Furious Swords and Fantastic Warriors: The Heroic Cinema of Chang Cheh

All produced during Chang Cheh's tenure at Shaw Brothers, these ten films are a testament to the director's distinct aesthetic style.

Distinguished by his penchant for bloodshed and a thematic concentration on the bonds of brotherhood and masculine sacrifice, Chang Cheh is one of the most prolific and accomplished directors ever to emerge from the Hong Kong film industry. Often hailed as the "Godfather of Hong Kong cinema," he enjoyed a career spanning six decades and worked in a multitude of genres, from Chinese opera to kung fu films via wuxia pian, historical epics and tales of the supernatural.



Presented here are ten films that reveal the range and versatility of Chang's career as a filmmaker. Traditional wuxia pian is represented by King Eagle, Trail of the Broken Blade and Wandering Swordsman; choreographed by Lau Kar-leung, Men from the Monastery and Shaolin Martial Arts are both drawn from Chang's Shaolin Cycle, included here alongside New Shaolin Boxers; Iron Bodyguard, released at the dawn of the kung fu era, is representative of changing trends in Hong Kong cinema; and some of Chang's more esoteric work is represented by the opera film The Fantastic Magic Baby and the supernatural fantasy The Weird Man. Also included is the anthology film Trilogy of Swordsmanship, to which Chang contributed a segment alongside his contemporaries Yueh Feng and Cheng Kang.



All produced during Chang Cheh's tenure at Shaw Brothers, these ten films are a testament to the director's distinct aesthetic style and his recurring thematic preoccupations. Eureka Classics is proud to present this selection of Chang's work for the first time on Blu-ray in the US.

Bonus Materials

• Limited edition slipcase featuring new artwork by Darren Wheeling
• Limited edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on all films in this set by film critic and writer James Oliver
• 1080p HD presentations of all 10 films on Blu-ray
• Optional English subtitles, newly revised for this release
• New audio commentaries on each film by a selection of Hong Kong cinema experts including Frank Djeng, Mike Leeder, Arne Venema and David West
• New interview with Hong Kong cinema scholar Wayne Wong on the life and work of Chang Cheh
• New video essay by Jonathan Clements (author of A Brief History of China) on Iron Bodyguard
• New video essay by Jonathan Clements on Chang Cheh’s Shaolin films
• * All extras subject to change

Cast & Crew

Actors:

• Ching Lee
• Lung Ti
• Li Tung
• Yueh Feng
• Cheng Kang
• Lau Kar-leung

Director: CHANG CHEH

Producer: Run Run Shaw