Nu Shao Lin si

This was a funny little Kung-Fu movie my parents had back in the 80s. There are some AMAZING fight scenes, however, including one where a guy fights while balancing a rice bowl. Then there was the training fight on the crazy sticks and poles in the beginning. I wish I could find it again...Oh, the nostalgia. Notice that the bad guy in almost any kung fu movie has a creepy mustache. Also notice that everyone seems to be wearing the same clothes all the time. The chicks were all really hot, and the butcher guy was funny too. Bring back the old 70s Kung Fu flicks! If you can find this movie (my parents owned an Asian foods store, so it was easy for them), you should see it. Kung Fu!

This movie has a fabulous opening training sequence. The three have moves as good as the Venoms. The hot kung fu chick, Hilda Liu Hao-Yi, needs marrying but she deserves better than what is lined up. Wong Goon-Hung is fooled by a phony kung fu school but he finds the real deal, Simon Yuen. Simon is extensively stunt doubled but he is still great. The movie has a few special moments but it also has moments that are not good at all. The story itself addresses this. The hero finds his master has been beaten up and admits his kung fu is not the best. Yet he still wants to learn from him because he has merit and there are things he can learn from him. That scene alone makes the movie above average for the year and genre.

A young man, Chen Kang, tours the towns and villages looking for a kung fu expert to teach him some moves. Most of the time he gets ripped off but over the months he picks up snippets of various styles and techniques. Meanwhile, a headstrong girl, Sheh Ying, who happens to be an expert in swallow style, likewise tours the towns and villages looking for the man she was betrothed to as a child, and refusing to fulfil the proposal of arranged marriage until she sets eyes on him, where she can at least decide if she fancies him or not. Both characters meet. However they know nothing of one another's true identity... Their path of true love is threatened when Pai Ying, a vicious stone-faced killer, strides into town. His pastime is hunting down martial arts masters, so that he might kill them for his own amusement with his superior Horse Boxing style...

There's some skilfully choreographed fights, especially at the end, and the story idea is good, and some comedy raises a chuckle, though most part it falls flat, and so does some of the scenes in between the fight scenes. It's just a little muddled, the plot meanders, and it's not as engaging as it should be. Having said that, it's a fair time pass, and would satisfy the average Kung fu fan.