JULY 20 21 SUN 7 P.M., MON 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN
HONG KONG 1967
DIRECTOR: ZHANG CHE The eponymous hero Fang Gang, played with sullen charisma by Jimmy Wang Yu, is an orphaned "scholarship student" at a martial arts academy, a resentful commoner persecuted by the sneering gentry. He endures their bullying stoically, until his sifu's spoiled daughter spies the muscular peasant chopping wood, shirtless and gleaming. Infuriated by her own desire, she ends up lopping off one of his arms. During a sojourn in the wilderness, Gang masters the unfamiliar art of fighting left-handed and returns home to trounce his astonished enemies. Even in its visual details the film announces the arrival of a new kind of hero: Wang Yu wears simple, functional clothing modeled on the dusty homespun of the samurai films that inspired director Zhang and screenwriter Ni Kuang. (111 mins.)

JULY 24 25 THU 7 P.M., FRI 7:30 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
GOLDEN SWALLOW
HONG KONG 1968
DIRECTOR: ZHANG CHE A nominal sequel to King Hu's COME DRINK WITH ME, GOLDEN SWALLOW takes its title from the heroine of Hu's film but, in line with director Zhang Che's proclivity for male-centered stories, reorients the plot around a tormented wandering swordsman. The film's true protagonist is thus Silver Roc, the brooding knight portrayed by Zhang stalwart Jimmy Wang Yu. A prototype for the conflicted male antiheroes that would dominate virtually all of Zhang's subsequent films, Silver Roc is a psychologically complex figure, drawn to violence and driven by a death wish while at the same time possessed of a poetic sensibility and powerful romantic yearnings. In Zhang's characteristically tragic scheme, these warring tendencies inevitably bring about the warrior's downfall. (108 mins.)

JULY 26 28 SAT 7:30 P.M., MON 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
VENGEANCE!
HONG KONG 1970
DIRECTOR: ZHANGE CHE Zhang Che transitioned from the swordplay subgenre with this ultraviolent revenge drama set against the (relatively) modern backdrop of China's early republican period. David Jiang (David Chiang) and Di Long (Ti Lung)-Zhang's preferred pairing of heroes throughout the '70s star in their first film together: Di as a dignified Beijing opera performer whose murder at the hands of a corrupt local cabal launches his mysterious white-suited brother- a relentless, wraithlike Jiang-down the path of bloody retribution. VENGEANCE! heralded the rise of '70s kung fu and radically revised narrative and stylistic templates at the Shaw Brothers' studio. Even Bruce Lee paid homage to the white suit in THE CHINESE CONNECTION (1972, aka FIST OF FURY in Hong Kong). (103 mins.)

JULY 27 29 SUN 7 P.M., TUE 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF A CHINESE COURTESAN
HONG KONG 1972
CHU YUAN Imagine relocating the martial arts school to a brothel, and transposing the martial arts master to the brothel's madam and the martial arts disciple to a prostitute who must be forcibly drilled in the sexual arts of servicing men. Imagine also that the madam is a lesbian who abducts virgins to work in her brothel; that she both exploits and is genuinely in love with her protégée; and that the protégée only fakes subservience while secretly seeking bloody revenge against all who have wronged her. The ambience is baroque atmospherics spiced with a whiff of terror. The frame is that of a murder mystery, with the requisite police investigation. The slain and dismembered are almost all men. "Perversity" meets swordplay, and the result is "pulp poetry." -Tony Rayns. (90 mins.)

JULY 30 31 WED 7 P.M., THU 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
BLOOD BROTHERS
HONG KONG 1973
DIRECTOR: ZHANG CHE This wide screen epic of love, loyalty and betrayal is based on actual events that have become legend, spawning several film versions. Zhang's retelling finds David Chiang and newcomer Chen Guandai as bandit brothers who befriend young general Di Long after trying to rob him. The stage is set for tragedy when Di Long falls for Chen's neglected wife. From one tortured hero in THE ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN to two in VENGEANCE, Zhang here has three protagonists, the better to indulge his passion for sadomasochistic display of the male body under duress. This threesome whose devotion eventually turns to jealousy, treachery and revenge prefigures John Woo's BULLET IN THE HEAD, and indeed, Woo served as assistant director on BLOOD BROTHERS. (118 mins.)

AUG 1 2 FRI 7 P.M., SAT 7 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN
HONG KONG 1978
DIRECTOR: LAU KAR-LEUNG A bald and tautly muscled Lau Kar-fai (Gordon Liu Jiahui) headlines this exhilarating rendition of the legendary dissemination of the Shaolin martial arts. Lau plays a real-life figure long-since transmuted into myth, a Chinese commoner on the run from Manchu oppressors (including a glowering Luo Lie) who seeks refuge at the Shaolin Temple. The film is an absorbing account of his initiation into the vaunted Shaolin style, known for its emphasis on the external and the physical. But as depicted here the training process is very much an inner voyage of discovery: The novice must work his way through a series of torturous "chambers" before becoming the newly minted monk, San De. (118 mins.)

AUG 7 9 THU 7 P.M., SAT 7:30 P.M.
GUILD THEATRE
RETURN TO THE CHAMBER
HONG KONG 1980
DIRECTOR: LAU KAR-LEUNG This quasi-sequel to the original, immensely popular THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN applies a light touch to the "warrior-in-training" sub genre and ably showcases director Lau Kar-leung's considerable talent for kung fu comedy. Lau Kar-fai reprises his starring role, but rather than a kung fu master he portrays a con man merely impersonating a Shaolin priest. A delightful self-parody and testament to Lau's refusal to facilely recycle the formula of his past success, RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER cleverly subverts expectations while fulfilling the narrative and action requirements of the classic revenge plot. (111 mins.)