A City Called Dragon

A movie within a movie, created to spoof the martial arts genre. Writer/director Steve Oedekerk uses contemporary characters and splices them into a 1970s kung-fu film, weaving the new and old together. As the main character, The Chosen One, Oedekerk sets off to avenge the deaths of his parents at the hands of kung-fu legend Master Pain. Along the way he encounters some strange characters.

9th century China. Ten year old general’s daughter Nie Yinniang is abducted by a nun who initiates her into the martial arts, transforming her into an exceptional assassin charged with eliminating cruel and corrupt local governors. One day, having failed in a task, she is sent back by her mistress to the land of her birth, with orders to kill the man to whom she was promised – a cousin who now leads the largest military region in North China. After 13 years of exile, the young woman must confront her parents, her memories and her long-repressed feelings.

Yang Hui-zhen, a mysterious princess on the run from corrupt government officials, is joined in her endeavors by skilled Buddhist monks and an unambitious painter named Gu Sheng-zhai.

China, year 1457. The Minister of Defense is executed, and his children are sentenced to exile by order of the tyrannical Tsao. Fearful of future revenge from the young people, Tsao sends cruel soldiers to murder them, but a brave group of swordsmen can change the course of the battle at the Dragon Inn.

A pair of evil kung-fu artists, Heaven and Earth, are slaughtering the entire Yin-Yang brotherhood.

Mi Wey is a local hero named after "Killer Meteors", his secret weapon which makes him invincible. However, when "Immortal" Wa Wu Bin, another powerful local character seeks his assistance, Killer Meteor will face the greatest and the deadliest challenge of his life.

Young master Cao Le chases his pregnant girlfriend away from the family castle. He does it in order to save her from vicious bandits who are going to murder his family.

A one-armed martial arts master is being stalked by an Imperial assassin, the master of two fighters killed in the previous film. When the One-Armed Boxer is invited to attend a martial arts tournament, his efforts to lay low are unsuccessful, and the assassin soon tracks him down with the help of his three subordinates: a Thai boxer, a yoga master, and a kobojutsu user.

18-year-old Ainu is kidnapped and sold to a brothel. Her good looks and wild personality make her very popular with the lustful clients, but also draw the lesbian attentions of brothel madam Chun Yi. Chun Yi teaches Ainu the ways of lust and the ways of kung fu, and Ainu becomes more and more similar to her captor. But rage at her treatment is still burning inside her.

When the three most feared fighters in the land are defeated by The First Family and leader Chen Tien Wei is elected Chief of the Martial World, the treachery that follows will find the noble leader attempting to uncover the traitor that has poisoned the clan from the inside in a dazzling martial arts epic from Chen Chi Hua. "Militant Dragon and Tiger," "Devil Stars," and "Three Horrid Mice" have tormented the countryside for far too long. Upon their defeat at the hands of the First Family, Wei is elected Chief of the Martial World by the grateful population of the Chinese countryside. His house subsequently beset upon by a malevolent band of anonymous fighters and vengeful wizards who seek to destabilize Wei's reign, Wei must now seek out the betrayer who lurks in his midst and restore his honor before his rule collapses under the weight of disloyalty

A martial-arts student learns the iron fist and death grip techniques to avenge his teacher's death.

Get set for more kung foolery with everybody's favorite warrior waifs! After being trained as unbeatable kung fu fighters by their cantankerous grandpa, the three kung fu kids move to the big city and become adored media stars. Then they discover the nice old lady who took them in is actually their gradma herself a magical kung fu master! So, when grandpa shows up to claim the kids, granny challenges the old man to a hilarious, no holds barred battle to decide once and for all who's champ. Join the high kickin, special effects filled fun and adventure with the Young Dragons in Young Dragons The Kung Fu Kids II

Shaw Legend Chang Yi takes on the Wild Vile West. It's Kung vs. Gun! "A man's knowledge puts him above animals" says the Shaolin scriptures. Chang Yi must prove this- or die! A rare and fantastic film!

The morale of the army is low as the countess sets out to overthrow the enemy army..

Dart Jr. hires three untrustworthy men to help him rob a pretty female doctor who's smuggling gold for a Mexican dictator.

