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A prolific writer and director, Lo Wei found fame in the 1970s following the enormous international success of The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, his collaborations with the inimitable Bruce Lee. In the years before he kickstarted a kung fu revolution, though, he had been working on an accomplished series of wuxia pian for Shaw Brothers. Presented here are three standout films drawn from Lo Wei's wuxia world: The Black Butterfly, Death Valley and Vengeance of a Snow Girl. In The Black Butterfly, a good-hearted thief acts as the Robin Hood of the martial world, robbing from the rich to give to the poor - and they begin by stealing a fortune in gold from a group of five ruthless bandits holed up at Five Devils Rock. Then, in Death Valley, the Lord of Chao Manor (Lo Wei) is murdered by his niece (Angela Yu Chien), leading to a bitter fight to claim his land and a clash between a hired swordsman (Chen Hung-lieh) and the Lord's heir apparent (Yueh Hua). Finally, in Vengeance of a Snow Girl, a young woman (Li Ching) takes revenge for her murdered parents, who were killed in a dispute over the legendary Tsui Feng sword - leading to a final showdown on frozen ground. Lo Wei's The Black Butterfly, Death Valley and Vengeance of a Snow Girl are three of the finest wuxia films produced in the years before Bruce Lee's meteoric rise to fame would cause a tectonic shift in the Hong Kong film industry, as the era of kung fu loomed on the horizon.
Yu Chin Chang