War of the Shaolin Temple (1980)

War of the Shaolin Temple (1980)
aka: Monks Go Crazy; Thirteen Pugilist Monks in Shaolin
Chinese Title: 十三癲和尚
Translation: 13 Crazy Monks

 

Starring: Chen Chien-Chang, Shen Hai-Rong, Chen Chian-He, Mark Long Kuan-Wu, Alan Chui Chung-San, Chia Kai, Huang Fei-Long, Chang Chi-Ping, Chiang Sheng, Ricky Cheng Tien-Chi
Director: Chiang Nan
Action Directors: Alan Chui Chung-San, Mark Long Kuan-Wu, Fung Hak-On, Lau Fong-Sai

 

War of the Shaolin Temple is an interesting film, mainly because of its unintended relationship with other films. There are some general plot contours that remind me of Jet Li’s classic Shaolin Temple, which was still two years away. I think few people will come away from this movie not having a vague reminder of the better-known Mainland film. It is also set during the Song Dynasty, specifically during the period in which the famed general Yueh Fei was fighting to halt the advance of the “proto-Manchurian” Jin Dynasty. That would make a contemporary, story-wise, with another Mainland film, Yao’s Young Warriors.

When our film starts out, the Jin army has already kicked the Emperor and his entourage out of Northern China, thus giving birth to the Southern Song Kingdom. One of the generals, Chao Wei (the late Alan Chui, of Last Hero in China and Kung Fu vs. Yoga), has gotten a hold of the Emperor’s Seal, which the Han Chinese people in the south now want back. To that end, the famous Yueh Fei (who, like in Yao’s Young Warriors, never actually appears onscreen) sends some of his men to infiltrate the General’s manor and steal the Seal back. Most of the patriots are killed, although one of them, Wang (Chen Chien-Chang, whose other credit was Shaolin Temple Strikes Back), is able to escape with the Seal in tow.

Unfortunately for Wang, he is wounded during the melee, making him an easy target for the Jin soldiers. Fortunately, he is found by a young lady named Miss Bai (Shen Hai-Rong, of Eighteen Fatal Strikes and The Beheaded 1000). She brings him back to her place, where her dad (Chang Chi-Ping, of Valley of the Double Dragon) patches him up. It doesn’t take long for the Jin soldiers to follow rumors to the Bai household, where Miss Bai’s dad and brothers (Venom Mob troupe member Chiang Sheng and Five Element Ninja’s Ricky Cheng) hold off the soldiers while Miss Bai and and Wang make their escape.

The two fugitives eventually find their way to the Shaolin Temple in Hunan. Although the Abbot (Mark Long, of The Mystery of Chess Boxing) has “closed down” the temple in order to enforce political neutrality—the temple is now in Jin-controlled territory, despite the monks mainly being Han Chinese—the monks themselves are more than willing to bring in a Song patriot. After a strange interlude involving Miss Bai being kicked out of the temple after serving meat dishes to Wang (on temple grounds), Wang decides to become a monk in order to improve his martial arts and one day get revenge against General Chao Wei. But in order to really get his skills up to snuff, he’ll have to convince the notorious drunken “Crazy Monk” (Chia Kai, of Seven Steps of Kung Fu) to take him on as a student.

It is always a bit of a novelty to find a Shaolin Temple film not set during the Qing Dynasty. Jet Li’s Shaolin Temple was set during the transition between the Sui and Tang Dynasties, while this film takes place a few hundred years later during the latter half of the Song Dynasty (before the Mongols came and conquered the Song, Western Xia and Jin kingdoms). Not a lot of movies get to tell much of the story of the Jin and Liao Dynasties, which existed concurrently with the Song. So to a Westerner (with a mild interest in history) like me, this change of scenery is a treat.

I do find it interesting that while Hong Kong studios were generally content to rip off Drunken Master or adapt the works of Jin Yong and Gu Long into film at that time, Taiwanese studios showed a bit more creativity. Oh, they had their share of those aforementioned types of movies: even this film has scenes set in the Crazy Monk’s cave that were most likely inspired by Drunken Master. On the whole, however, they seemed to be more willing to tell stories set in different parts of Chinese history. For example, Shaolin Monk (1976) tells the story of Boddhidharma and is set during the Northern and Southern Dynasties Period (A.D. 420 – 589). The Snake, the Tiger, the Crane (1980) tells the little-known story of Li Tzu-Chung, a peasant rebel who briefly became “emperor” during the fall of the Ming Dynasty. And it was Taiwan that made a film about Pan Ku, the Chinese equivalent to Adam, in the 1979 fantasy In the Beginning.

The plot resembles Shaolin Temple in that both films are about a patriot of sorts who ends up at the Shaolin Temple to train for revenge against an evil warlord, and both films feature a sequence of the hero leaving the temple in order to rescue a female friend at one point. I have to wonder if the makers of the more popular Jet Li film had seen this and were inspired, of it was simply a case of convergent evolution. Like a lot of Mainland wushu films, War of the Shaolin Temple a demonstration scene of different monks performing forms with diverse weapons, including the pole and rope-dart.

There are four credited action directors, including the late Alan Chui, who played the film’s main villain, and Mark Long, who plays the Abbot. The bulk of the action involve group melees with weapons—pole, spear, saber and sword—and there is a fair amount of fighting throughout. The weapons choreography is generally solid, although not quite up to the best work of Sammo Hung (see The Odd Couple) or Lau Kar-Leung (see Heroes of the East and Legendary Weapons of China). A lot is made about the Shaolin Monks having a 13-Pole Formation, with our main hero ultimately being the monk who becomes the 13^th member of said Formation. Unfortunately, not much is really made of that from a choreography standpoint, so if you want cool pole formations, stick with Spiritual Kung Fu.

