In keeping with martial arts movie tradition, the UCLA Film & Television Archive presents a sequel to the successful Heroic Grace touring program launched in 2003. Heroic Grace II covers the 1970s and early 1980s, that enormously creative period when kung fu entered the popular lexicon in the West. Martial arts cinema was nothing if not star-driven in its "new school" incarnation, and the stars who emerged in the 1970s and 1980s were the brightest of them all, first and foremost the iconic Bruce Lee. But the era had other stars as well, including Luo Lie, Di Long and Gordon Liu (KILL BILL) - not to mention some of the first female action stars such as Kara Hui and Betty Bei Di. Young Jackie Chan and Jet Li appear here in the Hong Kong films that made them famous, long before becoming stars in the West.

Visit the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office's 11th Annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival at www.hketowashington.gov.hk/dc/activities/11HKfestival.htm

All notes adapted from Cheng-Sim Lim and Jesse Zigelstein, UCLA Film & Television Archive. A SPECIAL THANKS to the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office for their Supporter Sponsorship of the HEROIC GRACE film series.

AFI Member Passes will be accepted at all screenings in the Heroic Grace Series.

New 35mm Print
KING BOXER
(TIANXIA DIYI QUAN)

KING BOXER, the first kung fu film to be a hit in the West, paved the way for the Bruce Lee phenomenon. Actor Luo Lie brings characteristic intensity to his role as an "Iron Fist" whose fingers are viciously shattered by a rival gang. (The film was released internationally under the title FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH.) In paradigmatic fashion, he then trains his way back to peak form and wreaks vengeance on his adversaries.

DIR Chang-hwa Jeong; SCR Yang Chiang and Lieh Lo; PROD Raymond Shaw and Run Run Shaw. Hong Kong, 1972, color, 104 min. In Mandarin with English subtitles. RATED R

LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF CHINA
(SHIBA BAN WUYI)

It's easy to see why Director Chia-Liang Liu's exhilaratingexposition on Chinese martial arts has been hailed as the ultimate film on the subject. The film argues for realistic kung fu (skilled effort) over fakery and spectacle. A compendium of 18 classic weaponry and combat styles, including "weaponless" fist-fighting, the film also reiterates a favorite theme of martial arts cinema - the training of a disciple by a master, though it shifts from the usual focus on the pupil to the teacher and his ethical responsibilities.

DIR Chia-Liang Liu; SCR/PROD E. Charles Mc-Broom; PROD Mona Fong. Hong Kong, 1982, color, 101 min. In Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles. NOT RATED

New 35mm Print
THE BOXER FROM SHANTUNG
(MA YONGZHEN)

Chen Guantai is a poor hick from Shandong whose fearsome boxing ability allows him to muscle his way to the top of the Shanghai underworld. Among the highlights that have inspired a host of imitators: an iconic match between Chen and a Russian wrestler, and a gang of ruthless hatchet-wielding thugs, most recently revived as the "axe gang" in Stephen Chow's comic tribute to the martial arts cinema, KUNG FU HUSTLE.

DIR/SCR Cheh Chang; DIR Hseuh Li Pao; SCR Kuang Ni; PROD Run Me Shaw. Hong Kong, 1972, color, 94 min. In Mandarin with English subtitles. NOT RATED

New 35mm Print
MY YOUNG AUNTIE
(ZHANGBEI)

An unalloyed triumph of kung fu comedy. A young widow (Kara Hui) arrives in Guangdong to deliver a deed of inheritance to its rightful heirs, her crotchety nephew-by-marriage (Lau Kar-leung) and his Westernized son (Xiao Hou). Age and gender role reversals allow for a wealth of kung fu funny business, freely mixing martial arts moves with allusions to popular Hollywood genres (musicals, swashbucklers and even war movies).

DIR Chia-Liang Liu; SCR uncredited; PROD Mona Fong and Run Run Shaw. Hong Kong, 1981, color, 114 min. In Mandarin with English subtitles. NOT RATED

DIRTY HO
(LAN TOU HOU)

This movie brilliantly distills director Liu’s penchant for discoursing on the beauty and rigor of the martial arts genre. Gordon Liu plays a prodigal prince targeted for assassination by his elder brother. Enter Wang Yu as the title character, a boisterous ruffian who reluctantly apprentices himself to the expert Liu. The climactic fight, pitting prince and apprentice against a battery of swords and arrows, is a set piece for the ages.

