Chang Cheh wasn’t just an important director for Shaw Brothers starting in the mid ’60s to the early ’80s; he produced a large chunk of their action films during this era. Cheh average six to eight releases during his peak years. Think of that. Imagine Quentin Tarantino making seven films a year instead of taking years between pictures. Cheh had a method that enabled him to make several films at once around Shaw’s Movietown. Even though he had assistant director’s doing the smaller scenes, the movies all felt like Cheh called all the shots. The Magnificent Chang Cheh has two movies that Cheh directed before he’d have his two major career changing films. The Magnificent Trio came out the year before The One-Armed Swordsman that first made Cheh a directing force. Both films starred Jimmy Wang Yu. Magnificent Warriors would arrive a year before Cheh unleased Five Deadly Venoms with his Venom Mob acting troupe. The Magnificent Chang Cheh features two films that helped him prepare for this two big eras at the studio.
The Magnificent Trio (1966 – 109 minutes) features Jimmy Wang Yu as a swordsman who has both his hands and stuck in the middle of trouble. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Lu Fang (Jimmy Wang Yu) is returning home from a battle when he comes across a farm where things have gotten desperate. The weather hasn’t been great in years for agriculture. While other government officials have cut slack to the farmers, the magistrate has jacked up their taxes. The farmers kidnap the magistrate’s daughter and hold her hostage in a barn. Lu Fang chooses to protect the farmers in the dispute. This angers the magistrate who puts together a team of thugs to teach them a lesson and rescue his daughter. Except one of the thugs, Huang Liang (The Return of the One-Armed Swordsman‘s Cheng Lui) is pals with Lu Fang and flips sides. Can these two hold off the force and get relief for the farmers? If you’re curious about the third Magnificent member of the group, Lo Lieh (Five Fingers of Death) is that man although he shows up under different circumstances. It’s an impressive trio of talent taking down the magistrate. Even though Ping Chin, Margaret Tu Chuan and Fanny Fan are top billed, Cheh is all about the men holding down the action in the film.
The Magnificent Wanderers (1977 – 99 minutes) has Chang Cheh’s lightening up his action by infusing a touch of comedy. While it would be easy to assume Cheh was trying to coattail on Jackie Chan’s comedy kung fu sensation, it would be another year before Jackie’s Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow would be released. Cheh was trying something different. The extremely rich Chu Te-Sa (Five Shaolin Masters‘ David Chiang) wants to free his country of the Mongols. He’s willing to fund a rebel force, but most of the people he thinks are interested just want to grab the money and split. He eventually recruits a trio of street hustlers that includes Alexander Fu Sheng (Chinatown Kid), Chi Kuan-Chun (The Shaolin Avengers), and Li Yi-Min (Shaolin Temple). Can they really be a force against the Mongols or are they hustling their benefactor like the rest of them? The comedy brought to the action isn’t too over the top. Most of the jokes involve the trio pulling off their various schemes on rubes. Chiang plays his rich guy with a major stutter. An “archer” character has an interesting bow that instead of launching arrows, fires off metal balls like a slingshot. During one fight, they beat back Mongol swordsmen by tossing hot cooking oil on them. There’s a bit of serious action to the fights to keep them from becoming outright slapstick wuxia.
The Magnificent Chang Cheh gives us two films that would have an impact on his game changing films that followed. The Magnificent Trio let him know that Jimmy Wang Yu could keep up with the director’s expected level of action. The duo reuniting for The One-Armed Swordsman and broke box office records. The opposite is true with Magnificent Wanderers as Cheh gets a sense that he’s not wanting to go any further with comedy. This leads to him getting back to serious more with Five Deadly Venoms. The change pays off for the rest of Cheh’s time at Shaw Brothers. He uses the various members as his dramatic action dream team. The Magnificent Chang Cheh gives us two more films from Cheh to see how he made so many films in such a short time.
The Video is 2.35:1 anamorphic for both films. Both films are in true Shawscope. The 1080p transfers bring out the beauty of the sets and the excitement of the fight sequences. The Audio is Mandarin LPCM 2.0 mono for both films. The Magnificent Wanderers has an English Dub track in LPCM 2.0 mono. Everything sounds great. The movies are subtitled in English.
Audio Commentary on Magnificent Trio by Frank Djeng and Michael Worth opens with Djeng explaining the burning flag that opens the movie. We also learn that until 1969, Hong Kong didn’t keep track of box office or how long a film played in theaters. That was private information stashed at Shaw Brothers’s accounting office.
Audio Commentary on Magnificent Wanderers by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema starts with them discussing the fact that there’s not much wandering in the film. They like the Spaghetti Western style of opening credits. There is talk about how this film was setting up Alexander Fu Sheng’s short and tragic career. He has a bit of comedy in this movie, making him a bit of Jackie Chan character except this was a year before Jackie’s breakout films.
Chang Cheh: The Aesthetics of an Auteur (29:20) has Gary Bettinson, editor of Asian Cenema Journal explains how Chang Cheh revolutionized the action hero. He also brought blood into Hong Kong cinema during the fight scenes. The director wanted a personal style all his own. We see how Cheh filled in the Shawscope frame.
Limited Edition Illustrated Booklet has an essay by James Oliver on the films and Chang Cheh. He points out that neither film in Hong Kong had Magnificent in their title.
Eureka! Entertainment presents The Magnificent Chang Cheh – The Magnificent Trio & Magnificent Wanderers: Limited Edition. Directed by Chang Cheh. Screenplays by Keiichi Abe, Cheh Chang, Hideo Gosha, Tzu-Nan Chiang & Yung-Chang Li. Starring Ping Chin, Margaret Tu Chuan, Fanny Fan, Jimmy Wang Yu, Lo Lieh, Lei Cheng, Alexander Fu Sheng, David Chiang, Kuan-Chun Chi, Yi-Min Li, Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok & Feng Lu. Boxset Contents: 2 movies on 1 Blu-ray disc. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: April 29, 2025.