Lead actor Chen Chien-Chang acquits himself fairly well to the action. He only showed up into two movies—both about the Shaolin Temple—and then disappeared from film (at least). Taiwanese mainstay Chia Kai steals the show as the super-acrobatic Crazy Monk. Sadly, he doesn’t not participate in the climax, which I consider to be a huge waste of the man’s talents. Mark Long as the Abbot ends up participating in the action more than most Shaolin abbots do in these films. He teams up with Chen Chien-Chang to fight against Alan Chui in the finale, which features the film’s best action and most sustained hand-to-hand combat. The climax actually downplays the other monks fighting the Jin soldiers in favor of this two-on-one, which I thought was interesting. That said, Mark Long, whose talents rival those of Chia Kai, doesn’t reach the level of his landmark performance as Ghost-Faced Killer in The Mystery of Chess Boxing. And that really sums up War of the Shaolin Temple: everybody does what they usually do well, but they ultimately do it better in other films.

Shaolin Rescuers (1979)

Shaolin Rescuers (1979)
aka Avenging Warriors of Shaolin
Chinese Title: 街市英雄
Translation: Street Market Heroes

 

Starring: Kuo Chi (Philip Kwok), Lo Meng, Sun Chien, Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, Jason Pai Piao, Yang Hsiung, Yu Tai-Pang, Lau Shi-Kwong, Tam Jun-Tao
Director: Chang Cheh
Action Directors: Robert Tai, Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng

One thing that any kung fu fan, regardless of their genre preferences, must recognize and admire about the “Venom Mob” of the Shaw Brothers is that they were extremely prolific during their heyday, being able to churn out up to four or five movies per year. Unlike their modern cinematic equivalent, Steven Seagal, the movies they made were chalk-full of long, intricate fight scenes of the sort that’d take Jackie Chan three months to film. Seagal, on the other hand, makes a few movies per year, but with the sort of action that you could film in a couple of days if you wanted to, especially considering that the choreography in his movies is the same from film to film. Not the Venoms, however, They were always experimenting with new weapons, styles, or at least new twists on the old favorites. Few of their films, from The Five Deadly Venoms until their last unofficial movie, Ninja in Deadly Trap, are bereft of some memorable fight sequence, if not several.

Let’s take this movie for example. It was made in 1979, one year after their breakout hit, The Five Deadly Venoms. In 1979, the Venoms would release no less than four films: The Magnificent Ruffians, the fan favorite Kid with the Golden Arm; Shaolin Daredevils; and this movie. The Magnificent Ruffians holds its place in kung fu movie history for having apparently one of the greatest weapons duels ever filmed. Everybody loves The Kid with the Golden Arm for its eclectic mix of weapons, styles, and quirky characters. Shaolin Daredevils occasionally gets criticized for its lack of action, but few people can argue with its 20-minute-long climax set in a warehouse that is essentially the precursor for the sorts of fights that would litter action movies in the 1980s. That’s a pretty good track record for a single year’s output. Definitely better than what a lot of action actors are able to do per year.

And then there’s this movie, which also keeps the fights pretty low-key (albeit never without much downtime) until the huge climax. It can be argued that this film serves as something of a capstone on Chang Cheh’s Shaolin cycle, which started in 1974 with Five Shaolin Masters and would make up a huge portion of the movies he made until 1980. It’s set at the same time and in the same world as films like Men from the Monastery and Shaolin Avengers, but, instead of focusing on the big heroes like Fong Sai-Yuk (called by his Mandarin name Fang Shiyu in the movie) and Hung Hey-Kwun (called Hong Shi-Kwan and who is admittedly a major supporting character here), the movie focuses on a couple regular guys (well, not quite regular, them being kung fu bad-a**ses) who get caught up in a very epic struggle.

The movie begins with a rather low budget depiction of the burning of the Shaolin Temple; a bunch of bad guys fight against some of the surviving Shaolin laymen on a soundstage (which is very obviously a soundstage) with some simple structure burning in the background. One by one, the good guys are killed (including famed Shaolin monk San Te) until the only one left is Hung Hey-Kwun (Jason Pai Piao, Shaolin Intruders and Demon Strike). Hung takes on the infamous Pai Mei and his general (Lu Feng, Ninja Death and Flag of Iron), but is injured and escapes. This takes up the first few minutes of the movie, which then takes us to another town and introduces us to its main protagonists.

Those would be Lo Meng (Ip Man 2; Anna in Kung Fu Land) and Kuo Chi (Brotherhood of the Wolf and In the Line of Duty VI: The Forbidden Arsenal). The former is a super-strong laborer working for a bean curd seller and is secretly a master of the Souther Praying Mantis style. He’s also a bit dumb, but good-natured. The latter is a disciple of the Black Tiger style, which is an actual kung fu style from the North that, unlike the Southern Tiger styles, is more about acrobatics and flashy moves than the simple, clawing attacks we see from actors like Gordon Liu or Chen Sing. Kwok works as a waiter at a local restaurant and is friend’s with Lo; the two are always sparring wherever they go and often dine at the restaurant after it closes. One evening they’re eating dinner when they get on the subject of what they want to do with their lives and they come to the conclusion that they’d be willing to give their lives to be heroes, or at least be a part of something big. That, my friends, will be the theme of tonight’s movie.

We’re eventually introduced to our third “regular” protagonist, a dye worker (Sun Chien, Angry Ranger and Invincible Shaolin) who studies at one of the local kung fu school. Evidently, the school’s specialty is preparing its students to fight in situations that are EXTREMELY unlikely to happen in real life, but always show up in these kung fu movies. To be more specific, the school trains its students to fight while balancing on wooden poles. That’s fine if you’re trying to develop your sense of balance, but considering that none of the students end up being very good in a fight and Sun Chien’s character only gets the upper hand when he’s able to convince his opponents to follow him onto the poles, the teacher would’ve been better off with something more practical. So Sun’s character is picked on by both his teacher and his colleagues, despite the fact that he’s clearly the most talented pupil at the school. He finds a little solace in his friendship with Lo Meng and Kuo Chi.

