The aesthetics of fighting action, flying sword-fights, Peking opera poses, Buddhist teachings, breathtaking sets and design, gender-flexibility, sentimental melodrama are some of the elements that paint the vivid and diverse Martial Arts world found in the legendary Shaw Brothers' films. Compared to the 1950s Cantonese Martial Arts films, which were dominated by Kwan Tak Hing's Wong Fei Hong theme, the Shaw Brothers' films lean toward Buddhist and Taoist values and emphasize sword-based combat, romance and fantasy, along with splendid fight sequences. The bloody duels were highlighted in the films and the martial arts sword-fighting hero was a key element in these formulaic plots.

Four prominent directors largely help build the Shaw Brothers' martial arts film empire: King Hu (Hu Jin Chuan), Chang Cheh (Zhang Che), Chor Yuen (Chu Yuan) and Lau Kar-leung (Liu Jialiang). Each of these men possesses a distinct style and philosophy, which has deeply influenced directors to follow, including John Woo, who was influenced by Chang Cheh, and Ang Lee, who was influenced by King Hu.

The magic starts with King Hu's Come Drink with Me.....

Hu Jin Chuan, better known in the U.S. as King Hu, became the first Chinese to win the top Cannes International Film Festival award for his direction of A Touch of Zen, which was set during the Ming Dynasty. In 1978, Hu was already praised as one of five master movie directors in the world for his Chinese kung fu movies, which beautifully presented Chinese traditional spirit and culture.

King Hu attended the National Art Institute of Beijing and became a scholarly director who paid close attention to the period costume and set while implementing literary language and Buddhist Zen in all his films.

Hu joined the Shaw Brothers studios in 1958 as an actor and scriptwriter. He also wrote a number of screenplays, including The Mix Up (1961) for Yan Jun. In 1962, he directed The Story for Sue San under Li Hanxiang's supervision, and proceeded to assist Li in the production of The Love Eterne (1963). In 1966, he directed his first martial arts film, Come Drink with Me. The influence of traditional Peking opera was already evident in the style of major characters' entrance and fight choreography mixed with movement and still-poses. The film highlighted great stage articulation of sword fight scenes and characters with fluidity, nonetheless it demonstrated King Hu's earlier individual style and concept of the sword-fight film.

Hu added complexity into the martial art films, often reflecting political layers of personality and Buddhist philosophies. His contrapuntal use of movement and stillness, fast pace and the slow mode has produced a marvelous scene persona. He successfully translated the movement into poetry and again the juxtaposition of motion and stillness in play. He also created many memorable characters that set the framework for later Martial Arts films to follow. For example, in Come Drink with Me, female lead Cheng Pei-pei dressed as a male fighter to establish an image of remote and dispassionate heroine. Furthermore, in Come Drink with Me, the Cao Shaoquin character with an unwrinkled face of a child and white hair of an old man has become a model for numerous imitations.

Famous director Ang Lee was greatly influenced by King Hu, and Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon bamboo combat scene pays tribute to King Hu's famous fight scene in A Touch of Zen, which also took stage in a bamboo forest.

In addition to cinematic innovations, King Hu had a firm grasp of staging effects, innovative character development and fight-sequence articulation, imagery and rhythm; all of which embrace a poetic effect in the highest form of cinematic expression.

• Story of Sue San, The (1964)
• Come Drink with Me (1966)
• Dragon Gate Inn (1967)
• Touch of Zen, A (1971)
• Raining in the Mountain (1979)
• Legend of the Mountain (1979)
• Painted Skin (1993)

As with King Hu, Chang is also a screenwriter turned director, though he has a completely different style than King Hu. Chang Cheh emphasized masculinity while downplaying the feminine role and highlighting brotherly love. King Hu's films are just the opposite, with a much more feminine approach and subtle messaging. Hu's and Chang's films also sharply contrast in story development and character behaviors for each character. The ultimate goals in the hero's quest are personal ambitions in Chang Cheh's films, rather than the patriotic and political ideals set forth in King Hu's films.

Chang Cheh's simple story line, along with a bold usage of on-screen color and blood, is quite different from King Hu's plot complexity and Chinese-painting imagery. Although there are differences in creation, both directors have achieved commercial and artistic success.

Chang Cheh made 70 pictures over his 15-year film career with the Shaw Brothers studios, far surpassing other directors. With such quantity and his unique "house style"—the tragic hero and the underling theme of patriotism, chivalry and self-sacrifice in the final duel—Chang almost single-handedly defined the Shaw Brothers' style of marital arts.

The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), Golden Sallow (1968), Blood Brothers (1973) are widely thought of as Chang's best works. Golden Swallow appears to exemplify Chang's formative stage, but it confirmed an essential element in his distinctive approach: the obsessive glamorous death. Chang's films are particularly staged and overly attentive in conveying the extreme physical cruelty and pain faced by their main characters. For Chang, death represents the final glorification for the "tragic and lonely" hero, the individual effort bound by moral obligations arising from loyalty, friendship and love, the path that leads only to the ultimate transcendence.

The moral obligations, coupled with physical strength, seems so essential to Chang that his heroes would challenge even the most formidable of forces, facing death without hesitation. In many ways, his films have simplified all human complexities. For example, the famous Golden Swallow final-dual scene, Silver Roc, while already severely wounded, insists on meeting his opponent alone. Injured again in the stomach, Roc fights on while holding his innards from spilling out.

