Chang Cheh — Playwright (53)

Movie

The Tender Trap of Espionage (1960)
脂粉間諜網 TMDB
Lo Wei actor: Liu Liang-Hua / Lo Wei …
other title: 脂粉間諜網
Spy films had always been popular in Chinese-language cinema, with stories set mostly in WWII or the warlord era. The Tender Trap of Espionage, made two years before Dr. No (1962) which kickstarted the Bond film craze, is a story of intrigue between spies and counterspies within the Japanese Occupation force. The film was shot in Taiwan, offering unique visages, with cat-and-mouse mind games set in motion against trust, betrayal and seduction. Based on the British film The Two-Headed Spy (1958), future action maestro Chang Cheh wrote the script while husband-and-wife team Lo Wei and Lau Leung-wah star together as agents, with Lo doubling as director.

Movie

Black Butterfly (1960)
黑蝴蝶 IMDb TMDB
Lo Wei actor: Liu Liang-Hua / Lo Wei …
other title: 黑蝴蝶
Lau Leung-wah plays the titled character, a Chinese Robin Hood who robs the rich to help the poor. She is an early Republican Era Mulan, who switches effortlessly between charming gentility and agile ferocity, and Lau personifies her character's duality with a balance of grace and vigour. Chang Cheh, on the verge of fostering seismic changes in cinema with his martial-arts machismo, pens a script that captures the spirit of changing Chinese womanhood, underscored by a conflict between Black Butterfly and her father, a veteran detective.

Movie

The Alishan Uprising (1950)
阿里山风云 IMDb TMDB
other title: 阿里山风云
In May of 1949, director Zhang Ying and screenwriter Zhang Che took people to Taiwan to shoot a film that reflected Taiwan's Gaoshan tribe. Unexpectedly, when it was completed, it coincided with the war between the KMT and the Communist Party in Shanghai. Later, the Kuomintang government completely withdrew from Shanghai to Taiwan, and the film crew stayed in Taiwan. The film was also premiered in Taiwan, becoming the first feature film in Taiwanese film history. The episode "High Mountain Green" was widely sung that year and became a classic in film music.

Movie

Cross the River (1988)
過江 IMDb TMDB
other title: 過江
In the mid-30s, Kuomintang Sichuan rhubarb Division Commander Liu Shaoji colludes with Japanese invaders. He sends the cloud boat's beauty to the Si-chuan Opera. The Si-chuan opera entertainer steps forward in sharp opposition with warlord's wicked running dogs. Mu Xiaolou sacrifices himself up to take the righteous path and confronts the Japanese invaders.

Movie

The Warlord and the Actress (1964)
血溅牡丹红 IMDb TMDB
other title: 血溅牡丹红
A member of the Red Peony troupe, singer Tang Pei Hua (Yeh Feng) is renowned for her beautiful voice and appearances. Her beauty, however, invites the unwanted attentions of cruel and lecherous warlord Cao Lin (Zeng Mei). In order to escape Cao's grasp, Tang and her lover Lin Ke Qiang (Chin Han) decide to run away to the south where they can live freely. But their plan is uncovered by Cao, and Lin gets captured. In order to save Lin, Tang must sacrifice herself and entertain Japanese guests at a banquet, throwing herself into danger's way.

Movie

The Brave Archer 3 (1981)
射鵰英雄傳第三集 WikiData IMDb TMDB
other title: Le Chasseur d'Aigle et le Secret du Moine / 射鵰英雄傳第三集 …
Guo Jing and Huang Rong pursue Yang Kang to Iron Palm Peak, where Qiu Qianren and the Iron Palm Sect is based. Huang is injured by Qiu in a fight and she escapes with Guo Jing's help. Guo brings her in search of a cure to heal her wounds and they stumble upon a house in a swamp, inhabited by a woman called Yinggu. Yinggu tells them that the only person who can save Huang Rong's life is Duan Zhixing, the former ruler of the Kingdom of Dali, who has become a monk now.

Movie

Call of the Sea (1965)
怒海情仇 IMDb TMDB
Lo Wei actor: Kang Wei / Lo Wei …
other title: 怒海情仇
The son of the town bully lusts after a local beauty in this action-filled thriller of the passions and violence to be found in a fishing village.

