Director Lo Wei’s career often gets reduced down to two sentiments by American viewers. First is that Bruce Lee didn’t like him as a director. The second is that while he discovered Jackie Chan, he had no idea what to do with the future superstar. While Bruce Lee might have had his issues with Lo Wei, both of their films The Big Boss and Fist of Fury are essential for martial arts fans. While Lo Wei didn’t recognize that Jackie Chan could break out by adding humor to his fighting skills; comedy action films weren’t dominating the Hong Kong box office before Jackie went off and made his. Lo Wei had been working in Hong Kong cinema since the late ’40s as an actor, writer and director. Although so many of those movies didn’t get imported to America during martial arts explosion of the ’70s. So most people had no idea how Lo Wei worked before his two stars. Martial Law: Lo Wei’s Wuxia World collects three films directed by Lo Wei at Shaw Brothers before he split for Golden Harvest and made The Big Boss.
The Black Butterfly (1968 – 111minutes) is a the legend of Robin Hood with a Pink Panther twist. Various criminal gangs have found themselves the victim of theft as gold is swiped. The main clue to who dares to rob the robbers is a black butterfly left behind in their nearly empty safes (like the Pink Panther did with his gloves). What man could possibly be doing this? The mobsters get a slight lead when it’s disclosed that someone is giving free food to the poor. Is this program being funded by their missing loot? While they are searching for a man, the Black Butterfly is really a woman named Kwan Bao Zhu (One-Armed Swordsman‘s Chiao Chiao). How did she get so good? Her father is retired swordsman Kwan Yee (Fist of Fury‘s Feng Tian). How long can she keep her identity a secret as she keeps up her mission to help the poor? Complicating this is a couple men wanting to get revenge on her dad. This movie comes from the time when Shaw Brothers had women being the action stars of their movies. Chiao Chiao looks convincing as she whirls around battling a dozen swordsmen at once. The film is full of action especially when the Black Butterfly is able to take flight during her extraordinary leaps. This like the other two films is Wuxia so the fights are sword based. Besides co-writing the script with Fang Yeh, Lo Wei appears as Chief Gai Tan Lui. Sammo Hung is part of the action.
Death Valley (1968 – 99 minutes) is about a woman who is both a horrible daughter and girlfriend. Jien (Hong Kong 1941‘s Angela Yu Chien) is eager to inherit the family fortune. She conspires to take out her own father by having her boyfriend be the assassin. After the deed is done, Jien has her lover deliver a message to Jin (Come Drink With Me‘s Hung-Lieh Chen). What he doesn’t know is that Jin is also known as “The Cold Faced Killer.” The message is to exterminate the boyfriend and thus eliminate a loose end in her get rich quick scheme. But her crime is not perfect since Chao Yu Long (The Sentimental Swordsman‘s Yueh Hua) is investigating the death. Can she keep up the image of being a woman in mourning from the death of her father and boyfriend? Will she have to lure someone else to kill another pesky man? Besides directing, Wei Lo wrote the script and stars as Chao Yun Yang. Sammo Hung once more be spotted as a fighter.
Vengeance of A Snow Girl (1971 – 123 minutes) is about a crippled woman who has been orphaned when four brothers killed her family. Shen Ping Hong (14 Amazons‘ Ching Lee) appears helpless as she can only walk with jade crutches. When things go wrong for the brothers, you get a quick sense that Shen is not being held back by her injury. She’s got something deadly hiding inside one of her crutches and she has no problem using it with her fighting style that compensates for her lack of good legs. Lo Wei and the fight crew figured out a way that you don’t think she’s faking her injury and still able to keep up the intense sword play with her targets. Can she get full revenge for her family and physical state? Included in the film from the previous two movies is Chiao Chiao, Feng Tien, Yueh Hua and Sammo Hung. What’s interesting is the movie is listed on quite a few movie sites as running only 91 minutes. It’s good to see the film is 30 minutes longer on this release since it appears the butchered American version is a mess. Once more Lo Wei gives himself a role along with co-writing the script with Kuang Ni.
Martial Law: Lo Wei’s Wuxia World gives us a sense of what Lo Wei did before he directed two of the largest martial arts stars in the world. He did know how to deliver the action on screen. The films feature extremely interesting female leading characters without them being the same daughter character. There’s not confusing the undercover spy in The Black Butterfly with the backstabbing daughter of Death Valley and finally the surprising daughter of Vengeance of A Snow Girl. While the films have the Shaw Brothers aesthetic, they aren’t repetitive. He left Shaw Brothers and Wuxia at the top of his game. Martial Law: Lo Wei’s Wuxia World is a perfect way to appreciate the director’s work before he met Bruce and Jackie.
The Video for all three movies is 2.35:1 anamorphic to give you the full Shawscope effect. The 1080p transfers look sharp so you can enjoy the production design and swords flying. The Audio is LPCM 2.0 Mono in Mandarin. You can hear all the clangs. The movies are subtitled in English.
Audio Commentaries by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema on all three films. Once more these two are extremely informative about Lo Wei, the Hong Kong film scene and the cast. It’s always fun to rewatch the film with Mike and Arne.
A Dish Best Served Cold (20:07) has Wayne Wong talking about Vengeance of a Snow Girl. He points out that this film was made right before Lo Wei split Shaw Brothers to make The Big Boss for Golden Harvest. Wong gets into what Lo Wei brought to the Wuxia genre. He sees this final film as Lo Wei’s most epic of movies from the era.
Illustrated Booklet features an essay by Camille Zaurin on Lo Wei.
Eureka Entertainment presents Martial Law: Lo Wei’s Wuxia World (Limited Edition). Directed by Lo Wei. Screenplays by Lo Wei, Fang Yeh and Kuang Ni. Starring: Chiao Chiao, Angela Yu Chien, Ching Lee, Feng Tien, Yueh Hua, Sammo Hung and Lo Wei. Boxset Contents: 3 movies on 2 Blu-ray discs. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: August 19, 2025.
