Chen Kuan-tai Passes at 80 and A Tribute

These past few weeks have been filled with various tragic deaths from Frank Beard of ZZ Top, Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, Hayden Panettiere and Peter Cullen as some of the bigger names. Over in the East side of the world, Chen Kuan-tai also passed from a suspected cerebral haemorrhage on September 2, 2026 at the age of 80. Considering I’ve been doing a variety of kung fu movie reviews in recent months, I think it’s only appropriate to pay tribute to a legendary actor of whom I have viewed and loved numerous works. Most of the movies I’m familiar with for Chen Kuan-tai are from the Shaw Brothers Studios, although I did check out an obscure one called Blood Brothers. What I would like to do as a tribute here is list my favorite Chen Kuan-tai films. I will admit that I have a bias because most of the ones I’ve seen are Shaw Brothers related so I only can discuss those.

Executions from Shaolin (1977)

Perhaps, this is his best epic at least in terms of a role that really made him. In the Shaw Brothers, Chen Kuan-tai received the role of the legendary folklore hero Hung hsi Kuan several times but this one was dedicated to the character and Chen Kuan-tai under Lau Kar-leung in a wuxia type of story of revenge. Here, Hung hsi Kuan tries to overcome his arch-nemesis Pai Mei, who has a special technique that makes him immune to attacks except at certain times of the day where he moves his weakness around. In turn, Hung hsi Kuan undergoes intense practice with his Tiger style but is unable to beat the White Brow Priest at the end.

Rumor had it that Chen Kuan-tai disagreed and possibly did not like Lau Kar-leung, although he did Challenge of the Masters a year before. Nonetheless, if you want to see Chen Kuan-tai at his best with his tiger technique, this is the movie for you.

Challenge of the Masters (1976)

To be honest, I prefer Challenge of the Masters more than Executioners of Shaolin. While the kung fu itself isn’t as good as Executioners of Shaolin, I think the message was better and Chen Kuan-tai was given the role of the elderly, venerable Lu A-Cai who was able to humble Gordon Liu’s Wong Fei Hung and temper him into a true martial artist. But movies like Challenge of the Masters give me the impression that Chen Kuan-tai’s best roles were that of a well respected hero type, who understood the martial arts and honor.

The Boxer from Shantung (1972)

I haven’t seen this movie in some time but I do know it probably is Chen Kuan-tai’s breakout role within the Shaw Brothers. It’s a typical Chang Cheh style movie around that period with the rise and fall of a young man who is swept up in the success of his martial arts skills but eventually becomes corrupted and eventually has a redemption arc that ends in tragedy. This is a movie on my list to review in the future though because it is during Chang Cheh’s peak as a director.

Crippled Avengers (1978)

This is a big time favorite for Venoms fans but it also stars Chen Kuan-tai in an unusual role where he gets to play a villain, Dao Tian-du. After Dao’s wife is mercilessly slaughtered and his son’s arms are sliced off, Dao’s mental condition deteriorates as he becomes a blood thirsty, vengeful tyrant in town. In the early half of the film, Dao ends up crippling (along with his assistant and son) four of the Venoms and they must seek out a teacher to help them learn kung fu to get revenge.

As with many early Venoms movies, this one is fun and humorous with a good entry point that by the end becomes more serious and filled with blood and typical Chang Cheh tragedy. But it also has a lesson where the message is that physical handicaps can be overcome but mental ones are impossible. Again, Crippled Avengers is another movie I have plans to review some day.

Heroes Two (1973)

This is another instance of Chen Kuan-tai playing Hung hsi Kuan except he’s paired up with a very young Fu Sheng as the other folklore legend Fang Shi-yu. Besides Chang Cheh being the director, we also get Lau Kar-leung as credited for one of the action/martial arts directors. But this is a typical early/mid 70s wuxia Chang Cheh extravaganza revenge film where he takes two folklore heroes and has a small plot twist where one mistakes the identity of the other as part of the Manchu plot to corrupt/disrupt the survivors from Shaolin.

Chen Kuan-tai and Fu Sheng would once again be able to reprise their roles in Men from the Monestary (1974) but with Chi Kuan-Chun added as Hu Huei-Chien. I think though that the Fu Sheng and Chen Kuan-tai pairing wasn’t as strong compared to Chi Kuan-Chun’s silent and stoic character, which is why Chang Cheh ended up going with the latter pairing. Nonetheless, Heroes Two is a fun Shaolin type of romp worth checking out.

The Blood Brothers (1973)

The real power trio for Chang Cheh was the combination of David Chiang, Ti Lung and Chen Kuan-tai. The Blood Brothers (1973) epitomizes this relationship as portrayal more than anything (and this is the REAL Blood Brothers movie). Here, we see Chen Kuan-tai as Huang Chang, a womanizer who is married and behaves poorly towards his wife, acting more macho, which causes his friend, the general Ma Xinyi (Ti Lung) to have an affair while Huang goes off on various missions. He receives a grizzly fate which sets off Chang Wen Hsiang (David Chiang) to try and stop Ma but their fates are sealed.

