Lau Kar-Leung Movies

Action maestro Lau Kar Leung helms the martial arts saga Drunken Monkey - the tale of a bitter feud that erupts between two siblings. For years, Biao and his brother have co-run a security company - until Biao discovers that the latter is engaged in illegal, underground activities. When Biao disappears for a short time, everyone thinks him dead; he soon turns up again, however, determined to take on his wayward brother in a grueling battle-to-the-death. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Jackie Chan returns in one of his greatest roles in this action-comedy sequel to his 1978 Hong Kong blockbuster Drunken Master. Wong Fei Hong (Chan) is a young master of the martial art of "drunken boxing," in which fighters use alcohol to blind themselves to pain and release the angry brawler within; with the right amount of drinks under his belt, Hong can become a furious one-man army. Hong accompanies his father (Ti Lung) on a voyage to China, where they purchase a precious supply of ginseng. When Hong discovers thugs stealing from their luggage, he leaps into action to get their belongings back. Instead, he winds up with a box of valuable Chinese artifacts, which criminals are hoping to smuggle to England at a tremendous profit. Hong sets out to fight the gangsters and give the artifacts back to their rightful owners, but while his stepmother (Anita Mui) encourages him to use his drunken boxing skills, his father feels his boozy antics bring shame to the family. Jackie Chan brought some of his most elaborate stunt work to Drunken Master 2, including a remarkable fight on a bed of hot coals; Chan also directed part of the film, after Lau Kar Leung was fired after a number of disagreements with his star. Six years after it became a box office hit in Asia, Drunken Master 2 earned a theatrical release in the United States; the film was re-titled Legend Of The Drunken Master (in part because the original Drunken Master never had a proper theatrical release in America), re-edited, and dubbed into English, with a new score by Michael Wandmacher. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

During a Hong Kong currency revaluation, old banknotes are routinely replaced by banks. The old notes are generally burned each day. However, by Friday evening at one bank, there is a cache of over thirty million old Hong Kong dollars which will go unburned until the next Monday. A bank employee gets the notion that stealing this cash would be an easy and relatively harmless way of getting rich quick, and he enlists some friends to help him get it. However, he has told one too any people, and he is opposed in his scheme by a nun who will gladly bash heads in order to save souls. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This is the third in a series of Shaolin Temple films starring China's martial arts champion Jet Li (aka Li Lianjie). Li's good looks, star presence, and stunning gymnastics -- as he twists, turns, and somersaults through a series of well-choreographed battles -- carry this otherwise routine action film. He plays Zhi Ming, trained in the Northern Shaolin Temple after his father was murdered by the evil magistrate He Suo. Zhi Ming plans on attacking the magistrate during a lion dance performed at an annual festival. That attempt at retribution fails but introduces him to Sima, a woman who was trained in the Southern Shaolin Temple after her father was framed by He Suo. (The translation of the title for this film is North-South Shaolin Temple.) In fact, Zhi Ming's father died because he protested the treatment of his friend, Sima's father. It does not take long for Sima and Zhi Ming to discover that they have matching ankle bracelets -- meaning they were betrothed by their parents while still too young to know what that meant. Now they team up to bring down He Suo, engaging their enemies on the Great Wall of China and in the Forbidden City. Jet Li would make another Shaolin film in 1994 and gained recognition in the West when he played Mel Gibson's nemesis in Lethal Weapon 4 (1998). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Hong Kong filmmaker Lau Kar-Leung directed this excellent period-action film, one of the most highly acclaimed productions of the Shaw Brothers studio's later years. Its success is rather remarkable considering its troubled production. Young martial arts star Alexander Fu-Sheng -- who plays the sixth son of the Yang family -- died tragically in the middle of production, causing a hasty rewrite which shifted the film's heroics to the fifth son (Gordon Lau). The flow of the story doesn't suffer much, if at all, but it tends to veer from accepted legend as it tells the supposedly true story of a Sung dynasty-era massacre perpetrated on the Yang family by General Pan Mai (Ku Ming) and his Mongol allies which leaves only two of the large family's males alive. The sixth son manages to get home to tell the horrifying tale, but has been driven mad by his experiences (the plot device used to write out Fu Sheng). The fifth son has been aimlessly traveling the countryside, where he has another encounter with General Pan's troops and barely escapes with his life. Hungry for revenge, he decides to wait and become a Buddhist monk at the Ching Ling Temple in the meantime. As might be expected, his burning fury and lust for blood don't sit very well with Buddhist philosophy, and he is quickly asked to leave the temple. Yang number five is not so willing to do so, and promptly shaves his head and insists that he is staying, much to the monks' chagrin. It isn't long before word of her son's survival reaches Lady Yang (Lily Li), who orders her daughter (Kara Hui), the eighth Yang, to disguise herself as a man and bring the fifth Yang home. Yang number eight does as she is told, but is captured by General Pan's troops on her way to the temple, causing Yang number five to leave his hiding place and try to save her. The family's legendary pole-fighting technique is amply demonstrated throughout in superbly choreographed martial arts scenes orchestrated by the director, Ching Chu, and Hsiao Hou. Johnny Wang co-stars with Phillip Ko and Lau Kar-wing. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Lau Kar-leung spins this high-flying kung-fu saga about a Peking opera actor named Chen (played by the director), who, along with his beautiful sister (Kara Hui Ying-hung), is invited to dine with the dastardly and powerful Mr. Tuan (Lo Lieh). There Chen is slipped a mickey and when he comes to is accused of trying to rape Tuan's wife. Tuan offers to spare Chen's life if his sister becomes his concubine. The dealt is struck and Chen is cast into the street after getting his hands smashed by Tuan's henchmen. Years later, we find Chen struggling as a street performer with a trained monkey named Ah Mo. When Chen runs afoul of some gangsters, they kill his monkey. Just before Chen decides to snuff his own candle, he realizes that energetic street urchin known as Monkey (Hsiao Ho) would make a decent substitute for his former simian partner. After the two again run afoul of the same gangsters, Chen vows to teach Monkey kung-fu and soon thwarts the thugs. Later, he along with Monkey decides to take on Tuan and break his sibling out of sexual bondage. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A Chinese kung-fu master is put in the precarious position of having to salvage his honor after inadvertently insulting the family of his new Japanese bride. His loyalty on the line, the dishonored martial artist attempts to regain his in-laws' trust by dueling with seven Japanese ninjas. With each round, the stakes get higher, the fighting styles alternate, and his opponents grow increasingly fierce. Which style will ultimately prove more effective, and what will it take for the hapless groom to admit that he's finally met his match? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide