No-Nonesense Kung Fu
He briefly worked at the Shaw Bros' studios, before striking out on his own as a director, with a keen eye for kung fu talent as well as techniques displayed in his movies. He's helped launch some very promising careers - Chang Yi and Tommy Lee (his main choreographer) just to name a few. He filmed one of the best Bruce Li movies around - Fists Of Fury-2 and even lensed his first $1,000,000 film as a "Bruce Lee Impersonator" with Edge Of Fury (1978). He discovered kung-fu queen Hsia Kuan-Li, who set a standard for the high kicking kung-fu females, that we know and love today. The majority of his movies dealt with straight kung-fu and not so much comedy (which can sometimes stagnate a film) and they always had, exciting and innovative kung-fu training sequences.
After Wang Tao made The Secret Rivals (for Ng See-Yuen) at Seasonal Films, he put him on the map and literally made him one of the genre's most sought-after stars and a household name among kung-fu fans around the globe, by casting him in a number of his films. By teaming him with Tan Tao-Liang in the mega-hit The Hot, The Cool, and The Vicious, he helped propel kung-fu films, to a higher level of excellence. Though, he didn't concentrate on a lot of Shaolin Films, he made (2) of the genre's most memorable when he shot 10 Brothers Of Shaolin and Shaolin Vs Lama, giving Alexander Lo, one of his best roles.
He has always seemed to direct some very interesting films. One of my favorite films by him was definitely Fatal Needles, Fatal Fists, where the fate of a whole town rests in the hands if a man, who (accidentally) caused the death of he best friend. While Eagle's Claw became one of his favorite films as well as a classic among kung-fu fans everywhere. In the vein of director Chang Cheh, he gave viewers a dose of serious kung-fu action, without sacrificing excellent plots, turns, and twists. He always seemed to give the fans, just what they wanted, in the kung-fu films he shot.
I think, most really liked his films, because of the lack of Comedy, that some directors seemed to bombard their films with. He chose to concentrate on the action at hand, which (basically) kept his film's storylines flowing along with the action, and didn't use comedy, for the sake of silliness. His films have been (and will be) enjoyed by kung-fu fans for years to come. A personal favorite of mine, he'd easily sit on a list of any fans "Top 10" Kung Fu Directors.