The Village of Tigers is known as the home of all evil doers throughout the land, ruled by their leader, Lord Hu Jiao. When the famed swordsman known as the Sword of the Southern Sky, Luo Hong-Xun ends up in said village, he will teach the bandits a lesson.

In 1933, 20,000 Japanese soldiers and 50 tanks invaded the Pa Tou Lou Tzu, a strategic key point of the Great Wall. With only seven men stationing, these heroes took on the entire army for five days before succumbing. Director Chang Cheh recreated this epic battle with his favorite cast including Ti Lung, David Chiang, Alexander Fu Sheng and Chen Kuan-tai, as a celluloid tribute to these nameless souls.

Set at the time of Italian explorer Marco Polo's historic expedition to China ,during the reign of Monogol ruler Kublai Khan, it stars American actor Richard Harrison as Polo. Taking considerable liberties with the historic record, the film has Polo turning up as an Imperial Inspector assigned to root out Chinese rebles in the south, but eventually being won over to their cause.

In Ming Dynasty China, the retiring abbot of a Buddhist monastery invites two dignitaries to help him choose a successor, not suspecting that both of them have hired help to steal a priceless parchment kept in the temple.

Martial arts superstar Carter Wong portrays a revolutionary who is an expert in the Iron Finger style of kung fu. When his mother is kidnapped, he is forced by his enemy James Tien to destroy a group of subversive warlords, including renegade monk Kam Kong and five element venom man Ricky Cheng. Non-stop, no-holds-barred fight action make this a must for any fan of the martial arts.

When a crime lord moves in on Hong Kong territory, conflicts ensues. Soon a shipment of gold bars disappears, and many go for the gold. Three women use their martial arts skills to take down the baddies. Super cool fights, kicks, shapes and mad stunts.

A murderer, with the help of Chinese vampires, does battle with the ghost of a dead gambling lord's wife and the gambling lord's living brother. A cut n paste movie that uses footage from The Stunning Gambling (Taiwan) mixed with new footage.

Wandering endlessly between pure incoherence and a tragedy rife with dramatic possibilities, Lau Kwok-Hung sets up the murder mystery of a, low and behold, killer who strikes during rainy nights.

Three small town girls are attacked on their way to the big city. Two of the girls are able to escape, while one doesn't. We fast forward a few years, and we see the girls trying to earn their living in different ways but their lives will intertwine once again, when a two men comes into their lives, one of them being the attacker.

The sleepy town of Black Stone erupts into martial turmoil when a counterfeiting ring, run by the mysterious golden-haired Mr. Lung, comes under the scrutiny of undercover agent Ching, a reformed assassin and expert of southern fist boxing.

In an epic tale of theater, gender, love and class, two Beijing opera actors navigate political turmoil as their friendship evolves over decades.

The rebellious and free-spirited Li Lin and the introverted Wu Ai-hua are best friends who grow up together in the military dependents' village. However, they both fall in love with pilot He Kang, their mutual childhood friend. After He Kang is killed in a crash, the village only reminds the heartbroken girls of the tragedy. They escape to Taipei and work as hostess and accountant, earning a living from American soldiers on leave from Vietnam. The girls reunite with Michael, an American flight instructor, at the club. Michael ardently pursues Li Lin, but struggling to forget He Kang, Li Lin rejects Michael' s proposal. Having taken different paths, the two girls eventually return to their childhood village, reminiscing about the bonds of the past.

An American travels to Bhutan searching for a valuable antique rifle and crosses paths with a young monk who wanders through the serene mountains, instructed by his teacher to make things right again.

In 1949 when the Communist regime was established in China, the world-famed painter Ling Chen-kuang, believing his conviction for a new-born society had come true on his motherland, returned anxiously from the U.S., whither he had fled apprehension by lawmen when cracking down on rebellious activities he had actively engaged in out of cynicism and hostility – the feelings evolved from constant haunting by the memories of his childhood miserableness – to the then existing institutions in China. Alas, to his disillusion, the land he had so deeply loved, the society of which he had expected so much, should have turned out to be the hell on earth. Why? The enigma kept obsessing and puzzling him even to his dying moment.

Set in the decadent 1920s, Temptress Moon tells the very complicated story of a wealthy family living on the outskirts of Shanghai. Their youngest daughter, Ruyi, is brought up as a servant to her opium-addicted father and brother. Meanwhile, her brother-in-law Zhongliang has a successful, if illegal, career seducing and blackmailing married women in the city. When he comes to Ruyi's home the two fall in love, and trouble ensues.