All of this takes up about the first thirty minutes of the film, after which the writer remembers that there was another thread established at the beginning of the movie. An injured Hung Shi-Kwan finds another group of patriots, including the famed Fang Shiyu, who give him a prescription for some special medicine for his wounds and tell him to look for an Opera Troupe leader (who will be played by Chiang Sheng, Nine Demons and Shanghai 13), whose boat is anchored in the local harbor. Shortly after Hung leaves the hideout, the same place is raided by Pai Mei and his men, who promptly kill everybody, including Fang. What is notable about this scene is that the way in which Fang is slain is the same way he dies in Shaolin Avengers and The Men from theMonastery. To give the uninformed reader an idea: Legend has it that Fang Shiyu was, as a child, boiled in a special bath of herbs, which granted him complete immunity to any sort of blow, be it from a fist or from weapons. He did, however, have an Achilles’ Heel: his poop chute. Thus, when he bites it, it’s especially uncomfortable to think about.

Hung Shi-Kwan meets up with another friend, played by Wang Li, the so-called “Sixth Venom.” It’s while they’re talking that they’re cornered by the General and his men. Wang sends Hung away, staying behind to fight off the General and his men until he ultimately loses his life. At this point Hung arrives in the city, and seeks shelter at the school Sun studies at. The master, whom we’ll learn later is in cahoots with the the government, sends Hung away. After a brief restaurant encounter with Kuo, Hung passes out in public and is rescued by Lo, who takes him into his room at the bean curd store and tends to him. The prescription for his medicine is expensive enough that Lo and his friends soon have to resort to stealing in order to buy enough doses to save him. He eventually gets better, but by this point, Sun’s kung fu school rival has found out their secret and has ratted them out to the General. The three friends, Hung Shi-Kwan, and the Opera Troupe leader all escape and head back to the school to teach the local master a lesson in patriotism. They then hole themselves in the school’s courtyard for the evening, while the General sends one of his top assassins to mobilize the local garrison for back up. The next morning, the General and his men storm the courtyard and our big climax begins.

For most of the first two acts, Avenging Warriors of Shaolin plays like two entirely different films, one consisting of the three good Venoms and their kung fu horseplay, the other consisting of Hung Shi-Kwan and his flight from Manchus (led by Pai Mei). It’s about an hour into the movie before the threads finally meet up; until then, we’re given an attempt by Chang Cheh to do what Jackie Chan had made so popular the year before (i.e. acrobatic kung-fu comedy) with a lower-budget version (i.e. one could argue that Jason Pai Piao is second-string compared to Chen Kuan-Tai and the actors who play Fang Shiyu and Pai Mei certainly are not of the same caliber as Alexander Fu Sheng and Lo Lieh) of what Chang Cheh AND Lau Kar-Leung had done already (Han patriots against the Manchus who burned the Shaolin Temple). Granted, it’s all very entertaining, but it’s nothing we really haven’t seen before in other movies. The big twist in the Hung Shi-Kwan plot thread is that the role of Pai Mei has been reduced to that of a cameo. To those of you who are unfamiliar with Chinese kung fu history (or whose only exposure to Pai Mei has been through Quentin Tarrantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 2), Pai Mei was a high-level monk at Shaolin who left the temple to form his own sect. According to some legends, he sold out to the Manchurian government and participated in the “purging” of the temple, being responsible for the death of a number of important kung fu stylists, including Hung Shi-Kwan himself. That particular legend is the subject of Lau Kar-Leung’s classic Executioners of Shaolin (let me note here that people who practice the Pai Mei style don’t believe that he was a traitor). In any case, Pai Mei only shows up in two scenes and then disappears from the film, leaving Lu Feng to take the spotlight as the film’s formidable villain.

Speaking of Lu Feng, he apparently won a Best Actor Award for his performance as the general, which sort of mystifies me. I mean, he sells himself well as a ruthless villain with absolutely no concern whatsoever for the people whose lives he and his men are taking, but the truth is that Lu Feng has played that role (or variations of it) so much that it’s not really much of a stretch for him. Invincible Shaolin and Five Deadly Venoms were far better displays of his acting, especially since in the the former he’s not really the villain, even though he’s a target of the main protagonists. That said, Lu Feng acquits himself quite well in the fight department and, once he picks up the kwan do in the finale, his display of prowess goes from “solid” to “absolutely wonderful.” The man is a straight-up demon with the kwan do, a weapon he has used in numerous films, including The Magnificent Ruffians; The Shaolin Daredevils (where he does kwan do techniques with a shovel); and Sword Stained with Royal Blood. He really sells the idea that he could take on four armed men simultaneously, his skills are that refined.

Philip Kwok and Lo Meng, who had such great chemistry in The Five Deadly Venoms and The Crippled Avengers, get to work the same magic again. Once again their relationship has a changed; in the former they were two righteous friends and in the latter, the fact that one was blind and the other was deaf/mute made them compliment each other quite well. Here, they play kung fu master friends, Lo Meng being the slightly-dumb one and Philip Kwok playing the more arrogant Jackie Chan type, although like Chan, Kwok is able to play it likably without making us want to hit him. Their chemistry helps drive the first half while their characters remained divorced from the main conflict. Of course, their skills are not to be forgotten. Lo Meng, who was trained in chow gar, or Southern Mantis, give us another showcase of his style and, to top things off, gets to do some solid work with the three-pronged fork (or trident) at the end. It’s been written that Lo Meng didn’t get a lot of roles in the later Venom Mob wuxia films because he wasn’t able to perform weapons chores, but here he makes a good enough showing for himself that I wonder if said affirmation isn’t inaccurate. Philip Kwok uses the Northern Black Tiger style, which he also would use in the later Rebel Intruders. He mixes it up by fighting with benches, stools, bowls, and finally, the Tiger’s Head Hooks.

