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Exploitations from the Far East (DVD box set) (1975)

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As they did with their Wuxia box set, Siren Visual have put together a set of five films from the Shaw Brothers with similar themes, packaging them up in rather a nice-looking box set with new artwork and menus on all the discs. This one’s rather less high-minded than the tales of chivalry and heroism in the last one, though — it’s a box of Shaws’ less salubrious fare from the late 70s and early 80s, when they moved … (read more)

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Illicit Desire (1973)

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Illicit Desire is another erotic costume drama from Li Han Hsiang, and the third from him that I’ve seen so far that is (at least partly) an adaptation from the same source — The Golden Lotus, as seen also in (unsurprisingly) The Golden Lotus and The Tiger Killer. He even uses some of the same actors, with Tanny Tien Ni, Hu Chin and Chen Ping also in this one.

This film’s a little different, though. It’s essentially three … (read more)

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The Golden Lotus (1974)

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Well, this is a different kind of film for me to review; The Golden Lotus is a Shaw Brothers film that features no kung fu, no roving swordsmen, no cultists, no priests, and no battling for honour or control of the martial world at all. It does (as the synopsis above says) have murders, corruptions and sexual exploits. Mostly sexual exploits, actually — the corruption and murders are generally side-effects in this story. So, consider yourself warned: most definitely not … (read more)

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