Genre: Martial Arts

‘The Kung Fu Instructor’ may lack the incisive bite of the great Sun Chung works, but the director is still clearly comfortable crafting a confident work from basic ingredients.

‘The Lady Assassin’ is very good, but there is the nagging feeling that this could have been even better with a little discernment.

‘The Lady Hermit’ still manages to stand up well decades on as an extremely entertaining, if not extremely gory, example of the Shaw Brothers armed combat films in their prime.

Often unfairly nudged aside when the career of kung-fu auteur Liu Chia-Liang is considered, ‘The Lady is the Boss’ is a fun action comedy that came near the end of the Shaw Brothers’ hegemony in Hong Kong.

‘The Last Kung Fu Monk’ is essentially a handful of mediocre fight scenes strung together by a weak plot and some incredibly cheesy drama.

Once it settles down and the MacGuffin doesn’t become the sole focus of the story, ‘The Legend and Hag of Shaolin’ becomes an enjoyable homage to early 90s Hong Kong cinema.

‘The Legend Is Born: Ip Man’ does not try to outdo the spectacle of its more lavish inspiration, though Herman Yau does try to give the viewers the ample Wing Chun action they crave.

‘The Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires’ doesn’t exactly set the world alight in either of its attempted genres, but it does remain a fun curio for fans of both studios that certainly still sports some old-school charm.

‘The Legend Of The Owl’ is a positively insane, yet gloriously inventive production that boasts more hits than misses.

It has its faults and no-one could call it the greatest movie ever made. Importantly though, this is a fabulous example of how a combination of technology and innovation can still wow the jaded viewer.

Although there’s the odd hole or inconsistency, the production mostly runs at a sustained pace that draws the viewer along with it.

This engrossing team prove to be adept at the rigorous fight scenes and the subtle comedy that further lifts the film above the norm.