Executioners from Shaolin (1977)
Reviewed by: MrBooth on 2004-05-22
***1/2 EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN: I guess this is considered a classic, but I thought it was just pretty good. The story was a bit perfunctory, and didn't carry much emotional impact for me - plus Wang Yu was annoying (and looked like a girl). The ending was very anticlimactic - in fact, nothing in the film managed to live up to the superb opening scene with Gordon Liu. Lo Lieh as Pai Mei was a great character though. I'm sure the martial arts were very authentic and the hard core kung-fu fans will cream themselves over that fact, but I didn't think the styles on display were particularly exciting to watch or aesthetically pleasing. So there From what I remember, the Lo Lieh-directed remake CLAN OF THE WHITE LOTUS was better, but it was one of the first Shaws films I saw so maybe I'll say different when the Celestial remaster eventually comes out.
Reviewer Score: 7

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