All Men Are Brothers (1973)

This movie is a follow up to The Water Margin (1972). While this movie isn’t really as focused on Chen Kuan-tai as it’s more about the various characters and the ensemble cast, Chen Kuan-tai’s character as Shi Jin (aka the Tattooed Dragon) gets a major upgrade in terms of cast position. The English dubbed version gives him a fantastic sepia colored death along with him telling his foes, “Take a good look at the Tattooed Dragon.” I always thought his end here was highly memorable as his chest with the tattoo on it was covered in dark blood. The movie itself wasn’t as epic as The Water Margin though and seemed more like Chang Cheh tying up loose ends for one reason or another in Chang Cheh fashion (i.e. everyone dies)

The Savage Five (1973)

Pretty much a Chinese spaghetti western with guns and explosions included. Once again, Chang Cheh gathered up the power trio of David Chiang, Ti Lung and Chen Kuan-tai but added Danny Lee and Wang Chung (no relation to the song that I know of) as this group of five that tries to defend a town against a dangerous group of armed bandits. Chen Kuan-tai plays a woodcutter Ma Dao and is the first of the heroes that sacrifices himself. But his death pretty much is the springboard leading for the others to seek revenge. This isn’t Chen’s best role but the movie is another fun one from Chang Cheh around this period. And if you look close, you can see a very young Fu Sheng in a guest role.

The Flying Guillotine (1975)

When people thing of Chinese flying guillotines, this is probably the actual movie/instance that comes to mind. While there are others, as far as I’m concerned, The Flying Guillotine (1975) remains the best of the bunch. The weapon itself is probably the most fearsome as you get to see people being beheaded in this pseudo horror movie where bodies twitch in agony after receiving a decapitating blow.

Here, Chen Kuan-tai gets to play the lead character of Ma Tang, who at the start is an enthusiastic and highly skilled martial artist within the Manshu army. Despite gaining favor with the emperor, his jealous teammate plots against him to gain favor with the emperor and improve his rank. Along the way Ma Tang marries and must protect his family from his vengeful former cohorts.

It should be said here that there was a follow up except that Ti Lung would play Ma Tang. While I haven’t seen that movie, I did hear that Ma Tang ends up getting killed (and possibly his wife) which makes this movie a bit moot. At the very least, if you’re interested in flying guillotines, this is the only one worth seeking out. The rest kinda suck.

7-Man Army (1976)

This is a very odd “modern” movie (by Chang Cheh/Shaw Brothers standards) in that they used more contemporary warfare with tanks, battleships, guns, etc. weirdly intermixed with kung fu. But what makes this movie special to me especially as something people should go and try to find is the ensemble cast. You have the previous generation of Chang Cheh’s power house of David Chiang, Ti Lung and Chen Kuan-tai alongside Fu Sheng, Chi Kuan-Chun and Li Yi-Min. In addition, the villains have on their side Wang Lung-Wei, Leung Kar-Yan (Beardie) and a rare villain role for Gordon Liu. You even get small cameos by two of the Venoms in Philip Kwok and Lu Feng.

The movie itself, to me at least, is more of a propaganda/jingoistic movie (basically their version of Top Gun) to try and enlist people into China’s army (Tang Tak-Cheung’s characters basically looks into the camera as he’s dying and tells people to join the army). Also, the characters’ main opponents are the Japanese. The actual combat scenes to me are over the top and ridiculous where six (7?) men are fighting a small post against troves of enemies until finally they get overwhelmed by bombs, tanks and whatnot. By the end, you’re kinda numb to the sheer stupidity of what’s going on rather than being impressed by these men’s courage. But it is a novel movie to check out just to see these various characters interact on screen.

In terms of Chen Kuan-tai specifically for this movie, he gets to wield some broadsword or scimitar type of weapon. It’s a weird visual to me because of the opponents he faces but they do try to make some digs at Mongol soldiers that the Japanese enlist as part of the subplot for which Chen Kuan-tai’s character has a deep seething prejudice. And of course, like everyone else in the main cast here, Chen receives a heroic death.

What About…?

So I’m sure some people are going to wonder where a few other key films are. A few that might make other people’s lists but I did not put down above are:

• The Master (1980) – I’ve seen this movie at least once but don’t remember much about it. I think the focus ended up being on a younger star rather than Chen and Chen jobs out to Ma Fu Yi so I didn’t really care.
• The Iron Monkey (1977) – I bought a copy at Suncoast back in the late 90s but didn’t really care for this movie as it seemed more like an independent endeavor, even though Ni Kuang did the screenplay. One would think this is significant for Chen Kuan-tai because he directed it. But again it just didn’t seem to have the same oomph without the Shaw Brothers production backing it.
• Men from the Monastery (1974) – I briefly referenced this movie but I think Chang Cheh put out an updated version called The Shaolin Avengers (1976) which I think was eons better. Perhaps, Chang Cheh did too considering it was effectively the same movie minus Chen Kuan-tai. Someone mentioned that Men from the Monastery could’ve been something Chang Cheh regretted or felt he needed to correct. All I know is that I prefer the later one.
• The Water Margin (1972) – A classic Shaw Brothers movie but Chen Kuan-tai wasn’t really a big star at this point and was relegated down the cast compared to the more established David Chiang.
• Vengeance (1970) – If you blink, you’ll probably miss Chen Kuan-tai in one of his earlier roles. But he’s basically got no lines here and is fodder for David Chiang. Based on his limited screen time, one would not be able to tell how big Chen Kuan-tai would become within the Shaw Brothers Studios.
• Shanghai 13 (1984) – Another ensemble cast type of movie. Chen Kuan-tai basically gets a cameo role here (along with virtually every other Chang Cheh guy owing him a retirement favor). I am not a huge fan of this movie and quite honestly Chen Kuan-tai did little here to really make me care.

I know later on Chen Kuan-tai would continue to get guest appearances in various movies against some of the newer generation of kung fu stars. I’ve seen a few but they weren’t huge roles to me at least. In that sense, I still placed Chen Kuan-tai’s best work with the Shaw Brothers. Maybe someone can point me elsewhere but this is how I choose to remember him. Rest in peace my friend.