretive Fei who has his own pressures to contend with. The person behind Li's troubles proves to be elusive, though all the clues seem to point to the legendary 'Plum Blossom Bandit', a disguised figure whose identity has long proved elusive to the martial world.

Despite its stand-alone title, this mixture of martial arts and exploitation is a semi-sequel to Shaw Brothers's Flying Guillotine series. This time, the focus is Rong Qui-yan (Chen Ping), a kung fu student turned dutiful wife whose life falls apart when her husband is murdered by a squad of government operatives led by the duplicitous Jin Gang-Feng (Lo Lieh). Qui-yan is forced to go into hiding as she plots her revenge and finds allies in fellow fugitive Ma Seng (Tsui Siu Keung) and ex-lover Wang-jun (Yueh Hua). Meanwhile, Jin Gang-Feng sends out an array of killers to track them down. Complicating things further is the fact that Qui-yan is pregnant and struggling to keep her unborn child safe while fighting her way to safety.

Fu Sheng and his real-life brother star as friends who are searching for a treasure that a Shaolin priest (Gordon Liu), a villainous traitor (Wang Lung Wei) and his sister (Yang Ching Ching) are also trying to find.

Chin Siu Ho plays a young man who believes himself to be an orphan. Until one rainy night when he and three different men find themselves taking shelter from the storm in the same place. Here the man who raised him tells him at last the story of who his parents were. His father (Lu Feng) was a great swordsman trying to dispel rumors of a wrongdoing and return a lost sword to its rightful owner. Kuo Choi and Chiang Sheng (also master swordsmen) are the parties that Lu Feng is trying to rectify things with. Through cowardly trickery on Chiang's part, a duel ensues and it all winds up with Lu's death. His son is taken to safety by a servant (the man who since raised him). Now with the truth told, Chin Siu Ho seeks out Kuo Choi's aid and seeks vengeance for the wrongful death of his father.

Asian fans of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon recognized that its director Ang Lee was actually inspired by director Chu Yuan and novelist Ku Lung's wonderful tales of a "martial art world" where all wushu warriors try to attain the "Deer Sword" and escape from the insidious maze-like "Toy Land." Master kung-fu choreographer Tang Chia leads the king and queen of Shaw's swordplay, Ti Lung and Lily Li, in a fascinating and entertaining adventure of consummate swordmen and sorceresses.