While Hong Kong created most of the kung fu films people think about when the genre is discussed, Taiwan had a lively industry churning out cheaper but frequently entertaining kung fu movies. While Hong Kong could boast higher production values, the Taiwanese often countered with more action and this film is a great example.
Wandering kung fu student, searching for a teacher who he can't beat up, hooks up with an eccentric Shaolin Temple monk who is an alcoholic and meat eater. The student gets embroiled in the Temple's fight with an ex-disciple, a covert Lama monk, who stole the secret Shaolin fighting manual 12 years earlier. The Lama monk returns and attacks the temple for sheltering a beautiful girl he's trying to kill or marry. There a comedic monk involved also.
OK, nothing unusual plot wise here. There's little in the way of character development at all. We never learn much about the hero besides his search for a teacher. The Shaolin monk is a stock eccentric you've seen in HK films like Shaolin Drunkard. The comedic monk is a stock rascal and the villain is exactly what you would expect from this kind of film. what's great about this film and lifts it above the hundreds of others? First of all the fights are frequent, long and very well done considering the low budget. The actors are almost all excellent martial artists and acrobats. The beautiful girl is the weakest in the cast. The choreography is very complex and ambitious. There are times that it seems the actors are missing movements but it keeps moving along at such a fast pace, the mistakes are soon forgotten. Second, there's quite a bit of Buddhist philosophy in the script and that really lifts the whole film up. It seems that the film was actually shot in a real Buddhist temple and there are actual monks as extras. This temple also shows up in the raucous film "Ninja, the Final Duel".
The scene with the Shaolin monk fighting while eating a chicken is great although the "bad foot" technique he uses is quite disgusting. Most of the monks in this film have insane eyebrows. I've never seen anyone with eyebrow hair like that. And what's with the Shaolin/ Lama feud? Where did that come from and why are there enough films about it that it could be considered a sub-genre?
Unfortunately the only version available is a horrible TV print with Australian dubbing. This makes some of the action tough to watch. Do these films still exist in Taiwan?
It's fun and if a better print ever shows up I'll give it an 8.
