LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF CHINA (Hong Kong, 1982)
Directed by: Lau Kar-leung
Starring: Lau Kar-leung, Gordon Liu, Kara Wai

Lau Kar-leung is known for his realistic martial arts, but things get gothic when he delves into the supernatural in this steeped-in-dread classic. It’s 1899 and the Westerners are bringing China to its knees with their guns. The Empress Dowager commissions kung fu cults for a solution, and they turn to maoshan magic to become bulletproof, resulting in lots of dead test subjects. One of the masters (Lau Kar-leung), refuses to let his students become bullet-fodder and goes into hiding, so the Empress Dowager orders three of the cults to find him and rip off his face. Ending in an explosive two-part fight scene that sees all 18 legendary weapons unleashed, LKL stages combat in rafters, narrow alleys, and on rooftops in the pouring rain, as he works every nook and cranny of the Shawscope screen in his most visually arresting and grimmest movie.