Directed by artist and filmmaker Tiffany Sia, The Sojourn (2023) imagines a restless landscape film in Taiwan. Visiting scenic locations shot by King Hu, the short experiments with the road movie genre and its intersection with the martial arts epic. Sia meets actor Shih Chun, who played the protagonist in Hu’s Dragon Inn, Touch of Zen and other wuxia films, as he guides the quest to re-encounter the iconic landscapes where Dragon Inn was shot. He advises on the perfect conditions of mist and weather. Yet, in the journey through the mountains of Hehuanshan, the sublime landscape of King Hu remains ever elusive. She later visits the elementary school of Indigenous filmmaker and principal Pilin Yapu of the Atayal tribe. Absent of conventional subtitles, the essay film employs text burned into the center of the frame as a mode of translation, sometimes refusing total disclosure. – tiffanysia.com/glossary/the-sojourn

On a dark, wet night in Taipei City, a cavernous old picture palace is about to close its doors forever. A meager audience, the remaining few staff, and perhaps even a ghost or two, watch King Hu’s wuxia classic "Dragon Inn", each haunted by memories and desires evoked by cinema itself.

Directed by some of most well known Chinese-language directors of the time, the portmanteau film Four Moods was an attempt to alleviate Li Han-hsiang’s financial troubles during the late 1960s. Arguably one of his best works, King Hu’s short Anger is an adaptation of the famous Peking opera San Cha Kou; set to opera instrumentation and stylishly shot, the film deftly captures the tense showdown between political schemers, avengers and vagabonds inside an inn. Li Han-hsiang’s Happiness, inspired by the Strange Tales of Liaozhai, tells a tale of reprieve for a kind-hearted ghost, while Pai Ching-Jui’s Joy and Lee Hsing’s Sadness both explore the fateful encounters between mortal men and ghostly women.

Stretching across the canvas of the Sino-Japanese War of the 30s, the subsequent Japanese surrender in 1945, and the onslaught of Communism, this film depicts an ill-fated romance between a talented lady novelist and a Chinese traitor working with the Japanese who fall victim to the mayhem of war and their tragic inability to reconcile political differences.

Three young boys learn the art of kung fu from their grandfather, a martial arts expert, and are able to hold their own on a trip to the city.

A traveling scholar is intent on translating a Buddhist sutra that is said to have power over the creatures of the afterlife. He slowly finds himself entangled in a mysterious plot involving witchcraft, demons, and a battle to preserve his own soul from the attacks of the supernatural underworld.

The life of the epoch-making master of martial arts cinema, King Hu.

Adapted from a Tang Dynasty fantasy tale, Sung Chuen-sau used the story of a scholar meeting a female ghost at night, but emphasised neither the killing nor horror but the literary and romantic elements. Scholar Chan (Shih Chun) stays in a remote mansion outside the city. People often fall into the mansion’s well for no apparent reason. Chan looks into it. Later, he sees the girl from the well, Susu (Brigitte Lin), waving to him. She begins to wait on him nightly. Susu was from a wealthy family, but was running away from bandits during wartime, and committed suicide by jumping into the well rather than be caught. After her death, her spirit was controlled by Du Long (Pai Lin). Du Long has forced her many times to harm Chan, but she never has the heart to carry it through. Chan’s pity for her soon becomes love. He goes into the well to retrieve an old bronze mirror, and eventually succeeds in freeing Susu. In the end, to rescue Chan, Susu fights with Du Long and they destroy each other.

Once a respected center of martial arts, the Shaolin Institute in Twin Dragon Town now watches helplessly as the ruthless Bear Tiu and his sister, Black Butterfly, seize control of the town through opium smuggling and arms trafficking. With the aging Tiger Yeung unable to stop them, hope arrives in the form of Jaguar Kong, a former Shaolin student and provincial police inspector assigned to bring Bear to justice. After returning home, Jaguar battles Bear's gang, survives betrayal by a trusted friend, and rescues his kidnapped sister. With patience and renewed determination, Jaguar prepares for one final showdown against Bear Tiu in a fight to restore peace to Twin Dragon Town.