The 14 Amazons

The Yang family has served its country as soldiers for generations. During the war General Yang is ambushed and killed, and no man of the house is left standing. So the women of the family, from the oldest to the youngest, set out both to avenge him and to defend the frontier. Directed together by Cheng Kang and Charles Tung Shao-Yung, the film comes from the folk tales told about the Yang family. A Shaw Brothers production, it was one of the most ambitious projects of its period, with crowded battle scenes and wide exteriors. Almost the whole cast is female, which in the male-hero Hong Kong cinema of the seventies is remarkable in itself. It took three awards at the 1973 Golden Horse Awards, best director among them.