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少林拳 (1978)
The Shaolin Fighters


Reviewed by: STSH
Date: 06/16/2005
Summary: Okay jingoist sockfest

Yet another righteous-locals-subdue-evil-Japanese-invaders tale. The Japanese look fearsome but are largely incompetent, which undercuts any credibility the story might have had.

I don't think Casanova Wong is anywhere near his best here. The standard of his fighting, particularly his greatest skill (lethal fast kicks), varies quite a bit between scenes. It appears he's fighting below his best in the scenes with Pearl Lin, for instance.

In terms of people getting socked and kicked, this film delivers more on quantity than quality, although the climactic fight scene is satisfactory by both length and quality.

One detail that puzzled me was the number of choreographed fight scenes in the dark, where all but the one or two good guys wore black. It was like watching the two leads punch and kick shadows !

The acting is overly melodramatic and nothing is really a surprise, but that might just be petty whinging.

The tricky thing with this film, for me, was that it came in disguise. The video I rented was called "Shaolin Master", and claimed to star Bruce Ly and someone called Shin Tong.

Whatever it's called, not a bad way to pass 80 minutes or so.

Reviewer Score: 4