You name some great ones too. And a top-notch 5 for Chia-Liang Liu. Heroes of the East is an all-time favorite, one that doesn’t get talked a lot about (in my circle) but is a must-see.
King Hu was in my Hon Mentions, but another guy I like is Chang Cheh. I made a Cheh list at my movie site, but it’s in privacy mode (probably a work in progress) but I see my 5 from him are - Five Element Ninjas | Crippled Avengers | The One-Armed Swordsman | The Savage 5 | The Duel… and yeah, the 5 Venoms is in there, Golden Swallow, Boxer from Shantung, etc, etc.
And while I’ve only seen a handful of his, I enjoyed Chor Yuen’s The Magic Blade (with Ti Lung wearing an Eastwood-like western pancho) and the Sentimental Swordsman.
Yeah, Cheh Chang was the heartbeat of Shaw Bros during the 70s and I believe the infamous kung fu “crash zoom” was first used by him. You certainly could dedicate a thread to his work due to the quantity and influence of it. Personal top 5: One-Armed Swordsman, New One-Armed Swordsman, Five Element Ninjas, Five Deadly Venoms, The Wandering Swordsman.
I very much enjoy The Sentimental Swordsman as well but I’m not too familiar with the director’s work either. Other than the Sentimental sequels I think I’ve only seen Web of Death. The Magic Blade rings a bell but I can’t recall it. I think I may have had it on my Prime watchlist when they had a ton of Shaw Bros films available on it.
I haven’t seen the Wandering Swordsman, I’ll have to check that out.
I can’t stand English dubbing, so I’ll buy them if I have to or stream them at a site like this… The Magic Blade (1976) - Bing video, etc, anything to get the subtitles with the original language (I know that is frequently dubbed too, but the voices and acting are better, and you get more accurate translations).
I think some on Netlfix give you the language and subtitle option, and I’ll use them when I can.
I didn’t mention Robert Wise in my list, but I’m glad others did because he had such a large hand in Citizen Kane, which was an incredibly technically complex movie. The editing of that movie, and the cinematography and directing and special effects, were all tremendous achievements.
It isn’t for nothing that the movie is widely considered the greatest ever.
At my movie site, we can place our 4 favorite films at the top of the page. I got a bit bored looking at the same images, so beginning in 2016 I changed it every year, to my 4 favorites from my most watched director from the previous year.
Looking at my stats page, these were my most watched directors since 2013, and each would be considered a favorite. With the 4 that were (or would have been) featured,
2013 - Luis Buñuel (6 films watched - the 4 listed up top)
2014 - Ishirō Honda (12 films watched - I had a Godzillathon that year)
2015 - Satyajit Ray (12 films watched - the 4 listed up top)
2016 - Rainer Werner Fassbinder (20 films watched - the 4? Marriage of Maris Braun, Veronika Voss, World on a Wire, Fear of Fear)
2017 - Carlos Saura (12 films watched - the 4? Cria Cuervos, La prima Angelica, Elisa, My Life; Deprisa Deprisa)
2018 - Masahiro Shinoda (14 films watched - the 4? Double Suicide, Pale Flower, Under the Blossoming Cherry Trees, Silence)
2019 - Mikio Naruse (17 films watched - The Sound of the Mountain, Lightning, Two in the Shadows, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs)
2020 - Mohsen Makhmalbaf (9 films watched - A Moment of Innocence, Silence, Gabbe, The President)
2021? Vittorio De Sica & Mikio Naruse (9 films watched - if this holds, I’d probably feature De Sica since Naruse had 2019, and the 4? Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D, Shoeshine, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis)
I probably place Wandering Swordsman higher than most but I do find David Chiang quite charismatic and particularly enjoy his films.
Here in the UK martial arts fans have been fortunate over the past few years with Eureka and 88-Films steadily releasing these films on blu ray. 88 have focused on Shaw Brothers and Jackie Chan while Eureka have cast their net wider to include Hark Tsui, King Hu, John Woo, Sammo, Jackie plus others. They’ve actually just released a rather good boxset with 8 of director Joseph Kuo’s films. These small boutique distributors are invaluable for the preservation of these films and have been great for collating all possible audio tracks, both dubbed and subbed so all options are available. While I prefer subs I don’t mind VHS-era dubs for most martial arts films. They have a specific personality plus a nostalgia factor that is part of the charm. These dubbed versions were the ones I grew up with and it’s fun to return to them every now and again. DVD-era and onwards is often horrendous though; flat, lifeless and lacking respect for the film. Regardless, non-native dubs are an important accessibility feature as not everyone is comfortable or capable of reading subtitles while watching a film. Streaming services are a crapshoot as sometimes you have audio options and sometimes you are stuck with the dubbed version.
The comprehensive audio options for Eureka's release of Wheels on Meals:
Never seen one of his, and looking at the Eureka trailer, the image quality is good… Mmm, damn I just bought into the Arrow and Criterion sales, do I indulge myself one more time?
(My player that can handle region B - I have several Eureka releases and have been happy with them)
EDIT - and yes, I did indulge, ordered it direct from Eureka.
Enjoy when it arrives. I’ve watched the 2 Bronzemen films so far and the first is a bit up and down visually. They were actually only able to properly restore the Japanese cut and while the substantially different HK cut (which is the version I have on DVD so I was very confused watching the Japanese cut first) is also included, it’s a patchwork from different sources. Shame as it’s a more coherent film but these are independent Taiwanese productions so it’s maybe to be expected that the source material may not be fully available. The Bronzemen sections look great anyway and are very enjoyable.
I’ve seen a few of Kuo’s films from this set and looking him up on IMDB I realise I have more but didn’t realise it. Plot can be functional in his films (sometimes calling it even that is generous lol) but the action is typically entertaining. Born Invincible is a personal favourite (Carter Wong has the best evil kung fu laugh in it) and Mystery of Chess Boxing are two other films of his that aren’t in this set that I recommend if you want more to seek out.
I was havin’ problems selecting five directors because there are simply too many cases where a moviemaker’s body of work doesn’t really resonate or hit consistent marks. In some cases, only one of their movies strikes a chord.