DIR Chia-Liang Liu; SCR Kuang Ni; PROD Mona Fong and Run Run Shaw. Hong Kong, 1979, color, 103 min. In Cantonese with Chinese and English subtitles. RATED R

New 35mm Print
THE VALIANT ONES
(ZHONGLIE TU)

Set during director King Hu's oft-visited era, the Ming Dynasty (14th to 17th centuries), THE VALIANT ONES refers to a crack team - including Bai Ying as the coolly enigmatic swordsman and Xu Feng as his taciturn wife - assembled by military strategist Roy Chiao to defend the Chinese coast against Japanese pirates. Tantalizingly abstract in its fight choreography - action is expressed in calligraphic strokes such as the brief clanging of blades, the whizzing–by of arrows and the rhythmic flight of bodies—the film's evocation of landscape is never less than majestic.

DIR/SCR King Hu; PROD uncredited. Hong Kong, 1975, color, 102 min. In Mandarin with English subtitles. NOT RATED

THE MAGIC BLADE
(TIANYA MINGYUE DAO)

With thrilling acrobatics arrayed against a diorama of ancient Chinoiserie, THE MAGIC BLADE confirmed Chu Yuan as a master of the 1970s wuxia spectacular. Shaw Studios action stars Di Long and Luo Lie are chivalric rivals who join forces to track down a legendary weapon - the terrifying Peacock Dart—and defeat an evil sorcerer bent on domination. Along the way, a wild menagerie of armed henchmen, conniving nobles and beauties and a militant grandma cross swords with poncho-clad Di Long, brandishing his own custom-made spinning blade.

DIR Yuen Chor; SCR Kuang Ni, from the novel by Lung Ku; PROD uncredited. Hong Kong, 1976, color, 86 min. In Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles. NOT RATED

CLANS OF INTRIGUE
(CHU LIUXIANG)

When famed swordsman Chu Liuxiang (Di Long) is framed for the murder of three clan chiefs, he embarks on an investigation that leads him from a mystery woman to Buddhist monks and a grotto-dwelling clan of female fighters led by Betty Bei Di. He gradually uncovers a convoluted conspiracy that culminates in an unforgettable gender-bending twist. Fantastical and fringed with risqué sexual flourishes - as well as a baroque martial arts saga replete with artifice and larger-than-life archetypes.

DIR Yuen Chor; SCR Kuang Ni; PROD Run Me Shaw. Hong Kong, 1977, color, 99 min. In Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles. NOT RATED

THE JADE TIGER
(BAI YU LAOHU)

Chu Yuan's penchant for labyrinthine plotting reaches its zenith in this dizzying adaptation of the Gu Long novel. Di Long heads an all-star cast as a Zhou warrior catapulted by the threat of his father's decapitation - delivered on his wedding day - into the middle of a no-holds-barred war between his clan and the Tangs. A self-conscious pathos about the futility of martial rivalry anticipates the reflexive tone adopted in the melancholy wuxia by the Hong Kong New Wave of the 1980s.

DIR/SCR Chu Yuan; SCR Lung Ku; PROD uncredited. Hong Kong, 1977, color, 101 min. In Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles. NOT RATED

New 35mm Print
THE FIVE VENOMS
(WU DU)

A long-time favorite of martial arts movie fans. The dying master of the Venoms House orders his one remaining disciple to bring to justice the young man's five predecessors, now fallen into criminality. The quintet of elder Venoms, however, possesses formidable skills. Each has a distinctive fighting style: scorpion, snake, centipede, gecko and toad. The youngest Venom locates them in a small town, and in a nexus of gold loot, shady cops and corrupt judges, a suspenseful mystery plot unfolds.

DIR/SCR Cheh Chang; SCR Kuang Ni; PROD Mona Fong and Run Run Shaw. Hong Kong, 1978, color, 97 min. In Mandarin with English subtitles. RATED R

THE NEW ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN
(XIN DUBI DAOWANG)

David Jiang portrays an arrogant warrior humbled by a nefarious opponent and forced to hack off his own arm. Years of waiting tables fortify his single-handed dexterity, but the untimely death of his comrade Di Long launches him back on the path of bloody retribution. Fuelled by the action choreography of longtime collaborators Tong Kai and Lau Kar-leung, the film builds to an astonishing finale traversing the entire span of a bridge and then some.

DIR Cheh Chang; SCR Kuang Ni; PROD Run Run Shaw and Run Me Shaw. Hong Kong, 1971, color, 102 min. In Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles. RATED R

ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA
(HUANG FEIHONG)

Jet Li, in peak form, summons a whirling arsenal of "shadowless kicks," somersaults and leaps to repel the incursion of opium and slave trading by corrupt Westerners in 19th century China. The film makes room for grand historical drama and slapstick comedy, sumptuous period décor and whimsical romance, but is best remembered for its virtuosic combat choreography, most famously the breathtaking fight to the death atop bamboo ladders.

DIR/SCR/PROD Hark Tsui; SCR Yiu Ming Leung, Pik-yin Tang and Kai-Chi Yun. Hong Kong, 1991, color, 134 min. In Cantonese with English subtitles. RATED R