Films like Heads for Sale (which gave actress Chiao Chiao her first starring role as a Heroine), Valley of the Fangs (Liu Chia-Yung's debut as a Choreographer), and Temptress of a Thousand Faces (which helped to make a star out of Tina Chin-Fei) were some of Shaw Bros' top films of their time. He also write a number of his own film, which made him a most sought-after director. This fact didn't go un-noticed by Raymond Chow as he quickly wooed Cheng away from Shaw studios in the early 70's.

At Golden Harvest he scripted an directed a number of films that saw him competing with the likes of director Huang Feng. In fact, he directed Huang's top discovery (Angela Mao), in her final film for Golden Harvest - Broken Oath. In the film The Skyhawk, he gave the late-great Kwan Tak-Hing his best role since appearing in the "Wong Fei-Hung" series of the 50's and 60's, though Carter Wong played Wong Fei-Hung in this film. With other interesting films such as The Association, Devil's Treasure, and The Double Crossers, he shot some of Golden Harvest's better films before returning back to his homeland in Korea in the late 70's.