Mystery of Chess Boxing

Also known as Ninja Checkmate (despite not featuring a single ninja), this relentless 1979 kung fu caper introduced one of the genre's most memorable bad guys in the shape of the Ghost Face Killer. This wild-eyebrowed sadist - carved from the same cold stone as Lee Van Cleef's Angel Eyes in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - is out for revenge on the clan leaders who plotted against him. Naive martial-arts student Ah Pao, meanwhile, is chasing Ghost Face to avenge the death of his father. Not a ground-breaking story, then; but who needs plot when you've got such stunning fight choreography? At over ten minutes in length, the final showdown straddles the line between epic and outrageous, while the ending must rank among the most comically abrupt in cinematic history.