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Metrograph and Subway Cinema<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span>In association with\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Taipei Cultural Center in New York, Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan)<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span>Proudly Present<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n April 21-30, 2023<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Including US Premieres of THE KING OF WUXIA, THE SWORDSMAN OF ALL SWORDSMEN (Digital Restoration), and NIGHT ORCHID (2K Remaster)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The Old School Kung Fu Fest is back, and this time we\u2019re flying through the air and chopping down fools with the biggest retrospective of Taiwanese wuxia (sword fighting hero) movies ever seen in New York City. Wuxia movies have a long history in Chinese cinema, but when King Hu\u2019s\u00a0Dragon Inn<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0premiered in 1967, it kicked off a wuxia revival that reinvented action movies, so we\u2019ve decided to celebrate the wuxia movies from King Hu\u2019s homeland of Taiwan by going big or going home! With 12 movies on the big screen and three more online, we\u2019re showcasing everything we could find, including:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> – All three movies in the essential Tsai Ying-jie Trilogy: Joseph Kuo\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>The Swordsman of All Swordsman\u00a0<\/em>(US premiere of the new digital restoration),\u00a0<\/span>The Bravest Revenge<\/em>\u00a0(online only), and the wild and wooly\u00a0<\/span>Ghost Hill<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n – So many sword-slinging heroines! We\u2019ve got four films starring actress Hsu Feng (<\/span>A Touch of Zen<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>The Fate of Lee Khan<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>The Valiant Ones<\/em>, \u00a0<\/span>A City Called Dragon<\/em>), four starring Polly Shang-kuan (<\/span>Swordsman of All Swordsmen<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>Ghost Hill<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>Grand Passion<\/em>, \u00a0<\/span>The Bravest Revenge<\/em>), and one starring the massive movie star, Josephine Siao Fong-fong (<\/span>The Daring Gang of Nineteen From Verdun City<\/em>) in which she\u2019s only 12 years old.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n – So many discoveries, from the three female Chinese opera stars, Yang Li-hua, Liu Ching, and Chin Mei playing the heroic sisters of\u00a0<\/span>Vengeance of the Phoenix Sisters<\/em>, a 1968 movie that feels like the French New Wave doing wuxia; to megastar Brigitte Lin in the underseen\u00a0<\/span>Night Orchid<\/em>, a 1983 Taiwanese feature film remake of a wildly popular Hong Kong TV series.<\/span><\/p>\n – So many puppets in\u00a0<\/span>The Legend of the Sacred Stone<\/em>, the all-puppet wuxia from the Huang family, master puppeteers who owned Taiwanese airwaves with their\u00a0<\/span>po-te-hi<\/em>\u00a0puppet\u00a0\u00a0 – Shu Qi starring in Hou Hsiao-hsien\u2019s 2015 deconstruction of the wuxia genre\u00a0<\/span>The Assassin<\/em>, which is also his loving tribute to the movies he grew up on.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>By the time this line-up is over, we\u2019ll all have been sliced, diced, hacked, slashed, and blasted into submission with palm power.<\/span><\/p>\n IN THEATER SCREENINGS AT METROGRAPH<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Twelve In-Person Screenings!<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n THE KING OF WUXIA\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>(2022)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n US Premiere<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Directed by: Lin Jing-jie<\/span><\/p>\n The most important thing to know about a 3.5 hour documentary about King Hu is that it\u2019s not long enough. King Hu appeared in 1966 with\u00a0<\/span>Come Drink with Me<\/em>\u00a0and absolutely revolutionized Chinese filmmaking, action choreography, editing, and storytelling. The seven movies he made between 1966 and 1979 are stone cold classics that influenced a generation and then…heartbreak and tragedy struck as Hu\u2019s uncompromising artistic vision met hard economic realities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hu worked with absolutely everyone over the course of his career and\u00a0<\/span>The King of Wuxia<\/em>\u00a0features interviews with friends and collaborators like John Woo, Sammo Hung, and his favorite actor, Shih Chun (<\/span>A Touch of Zen,<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>A City Called Dragon<\/em> ). They take us to the locations where he shot his films, Chinese opera performers demonstrate how Hu created his stunts, there\u2019s rare footage of Hu from his acting days before he became a director, and dozens of emotional stories that have never been heard before. This is a testament to greatness, a documentary that\u2019ll make you want to walk out of the theater when it\u2019s over, pick up a sword (or a camera), and forge your own path in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n Directed by: King Hu Astonishing is the only word for it. Running three ecstatic hours,\u00a0<\/span>A Touch of Zen<\/em>\u00a0is the kind of movie you surrender to, and you\u2019ll walk out of the theater with your soul in better shape than when you came in. Butchered on release, it died at the box office and killed King Hu\u2019s career until the three-hour cut played at the Cannes Film Festival three years later and received the Technical Grand Prize and almost took home the Palme d\u2019Or. Ever since, it\u2019s been considered one of the greatest Chinese movies ever made.