Clockwise from far
left:Director Zhang
Yimou on set; The
Imperial Guard (Cheney
Chen), William Garin
(Matt Damon), Strategist
Wang (Andy Lau) and
Commander Lin Mei;
General Shao in a
pensive mood; Damon
readies for Take 4;
The enemy swarm.
PRINCESS IRON FAN(1941)
The first Chinese animated feature, made
in Shanghai during Japanese occupation,
this adapts a sequence from the novel
Journey To The Westin which the wily
Monkey King battles a princess who
wields a supernatural, fire-fighting fan.ZU WARRIORS FROM
MAGIC MOUNTAIN(1983)
Tsui Hark’s Hong Kong fantasy is told
from the downtrodden POV of a soldier
(Yuen Biao) caught up in clashes between
a monk who fights with his extensive
eyebrows, a red blanket out to conquer the
world and a shape-changing sorceress.MR. VAMPIRE(1985)
A period-set mix of kung fu, occult,
Hammer horror andCarry Onhijinx, as
a priest-exorcist-undertaker (Lam Ching-
ying) and clumsy apprentices battle a
Mandarin-robed, long-nailed bloodsucking
corpse who hops like a wind-up toy
on springs (a Chinese vampire trait).DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY
OF THE PHANTOM FLAME(2010)
Judge Dee features in many books and
films bigging up his Sherlockian skills;
director Tsui Hark and star Andy Lau
make him a psychic superhero in this huge
Chinese-Hong Kong fantasy. Climaxes with
a statue-toppling set-piece.KIM NEWMANORIENT EXCESS
The Great Wallisn’t the first magic-filled
fantasy epic to come out of China