Two Shaw Shorts

Perils of the Sentimental Swordsman is the third part of the Sentimental Swordsman series. Titular hero Ti Lung (who doesn't use swords) goes undercover in a place called Ghostly Island and meets the usual barrage of weird characters that director Chu Yuan loved to throw at his audience. I was delighted.

Eight Diagram Pole Fighter is usually counted among the best of the late period Shaw Brothers films. In the first half hour I couldn't fathom why. Even more patriotic melodrama than usual plus terribly stagy acting were very hard to endure. But after that the movie became a blast, the acting seemed to get more less stiff and quite ferocious and there are just so many beautiful ways to mistreat people with staffs...