<\/span><\/p>\n Starting as a ghost story, it slowly spins a web as a scholar (Shih Chun) living next door to a haunted house, falls for the woman warrior he first mistakes for a ghost (Hsu Feng). By the time he finds out she\u2019s on the run from the government, he\u2019s caught in her grip, and so is the audience, as this movie delivers bamboo forest fights, martial arts transcendence, and Zen Buddhism.\u00a0<\/span>Zen<\/em> \u00a0made Hsu Feng\u2019s ferocious swordswoman a major star, and established that King Hu had more on his mind than mere swordplay. Spending 25 days shooting scenes that take up 10 minutes of screentime,\u00a0<\/span>Zen<\/em>\u00a0made it clear that for King Hu, making movies was a way of life.<\/span><\/p>\n Directed by: King Hu King Hu\u2019s most ferocious statement of feminist principles, this flick features five actresses throwing flying fists (Hu Chin, Helen Ma, Angela Mao, Hsu Feng, and Li Li-hua). The first half of the movie is all set-up, as rebels, spies, and government officials in disguise descend on a remote inn looking for a pivotal McGuffin (a battle map). The second half of the movie sees all hell break loose as identities are revealed, loyalties are betrayed, and all the furniture gets bashed, crashed, and thoroughly smashed. Think of it as\u00a0<\/span>The Hateful Eight<\/em> \u00a0but with women wielding swords.<\/span><\/p>\n This is also the movie where King Hu, the great action innovator, met the next step in the evolution of the action movie, Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan\u2019s \u201cBig Brother,\u201d who does the action choreography in this movie (and in Hu\u2019s next,\u00a0<\/span>The Valiant Ones<\/em>). Sammo isn\u2019t fooling around, and his approach challenges and elevates Hu\u2019s vision, making the action feel rougher, rowdier, and harder-hitting than the elegant ballet of previous King Hu films.<\/span><\/p>\n Directed by: King Hu For a small story told like an epic, the tale couldn\u2019t be tinier. Corrupt Ming officials have taken bribes and allowed a band of Japanese pirates to terrorize the South China coast. The government dispatches a small band of fighters, anchored by a husband-and-wife team, to take care of them. Outnumbered, they have to rely on guile, cunning, and clever strategy to take down their opponents. What follows is almost non-stop action courtesy of fight choreographer Sammo Hung and director King Hu, who deliver some of their greatest set pieces, including a chess battle that has to be seen to be believed.<\/span><\/p>\n Sammo had a small role in\u00a0<\/span>A Touch of Zen<\/em>, but he and Hu had just worked together for the first time on\u00a0<\/span>The Fate of Lee Khan<\/em>, and now, in their second teaming up, they meld into a single brutal beast delivering intense onscreen beatdowns. Sammo\u2019s action is aggressive, and features more kung fu than Hu\u2019s other films, which relied mostly on swordplay. Hu edits to Sammo\u2019s strengths, delivering a movie that feels like the future of Hong Kong moviemaking: hard-hitting, fast-moving, and out-of-this-world.<\/span><\/p>\n New York Premiere of the Digital Restoration<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Directed by: Chen Hung-min Where has this movie been all our lives? A black-and-white tornado that sometimes feels like the French New Wave doing wuxia, its opening half-hour will leave you breathless as it beats your eyeballs into submission with its muscular handheld camerawork, savage swish pans, and kinetic editing. Its score, on the other hand, feels like Ennio Morricone and Bernard Herrman weaving a tapestry of Chinese opera music. It\u2019s all the work of first-time director Chen Hung-min, who had already edited a host of movies including King Hu\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Dragon Inn<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Stars of Chinese opera and the silver screen, Yang Li-hua, Liu Ching, and Chin Mei, play the titular Phoenix Sisters, separated as children in a brutal massacre. 15 years later, they cross paths again: oldest sister Xiufeng (Yang) an accomplished swordswoman who lives disguised as a man; middle sister, Qingfeng (Liu) doling out justice wearing a mask; and spunky youngest sister, Zhifeng (Chin) who loses her adoptive family in another attack. These three separated siblings ultimately reunite to remind audiences that the greatest wuxia family value is revenge.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n THE SWORDSMAN OF ALL SWORDSMEN (1968) Directed by: Joseph Kuo Taiwan\u2019s Joseph Kuo owned the \u201870s kung fu movie to such an extent that we devoted 2021\u2019s Old School Kung Fu Fest to his films (like\u00a0<\/span>18 Bronzemen<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Mystery of Chess Boxing<\/em>). But before he dominated kung fu, Kuo made sword-slinging wuxia and they\u2019re some of the best films in the genre. Released 55 years ago,\u00a0<\/span>Swordsman of All Swordsmen<\/em> \u00a0is newly digitally restored and it\u2019s been the centerpiece of this retrospective as it plays around the world because it\u2019s just that good.