You are currently displaying Big5
十大掌門闖少林 (1977)
The Fight for Shaolin Tamo Mystique


Reviewed by: STSH
Date: 10/21/2003
Summary: Enjoyable Polly vehicle

Looking at the cast, you might think this is a star-studded fu fest. But no. The stars listed up to about number 10, apart from Polly, are all guest stars or cameos - all except Don Wong appear only in the opening and closing scenes, and even these two scenes appear to have been shot on the same day.

Apart from the opening scene, Polly pretty much dominates. It's very much about her character aspiring to and achieving her goal (Shaolin level proficiency at fu), then putting it to good use in a very timely manner (as the sole practictioner skilled enough to get back the great books, the ones written by Ta Mo, founder of kung fu).

Polly's opening scene surprised me. I had never before noticed just how much she looks like Elsa Yeung. I thought she WAS Elsa for awhile, until I worked out that the size of her part didn't correspond. Elsa comes in much later, and appears next to Polly, where you really do see how alike they are.

There's more fu on average than a number of Polly's other films, and most of it is of high quality. Her two jokey sidekicks get really tiresome really quickly, and they make some of the scenes hard to watch, but it is still worth watching.

Things become really weird in the second half, and particularly towards the end, but this is nothing too unusual in Polly's films !

Worth watching, but don't expect too much than a single fight from most of the stars.

Reviewer Score: 6