The other two Venoms, Chiang Sheng and Sun Chien, get less of a showcase here, especially Chien. Chiang Sheng plays the righteous troupe leader who’s job is to smuggle Hung Shi-Kwan to safety, but after a brief appearance in the first hour, he doesn’t after anything to do until the last act, where he gets involved in a restaurant brawl alongside Philip Kwok before participating in the climax. Chiang almost always played a very likable and acrobatic type, sort of like a Taiwanese Yuen Biao. Here he isn’t given much room to show off his charisma, although his acrobatics and weapons skills are on full display at the climax. Sun Chien gets to show off his acting skills playing put-upon student who has to watch the good guys eradicate his schoolmates, much like he did in Invincible Shaolin and The Five Deadly Venoms, but his tae kwon do kicking is very downplayed, which is this film’s major flaw. That, to be honest, is the big flaw of most Venom Mob films: Sun Chien’s kicking is never utilized as much as it should be. The Five Deadly Venoms; Invincible Shaolin; Rebel Intruders; and Kid with the Golden Arm all gave us brief, but brilliant glimpses into the man’s talent. This film, however, gives us very little to look forward to, except a demonstration of his sense of balance while fighting atop the poles. I’m big fan of fancing film kicking, which has endeared me a lot to Sun Chien. That’s why it breaks my heart to see so many films with him promise to let him give an exhibition of his talents on the level that most of Donnie Yen’s, John Liu’s, or Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee’s films did, only to give him a single fight scene or one that de-emphasizes his skills.

Rounding out the cast is Jason Pai Piao, a genre veteran whom I can’t help but wonder if he was casted on the grounds that he wore a mustache that made him look like Chen Kuan-Tai, who had defined the role of Hung Shi-Kwan during the 1970s. Pai Piao was a talented actor and fighter and, although this film doesn’t represent his best work, he does make a likable Hung Shi-Kwan and is a bit more likable than Chen Kuan-Tai’s Hung.

The choreography is provided by Robert Tai, assisted by Lu Feng and Chiang Sheng. Tai was the Venom’s main choreographer up until the end of 1979, when a dispute between him and Chang Cheh caused him to go Taiwan for more money and stranger movies, usually about ninjas. Robert Tai is considered a pioneer in field of wire-fu, which can be seen in his numerous loopy ninja movies. There’s none of that here; all of the action is acrobatic Peking Opera-style fighting and weapons work. As commented before, one gets the distinct impression that the Shaw Brothers Studio were under pressure by Jackie Chan’s success to put comedy into their films in order to continue competing, and thus the early fights are very Chan-esque in their presentation. Thankfully, the choreographers and actors themselves are up to task.

Assisting the Venoms in the action are a group of actors, most of whom have also shown up in Venom Mob movies, who play Lu Feng’s cohorts. Tam Jun-Tao (Cheetah on Fire and Rebel Intruders) plays Tiger Boy, who uses his fists and feet to great effect. Sadly enough, Tai seems to put more trust in him than in Sun Chien, because he kicks up more of a storm than Sun does (this would also happen in Rebel Intruders). Lau Shih-Kwong (Two Champions of Shaolin and Masked Avengers)plays his brother, Leopard Boy, who uses the metal ring, which is an awesome weapon which needs more attention in these movies. Yu Tai-Pang  (Five Element Ninjas and House of Traps) uses a rattan shield and a saber. Finally, Yang Hsiung (Heroic Fight and Island of Fire) uses the melon hammer, another exotic weapon that doesn’t get a whole lot of attention in these movies. I think the only movies that have gotten a lot of mileage out of that particular weapon are this, The Tai Chi Master; True Legend, and the Ninja Death movies.

The final blowout makes me incredibly giddy; I rank it up with Legendary Weapons of China and a few other films as one of the greatest demonstrations of Chinese weaponry on film. While there have been films with better choreography, few movies have had such a great collection of weapons used in a single set-piece: the pole, the melon hammer, the ring, the kwan do, the halberd, the hooks, the saber, the trident, the shield, and numerous found objects find their way into this blistering-long fight. It’s really a must-see moment. And at seventeen minutes, the fact that the final fight never gets boring is a testament to the ingenuity of the actors, the action directors, and director Chang Cheh for knowing how to draw out a fight so much without losing our attention.

The Crippled Avengers (1978)

The Crippled Avengers (1978)
aka Mortal Combat, Return of the Five Deadly Venoms; Avengers Handicapped
Chinese Title: 殘缺
Translation: The Deformed

 

Starring: Kuo Chi, Lo Meng, Chiang Sheng, Lu Feng, Sun Chien, Chen Kuan-Tai, Johnny Wang Lung-Wei, Yang Hsiung, Yu Tai-Ping, Tony Tam Chun-To, Ching Miao, Helen Poon
Director: Chang Cheh
Action Director: Robert Tai, Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng

The Crippled Avengers was released about a month after Invincible Shaolin. One may assume that shooting schedules for both movies either overlapped, as with pre-production activities for this film. The tight deadlines for filming also imply choreographers Robert Tai, Lu Feng and Chiang Sheng—Leung Ting did not join the Venom Mob for this film—were simply action directing geniuses who were able to create the long, complex fight sequences for this movie on the fly and keep things on schedule. The Venom Mob films have often been lauded by fans for their intricate choreography, graphic violence, and preference for exotic weapons—or traditional arms that simply got less attention than your usual swords, staves and spears. Moreso than The Five Deadly Venoms and Invincible Shaolin, The Crippled Avengers serves as a model for things to come.

As the movie opens, three fighters storm the manor of a local warlord, Black Tiger Dao (Chen Kuan Tai, of Iron Monkey and Dragon Tiger Gate), for whom they harbor ill feelings. Not finding him there, they take his wife and son and proceed slice cut off her legs and his arms. The presumably wife dies of shock and blood loss, although the son, Dao Chang (who’ll be played by Lu Feng as an adult), seems to take it in stride. Young Dao receives a pair of prosthetic arms made of steel, which he periodically changes as he gets older. Him and and his dad also become tyrannical kung fu wackos as the years pass.

One day, a local blacksmith, Wei (Lo Meng), starts mouthing off to the two at a restaurant. When a travelling salesman, Chen Shuen (Phillip Kwok), agrees out loud to the blacksmith’s insults, Dao Chang pokes his eyes out. Dao’s men, led by Keeper Wan (Johnny Wang Lung-Wei), invite Wei for tea at Dao’s manor. There, Wei is forced to drink a draught that makes him mute…and then has his ears boxed in a way that leaves him deaf. Another poor shmuck (Sun Chien) bumps into the son on the street and gets his legs cut off…you know, as a reminder to watch where he is going.

