Invincible Shaolin (1978)

Invincible Shaolin (1978)
Aka: The Unbeatable Dragon
Chinese Title: 南少林與北少林
Translation: South Shaolin and North Shaolin

 

Starring: Sun Chien, Chiang Sheng, Lu Feng, Lo Meng, Phillip Kwok Chun-Fung, Wai Pai, Johnny Wang Lung-Wei, Suen Shu-Pau,  Chan Shen, Wong Ching-Ho, Ching Miao, Niu Niu, Yau Chui-Ling, Kara Hui Ying-Hung
Director: Chang Cheh
Action Director: Robert Tai Chi-Hsien, Lu Feng, Leung Ting

 

With the (relative) success of The Five Deadly Venoms, Chang Cheh and his new troupe got to work within the Shaw Brothers assembly line pumping out one film after another. Within months, they released two more films, both of which are widely regarded among fans of the genre. The first of these was Invincible Shaolin, a semi-remake of Chang Cheh’s own Shaolin Martial Arts (1974). And while the original was a flawed film, Invincible Shaolin ends bordering on “Masterpiece” status, mainly because it manages to justify its existence by correcting all of its counterpart’s flaws.

The movie sets the main conflict on the table right off bat: Manchurian General Xu (Johnny Wang Lung-Wei, of The Martial Club and Lady is the Boss) recognizes the threat that Shaolin poses to the Qing Dynasty, but has his hands tied to do anything about it. The reason is that the Emperor has more or less established an uneasy ceasefire with Shaolin with the caveat that Shaolin kung fu masters serve as the army’s fighting instructors. To get around this, he decides to hire three Northern Shaolin fighters to take the place of his current instructors, a trio of men from the Southern Shaolin School. The three new instructors are: Master of the Spinning Kick Xu Fang, played by Sun Chien; Master of the King Kong Palm Bao Shanxiong, played by Lu Feng; and Master of the Two-Section Staff Yang Zhongfei, played by Chiang Sheng.

General Xu has the three new instructors test their skills against the previous teachers under the ruse that whomever loses will have to become the other’s assistant. The South Shaolin masters are defeated. But before they can pack up their bags and leave—in order to save face, of course—General Xu murders them and places the blame on the Northern fighters. The dead students’ teacher, Master Mai (Chan Shen), sends three of his students, including his son, to the barracks to get revenge on their fallen brethren. Only one of them walks away alive from the scuffle, and he commits suicide shortly afterward out of embarrassment. The Northern students begin to suspect foul play from someone in the army, but as lambs in a wolf’s den, they have to tread carefully.

Meanwhile, Master Mai gathers his younger son, Mai Feng (Wei Pai), and two former students, Ho Zhangcheng (Lo Meng) and He Yingwu (Phillip Kwok), and sends them to train to defeat the Northern Students. Master Mai will teach pole techniques to Yingwu; Mai Feng will learn wing chun under the tutelage of Master Liang (Wong Ching-Ho); and Zhangcheng will learn the Mantis style as a student of Master Zhu (Ching Miao).

The major structural flaw of Shaolin Martial Arts is that first half focuses on the training of two characters, only to kill them off and shift the story to two other characters. Although two of the main characters—He Yingwu and Ho Zhangcheng—show up in the latter part of the first half, the film keeps the focus on them once they are introduced, in addition to Mai Feng, who’s around from the beginning. Moreover, the film also treats their eventual adversaries—the Northern Shaolin instructors—as main characters as well. The two villains in Shaolin Martial Arts were just one-dimensional baddies, with barely any personality trait. The fact that we spend time with them as they court lovely women gives them an extra-dimension, including the impulsive and arrogant Bao Shanxiong. So even though two-thirds of the main “heroes” don’t show up for almost 30 minutes, the film never wastes time with Expendable Meat characters.

The unintended flaw of Shaolin Martial Arts script is that switching protagonists halfway through also truncated the training sequences in both halves of the film. At the same time, the training sequences are also rather bland, owing probably to Lau Kar-Leung and Tong Gaai’s relative inexperience with shapes-based action in 1974. By having an extended second act featuring on the characters’ training routine, Chang Cheh gives his action directors more time to explore creative ways of learning familiar styles. For example, Wei Pai’s character learns wing chun, but has to practice its narrow stances by performing techniques while balancing a series of increasingly taller (and narrower) poles. There is the obligatory one-inch punch training, although having Wei Pai train by trapping him in a series of cramped boxes is far interesting than watching Chi Kuan-Chun standing in front of wall for thirty minutes.

