Chor Yuen - The Chinese Cinema

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Chor Yuen

A collection of 8 posts

Swordsman and Enchantress (Chor Yuen, 1978)

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Swordsman and Enchantress (Chor Yuen, 1978)

The Web of Death (Chor Yuen, 1976)

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The Web of Death (Chor Yuen, 1976)

Chor Yuen Capsule Reviews

Chor Yuen Capsule Reviews

The House of 72 Tenants (1973) — July 21, 2013 A comic version of the “poor people living in cramped quarters” genre that pops around around the world in movies like Humanity and Paper Balloons by Sadao Yamanaka, Street Scene by King Vidor, many of the 1930s films of Naruse and

Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, Parts I & II (Chor Yuen, 1978)

Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, Parts I & II (Chor Yuen, 1978)

It took me way too long to realize this was an adaptation of the same material as Kung Fu Cult Master (aka Lord of the Wu Tang), a crazy Jet Li wuxia film from 1993 directed by Wong Jing, one that I’ve seen three or four times. The problem

The Sentimental Swordsman (Chor Yuen, 1977)

The Sentimental Swordsman (Chor Yuen, 1977)

An exceptionally well-written wuxia film, one in which the characters are motivated by psychology rather than fulfilling roles as mere mythological character types, where the tsunami of exposition that swamps so many other films in the genre is distilled into action with the expeditious use of a MacGuffin (a mysterious

Heroes Shed No Tears (Chor Yuen, 1980)

Heroes Shed No Tears (Chor Yuen, 1980)

I’ve only seen a few Chor Yuen films, so I don’t know how much this is a signature of his, but with this movie he seems to be exploring what would have happened had Josef von Sternberg made a wuxia film. Or at least Von Sternberg’s set

Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (Chor Yuen, 1972)

Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (Chor Yuen, 1972)

As angry and passionate an attack on institutional prostitution as anything you’ll see from Mizoguchi or anywhere else, director Chor Yuen uses all the opulent romanticism of the Shaw Brothers style at its peak to expose the twisted black heart of the brothels that casually make up the background

Killer Clans (Chor Yuen, 1976)

Killer Clans (Chor Yuen, 1976)

Showing more of a noir-by-way-of-Yojimbo influence than most Shaw Brothers films, this Chor Yuen-directed adaptation of a novel by Gu Long shows that there’s more to kung fu movies than simple revenge and enlightenment plots. Chor takes his time setting up a world ruled by devilishly clever gangsters demanding