The Old School Kung Fu Fest is back and it’s bigger and better than ever! This time around, we’re celebrating the sword-fighting heroes of Taiwanese wuxia movies with the biggest retrospective of its kind in New York City. From April 21 to 30, 2023, the festival will showcase 12 movies on the big screen and three more online.
When King Hu’s Dragon Inn premiered in 1967, it kicked off a wuxia revival that redefined action movies. In honor of the legendary filmmaker, the Old School Kung Fu Fest is proud to present the US premiere of The King of Wuxia. This epic documentary explores the life and work of King Hu, who reinvented wuxia movies and turned them into high art. The festival will also feature three of his best films: the monumental and unmissable A Touch of Zen, and two of his most action-packed flicks, The Valiant Ones and The Fate of Lee Khan.
This year’s festival features so many sword-slinging heroines! From Hsu Feng in A Touch of Zen, The Fate of Lee Khan, The Valiant Ones, and A City Called Dragon, to Polly Shang-kuan in Swordsman of All Swordsmen, Ghost Hill, Grand Passion, and The Bravest Revenge, and Josephine Siao Fong-fong in The Daring Gang of Nineteen From Verdun City (when she was only 12 years old!), these actresses brought incredible skill and charisma to their roles.
The festival is also a treasure trove of discoveries and hidden gems. Check out Vengeance of the Phoenix Sisters, a 1968 movie that feels like the French New Wave doing wuxia, featuring the three female Chinese opera stars Yang Li-hua, Liu Ching, and Chin Mei as the heroic sisters. Or watch megastar Brigitte Lin in Night Orchid, a 1983 Taiwanese feature film remake of a wildly popular Hong Kong TV series. And don’t miss The Legend of the Sacred Stone, an all-puppet wuxia from the Huang family, master puppeteers who owned Taiwanese airwaves with their po-te-hi puppet storytelling in the 1980s.
The festival isn’t just a celebration of the past, it also features a deconstruction of the genre with Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 2015 film, The Assassin. Starring Shu Qi, this film is a loving tribute to the movies that inspired the director when he was growing up.
By the time this line-up is over, we’ll all have been sliced, diced, hacked, slashed, and blasted into submission with palm power. Get ready for some serious action as the Old School Kung Fu Fest presents the Sword Fighting Heroes Edition!
SCREENING ON METROGRAPH AT HOME (SVOD)- (April 21 – May 4)
THE BRAVEST REVENGE, THE DARING GANG OF NINETEEN FROM VERDUN CITY, and IRON MISTRESS.
IN THEATER SCREENINGS AT METROGRAPH- (April 21-23 and April 28-30)
Friday, April 21
7:00pm- THE KING OF WUXIA (Theater 1)
Saturday, April 22
1:00pm- VENGEANCE OF THE PHOENIX SISTERS (Theater 1)
3:30pm- THE SWORDSMAN OF ALL SWORDSMEN (Theater 2)
Sunday, April 23
1:00pm- THE SWORDSMAN OF ALL SWORDSMEN (Theater 2)
3:00pm- THE GHOST HILL (Theater 2)
5:00pm- THE VALIANT ONES (Theater 1)
7:15pm- A CITY CALLED DRAGON (Theater 1)
Friday, April 28
7:15pm- THE GRAND PASSION (Theater 2)
9:15pm- LEGEND OF THE SACRED STONE (Theater 2)
Saturday, April 29
4:30pm- THE FATE OF LEE KHAN (Theater 1)
7:00pm- THE ASSASSIN (Theater 1)
Sunday, April 30
1:00pm- A TOUCH OF ZEN (Theater 1)
4:30pm- FATE OF LEE KHAN (Theater 1)
7:15pm- NIGHT ORCHID (Theater 2)
9:15pm- THE ASSASSIN (Theater 1)
TICKETS ARE ON SALE AT: https://metrograph.com/category/oldschool-kungfufest/