It comes to a head when a would-be knight errant, Wang Yi (Chiang Shang), tries to stop Black Tiger Dao and company, only to get captured. Black Tiger has an iron headband placed on Wang Yi’s head and tightened with leather cords. This causes his brain to swell, ultimately rendering him a childlike imbecile. And thus we reach the end of the first half hour (and Act One).

Act Two sees our our four handicapped protagonists discovering a letter on Wang Yi’s person addressed to his teacher. They decide to take Wang Yi back to Master Li Jing-Ying (Ching Miao), taking advantage of the opportunity to ask him to teach them kung fu. While initially reluctant to adjust his curriculum to a blind man, a deaf-mute and a guy with no legs, he eventually agrees on the grounds that Black Tiger Dao’s crimes are so heinous that someone has to take him out. Chen Shuen uses his undistracted hearing to throw darts at falling leaves, plus assorted acrobatics and weapons forms. Blacksmith Wei trains his eyesight with a device that is a wooden wheel on fire: Wei must punch through an opening on the wheel as it is spinning to strike a pot on the other end. Finally, Sun Chien must learn how to walk on prosthetic legs, and then uses the strength developed in his upper legs by lifting them to improve his kicking.

Crippled Avengers is a violent and sadistic film, moreso than I remember it being the first time I watched it. It is about as bad as The Five Deadly Venoms if not worse, considering that the opening scene has an innocent child and a woman get bloodily maimed. There are some moments that I don’t know if they are supposed to be harrowing or blackly funny. Another early scene has Dao Chang celebrating his birthday by mutilating the sons of the men who had cut off his arms. In a few moments, they’re all writhing on the ground with broken limbs and severed tendons.

My favorite moment of dark humor comes later in the film revolves around an old colleague of Dao’s, Master Chiu (Yang Hsiung). Master Chiu is a large, muscular fellow whose specialty is qigong, which has made him almost invincible. Chiu challenges Chen Shuen and Blacksmith Wei to a contest: if they can make him flinch in three punches or three kicks, he’ll allow them to stay in town without fear of reprisal from Black Tiger Dao. If they can’t, the agree to take three punches and kicks from him, which they presumably would not survive. Sun Chien’s character eventually appears and asks if he could have a shot. Wang Yi, in his childlike innocence warns Master Chiu that Sun Chien has “legs of iron”. Thinking that “legs of iron” is the name for some fancy-yet-exaggerated technique, Chiu allows Sun Chien to compete. Sun Chien proceeds to kick a hole in the guy’s stomach, killing him.

The major artistic flaw of the movie, which indicates the presumably rushed nature of the production, is that Ni Kuang and Chang Cheh’s script is awfully repetitive in the last forty minutes. Several scenes end with our characters, mainly Blacksmith Wei and Chen Shuen, back at the inn, fighting Dao’s men to a standstill before Keeper Wan calls off the attack. Those scenes never feel like they are truly escalating the conflict, simply because neither side is taking losses at that point. Thus, the movie feels like it is spinning its wheels until the final blowout, which is something to behold.

The action itself is truly spectacular. Chiang Sheng, Lu Feng and Opera schoolmate Robert Tai pull out all the stops here for some of the most complex choreography of all time. The first notable fight is the one between the sword-slinging Wang Yi and Johnny Wang Lung-Wei, who’s armed with a meteor hammer, which is sort of like a flail or morning star that the user whirls around his body. The meteor hammer is an uncommon weapon to see in these movies, simply because rope or cord-based weapons are so difficult to choreograph. Notable movies to feature this particular weapon are Yao’s Young Warriors and Yellow River Fighter. There are some interesting fights involving two villains who fight with flashy kicks, daggers, and bow that shoots iron balls. The latter is referred to in the dub as the “ball-shot technique,” while the subtitles call it “projectile kung fu.”

The final fight is a blizzard, filled to the brim with wild choreography. Lo Meng, Phillip Kwok and Chiang Sheng take on a small army of henchmen armed with sabers led by Johnny Wang Lung-Wei and his meteor hammer. Kwok fights with his walking stick, which is actually a metal staff that he can wield with one hand. Chiang Sheng fights off bad guys and kills them with their own weapons, while acting like it is just a game. Lo Meng then pits his deaf boxing—his usual chu gar mantis style—against Chen Kuan-Tai’s black tiger style. Meanwhile, Chiang Sheng and Phillip Kwok square off with Lu Feng and his dart-shooting metal arms. This particular fight really exemplifies what people either love or hate about the Venom Mob. On one hand, once our heroes start fighting with the metal hoop, the whole skirmish turns into an over-the-top display of synchronized gymnastics. It is indeed impressive to see just how many acrobatic moves all three performers can pull off in a single take. On the other hand, some more serious-minded viewers with actual martial arts backgrounds will dismiss the entire sequence as a circus routine and not an actual fight. It is certainly a sight to behold and martial arts fans will probably never see anything like it again in genre film.

A second downside to the film is that the third act establishes a plot point in that Sun Chien’s iron legs must be kept a secret until the right moment. What that translates into is that he spends most of the last forty minutes on the sidelines until the final stretch of the big fight against Chen Kuan-Tai. I really wanted to see him kick a swatch through a contingent of lackeys like a reaper in a wheat field, but alas, that was not to be. However, with so many craziness and creativity on display, The Crippled Avengers still comes with a strong recommendation. It just misses the ranking of all-time classic on account of its wasting Sun Chien and its meandering third act.

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.

The Five Deadly Venoms (1978)

The Five Deadly Venoms (1978)
Aka: The Five Venoms
Chinese Title: 五毒
Translation: Five Poisons

 

Starring: Chiang Sheng, Phillip Kwok Chun-Fung, Sun Chien, Lu Feng, Lo Meng, Wai Pai, Johnny Wang Lung-Wei, Dick Wei, Ku Feng
Director: Chang Cheh
Action Director: Robert Tai Chi-Hsien, Lu Feng, Leung Ting

 

Director Chang Cheh’s “Shaolin Cycle” ended in 1976 with the release of the super-production The Shaolin Temple. The following year was something of a transitional period, which saw him switching action directors from Hsieh Hsing and Chen Hsin-I to Robert Tai. He also produced a variety of different projects, including The Brave Archer, an adaptation of the wuxia novel The Legend of the Condor by popular author Jin Yong (or Louis Cha). This was most likely Chang’s response to the slew of wuxia movies directed by Chor Yuen for the same studio based off the works of Gu Long, a contemporary of Cha’s.