<\/span><\/p>\n Running a breakneck 85 minutes, the film begins with Tsai Ying-jie (Tien Peng) setting out to kill the 5 martial arts masters who murdered his parents. He\u2019s spent 20 years preparing for this moment, so he\u2019s understandably bummed when things go awry almost immediately and he winds up owing his life to Flying Swallow (Polly Shang-kuan) whose father orchestrated the murder of his parents, and Black Dragon (Chiang Nan) who tells Tsai that he owes him a duel to the death once vengeance is served.<\/span><\/p>\n Bloody, brutal, and full of thorny moral conundrums that can only be solved by killer chopsticks and razor-blade-lined hats, this flick was such a huge hit it spawned two sequels featuring the Tsai Ying-jie character and we\u2019re showing both (<\/span>The Bravest Revenge<\/em>\u00a0is screening online only but the crazy climax to the trilogy,\u00a0<\/span>The Ghost Hill<\/em>, screens live).<\/span><\/p>\n Directed by: Ting Shan-hsi The final installment in the\u00a0<\/span>Swordsman of All Swordsmen<\/em>\u00a0trilogy, no familiarity with the other two movies is required to have a blast. Polly Shang-kuan reprises her Flying Swallow character, alongside Tien Peng\u2019s Tsai Ying-jie, and this time they decide to storm Hell itself in revenge for the death of Flying Swallow\u2019s dad. After all, when life is this cruel, you want to speak to a supervisor.<\/span><\/p>\n Lord Chin, the Ruler of Hell, likes to bathe in boiling oil and he\u2019s guarded by the Left & Right Judges, the Ox Head Demon, the Black & White Wuchangs, the Murdering Wonder Child, and Soul Hunter Yaksha, so this won\u2019t be easy. Fortunately, Flying Swallow and Tsai have a just cause and an entire hobo army to help them crash through the styrofoam caves of doom and chop necks under multicolored disco lights. Shot by a cinematographer who films fight scenes like he\u2019s storming the beach at Normandy, the visuals come flying at your eyes fast and furious in this delirious, blood-soaked fantasia. Will you be able to describe the plot or map the character arcs? Probably not. Will you see a flying head biting people? Guaranteed.<\/span><\/p>\n Directed by: Larry Tu Chong-hsun Hsu Feng debuted in a small part in King Hu\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Dragon Inn<\/em>\u00a0and almost immediately Hu tapped her to star in\u00a0<\/span>A Touch of Zen<\/em>\u00a0alongside Shih Chun. But\u00a0<\/span>Zen<\/em>\u00a0was a massive production that seemed to drag on forever, so during the downtime Hsu Feng, Shih Chun, and most of the\u00a0<\/span> Zen<\/em>\u00a0cast and crew teamed up with Hu\u2019s assistant director, Larry Tu Chong-hsun, to make\u00a0<\/span>A City Called Dragon<\/em>. Hsu\u2019s performance in this flick is so hardcore that it won her \u201cMost Promising Newcomer\u201d at the Golden Horse Awards before\u00a0<\/span>A Touch of Zen<\/em>even came out!<\/span><\/p>\n Hsu plays a rebel infiltrating Dragon City to get battle plans which will help overthrow the Northern Manchus. Her contact gets beheaded by the Governor (played by Shih Chun, being the bad guy this time) who then locks down the city, leaving Hsu with three missions: find those plans, take righteous revenge, and don\u2019t get murdered. That last one\u2019s harder than it sounds because Dragon City is crawling with spies and assassins and they\u2019re all looking for her. Sporting as much intrigue as action, Hsu Feng is a righteous sword of holy vengeance in this shadowy flick that\u2019s like what would happen if John LeCarre\u2019 decided to put down his pen and pick up a sword.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Directed by: Yang Shih-ching
\n10th Old School Kung Fu Fest: Sword Fighting Heroes Edition!<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
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\n<\/span><\/strong>– The US premiere of\u00a0<\/span>The King of Wuxia<\/em>, an epic documentary about King Hu, the revolutionary filmmaker who re-invented wuxia movies and turned them into high art, plus three of his best films \u2014 the monumental and unmissable\u00a0<\/span>A Touch of Zen<\/em>, and two of his most action-packed flicks,\u00a0<\/span>The Valiant Ones<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>The Fate of Lee Khan<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nFULL LINE UP<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nA TOUCH OF ZEN (1971)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Starring: Hsu Feng, Shih Chun, Pai Ying, Tien Peng, Tsao Chien, Roy Chiao, Sammo Hung<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTHE FATE OF LEE KHAN (1973)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Starring: Tien Feng, Hsu Feng, Roy Chiao, Pai Ying, Han Ying-chieh, Angela Mao<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTHE VALIANT ONES (1975)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Starring: Roy Chiao, Hsu Feng, Sammo Hung, Han Ying-chieh<\/span><\/p>\n
\nVENGEANCE OF THE PHOENIX SISTERS (1968)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Starring: Yang Li-hua, Liu Ching, Chin Mei<\/span><\/p>\n
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\nUS Premiere of the Digital Restoration<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Starring: Tien Peng, Polly Shang-kuan, Chiang Nan<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTHE GHOST HILL (1971)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Starring: Tien Peng, Polly Shang-kuan, David Tang Wei<\/span><\/p>\n
\nA CITY CALLED DRAGON (1970)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Starring: Hsu Feng, Shih Chun<\/span><\/p>\n
\nTHE GRAND PASSION (1970)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Starring: Polly Shang-kuan, Pai Ying, Tsao Chien, Shih Chun<\/span><\/p>\n