From Jimmy Wang Yu in The Chinese Boxer to Raymond Chow launching Golden Harvest studio, wuxia film reports from the archive

Journalist Vincent Wong wrote a weekly column for the Post about Chinese martial arts films called Chinese Filmscope, which had all the latest gossip

In 1970 the big stories were about Cheng Pei-pei giving up filmmaking and Shaw Brothers executive Raymond Chow’s plans to quit. Only one came true at the time

Reading Time:4 minutes

Nora Miao (left) and Angela Mao Ying in a scene from The Invincible Eight. Both the film and its actors got a good review in the Post’s Chinese Filmscope column in 1970.

Published: 5:15am, 18 Jul 2021Updated: 5:15am, 18 Jul 2021

In 1970, when wuxia films were still riding high, the Post’s Vincent Wong wrote a weekly column about Chinese films called Chinese Filmscope for the newspaper.

Two running stories dominated the column that year: the rumour that Cheng Pei-pei, Hong Kong’s superstar “Queen of Swordplay”, was going to give up making films, and the whispers that powerful Shaw Brothers executive Raymond Chow was planning to leave the company.

Cheng did stop making films – albeit in 1974 – and Chow, after many denials at the start of 1970, left Shaw late that year to found rival company Golden Harvest.

Reading through Wong’s informative articles is enlightening. It may come as a surprise to some readers that Hong Kong’s most revered director in 1970 was Lo Wei, a martial arts filmmaker who is now regarded as a lesser artist.

Similarly, martial arts legend Angela Mao Ying was not even noticed by film critics in her debut movie, although Wong disagreed with his peers and said she had star potential. In fact, Wong had a good eye for talent, having also correctly predicted that now legendary swordswoman Hsu Feng would become a “brilliant star”.

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