NINJA VS. SHAOLIN GUARDS is one of a handful of delirious kung fu fests from the 1980s starring the phenomenal Alexander Lo Rei (aka Alexander Lou). The others include NINJA FINAL DUEL, SHAOLIN VS. LAMA, MAFIA VS. NINJA, and NINJA HUNTER (aka WUTANG V NINJA).
Unlike the better-known NINJA FINAL DUEL, this one actually boasts a real plot. Alexander and his three Shaolin brothers– all monks from Shaolin Temple-embark on a mission to get the Golden Sutra document to Tibet after the Shaolin Abbot is killed by the monks' traitorous teacher. The teacher has ninjas and assassins at his beck and call and all manner of costumed gangs attack the monks as they make their way to Tibet through one long scrawny forest (with snow in some sequences) and an occasional mountain road (the locations may all be in Korea, since the credits on HKMDB list both a Korean co-director and a Korean co-cinematographer). We never see the characters stop to eat. One of the monks has a cousin, a girl named Ah Mei who joins them after her father has been killed by one of the monks' enemies. (She's played by a beautiful actress who's always perfectly coiffed and made up for each shot, despite the rigors of their trip.) The group finally reaches the Tibetan temple where they're supposed to take the Golden Sutra. The ending is a letdown, since there isn't much of a temple or much attempt to make the location look like Tibet.
Despite some comic bits by the cousin monk, it's pretty much non-stop kung fu throughout, including some of the wildest extended battles I've seen in a pre-1990s HK kung fu film. Straight kung fu is mixed with occasional wire work and lots of gratuitous acrobatics. One scene has them fight ghosts in a cemetery.
Overall, the English dubbing is far better than average. The voice actors really act, especially the one who does Ah Mei, who performs a great grieving scene over the death of her father where she lashes out at the monks. Although the Ocean Shores video release is full-frame, it's a high quality print and transfer.