When 1978 rolled around, Chang Cheh kicked things off by directing a second Brave Archer movie—it would take three-and-a-half films to cover the source material. Then, in the second half of the year, Chang directed The Five Deadly Venoms, which kicked off his “Venom Mob” cycle. The name derives from the same troupe of actors—Chiang Sheng, Phillip Kwok (billed as “Kuo Chi”), Lu Feng, Sun Chien and Lo Mang[1]-- starring in the movies and taking on action director duties alongside Robert Tai, who had studied at the same Peking Opera school as Chiang Sheng, Lu Feng and Phillip Kwok.

The movie is set in the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960 to 1279). We open with a young man, Yang De (Chiang Sheng), taking care of his sickly master (Dick Wei, of Heart of Dragon and Yes, Madam!). The master, knowing that his time is up, informs Yang that he had previously taken on five students and trained them in the individual Venom styles: Centipede, Scorpion, Snake, Lizard and Toad. The school, known as the House of Venoms, has a horrible reputation for crime and violence, and the teacher suspects that some of his former students might be perpetuating that reputation. Yang De thus receives the mission to find the good students and eliminate the bad eggs. Since all the students wore masks during their training and took on assumed names afterward, finding them will be a bit of a challenge. The only hint that the master can give him is that the former treasurer of the House of Venoms now lives in a small town and may be targeted by the students at some point.

So Yang De heads over to the unnamed town, where he assumes the guise of a beggar. Meanwhile, a local constable, Ho Yuanxin (Phillip Kwok), is out doing his rounds when a stranger slips him a piece of paper with a toad painted on it. That stranger is Li (Lo Mang), the Toad Venom. Li has reason to believe that the Snake and Centipede Venoms are in town looking for the treasure. The problem is that neither of the two knows who the former treasurer is, nor who the Snake and Centipede are.

But we the viewer learn their identity in short order. The Snake Venom is Mr. Hong (Wei Pai, of The Young Master and Cheeky Chap), a young businessman and one of the wealthiest men in town. He receives a visit from the Centipede (Lu Feng), who has since discovered the identity of the treasurer: Scholar Yuan (Ku Feng, of The New One-Armed Swordsman and Dynamo), a lowly civil servant working for the governor. Both men raid Yuan’s house and murder him and his family, but are unable to find the map. While the police are baffled by the incident, there was a witness: a young street gambler named Menfa (Lau Fong-Sai) who saw the Centipede and recognized him as a friend of Mr. Hong. Menfa confides this to Yang De, who in turn passes the information to Constable Ho and Li.

A trap is set for the Centipede, who is arrested after a scuffle with Li. That’s where Hong steps in. He uses his money and influence to bring the governor (Wang Lung-Wei, in a non-fighting role) to his side. They convince Menfa to change his story so that Li is incriminated, and the governor sends Ho on an errand to another town so no one is around to corroborate Li’s alibi. And as all of this is going on, the Scorpion Venom is lurking in the shadows, manipulating people and events to his own benefit.

The Five Deadly Venoms is considered one of the all-time genre classics. Part of the reason is its historical value as the first movie in the infamous Venom Mob “series”, which has many fans to this very day. It is also one of the more intricately-plotted kung fu movies outside of the wuxia films that Chor Yuan was making at the same time, and even those tended to be more convoluted than complex. There’s also the gimmick of five fighters who may or may not know each other’s identities, trained in animal styles that, for the most part, aren’t your average Tiger, Crane, Dragon or Panther techniques. And each of those Venom styles has its own unique gimmick, which makes the action—when it does occur—even more interesting.

While Chang Cheh indulges in his usual love of male bonding—Phillip Kwok spends the climax shirtless for no good reason and the other Venoms eschew period garb for clothes that leave their chests exposed—the film deals with the snowball effect of evil and greed. Even one of the villains laments that with each step on the path to the treasure, he needs to kill more and more people just to protect his interests. And those that are hardened to the carnage are some horrible human beings, too. People die in some messed-up ways, like a hook that is stuck in the mouth to slit the throat from the inside.

In addition to violent kills, there is also a fair amount of torture on display in this film. One character is thrown into an iron maiden and his entire body perforated with needles. In another scene, a device called “the red stomacher”—half a breastplate of armor heated in a fire—is placed on a character to brand him, leaving third-degree burns all over his back. While not awash in red paint like many of Chang Cheh’s other films, the movie on the whole is just mean and brutal.

The action duties went to Robert Tai, Lu Feng and Leung Ting. The first two were Peking Opera buddies, while Leung Ting was a real-life wing chun master. The action is actually rather sparse: after the opening demonstration of each Venom’s abilities, the plot kicks into gear and the first real fight—Lu Feng (Centipede) vs. Lo Mang (Toad)—doesn’t occur until the halfway point of the movie. The fight choreographers were endlessly creative, giving each style its own character. The Centipede style is known for its lightning-quick handwork and short, quick kicks; in one scene, we see dead bodies with dozens of hand-shaped bruises on their chests. The Toad style is much like qigong, in that the practitioner’s body becomes invulnerable to attack. Actor Lo Mang was trained in chow gar, also known as the Southern Praying Mantis style, and uses hand-based attacks as well. Wei Pai wasn’t as knowledgeable in martial arts as his co-stars, so Leung Ting taught him wing chun. The Snake style in this movie is different from other movies: Wai Pai uses his thumb, index and middle fingers to puncture objects (or human flesh) like a snake’s fangs.