The most complete training sequence is Lo Meng studying the Praying Mantis style. However, instead of the more popular Northern Praying Mantis, Lo Meng learns Southern Praying Mantis. That in and of itself is a novelty, and the fact that Lo Meng himself studied the Chu Gar variation of the style means that what we’ll see onscreen will constitute the most authentic representations of the style in martial arts cinema. But back to the training, Lo Meng’s arc most accurately covers the standards set by films like Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow. He begins with strength-building exercises, mainly finger push-ups that go down to one finger. He progresses to practicing striking techniques on a spinning apparatus that strikes him in the back when he hits it from the front. This develops a technique called the jinzhongzhao, or Golden Bell Shroud, which would protect him from Lu Feng’s King Kong Palm. Finally, his teacher ties surgical tubing to his body and requires him to walk a distance and lift weights, known as the but saan gong, or “Lifting the Mountain” set.

A third flaw with Shaolin Martial Arts is that the wing chun on display was not very authentic. In fact, it mainly consisted of Bruce Lee’s infamous one-inch punch, albeit performed in reverse. The reasons are threefold: actor Chi Kuan-Chun was not a wing chun practitioner, nor was choreographer Lau Kar-Leung, and the film was still made when utilizing pure technique-driven fighting was still in its infancy. Chang Cheh overcame this hurdle by bringing in an actual wing chun master, Leung Ting, to assist with the action direction. Leung Ting has claimed[1] to be Grand Master Ip Man’s final student—Ip Man being best known in the West for having trained Bruce Lee. Leung had joined Chang Cheh’s oeuvre in 1978, assisting with the martial arts sequences for The Brave Archer Part II and The Five Deadly Venoms, in addition to 10 Tigers of Kwangtung and Heaven and Hell. Leung Ting taught wing chun to Wei Pai, who lacked formal martial arts instruction. As such, the concepts behind the training sequences and Wei Pai’s big fight with Sun Chien are a lot more authentic here than they were four years prior.

If there is any real flaw to Invincible Shaolin, it is that Phillip Kwok’s training does not feel entirely original. While the training sequences are fine, the later emphasis on the so-called “light skills” is more or less recycled from Kwok’s earlier films, namely Marco Polo and The Shaolin Temple. Even The Five Deadly Venoms stated that “light skills” was a characteristic of that film’s Lizard Style. While it makes sense that for Kwok, who was trained in Peking Opera and acrobatics, I think it would have been better if they had found another Southern style for him to focus on. He was certainly a talented martial arts performer and could have faked any skill he wanted.

But despite my own misgivings regarding the above, the training sequences come to a head with a brilliant 15-minute finale which gives us the only time that all six original Venom Mob troupe members fought at the same time. Wei Pai uses his wing chun skills to close in the gap between him and Sun Chien, a supreme kicker. In that sense, their fight is the reverse of the finale of The Himalayan, in which Angela Mao and Tan Tao-Liang used their legwork to maintain a distance from Chen Sing. Sun Chien often found his skills being underused, and in many of the Venom films, he would only get a short fight or two before dying—see The Daredevils; The Magnificent Ruffians; and Two Champions from Shaolin. Sun Chien gets plenty of opportunity to show off his kicking prowess in the finale. Meanwhile, Lo Meng and Lu Feng go at it in a whirlwind of handwork: the King Kong Palm vs Southern Mantis Boxing. Finally, Phillip Kwok and Chiang Sheng have a prolonged staff duel, propped up by impressive acrobatics from both men. The choreography here is top notch and is one of the best Venom Mob moments, bar none.

In the end, Invincible Shaolin is an excellent addition to Chang Cheh’s lengthy list of classics, not to mention a superb sophomore effort for the Venom Mob troupe on the whole. Each of the six Venoms put in great performances, both acting- and fighting-wise. And, as stated above, it is the only time to see all six Venoms putting their skills on display at the same time. It is indeed one of the classics of 1978: a year that was dead-set on making as many of those as was possible.

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[1] - Ip Man’s son, Ip Chan, disputed that this was not the case. Leung Ting did indeed study under Ip’s student Leung Sheung.