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Hidden gems: Many martial arts franchises have gone underappreciated in the West due to lack of advertising or niche popularity. Epic sagas: Historical Wuxia films, like "The Sentimental Swordsman" and "The Brave Archer," are well-suited for spanning multiple movies with rich narratives. Unrecognized talent: Franchises like "In The Line Of Duty" featuring Michelle Yeoh and "Rurouni Kenshin" are examples of underappreciated martial arts series with slick action and compelling characters.

Martials arts movies have plenty of hidden gems, including entire franchises of films that are utterly unknown to most Western audiences. The best Martial Arts franchises have gotten plenty of notoriety, with staples like the Police Story and Ip Man series spawning dozens of popular sequels between them. But some of the greatest martial arts franchises have flown under the radar in the West, either due to a lack of advertising, niche popularity, or even not being released in the United States at all.

Ng Man-tat, the star Shaolin Soccer and frequent collaborator of Kung Fu Hustle filmmaker Stephen Chow, has died.

The iconic Hong Kong actor, accompanied by his wife and children, died peacefully on Saturday of liver cancer. He was 70.

Born in China’s Fujian province in 1951, Ng began his career with acting classes from Hong Kong’s Tvb at 19 years old. Just years later he appeared Tit Lee’s 1975 comedy Gu huo lao xun chun, marking the vet’s first screen credit.

Upon garnering experience in a number of film and television titles throughout the 70s and 80s, Ng landed a recurring role in the adventure series The Legend of the Condor Heroes. The series, adapted from Louis Cha’s novel of the same name, saw Ng play Elder Peng.

In 1989, Ng first acted alongside Stephen Chow, who would soon become a frequent collaborator for “mo lei tau” films, a popular...

Huayi Brothers war epic has a cumulative gross of $276.8m after 10 days.

Huayi Brothers’ war epic The Eight Hundred grossed $69m on its second weekend (August 28-30), according to figures from Artisan Gateway, for a cumulative box office of $276.8m after 10 days.

Underscoring the rate of box office recovery in China, where cinemas were shuttered for six months until July 20 due to the Covid-19 coronavirus, The Eight Hundred’s second weekend was down just 13% from its opening weekend haul of $79.6m. Chinese cinemas are continuing to operate at 50% capacity to comply with social distancing requirements.

Filmed entirely with IMAX digital cameras,...

Hong Kong studio also launching sales on Yao Tingting’s romantic drama Love You Forever.

Hong Kong-based Edko Films is launching sales on two titles in Busan’s Asian Film Market: New Currents competition entry Over The Sea, about China’s “left-behind” children, and romantic drama Love You Forever.

Over The Sea, the directorial debut of China’s Sun Aoqian, follows an 11-year-old boy, living with an uncle and cousin, who becomes disillusioned with life when his family try to force him to tell lies to get hold of settlement money.

Yu Kunjie plays the boy with Rebecca Li, represented...

Hong Kong-based Bravos Pictures is handling international sales.

Hong Kong filmmaker Pang Ho-Cheung is directing a three-part adaptation of Jin Yong’s iconic novel The Deer And The Cauldron, which Bravos Pictures is selling internationally.

Produced by Pang’s Making Film Productions, the three installments are being filmed back-to-back with a tentative budget of $80m for each film. Pang will write, direct and produce. No casting has so far been announced.

Bravos is currently in discussions with potential investors on the project here at the Efm.

In the 70 years since its publication, The Deer And The Cauldron has been adapted...