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Premise:
A student in search of a master finds his way to Shaolin and gets involved in taking revenge, rescuing a girl, and recovering a stolen Kung Fu manual.
Review:
The film starts off with a brief history of Shaolin Kung Fu, and some pretty amazing displays of Kung Fu, and enough flag waving sounds to send a strong wind through your living room! This continues throughout the entire film and be warned, the sounds won't leave your brain for at least another 48 hours. This, and many other factors, contributes greatly to the film's character. Like the dubbing, while awful, adds to the appeal of this film.
Yu Tin is a humble student in search of a master. He goes around challenging various masters, because if the student can beat the teacher what's there to learn? He meets some interesting characters along the way, but most importantly Hso Shi, who turns out to be a young Shaolin Monk who's master is skilled in Kung Fu (and also drinks wine and eats meat). Referred to as Grandmaster, he teaches Sung Yu Tin a lesson. Yu Tin begs to be his student, but Grandmaster wants nothing to do with him. Yu Tin and Hso Shi try some interesting techniques to convince the grandmaster to teach Yu Tin Kung Fu, but this just ultimately gets him kicked out of Shaolin. Grandmaster had a bad experience with a student in the past, Chi Kung, who was really a Lama out for revenge and the one who stole the secret Shaolin manual (Chang Shen). Now the grandmaster refuses to take on any other students. Chi Kung, head of the Skyhawk clan, is now a ruthless Lama taking over other clans. Yu Tin rescues a young girl who has escaped from Chi Kung's wrath, but not after her clan was taken over and her father killed. Yu Tin runs into a lot of trouble since meeting the girl and eventually flees back to the Shaolin Temple for safety. Just as Yu Tin is about to be kicked out of Shaolin again, grandmaster takes Yu Tin as his student. Some excellent training scenes follow and the rest of the story centers on retrieving the stolen manual and stopping the evil forces of the traitor Chi Kung.
This movie has it all, from the sound effects, to the dubbing, to the bad costumes, to spitting of water, right down to the old drunken master. The Kung Fu in this movie is spectacular, and plentiful. Although it is a revenge themed movie, the plot stands out and turns out to be a compelling story. These factors combined give this movie a seat on my personal favorite ten top Kung Fu films. No matter how many times we watch this film it always manages to entertain.
In summary, this movie should not be missed, even for non-genre fans there's enough here to keep you interested. While it's not in the same league as other Shaolin temple movies, such as the 36th Chamber of Shaolin or The Shaolin Temple, this film continues to be one of my favorite Kung Fu films of all time.
Quotes:
"I'll show you how good my Kung Fu is! Grrrrr!!!"
"You Son of Bitch, stop yelling, I'm right here!"
"Stupid fool, your forcing me to kill you!"
"Your Kung Fu is useless against me, now tell me who your lousy master is!"
Director(s): Lee Tso Nam
Producer(s): C.P. Keung, Ching Kuo-Chung
Action Director(s): Peng Kong
Cast:
Alexander Lo Rei (Lo Jui) as Yu Tin
Chang ShanChi Kung
Li Wei-Yun
Robert Yang
George Chang
William Yen as Hso Shi
Ching Kuo-Chung
Rating: *****
Written by: Paul Asadoorian
Date: 21 June 2004
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