The extremely prolific
Cheh Chang (China, 1923), commonly known as Chang Cheh (but Chang is the last name), was a specialist of violent wuxia and kung-fu movies in Hong Kong.
He debuted with Happennings in Alishan (1949), incidentally also
the first Mandarin-language film made in Taiwan,
and moved to Hong Kong to make Wild Fire (1957),
and directed
musical films like The Female Prince (1964), The Mermaid (1965) and
Inside the Forbidden City (1965)
before becaming a star
with One-Armed Swordsman (1967), followed more
swordplay movies, The Assassin (1967), Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969),
Have Sword Will Travel (1969),
The Wandering Swordsman (1970),
King Eagle (1971), The New One-Armed Swordsman (1971), the rare sequel that is better than the original,
The Deadly Duo (1971),
Delightful Forest (1972)
etc
in a style inspired by Sergio Leone's
"spaghetti westerns".
Golden Swallow (1968) was the sequel to King Hu's wuxia classic Come Drink with Me (1966).
Dead End (1969) was his first film set in modern times, followed by
The Anonymous Heroes (1971),
Young People (1972) and
The Generation Gap (1973).
At the same time he became a specialist of
kungfu movies with
The Invincible Fist (1969),
Vengeance (1970),
The Heroic Ones (1970),
The Duel (1971),
Duel of Fists (1971) and its sequel Angry Guest (1972),
Boxer From Shantung (1972), one of his best,
The Blood Brothers (1973),
The Pirate (1973),
Heroes Two (1974),
The Savage Five (1974),
Five Shaolin Masters (1974),
Shaolin Martial Arts (1974),
Disciples of Shaolin (1975),
The New Shaolin Boxers (1976)
Shaolin Temple (1976),
The Shaolin Avengers (1976)
etc.
The costume epic The Water Margin (1972), an adaptation of a 14th-century novel, stands out amid so many half-baked films.
Boxer Rebellion (1976) was another costume epic.
Other wuxia movies include:
All Men Are Brothers (1975),
The Brave Archer (1977),
These were just the tip of the iceberg. He was making five or six movies per year, including
Man of Iron (1972), Four Riders (1972),
The Delinquent (1973),
Police Force (1973),
The Iron Bodyguard (1973),
the horror movie The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974),
Men from the Monastery (1974),
Friends (1974),
Na Cha the Great (1974),
The Fantastic Magic Baby (1975),
the biopic Marco Polo (1975),
the two war movies 7-Man Army (1976) and The Naval Commandos (1977),
Magnificent Wanderers (1977),
etc.
He became even more famous with the
three-part Brave Archer series (1977-81).
The second period of his kung-fu cinema is represented by
Chinatown Kid (1977),
Five Deadly Venoms (1978),
Crippled Avengers (1978), the best of the "five venoms" films,
Kid with the Golden Arm (1979),
Masked Avengers (1981),
Five Element Ninjas (1982).
Chang died in 2002.
