Das unbesiegbare Schwert der Shaolin

Yuen Chor is one of the lesser known Shaw kung fu directors, he also is one of the more prolific directors with over 120 films in a 36 year career. With the re-release of the Shaw library on DVD several reasons for his obscurity become clear. One, his films have some of the best art direction you can find in the kung-fu films of this era. Two, the films are always framed for full Shaw Scope wide screen. Three, he fills his films with lots of colorful characters. When these films were put on TV, most of the visuals were ruined and it's really hard for a non-Chinese audience to keep up with the parade of characters especially with bad dubbing.

This film contains a large number of main characters, about a dozen, although most of the film revolves around the hero played by Ti Lung. These characters keep returning to say something or advance the plot. That alone makes the film hard to watch. A Yuen Chor film where this isn't problem is the Magic Blade which has a similar number of characters but most show up for a scene and leave. The twists and turns of the plot just add to the mental exhaustion if you are not ready for it.

The pace of the film is good with a number of well choreographed fight scenes. There are some crazy super-human kung fu stunts. The film looks great and the actors all do their good usual work.