When I saw Kung Fu Hustle directed by Steven Chow back in 2004 I was hooked once again on kung fu cinema. Over the years since then I’ve narrowed my interests to the golden age of Kung Fu movies when the Shaw Brothers Studio was at their height of production. Originally based in Singapore, they were the largest movie production company in Hong Kong in the 60s-early 80s. According to hkcinema.co.uk, the Shaw Bros have over 800 titles and at their height they started production on a new movie every 9 days! An interesting thing I’ve heard about the Shaw movies is that they were all shot without sound and then in post production the sound effects and speaking parts were dubbed in Cantonese and Mandarin so that they could efficiently and quickly market the movies to a wide audience across Southeast Asia. In 2002 Celestial Pictures bought the rights to 760 of the Shaw Brothers films and undertook a digitization and remastering project. Prior to the Celestial Pictures remasters most of the films weren’t available in any official format since their original releases in the theaters.
The films released by Celestial are in my experience wonderfully remastered and have basically spoiled me to the point where I’ve lost my patience for watching low quality bootlegs where the image is blurry or dark with parts of the screen chopped off and horrible overdubs. I’ve heard that Celestial has also released some of the Shaw Brothers movies in HD and Bluray formats, but haven’t had a chance yet to watch one. The movies span a wide variety of genres: Kung Fu, Action, Erotica, Period Drama, Huangmei Opera, Drama, Horror, Comedy, Fantasy, and Musical. You can download the full Celestial Shaw Bros catalogue here. 
Director: Liu Jia Liang (Lau Kar-Leung) 刘家良 (Liú Jiāliáng)
This movie rocks. Don’t be fooled by the title. The “dirty ho” in question is the scoundrel played by Wong Yue. Gordon Liu takes it upon himself to train Wong Yue to become a virtuous fighter. It’s directed by my favorite Shaw bros actor/director/actor/fight choreographer, Lau Kar-Leung, and also includes Gordon Liu (of 36th Chamber of Shaolin, and Kill Bill Vol. II) and Kara Hui – in my opinion the best female fighter on the Shaw team, and legendary actor Lo Leih who became typecast as the white bearded evil master character.
Highlights: “puppet” fight sequence where Gordon hides his identity by secretly helping the pipa player Kara Hui to fight against Wong Yue, secret fight sequence between Gordon Liu and Wilson Tong while they admire ancient calligraphy.
Fight Choreographer: Corey Yuen Kwai, Yuen Cheung-Yan
Actors: Jack Long, Lee I-min, Alan Chui, Corey Yuen
This movie is a non-Shaw Bros release. Joseph Kuo does a great job of setting up non-stop Kung Fu action by Jack Long and his student (a Jackie Chan ripoff) Lee I-min. The fights all occur in beautiful outdoor locales.
Highlights: Cool Monkey fist and mantis fist fights, book of secret styles, nice mix in the fight choreography between fantasy fu moves and the more hard-edged old school fighting styles.
Director: Lo Leih 罗烈 (Luó Liè)
Gordon Liu has to learn the woman’s style of kung fu in order to defeat Lo Leih because of his flying drift technique.
Highlights: Kara Hui teaches Gordon how to move like a woman in a hilarious montage, final fight scene with Lo Leih where Gordon searches for Leih’s weak spot by putting acupuncture pins all over his body throughout the course of the fight, causing Leih’s mood to shift from hilarity to extreme seriousness.
Highlights: Gordon Liu makes an appearance as a guitar player in a strangely out-of-place dance scene, Kara has to kick ass in a street scene where she just happens to be wearing high heels and a fashionable qi-pao.
Actors: 刘家辉 (Liú Jiāhuī) (Gordon Liu), 傅声 (Fù Shēng) Alexander Fu, 李丽丽 (Lǐ Lìli), 麦德罗 (Mài Déluó), Wong Yue 汪禹 (Wàng Yǔ)
Highlights: Fantastic pole fighting scenes by Gordon, stylish opening sequence, the final fight scene is jaw-dropping.
Director: 刘家良 (Liú Jiāliáng)
Actors: 刘家辉 (Liú Jiāhuī) (Gordon Liu) , 傅声 (Fù Shēng) Alexander Fu, 刘家荣 (Liú Jiāróng), 刘家良 (Liú Jiāliáng), Kara Hui 惠英红 (Huì Yīnghóng)
This is a masterpiece. It has almost all of the top Shaw Bros stars in it, has a good mix of serious and ridiculous, and good use of all of the “legendary 18 weapons”.
Highlights: Voodoo Fu scene by Alexander Fu, fake guts pulled out of someone’s body, an epic final fight scene between brothers (in real life) Lau Kar-Leung and Lau Kar-Wing. Lau Kar-Leung is the one with the mole on his face.
Director: 刘家良 (Liú Jiāliáng)
Actors: 刘家辉 (Liú Jiāhuī) (Gordon Liu) , 傅声 (Fù Shēng) Alexander Fu, 刘家良 (Liú Jiāliáng), Kara Hui 惠英红 (Huì Yīnghóng)
This movie is a showcase for the director/main actor Lau Kar-Leung. He busts out the sick monkey kung fu moves and puts everyone else to shame.
Highlights: great opening sequence with Kara Hui as a Peking Opera performer, evil characters that you love to hate and see demolished by (sometimes drunken) monkey kung fu.