In Blood Brothers (1973), the hero makes a pointed effort to go down the lonely path to finish his moral duties: there is no emotional complexity or hidden plots to change the course of action. The co-existence of simplicity and individual effort become instruments to the ultimate death process.

Moreover, simplifying the character and the plot reflects the IMPORTANCE of the final duel and the SIGNIFICANCE of the fight choreography. Such design has greatly enhanced the audience's ability to identify and empathize with the hero. Chang Cheh's staging, cinematography, philosophy and individual heroic action are clearly illustrated in the final scene of Blood Brothers, where the hero defies the odds against him. Such self-affirmation and individual effort has always been the central motif underlying all of Chang's heroic figures. Director John Woo later adapted the "tragic, lonely hero" theme, further glorifying violence with poetic slow-motion scenes.

• Butterfly Chalice, The (1965)
• One Armed Swordsman (1967)
• Assassin, The (1967)
• Golden Swallow, The (1968)
• Vengeance! (1970)
• Duel, The (1971)
• Blood Brothers, The (1973)
• Marco Polo (1975)
• Chinatown Kid (1977)
• Crippled Avengers (1978)
• Sword Stained with Royal Blood (1981)
• Great Shanghai 1937 (1986)
• Hidden Hero (1993)

Born in China's Canton Province in 1934, Chor was inspired by his father, veteran actor Zhang Huoyou, leading Yuen to became a scriptwriter in 1956. But it wasn't until joining the Shaw Brothers' studios in 1971 that Yuen was well on his way to becoming one of the most prolific martial arts film directors. During his career, Chor introduced the swordfight film: the detective thrillers and melodramas with a particular emphasis on atmosphere and character development.

His first commercial success, Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972), shows the first lesbian scene in martial arts film history, with two female fighters kissing and hugging on a bed; Chor boldly uses the wu xia pian to deliver social commentary. He also implements flashbacks and slow-motion scenes in this film to create added drama.

Different from Chang Cheh and King Hu, Yuen likes to transfer existing popular wu xia novels to the silver screen. His favorite authors are Gu Long and Jin Yong, whose stories add a unique complexity to his films by blending various forms of martial arts and detective stories to create suspense and intrigue. Unlike other directors, Chor's films focus on the romantic world, lavishly infused with atmospheric settings, flamboyant decor and brilliant costumes.

Chor's new style of martial arts film relies heavily on wire-work to create flying swordfight scenes, and is centered on melodramatic and romantic tension. As a result, these films have undoubtedly foreshadowed the position of women as both symbols of sex and love. These characteristics are fully illustrated in the opening scene of Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan, with black and white design staging a group of policemen surrounding a murder victim covered by pure, white snow: a poetic setting that leads to great suspense and unpredictability.

Although a massive production bureaucracy has led to certain inconsistencies in his work, Yuen has nevertheless made a distinctive impression on the swordfight film genre.

• Bloodshed in the Valley of Love (1957)
• Black Rose (1965)
• Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972)
• House of 72 Tenants, The (1973)
• Killer Clans (1976)
• Magic Blade, The (1976)
• Clans of Intrigue (1977)
• Sentimental Swordsman, The (1977)
• Black Lizard (1981)
• Diary of a Big Man, The (1988)
• Buddhist Spell, The (1993)

A native of Canton, Lau Kar-leung was born in 1934, and in contrast to many other directors, he actually practices kung fu himself. During Chang Cheh's time, Lau Kar-leung worked as the fight choreographer for many of Chang's films, including Golden Swallow and Blood Brothers. Catching the end of the Shaw Brothers' reign in the late '70s and early '80s, Lau teamed with his bother, actor Lau Kar-fai, and successfully transformed martial arts film again, this time returning to the historical origins of kung fu: the Shaolin temple with the underling training theme. For example, the success of the 36th Chamber of Shaolin, prompted a series of imitators, and remains the quintessential style of martial arts film. This success also led to Lau Kar-fai's trademark: the shaved-head monk role.

These films often had a formulaic plot: the underdog must rise to a challenge (usually avenging the slaughter of the hero's family) by undergoing strict martial arts training (often in a Shaolin temple), so he can exact vengeance upon the killer. By going back to a linear plot, these films presented kung fu in a different manner. In his book, Hong Kong Action Cinema, Bey Logan praised Lau's work: "His [Lau's] work has always been character-driven, relying on the physical nature of the conflict to create superior effect." Kar-leung's reality-based approach to kung fu choreography relied less on weapons and more on fistfights, which is a reflection of his Hung Kuen southern-style martial arts training. This fits well with the Chinese saying, "Nan Kuen Bei Tui," or in English, "Southern Fists, Northern Legs" alluding to the northern style's prevalence of kicking and the southern style's prevalence of fist fighting.

The form and content of Lau Kar-leung's films often did not sustain satisfactory relationships, as the imagery served only to fulfill narrative purposes. In this aspect, his films fall short of "breakthroughs" in cinematic expression. But like director Chang Cheh, Kar-leung was very successful in stimulating audience's reaction toward the heroes, with acrobatic movement and brutal exchanges between combatants, resulting in the underdog's victory: martial arts films were, once again, back to basics, with morality portrayed as vigilante justice and savage force. Lau Kar-leung began another renaissance for martial arts films.

• Spiritual Boxer, The (1975)
• 36th Chamber of Shaolin, The (1978)
• Return to the 36th Chamber (1980)
• My Young Auntie (1981)
• Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986)
• Drunken Master II (1994)
• Drunken Master III (1994)
• Drunken Monkey (2003)