Bullets 'n' Babes

Since Markway is persona non grata on Kung Fu Cinema's forums, I thought I'd post it here

This applies to many other indies besides, but I thought I'd focus on these.



Before signing with Eternal in 1976, Bruce Li made a bunch of movies for Taiwanese based producers, including Jimmy Shaw's Alpha
Super Dragon (1974)
Conspiracy (1975)
Bruce Lee Against Supermen (1975) ... Cato/Carter
The New Game of Death (1975) ... Lee Hon Hung
Dragon Dies Hard (1976) ... Stone
Bruce Lee - The Star of All Stars (1976) ... Tiger/David/ Tan Lung
The Story of the Dragon (1976) ... Bruce Lee
Chinese Chieh Chuan Kung Fu (1976) ... Bruce Lee

He's a Legend; He's a Hero (1976)
The Ming Patriots (1976)
Return of the Tiger (1977) ... Chang Hung
Fist of Fury, Part Two (1977) ... Chen Shen



New Game of Death played in HK (possibly distributed by Shaws) and He's A Legend, He's A Hero & Ming Patriots were distributed there by First. But the rest do not have recorded HK play-dates, either on HKMDB or HKFA. We know they played dubbed in the US and US, but is there a way to find out release dates of such films for other Chinese speaking territories such as Taiwan?



Other notable films that seem to have skipped HK include Born Invincible and Shaw's own Opium and the Kung Fu Master.

Actually, Alpha was Hong Kong based.... and who's this Markway character?

Pretty sure 'The Story of the Dragon' played in H.K and under that title.

You're right about the others though.

I don't know of any database for Taiwanese releases that supplies accurate dates; the best you can hope for is the release year.

Occasionally, the HKFA will give a specific Taiwanese date.

I've often wondered where HK ends and Taiwan began - it seems HK producers made films in Taiwan as standard, but does that make them Taiwanese?

Depends on how you choose to define them.

I go by where the production company is based.

Some people go simply by where it was filmed.

Alpha is an interesting one. HK based, all their productions seem to be a) Taiwan and b) no recorded HK release. Then Jimmy Shaw gets his name plastered over the VHS releases of the Jackie Chan/Lo Wei films as though he made them!

No one ever accused these guys of having scruples.

A few of the earlier Alpha productions (e.g. Honor and Love and The Yellow Killer) were released in Hong Kong.

The later ones, often Bruceploitation, certainly weren't.

Alpha made some of my favourite old schoolers - Gambling for Head, Double Double Crosser and Fist of Fury II