Actors: Sammo Hung 洪金宝 (Hóng Jīnbǎo), Kwan Tak-hing, Lee Hoi-san, Yuen Biao, Wei Pai
Sammo Hung, despite being wide around the waist, moves like a champion in this flick. He plays a butcher, who is also a student of the legendary Wong Fei-Hung. The film is a real genre mixer, with moments of hilarious slapstick (Sammo falling into a burning hot wok and yelling “Yaoooowwwzaaa!”), a difficult rape scene, and straight-up hard core kung fu action.
Highlights: My favorite evil dude actor from the genre, Lee Hoi-san (who shows up all over the place), a scene where sammo does calligraphy while fighting, and the final sequence which involves a lot of snake fist.
Fight Choreography: 刘家荣 (Liú Jiāróng), 刘家良 (Liú Jiāliáng)
Actors: Jimmy Wang-Yu 王羽 (Wáng Yǔ), Kam Kang, Lung Chung-erh (as Kun Yee Lung), Liu Chia Yung (as Kar Wing Lau), Philip Kwok
This is one crazy film! It focuses on a blind white-bearded master who wields his signature weapon, the flying guillotine. This film isn’t the first flying guillotine film, but in my opinion it is the best because of the stowability of the weapon and sick style of the white bearded master. Jimmy Wang-Yu is kind of like an Eastern John Wayne outlaw type of character here. His kung fu isn’t very impressive, but his on-screen charm is right on and he pulls it off.
Highlights: tournament scene with fights between Jimmy Wang-Yu and monkey fist expert, eagle claw fighter, and a Mongolian with absurdly long extendable arms. If you get your hands on the release pictured here, there is an English dubbed track that is classic campy vintage material!
This movie is full of Peking Opera actors speaking in high falsettos and kung fu masters. The Prodigal Son, Yuen Biao, eventually finds his place as a student of Sammo and remakes himself into a true kung fu expert. His master is killed, the revenge plot ensues, and you can probably guess what happens at the end.
Highlights: Backstage fight scene on the set of the Peking Opera, the final showdown between post-Sammo taught Yuen Biao and the evil dude Frankie Chan. Even though the blood is the wrong color, it still makes me cringe every time I re-watch it.
I was going to stop there, but I can’t bring myself to put out a list of only 10 kung fu movies without giving a shout out to a bunch of other classics:
Enter the Dragon (1973) 龍爭虎鬥 (Lóng Zhēng Hǔ Dǒu) Classic Bruce Lee, a kind of 007/Kung Fu-East meets West mashup. Great music and star-studded cast (even Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung play bit parts).
Way of the Dragon (1972) 猛龍過江 (Měng Lóng Guò Jiāng) Another Bruce Lee classic. Watch it for the final fight scene alone where Bruce takes on Chuck Norris in the Roman Colosseum. If you get the uncut version of the film you’ll see the goofy scene of Bruce ordering food in broken English, getting like 6 bowls of soup, and eating it all so that he doesn’t lose face over his bad english.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin aka The Master Killer (1979) 少林三十六房 (Shào Lín Sānshíliù Fáng). This movie is mostly an extended training sequence in the Shaolin Temple. Gordon Liu has to advance through all 36 chambers of the Shaolin Temple before he can become a true Shaolin Monk.
Return to the 36 Chambers (1978) – Funny sequel with awesome scenes of Gordon Liu fighting with bamboo scaffolding.
Fist of Legend (1994) – Jet Li, remake of Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury. Watch out for the blindfolded kung fu fight in the middle of the flick.
Fearless (2006) Jet Li’s “last” martial arts epic. Awesome fights with and without weapons. Great scene of him fighting the massive Hercules O’Brien (Nathan Jones) who also fought muay thai film monster Tony Jaa in The Protector (2005)
The Shaolin Temple (1982) Jet Li’s debut. It is chock full of real martial artists doing their thing on camera. I heard it was filmed an location at the Shaolin temple.
5 Deadly Venoms (1978) – Chang Cheh’s brilliant masterpiece that popularized the crazy styles trend in kung fu cinema. The plot is a little confusing though with so many fighters all trying to conceal their identities. Good luck keeping straight who is who while you watch the Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard, and Toad battle it out. The Wu-Tang Clan’s frontman the RZA is a huge fan of this flick. If you are into hip hop and kung fu I’d recommend checking out the RZA’s book The Wu-Tang Manual which explains his creative fusion of diverse influences from Chess to Chemistry to Kung Fu.
5 Fingers of Death aka King Boxer (1972) 天下第一拳 – Stars Lo Leih and has a killer soundtrack. This one was one of Quentin Tarantino’s inspirations for Kill Bill volumes I and II. I think he even used some of the original 5 Fingers of Death sound effects in Kill Bill.
Fist and Guts (1980) For the most part a silly comedy, with some serious action at the end by Gordon Liu (of Master Killer fame). The only movie I’ve ever seen with a sequence of Leper Fist (on a small island of Lepers).
Mystery of Chess Boxing AKA Ninja Checkmate (1979) – This flick has the same director and cast as 7 Grandmasters. The Ghostface Killer (no coincidence here that a Wu-Tang Clan member has the same name) is on a murderous rampage and has to be stopped. Great fights but laughable costumes and hairstyles. This one is a real piece of camp.
Drunken Master (1978) This is the best old-school Jackie Chan flick. The whole thing is hilarious. Jackie plays the legendary Wong Fei-Hong and has to master the art of drunken boxing
Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978) This Jackie Chan flick came out just before Drunken Master. I think the fights are equally entertaining and features some wicked snake fist action.
Rumble in the Bronx (1995) Jackie Chan’s best work from his post old-school pre-Rushhour period. The shot where he jumps from the bridge onto the boat, he actually broke his foot! Amazing final scene where he drives a hovercraft through NYC, just wrecking everything in his path.