The Shaolin Temple is in flames in a deliberate attack by the villainous Manchu marauding the land of China. However, a handful of Shaolin disciples survive the massacre and scatter throughout the land in search of sanctuary and assistance from other Chinese patriots. Following their own path, they are each tested to – and even beyond – their limits. In fact, it becomes apparent that the only way they can hope to retake their country is by working together. However, it seems they have a traitor in their midst…

This film is a companion piece to 1973’s Heroes Two, with the same shots of the burning of the Shaolin Temple and a short narrated passage mentioning the characters from that film. However, this film follows the story of six other escapees from the slaughter.

The first hour of Five Shaolin Masters is, frankly, a dull mess. After fleeing the Temple, the five leads decide to split up and it’s right here that the whole piece falls down. It’s a similar problem with all of these Shaw Brothers ensemble films – with no single actor being the focus of the story, it starts to feel quite episodic and disjointed. Plus, with so many leads, it often means waiting a long time to see your favourite grab some screen time. The worst affected here is David Chiang, as we really do have to wait the best part of an hour to see him in action (however, each character does have a quite lengthy introduction at the beginning over the start credits – which, infuriatingly, are still running a full thirteen minutes into the film). The reason the five Masters split up, and then reform, is evidently to give weight to the “united we stand, divided we fall” theme that weaves its way throughout the whole movie. However, it has to be said that on the whole the characters do not engage or interest in any way – another result of the fragmented nature of the piece. The one exception is Fu Sheng, who does appear to be the only character imbued with any hint of personality as a naïve yet likeable novice.

Once the five leads are reunited, the film does pick up somewhat. Licking their wounds, they decide to return to the ruins of the Shaolin Temple to complete their training, convinced that it’s the last place the Manchu would look for them. What’s more, it’s true – the Manchu are left scratching their heads until the refugees reveal themselves. Once their training is complete, the usual vengeance is doled out on the wrongdoers.

This film suffers from lacklustre choreography at some points, and even some sloppiness behind the camera – at one point (at 1:42:25 on the Celestial DVD) you can clearly see the shadow of one of the camera crew moving out of shot. But it’s the shallowness of the characters and the indifferent plotting (normally such strong points in other Shaw Brothers films of the age) that really lets it down. Altogether, it really is quite average.