Vengeance Is His: Chang Cheh's Martial Lore May 23 - 29 at the Quad

The Quad presents an extensive retrospective of prolific kung fu film pioneer Chang Cheh in collaboration with the New York Asian Film Festival

Titles include: The Brave Archer, Five Deadly Venoms, Vengeance, Golden Swallow, The Heroic Ones and more!

As the storied Shaw Brothers began to transform the Hong Kong film industry in the 1950s, a new golden age was on the horizon. At the vanguard of it was director Chang Cheh. The martial arts action in his movies was awe-inspiring—and so too was his career. “Prolific” barely does justice to a director who averaged a half-dozen movies annually during the 1970s boom. By the 1960s, the Shaws had put him to work as a screenwriter, and he successfully made the transition to directing, becoming one of the studio’s mainstays, effortlessly moving from the swordplay films of the 1960s to the exploding kung fu genre of the 1970s, often collaborating with action choreographer and future director Lau Kar-Leung (aka Liu Chia-liang), who will soon be receiving his own retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. Over 25 glorious years, as one of the pioneers of “Heroic Bloodshed” and the revival of the wuxia genre, he minted stars and influenced generations of cinephiles and filmmakers from John Woo (one of his assistant directors) to Quentin Tarantino, who dedicated Kill Bill Vol 2 to him.

Co-presented by the New York Asian Film Festival

All prints and DCPs courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive

©2000 Celestial Pictures Ltd. All Rights Reserved

The Brave Archer Chang Cheh, 1977, Hong Kong, 127m, DCP
Crippled Avengers (aka Return of the Five Deadly Venoms) Chang Cheh, 1978, Hong Kong, 107m, DCP
The Duel (aka Duel of the Iron Fist)
Chang Cheh, 1971, Hong Kong, 113m, DCP
Five Deadly Venoms Chang Cheh, 1978, Hong Kong, 97m, 35mm
Five Element Ninjas Chang Cheh, 1982, Hong Kong, 107m, 35mm
Golden Swallow Chang Cheh, 1968, Hong Kong, 89m, 35mm
Heroes Two (aka Kung Fu Invaders)
Chang Cheh, 1974, Hong Kong, 93m, 35mm
The Heroic Ones Chang Cheh, 1970, Hong Kong, 117m, DCP
House of Traps Chang Cheh, 1982, Hong Kong, 95m, 35mm
Masked Avengers Chang Cheh, 1981, Hong Kong, 92m, DCP
One Armed Swordsman Chang Cheh, 1967, Hong Kong, 111m, 35mm
Shaolin Temple Chang Cheh, 1976, Hong Kong, 126m, 35mm
Vengeance Chang Cheh, 1970, Hong Kong, 98m, DCP
The Water Margin (aka Seven Blows of the Dragon) Chang Cheh/Hsueh Li Pao/Wu Ma Feng, 1972, Hong Kong, 125m, DCP