Man Dancer posted:

Wing Chun (1994)

Just saw this on Netflix streaming. What a wonderful surprise this movie was! (FYI: The poster image in Netflix is for the wrong film.)
Technically a little late for the period outlined in the OP, but of the same spirit.

Michelle Yeoh in her prime, just dominating the screen with astonishing poise and high-quality beatdowns.
Donnie Yen just starting out as a eager, young goofball.
Yuen Woo Ping directing in his 90's heydey (same year as Fist of Legend).
A really funny supporting role from Kingdom Yuen. A lot of the broad comedy in HK films tends to leave me pretty cold, but something about the performances, editing, and writing really sold the humor for me.

This movie is also gently sexy and queer as helllll. Not as totally transgressive as it could be, but pretty amazing for its time. The ending fight in has a great thematic action beat/gender double entendre that literally had me clapping.

I'm sure I'm overselling this (it is a pretty silly film), but I found it utterly charming.

P.S:. Someone wrote a scholarly monograph about the film: http://books.google.com/books?id=Ur61t2MgqAAC
My library has eBook access and I am reading it right now! It's pretty good!