Movie

Na Cha the Great (1974)
哪吒 WikiData IMDb TMDB
other title: Na-Jan il piccolo titano / Na Cha The Great …
Na Cha stars Fu Sheng as the prodigal son of a wealthy local official. When obnoxious sea dragons take on human form and cause trouble on the land, he realizes that the common people need help and takes up his mantle as their protector, fighting the dragons and their flunkies with the aid of supernatural powers.

Movie

The Perfumed Arrow (1966)
女秀才 IMDb TMDB
other title: 女秀才
Ling Bor plays Wen Fei E who is both an excellent academic as well as martial arts expert. Since her childhood days fond of dressing up as a boy, she becomes a village scholar sharing classes with Tu Zi Zheng (Chin Feng) and Wei Zhun Zhi (Ho Fan). When Fei E's innocent father is framed and sent to prison, she rushes to his rescue saving Jing Fu Quan (Kam Fie) who is in the hands of robbers along the way. Mistaking Fei E to be a noble hero, Fu Quan has no greater wish than to get married to her savior...

Movie

Tiger Boy (1966)
虎俠殲仇 IMDb TMDB
other title: 虎俠殲仇
Tiger Boy, an itinerant young knight-errant bent on revenge for his father's death 15 years earlier rescues a young maiden after her brother is killed protecting her from the advances of a band of bandits. While the heroes escape the band's clutches and seek refuge in the forest, Tiger Boy discovers that her perpetrators are led by the son of his father's killer who also has a yen for the maiden. As fate would have it, she instead falls in love with our hero who pledges to return to her after vanquishing all his enemies. To accomplish this, he sets out to singlehandedly crash a large birthday party held in his father's killer's honor. Meanwhile, Tiger Boy's chivalric quest is complicated when the maiden also sets out after him straight into peril in the enemy's own stronghold.

Movie

The Butterfly Chalice (1965)
蝴蝶杯 WikiData IMDb TMDB
other title: 蝴蝶杯
The story revolves around Tian Yu Quan (Chin Feng) who rushes to the aid of an elderly fisherman who is bullied by an arrogant relative of the Qiu Shan ministry. In the heat of the ensuing battle he kills the said man and is hence chased by the district's officials. Trying to use the waterway to shake off his enemies, Yu Quan finds a true friend in the old fisherman's bark-stearing daughter, Hu Feng Lian (Ting Hung) who becomes his loyal accomplice. As symbol for his gratitude, Yu Quan bestows Feng Lian with a Butterfly Chalice to reflect their eternal friendship bond...

Movie

The Weird Man (1983)
神通術與小霸王 IMDb TMDB
other title: 神通術與小霸王
Chang is known for his lone swordsman and hero movies and strangely The Weird Man still reflects this. Cheng plays a righteous, beheaded priest with supernatural powers that returns from the dead to wreak havoc against one of the corrupt kingdoms, making Cheng a heroic swords-ghost.

Movie

The Magnificent Trio (1966)
邊城三俠 WikiData IMDb TMDB
other title: Le Trio magnifique / El trio magnífico …
A wandering swordsman named Lu Fang who is returning from battle discovers that several farmers have kidnapped the local magistrate’s daughter. He sides with them after learning that this is an act of desperation to improve their low standard of living.

Movie

The Shaolin Avengers (1976)
方世玉與胡惠乾 IMDb TMDB
other title: Gli scatenati campioni del karatè / Shaolin - Die Rache mit der Todeshand …
Heroism and romance combine in an action-packed martial arts story. When the Shaolin are betrayed by White-Browed Hermit, hotheaded warrior-hero Fong Sai Yuk vows revenge.

Movie

Legend of the Fox (1980)
飛狐外傳 WikiData IMDb TMDB
other title: 飛狐外傳
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.

Movie

The Rebel Intruders (1980)
大殺四方 WikiData IMDb TMDB
other title: Der Geheimbund der Todeskralle / Trois Fantastiques Ceintures Noires …
China is ripped apart by a civil war, and thousands of displaced refugees swarm into towns not yet ravaged by war. Three such refugees arrive in one town. They join forces with local rebel leaders to escape to the south before getting into trouble with Lu Feng who is out to exterminate all rebels.