Fu Flicks
The Hall O' Fame Classics:
The Master Killer (Shaw Brothers, 1978): The coolest shaolin fu flick that I can remember. Basically it's about the rise of a renegade shaolon priest who shuts down the tyrant warlords of his hometown village. Taking place in feudel China, our hero San Tao (original), a student gets himself, his friends and eventually his family into trouble with the new rulers rolling into town. San Tao escapes to make it to the Shaolin temple where his desires are to learn kung fu and return to help his comrades. The majority of the movie focuses on his training, a wonderful sequence of scenes that showcase the brutal training and later, the styles of the Shaolin. This is the best part and has seldom been perfected in any other film. San Tao then returns home after pissing off the head abbot and forms a unit to wipe out the tyrants of his village. He then starts his own school to teach others to fight. The ending is a bit anticlimatic but overall, one of the best ever!
The Five Deadly Venoms (Shaw Brothers, 1978): A cult classic seen at 2:30 in the morning. It's about the Poison Clan master's last wish to his last student. He developed the clan for good, however greed and evil has corrupted some of the original five members. The story is predicated on the fact that there is a large sum of money that the clan has acculmulated over the years, which the evil members are looking to embezzle. Our hero's job is to find them and to ally himself with a member that's not evil and save the clan. His job is difficult because each of the five members specializes in a particular style that's deadly. He only knows a little of each (the master had to teach him the cliff notes version, b4 he croaks) and would fail by himself. To make matters worse, their identities are unknown. Our hero notices who's good and who's evil and teams up with one which kills off the rest of the evil clansmen. Tremendous slow mo footage of the Snake, Centipede and Lizzard styles. Also the dude with the Toad (makes him impervious to blades and spears) is pretty cool too. More of a scary flick than your standard fu flick. One the best.
Master of the Flying Guillotine (1977?): The most creative fu flick ever, a classic. I can't find the damn thing in any of the specialty videos stores. Plot: A blind warrior who fights with a contraption that looks like a large, red hat. Little does anyone know that when it seeks and finds its target, these blades stick out once the head is in place and decapitates the victim once the chain is pulled...a flying guillotine....sheeet. This bind fighter is seeking a one-armed boxer that had killed his brother. He seeks help by selecting a group of winners from a martial arts contest. The contest is brutal but shows moves and trickery that forshadows what is yet to come. Our one-armed boxer was a spectator of this tourney and soon hears word of the blind warrior and his plans. Yup...it's him vs. the gang, whom he whips. Great footage of styles and the freaks from that tourney. There was an indian dude who could extend his arms another 3ft! Most -excellent fight scenes, and by far the flick most aficiandos talk about.
Shaolin vs. Wu-Tang Sword: A fun flick that popular rap artist, Wu-Tang Clan uses for their sound bytes. Taken place in medival china, there exists a rivalry between the two schools. The master students, however are good friends. Trouble occurs when the feudal lord of the town wishes to be taught the sacred Wu-Tand style. The teacher resists which ultimately leads to his death. The blame is on the Wu-Tang's #1 student and is banished form the school. In this skirmish, the girlfriend of the #1 Shaolin student dies and blame is put on the Wu-Tang Clan. All of this going well according to the lord's plan. (sorry I can't remember the names) All of this comes to a head when both schools battle it out, and much surprise, each school has selected the two friends to have it out. They pull punches and ultimately find out that the lord is responsible for this mess. As always, the lord gets beaten. Viva la Wu-Tang/Shaolin!
