Shaolin contre les 8 serpents

NOTE: This review is for the English-dubbed version of this film. Like most 70s dubbed martial arts films, the film condition on DVD was questionable and a few of the voice actors were poor. The film in its original form might be a lot better and the terrible plot might actually make a lot more sense. So consider this as you read on...

I've seen quite a few older martial arts film lately and I was happy to see that the star of this picture, Tao-liang Tan, could actually do martial arts! So many times, the cheesier films of the genre feature sub-par fighting and it's obvious that the average REAL black belt in anything cold kick the hero's butt! All too often, kicks and punches don't come close to landing and the technique is poor. But, this is NOT the case here, as the hero has excellent kicking skills which he demonstrates again and again. So the action scenes are indeed excellent if you ignore the fact that his enemies line up and attack him one at a time (a typical fighting style in martial arts films--not seen in real life, though). BUT, the rest of the film is a real mixed bag--sometimes interesting and often pretty lame. In particular, the ending of the film just made no sense at all and was a major disappointment. I really feel like the film is missing something. It is worth while for lovers of the genre, but otherwise it's easy to skip.