The finale brings all the (still-living) Venoms and Yang De together for a huge free-for-all. Phillip Kwok as the Lizard (or Gecko) Venom has the ability to run up walls and stick to them with his feet. Much like Marco Polo (1975) and The Shaolin Temple (1976), Kwok’s character is also trained in “light skills,” which enables him to perform all sorts of flips and somersaults. Sun Chien, who plays another constable, was trained in tae kwon do and thus was a talented kicker. His skills are saved for the finale, where shows off his legwork and even kicks a hole in someone’s forehead! Chiang Sheng was one of the most acrobatic of the Venoms, but his skills are a little muted in this film. Later Venom Mob movies would serve as better showcases for his abilities. Nonetheless, it’s still a solid ending to an unique martial arts film and the movie on the whole deserves to been by all action fans.

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[1] - The sixth Venom was Wei Pai, who played the Snake Venom. He made three films with Chang Cheh and other Venoms before jumping ship to Golden Harvest Studios in a failed bid to become a big star.

Flag of Iron (1980)

Flag of Iron (1980)
Aka: Spearmen of Death; The Spearmen
Chinese Title: 鐵旗門
Translation: Iron Flag Gate

Starring: Phillip Kwok, Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, Lung Tien-Hsiang, Chan Shen, Wang Li, Yu Tai-Peng
Director: Chang Cheh
Action Director: Phillip Kwok, Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng

This is a lesser Venom Mob film about a clan of fighters known as the Iron Flag. As expected, their martial specialty are flags with spear heads at the tip. In an altercation with a rival clan, the Eagle Clan (who walk around with feathers in their heads like a band of Ming Dynasty Native Americans), the Iron Flag leader is killed. However, the several members of the Eagle Clan, including their leader, are killed in the same scuffle. After the Eagle Clan complains to the police, Iron Flag member Lo (Philip Kwok) agrees to take the blame for the massacre, leaving Chao (Lu Feng) in charge of the clan.

After a year on the run, we find Lo working as a busboy at an inn in order to pay off his debts, as Chao had never sent him money as promised. Lo soon discovers that a band of professional killers are on his tail and must fight off each of them to stay alive. Lo also finds out from his friend, Yun (Chiang Sheng), that maybe Chao was behind the death of his master and that Chao has brought the criminal element into the clan. Lo and Yun team up with a mysterious assassin named the Spearman to take down Chao and restore the clan to its former glory.

I wanted to like this movie a lot, but ended up liking it only a little. There are three things that hampered my enjoyment of the film. First is the dubbing, which came across as either being badly acted or the dubbers were just overdoing things to the point of parody. It just didn’t sound natural like other dubs I’ve seen. Second is the absence of Lo Meng and Sun Chien in the cast. I’m not sure why they weren’t around for this one, but it hurts the film. Finally, the cut I saw was about 87 minutes or so. Supposedly, the original Chinese cut is around 110 minutes. So the story doesn’t develop as interestingly as I would’ve liked.

There’s a bit of action in this film. By this time, Robert Tai had stopped working on Venom Mob films, so the action director chores fell on the three leads. The action is well-choreographed and the final flag/spear battle between Philip Kwok, Lu Feng, and the guy who plays the Spearman is just wonderful. Chiang Sheng is underused, but looks good in the few fight scenes he does. There is a variety of exotic weapons on display, including a meat cleaver, sickles, an abacus that transforms into a pair of nunchaku, and the titular flags.

This is easily the most violent Venom Mob film I’ve seen up to this point. Losts of stabbings and slashing and red paint are on display in this film. There are some violent deaths that are over-the-top enough to be rather funny, in a black humor sort of way. In one scene, Kuo Chi stabs a guy in the stomach with some chopsticks and then hits the guy in the stomach with a tray, pushing the chopsticks out the guy’s back. Another violent moment, less funny, is a guy who takes a spear through his entire body. It is not a film for the squeamish.

Overall, a worthy but not great effort.

The Killer Army (1980)

The Killer Army (1980)
Aka: Rebel Intruders
Chinese Title: 大殺四方
Translation: Kill the Quartet

 

Starring: Phillip Kwok Chun-Fung, Wang Li, Sun Chien, Chiang Sheng, Lo Meng, Lu Feng, Choh Seung-Wan, Wang Han-Chen, Yang Hsiung, Chan Hon-Kwong, Chui Shing-Chan, Chan Kei-San, Yu Tai-Ping, Tony Tam Chun-To
Director: Chang Cheh
Action Director: Phillip Kwok, Chiang Sheng, Lu Feng

 

This is considered by many to be one of the Venom Mob’s finest overall films and it certainly does feature some awesome fight scenes and good character moments. It is actually kind of similar to The Magnificent Ruffians, in that the protagonists are poor, out-of-work kung fu experts; the movie takes quite a while to really get going; it’s set in the Republic era; and Lu Feng’s villain character requires two helpers to carry his weapon around.

Basically, there’s a town controlled by several factions that are loyal to one general. War is ravaging the region, and a lot of refugees are arriving in the town and causing problems. The factions, led by Wang Li, Sun Chien, and Lu Feng, prey on the refugees. Among the unfortunate are Chiang Sheng, Lo Meng, and Philip Kwok. Each of them ends up finding work: Chiang goes to a casino, Lo Meng becomes a kung fu instructor, and Philip Kwok becomes the doorman at a brothel. After a drunken bar fight, all three of them become friends and blood brothers.

There’s some intrigue going on between the factions and through a series of events that I didn’t quite understand, Philip Kwok ends up framed for the murder of a military ambassador. Kwok and his friends spend the rest of the movie on the lam, trying to get past the various factions while escaping from the city.

Like The Magnificent Ruffians, the movie is close to the hour-mark before the plot really begins to kick in. Before that, we spend nearly a third of the film establishing all of the characters and the plight of the refugees in the city. We then spend time with the three protagonists as we see how they become brothers. Then the movie kicks into gear and we get some interesting fight sequences. I’m glad that Chang Cheh cared enough about the characters to establish their personalities and (sort of) backstories. However, the main conflict ends up becoming more of an excuse for some elaborate fights rather than something really dramatic.

