Legendary Weapons of China

Lau Kar-leung's 1982 Shaw Brothers film is set during the Boxer Rebellion. Groups believe the body can be made invulnerable to Western guns, and the court sets out after the masters spreading that belief. When one leader disbands his own following and disappears, the remaining factions send assassins to kill him. At the centre is an argument about martial arts themselves: the difference between a claim of power resting on superstition and real skill. Lau Kar-leung directs and performs, and includes sections displaying each of the eighteen traditional weapons; those sequences are counted among the most technical in the genre. The shifts between humour and seriousness are sometimes abrupt. Who it's for: viewers who love classic Hong Kong martial arts and weapon choreography. Who it's not for: anyone wanting the period's politics explained; the film assumes the context.