John Law Ma

Directing

Biography

John Law (born Nov 4, 1938) i a Hong Kong film director and screenwriter best known for his films of the 1970s. Law is credited with 10 films as an actor, 35 films as a director, 15 films as a writer and 7 films as a producer. In 1957, Law started his acting career in Hong Kong. Law first appeared in He Has Taken Him for Another, a 1957 Mandarin Comedy film directed by Li Han-Hsiang. Law also appeared in The Lady of Mystery, a 1957 Mandarin thriller film directed by Wa Hak-Ngai. Law wrote the script for the 1961 film The Search Of Loved One but by 1968 he had moved into directing and writing, directing his first film in this year entitled A Time for Reunion , a film which starred Alan Tang who would feature in many of his later films in the 1970s. In the 1970s, John began working under the renowned Hong Kong film studios, Shaw Studio, responsible for producing many of Hong Kong's classic martial arts film during this period. In 1976 John directed and wrote the script for The Girlie Bar, an adult film oriented drama featuring Chan Ping, Yau Fung, Lin Chen Chi and James Nam and Tony Liu. Similarly his film later that year Bruce Lee and I starred Betty Ting, Danny Lee, Yuen Cheung and Tony Liu. His 1977 romance film Orchid In The Rain, which also starred frequent star in his films, Alan Tang, Brigitte Lin also pushed boundaries in terms of intimacy on screen. He would however, direct several kung fu films, notably in 1979 the films Monkey Kung Fu and Five Super Fighters, and Boxer From The Temple in 1981. Boxer From The Temple was to be his last film as a director and under Shaw Studios. Law is credited with 10 films as an actor, 35 films as a director, 15 films as a writer and 7 films as a producer. [Wikipedia]

Known For

4.5

A movie on the life of the renowned Bruce Lee, especially his relationship with his mistress.

Bruce Lee and I

1976Movie

7.0

A small-time crook goes in search of the other half of a wooden keepsake which will lead him to the legendary kung fu technique of the Gibbon Clan Fist.

Monkey Kung Fu

1979Movie

6.4

The renowned Li Li Hua plays Wu Ze Tian, the most famous woman in China's four thousand year history.

Empress Wu

1963Movie

7.0

In this dreamy romance set in China during the fourth-century, a young woman convinces her parents to allow her to dress as a boy and attend university.

The Love Eterne

1963Movie

9.5

The noted actress Li Li-hua, star of more than sixty films since 1947, beautifully portrays the drugged, then disgraced wife of a peddler in the waning days of the Ching Dynasty. To make matters worse, she’s soon framed for her husband’s murder by her rapist - the son of the local magistrate! And even that isn’t the end of her woes. It’s best to have a box of tissues nearby as two expert directors ratchet up the emotional suspense in this consummate tearjerker.

The Adulteress

1963Movie

6.7

Complex plots? This director didn't want them. Expensive, famous stars? Didn't need them. Glorious sets and costumes? He could take them or leave them. With his choreographer Hsu Hsia, John Lo Mar liked making lean, mean, fighting movies, and fans rejoiced. Here Wu Yuan-chin stars as "the Kid," a monk whose education in the aptly named "Crazy Lo Han Fist" finds him battling a cruel bandit's son and befriending an abused prostitute. From then on, it's one fight after another in another John Lo Mar martial arts marvel.

The Boxer from the Temple

1980Movie

7.0

A bittersweet comedy about a simple hick who arrives in the big city to seek his fortune, "The Crazy Bumpkins" is about Ah Niu, who leaves his native village to live with an uncle in Hong Kong, not realizing he is a crook. After taking on a hilarious series of illegal jobs with his uncle, he meets and falls for a single mother and decides to find some real work. However, bad luck and naivete soon conspire to keep him from true happiness.

The Crazy Bumpkins

1974Movie

6.8

Three young martial arts students and their teacher are beaten up badly by a wandering man who proclaims himself "a corrector of bad kung-fu." Determined to avenge their teacher and regain their honor, the three students all go their separate ways to find kung-fu masters who will take them as students.

Five Superfighters

1979Movie

4.0

A widower forces his three beautiful daughters to work in his seedy bar and must do what they are told no matter what. The film features Lin Chen-chi who had just starred in Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold.

The Girlie Bar

1976Movie

7.0

Early Shaw Brothers comedy

The Magic Touch

1958Movie

7.5

Following the lives of three downtrodden but resilient outcasts, John Lo Mar's gritty social drama paints a sense of realism rarely seen in Hon Kong movies. Li Ching - the best actress of her era - play Ah Chiao is a girl from a rural village stranded in the city, who befriends a kind-hearted transient and a retired actor. They are poor, but they are happy. Although her fortune changes for the better when she becomes a singer, she ultimately learns money can't buy happiness.

The Happy Trio

1975Movie

9.0

Ah Niu, swindled of his fortune by cunning crooks, hits rock bottom. A fateful encounter with devious thugs reunites him with Uncle Chou, prompting their escape to the vibrant city of Singapore. Their journey is riddled with absurd mishaps, including a comical episode with a baby and a frantic pursuit by the relentless thugs. This final instalment of the series offers a colourful, wide-ranging tour of Singapore in the mid-1970s, brimming with slapstick humour and heartwarming moments.

Crazy Bumpkins in Singapore

1976Movie

N/A

In 1974, John Lo Mar co-directed The Crazy Bumpkins, a new variation on the time-tested, beloved Cantonese comedy "Country Bumpkin" tradition. That proved such a success that a sequel, Return Of The Crazy Bumpkins, soon appeared. Now, the third time's the charm, as John Lo Mar gets to both write and direct the third slapstick-filled installment, once again starring Yeh Feng and Wang Sha as the hapless and hilarious yokel Ah Niu and his crafty city-slicker Uncle Chou.