The fights are pretty excellent; some of their most creative choreography is on display here. Lo Meng uses the usual Southern Mantis technique. Philip Kwok uses a bench and a three-section staff. Chiang Sheng fights with a saber and rattan shield. Lu Feng uses a giant spear. Sun Chien uses his trademark kicks, albeit only in one scene. The last two fights really stick out in the movie. In the penultimate set piece, our heroes take on a bunch of men armed with ropes in what appears to be an EXTREME! jump rope match. The choreography is great, although it’s rather silly that Chiang Sheng never uses his saber to cut the ropes during the scuffle. The finale feature fighters armed with rubber spears, which leads to some interesting choreography.

My main gripe with the Venom Mob films tend to be the tendency of the script to always make Philip Kwok, who’s a good actor and great martial artist, the surviving hero in MOST of the films (he has died a few times in these movies). However, watching Lo Meng and Chiang Sheng die as much as they do makes me feel that there was some bias in favor of Kwok.

I also don’t appreciate it much that Sun Chien, the kicker of the group, gets the shaft in these movies. He’s a talented fighter, but other than The Kid with the Golden Arm, these movies give him several fights and only decent choreography, or really good choreography and precious little fight time. The reason may probably be because he was like Tan Tao Liang in that he wasn’t much beyond his kicking. I would’ve liked for the Venom Mob, the talented choreographers they are, to really do for him what the Yuens did for people like John Liu and Hwang Jang Lee. I guess what it all boils down to is that the Venoms were not as good at choreographing kicking as they were at Peking Opera-style acrobatics and weapons.

Imperial Sword, Crouching Devil (1981)

Imperial Sword, Crouching Devil (1981)
aka Imperial Sword Killing the Devil
Chinese Title: 御劍伏魔
Translation: Imperial Sword and the Devil

 

Starring: Mang Fei, Ching Li, Chang Yi, Hsia Ling-Ling, Ku Feng, Chiang Sheng, Liu Ping, Chui Suk-Woon, Chin Po, Lung Fei
Director: Fang Hao
Action Director: Chiang Sheng

 

Crazy, low-budget wuxia flick that falls on the "high fantasy" spectrum of the genre. The stars have aligned which means that an evil demon (Chang Yi, of The Victim and Challenge of Death) and his ninja-like minions have been released (or are at the height of their power--the subs were hard to read). Some demi-god sends his demi-goddess student (Ching Li, of Twelve Golden Coins and Duel of Fists) to stop it. We then switch over to a band of adventurers, including Chiang Sheng (of the Venom Mob) and Lung Fei (of One Armed Boxer and Tiger and Crane Fists) entering a trap-filled cave to find a map to a scripture that holds the key to a powerful esoteric style. Chiang Sheng is the only one to make it out alive, but he's attacked by the ninja demons and ends up drowning. The map is found by a swordsman (Meng Fei, of The Prodigal Boxer and The Unbeatable 28) and his girlfriend (Chin Po, of Ape Girl and Kung Fu Girls), who take it back his master/her father. He sends them on a mission to find the treasure, and is killed by the devils while they're gone. The duo pick up an annoying girl (Hsia Ling-Ling, of The Gold Chasers and The Thrilling Sword) on the way, and eventually meet up with the demi-goddess. 

The girlfriend is injured in a fight with the bad guys, so they leave her at Meng Fei's house with his mother and continue the journey. When demi goddess is injured, they go to the cave of the Nine Note Demon (Chui Suk-Woon of Hong Kong Godfather and The Ghost Snatchers) to get her Silver Ginseng fruit and heal the demi goddess. She allows them to pick the fruit under the condition that Meng Fei marry her. He relents and the demi-goddess is healed. In the meantime, the villain has killed everybody at Meng Fei's house and taken the (former) girlfriend hostage. Somehow--the movie doesn't show us--the map was tattooed on her back so the Devil needs her to find the cave where the scripture is hidden. The three good guys show up at the cave, but are too late...the Devil has gotten the scripture. Then things start to get weird...

Imperial Sword, Crouching Devil comes across as a 90s wuxia flick made a decade too early. It feels like 500 pages of story crammed into a 90-minute film and then edited with a chainsaw down to 79 minutes. Thus, you have moments where the characters declare that they need to go somewhere, and then arrive at the destination in the next scene, but what you don't find out until later is that several months have passed since the previous scene because the place they went to is so far. Or you have those random plot developments where the character declares, "The only thing that can save him is the 1000-year lotus." And it turns out that it's located at the bottom of a pool in the same character's cave. But the pool is an "endless pool," so a character dives in to fetch the lotus and comes out looking like an old woman. And the entire movie is practically one long string of seemingly random and contrived events that the film (generally) treats with utter seriousness.

I was interested in the film because the action direction was supplied by Chiang Sheng, who was working solo this time. And the action is a two-edged sword: purists will absolutely hate this because the action is all wires and special effects. There are lots of flying people and wire-assisted acrobatics. Cel animation is used to represent energy-infused swords and chi blasts by the combatants. Camera tricks are used to make Chang Yi split into several "shadow" versions of himself in order to confuse his opponents. The madness here is cranked up to 11! And there are two fairly long House of Traps sequences where the characters walk around caves filled with flying projectiles, poison gas cages, pools of acid, throat-biting skeletons and flying golden snakes! It's just berzerk!

On the other side of the coin, Chiang Sheng does a really good job choreographing it all. Grounded or not, there's still a trick to pulling off good fantasy-fu and Chiang Sheng shows a natural knack for this sort of action. While we know him for his acrobatics and complex Venom Mob choreography, and wish that he had adapted those talents (on both sides of the camera) to the modern age like the Seven Fortunes did, here he shows aptitude for the sort of film that would reach high levels of respectability with films like Zu: Warriors of Magic Mountain and A Chinese Ghost Story. It's then a shame that Chiang Sheng wasn't able to parlay this natural talent into bigger, more prestigious projects and instead drifted into obscurity in the second half of the 1980s. His co-star Kuo Chi (or Phillip Kwok) had parlayed his talent into different sorts of New Wave films (modern kickboxing, 90s wire-fu, wuxia, bullet ballet, etc.), so there's no reason that Chiang Sheng shouldn't have been able to do something similar.

So, if you're the sort of person who enjoys films like Buddha's Palm, Battle Wizard and Holy Flame of the Martial World, you should check this out. It's barely coherent, but it is wild.