Several standout movies from the library of Shaw Brothers are available to watch on Prime Video. When it comes to quality kung fu movies, there’s no studio with a better and more consistent track record than Shaw Brothers. Golden Harvest had some solid outings with the two biggest stars in the business in Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, yet Shaw Brothers still has the superior quality.

Shaw Brothers had a dominating run in the martial arts movie genre. The studio was a leading pioneer in the industry, making genre-defining classics like The One-Armed Swordsman, Five Fingers of Death, and The Chinese Boxer in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, they dropped dozens of solid kung fu entries, with multiple good films a year.

During this time, Shaw Brothers succeeded in establishing a strong line-up of recognizable stars and trusted directors to lead their projects. From Shaw Brothers, audiences could reliably expect entertaining action from the likes of Gordon Liu, Lau Kar-leung, the Venom Mob, and Alexander Fu Sheng.

Thankfully, some of those old Shaw Brothers favorites have been sprinkled into Amazon Prime Video’s expansive old-school kung fu movie lineup.

Five Fingers Of Death

Arguably one of the most important kung fu movies of the 1970s, Five Fingers of Death was the first movie in the genre to become an international box office success, preceding Enter the Dragon by a year. Released in 1972, Five Fingers of Death was a kung fu revenge movie that starred Lo Lieh, an actor known for both hero and villain roles in the genre.

The story itself isn’t out of the ordinary for a film of its kind. Lo Lieh plays the student of a martial arts school in the midst of its preparations for a tournament. Unfortunately, their rivals take steps to ensure that they don’t get to compete, thus setting the stage for Lo Lieh’s character to learn a new kung technique and embark on a mission of vengeance.

Lo Lieh, someone Quentin Tarantino once labeled as “the greatest actor” of the martial arts genre, delivered one of his most memorable performances in Five Fingers of Death, topped off by some excellently choreographed fight scenes and an adrenaline-pumping moment where he finally gets to unleash the film’s тιтular kung fu move.

Clan Of The White Lotus

Lo Lieh has an entirely different role in Clan of the White Lotus, another high-caliber release from Shaw Brothers. Clan of the White Lotus picks up after two heroes have already defeated an evil kung fu master, prompting the film’s main bad guy – Lo Lieh’s Priest White Lotus – to plan his revenge against the good guys.

Of course, Clan of the White Lotus isn’t about the villain’s revenge scheme. Rather, it’s about what comes after. One of the heroes – played by Gordon Liu – survives and has to figure out how to strike back. Making matters more interesting is the fact that Lo Lieh’s character appears to be invincible.

To beat him, Gordon Liu’s protagonist has to make some serious changes to his kung fu style, and turn to an unlikely source to improve his martial arts capabilities. This sets the stage for one of the most intense final showdowns to be found in any old-school kung fu movie.

My Young Auntie

While its тιтle alone may not hint at its status as one of Shaw Brothers’ best 1970s kung fu movies, My Young Auntie is a must-watch classic from the studio, as well as a film that’s a bit outside their usual wheelhouse. Kara Hui, one of their leading actresses, co-stars in My Young Auntie with Hsiao Ho, Lau Kar-leung, and Gordon Liu.

A martial arts comedy, My Young Auntie utilizes Lau Kar-leung and Hsiao Ho’s comedic talents in a story about a young man (Hsiao Ho) and his aging uncle (Lau Kar-leung) getting to know their surprisingly young aunt by marriage (Kara Hui), who has become a wealthy woman due to her husband’s death.

Kara Hui’s performance and her character’s dynamic with the male lead are certainly highlights of the story, but ultimately it’s Lau Kar-leung who really steals the show by the end of the movie. The final fight is just further proof that not only is he one of the greatest martial arts movie directors of all time, he’s also one of the greatest onscreen fighters.

36th Chamber Of Shaolin

My Young Auntie is one of Lau Kar-leung’s best movies, but it’s not his masterpiece. That тιтle belongs to The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, a film that he directed but has no acting role in. Over the years, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin has developed a reputation as the gold standard for old-school kung fu flicks.

As a martial arts movie, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is the complete package. In addition to top-notch action sequences for Gordon Liu, the film boasts a sinister and powerful villain in Lo Lieh’s General Tien Ta, a great revenge plot, and a long and intricate training process for its main character to endure in the lead-up to the final showdown.

Crippled Avengers

Crippled Avengers is currently the only Venom Mob movie in Prime Video’s select Shaw Brothers lineup. Taking their name from their movie, The Five ᴅᴇᴀᴅly Venoms, the Venom Mob was a group of five martial arts movie actors who regularly appeared together and played the main characters in Shaw Brothers’ films, each with their own distinct fighting styles.

In Crippled Avengers, four of the five Venom Mob members play martial artists who are dealt various, debilitating injuries by the movie’s villains, one of which is played by the fifth Venom. To compensate for their losses, which range from missing legs to blindness, the four have to learn new ways to fight and then seek revenge against their enemies together.

Admittedly, Crippled Avengers is a bit of a gimmicky martial arts film, but it’s entertaining nonetheless. The culmination of the training the four fighters go through is a truly epic old-school kung fu movie team-up, complete with some uniquely-crafted fight scenes that only Shaw Brothers could do.