The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter may have arrived at the midpoint of Lau Kar-leung’s career, but it plays like a late-period reckoning with a genre he helped create. Possessing some of the action maestro’s finest set pieces, and steeped in spiritual exhaustion, this is kung fu’s answer to The Searchers.

Gordon Liu would don the white hair of wizened master Pai Mei in Tarantino’s Kill Bill vol. 2, but here he’s the callow apprentice studying a female fighting style to defeat the iconic villain. Directed by King Boxer’s leading man Lo Lieh, Clan of the White Lotus is a quintessential kung fu classic.

An all-time great kung fu comedy from the virtuosic Lau Kar-leung, Dirty Ho boasts singular fight scenes that combine acrobatic elegance and zany slapstick. Facing formidable foes, all played by martial arts icons, Gordon Liu and Wong Yue make for a riotous duo of cheeky master and hapless sidekick.

Disabled heroes are a time-honored wuxia tradition, attesting to the power of kung fu dedication in overcoming physical adversity. Reuniting most of the Venom Mob, Chang Cheh stages some of his greatest dust-ups, while the gang weaponise their respective infirmities for a barnstorming battle royale.