Sex and violence are generally what comes to mind when 1970s Hong Kong cinema is concerned, but movies of all genres, in fact, were undergoing various changes during the mid-to-late 1970s. Chang Cheh, the man responsible for the onset of the "Wuxia Century", also set off the "Kung Fu Kid Fever" with Disciples of Shaolin (1975) starring Alexander Fu Sheng. Chor Yuen adapted Gu Long's wuxia novels into quirky and poetic films, while King Hu travelled to Korea to film the unconventional Raining in the Mountain (1979) and Legend of the Mountain (1979). In the meantime, Li Han-hsiang's films about scamming and sex set off a trend of small productions which many filmmakers followed at a time when gimmicks were all the rage. Paradoxically, he then regained the courage to revert to large-scale productions and came up with The Empress Dowager (1975) and The Last Tempest (1976). This was also a time of transition from the old to the new, with the emergence of Lau Kar-leung and Sammo Hung, who were previously martial arts choreographers, as well as other novice directors, injecting new life into the industry.

Superstar comedian, Michael Hui, took comedy to new heights with works such as The Private Eyes (1976) during a time when social realist films rose to popularity, while Jackie Chan made his big break with kung fu comedies. The seeds of the cop-and-robber, action and gangster film trend were also sown, enabling these genres to flourish in the 1980s. Local movies were no longer defined as "Cantonese-language features" or "Mandarin-language features", undergoing a dramatic transformation to become "Hong Kong films" which possessed both home-grown flavour and international marketability.

Hong Kong Filmography Volume VIII compiles information on more than 800 Hong Kong-produced feature and documentary films from 1975 to 1979. 524 pages with 16 pages of full-colour posters. Published in 2014, priced at HK$285. (Edited by Kwok Ching-ling)

ISBN 978-962-8050-69-7