Five Shaolin Masters

Cheh Chang directed this martial arts masterpiece (well, I thought it was when I was a kid) in 1975, and kids like me knew it by the title "5 Masters Of Death". I loved this film. I saw it on TV when I was in about 2nd or 3rd grade, and it changed my youth! Because it was after this film that I was being dragged into the Princible's office for trying to flex my Karate skills in the play yard! Of course I was one of those kids who made my own num-chucks, and bonked kids heads with them, until my parents made me dismantle my weapons of destruction. But until then, I thought my hands were illegal weapons. I can still recall the day my Mom picked me up from the school and took me to get a milk shake, while she proceeded to tell me "no more Karate! I'm throwing away your weapons!" and that milkshake went down my throat like a brick, as the tears swelled in my eyes. I know this isn't much of a review, but I want to convey the power this film had on my youth. I wanted to be a killing machine (but one of the good guys as well!), because this film burnt a hole in my young psyche. Like a lot of things, I did abandon my desire to learn Karate. But the film still nestles in a place of my youth, and I did finally locate a copy on video. Unfortunately my memory served up a far nicer looking print. The quality looked horrible! But the film was fun to watch again, and I might still learn Karate yet. I give it a 10, because it's fun!

No pun intended - I don't think the number 5 has a special meaning to it. Like the number 7 that is supposed to be ... well magnificent (sorry for the pun). But it works quite well for the movie right here. You have 5 good guys and 5 bad guys ... actually it is way more than that, but supposedly the main people ... who'll have to fight each other ... and fight they do ... a lot! Maybe even too much for some.

I remember watching a lot of Shaw Brothers movies when I was little - I don't remember most of them. So I don't know if I already had seen this. If I did, I don't remember them having so much blood in them - I assume that German censors cut quite a bit out of them ... but that's stuff for another story. A really amazing cast here - one of my all time favorites ... with the director that discovered him ... David Chiang that is ... good fighting and as I said, maybe even too much ... a sort of ... well overkill (to end with a pun)

Five students escape from the destruction of their beloved Shaolin Temple...now each must take revenge and train in their own separate fighting styles...they will become The Five Shaolin Masters!! The film focuses on Shaolin's historic rivalries with the Qing Dynasty, and in fact this is made clear in the prequel, "Shaolin Temple" (1976). Trying to keep the films straight is a challenge in itself, especially considering how many name changes tend to happen.

Among the Cheh Chang films, this may have the most epic battles. I love the gimmicks of other films (such as the different "venom" styles), but here we have a great one-on-one fight that rivals anything you would see from Bruce Lee.

In 1974, Chang Cheh was roughly halfway through a career that already included such milestones as "The One-Armed Swordsman", "The Heroic Ones" and "Blood Brothers". While it can be argued that all martial arts movies are fantasies, Chang's films ("Blood Brothers", especially) were peopled by vividly wrought, three-dimensional characters that the viewer cared about. But, despite assembling a stellar cast for "Five Shaolin Masters", it is here that the veteran director begins to eschew character development. Of the titular masters, only Fu Sheng has any humanity; the remaining heroes (David Chiang, Ti Lung, Chi Kuan-chun, Meng Fei) and all of the villains (Wang Lung-wei, Chiang Tao, Fung Hark-on, Tsai Hung, Liang Chia-jen) are emotionless comic book figures, boldly but crudely drawn. From this point forward, Chang's characters and plots would become increasingly stylized until he was directing what were essentially live-action cartoons, like "Five Element Ninja". The films were still entertaining, but with rare exceptions (such as "The Chinatown Kid") were no longer engrossing. But hey, I won't get too stuffy in my analysis of what is undeniably an entertaining movie. There are lots of fights, both empty-handed and with weapons, and they're beautifully choreographed by Liu Chia-liang--soon to become a director in his own right--and Liu Chia-yung. (Look for brief cameos by the latter and by the Lius' adopted brother, "Master Killer" Gordon Liu.) Judged strictly on action, "Five Shaolin Masters" is a winner, and fans of the genre will want to see it more than once.

I was influenced by this movie to start training Martial Arts, first Kung fu, then Tae Kwon Do. It gave me some motivation when I lost almost all my friends because I was the kind of kid always searching for adventures and physical activities and they just disappeared from the scene because of the Atari's video games.

I loved the values of this 5 masters of the Shao Lin temple by honoring their ancestors, masters and school-temple and giving some pay back to the bad guys who betrayed and killed their people.

The stunts are great athletes and for sure great martial artists as well, but above all real combat experts instead of flying wired clowns.

The music is good, but I don't like the sound that all movie makers add to punches and kicks almost as fake as those "Pow" from Batman but I guess that is or was a standard in the industry so that is not their fault (producers and/or director of this movie).

Considering the context and the year when it was made, this movie deserves respect because it's original and it inspired so many kids when we start enjoying the benefits of VCR's (Beta format) back in early to middle 80's. Plus it teaches to kids that if you want to win, you need to pay the price and you need to go through training and discipline.