Executioners from Shaolin (1977)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Hardly a classic kung-fu movie; the film is bogged down with dialogue and plays out as more of a family drama than the Shaw Brothers fight flick that it supposedly is. Still, an excellent cast and some good production values count for a lot and director Liu Chia-Liang can always be relied on to deliver some strongly-choreographed scenes of action and battle. For the first half of the movie, we are mostly involved in the antics of top fighter Hung Hsi Kuan, as he marries the delectable Li-Li Li and has a kid in the process. A lot of the screen time is taken up with training in the tiger and crane styles and some of it involves a cool wooden dummy which shoots ball bearings from its head! The villain of the piece is the late, lamented Lo Lieh, playing a bizarre monk-type character who appears to be a eunuch (!) and who can only be injured between 1pm and 3pm (don't ask me, I didn't write this). Lieh has some great fight sequences as repeated assassination attempts are made and generally fail – he's definitely one of the toughest characters I've seen in a martial arts flick and the fights involving Chen Kuan-Tai, Lieh, and Wong Yue are dynamic and excellently shot. Unfortunately, in the place of fighting, we get loads and loads of unamusing humour at the start of the film (generally involving the buffoonish John Cheung, from SNAKE IN THE MONKEY'S SHADOW) and a plot that crawls along at a snail's pace before finally delivering the goods at the end with a splendidly violent battle to the finish.This is worth watching for the cast alone. Chen Kuan-Tai and Wong Yue are fine as the fighter and his son and both deliver some classic kung fu moves. Lieh is a splendid villain as always and Li-Li Li is lovely as the wife. Gordon Liu pops by for a cameo, Lam Ching-Ying has a walk-on before he was famous and Cheng Hong-Yip is another villainous creep. Not a classic genre effort, but there's some good fighting at the end, if you can sit through all the melodrama beforehand.

During the opening credits of EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN, we see the dastardly traitor Bai Mei (Lo Lieh) kill the Master of his Shaolin Temple. The Temple is then burned to the ground and the students scattered or killed. Hong (Chen Kuan-tai) becomes part of a travelling troupe of opera players living aboard a junk, but continues his clandestine operations against the oppressive Manchus. At one point, Hong must forcibly- but humorously- consummate his marriage; foreplay consists of a hand-to-hand struggle on their wedding bed... The junks are burned in retaliation for the troupe's depredations, and many of the rebels are murdered. Hong and his wife escape and, ere long, they have a baby. Hong tries to take on Bai Mei (ignoring his wife's sagely advice to add her crane kung fu to his tiger kung fu), only to find out that Bai Mei is only vulnerable during certain hours of the day... Timing is everything... Hong constructs an elaborate pinball-machine type of dummy and sets out a row of upright sticks to mark the time of day in order to figure out Bai Mei's weakness. (While most men are vulnerable at "6:30"- do the math-, Bai Mei ISN'T...) In some probably unintentionally funny scenes, hands and feet become LODGED in Bai Mei's lower regions, somehow, and our hero is dragged around helplessly.

EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN is director LIU CHIA-LIANG (LAU KAR-LEUNG) very different contribution to the Shaolin Temple series, begun by CHANG CHEH. Unlike CHANG who seems to have a strong dislike for women, and actresses, LIU provides LILY LI the opportunity to portray a strong, complex female role.From her very first scenes as a travelling street entertainer who defends her turf in a duel with the famous Shaolin fighter HONG XIOGUAN (aka HUNG SZE KUAN); marries him but keeps him at bay on their wedding night using her martial arts, FANG YUNG is a match for her vengeance obsessed husband.HONG is one of the few Shaolin monks to survive the earlier massacre. In fact he and his men escaped an ambush only because one of his friends - Brother Tong - sacrifices himself to give them all time to escape.And the same thing happens again, when he challenges ABBOT PAI MEI (aka "White Brows"), even though he is clearly no match for him. He rejects his wife's advice, seemingly because she is a woman. And using the same pigheaded logic, he makes the terrible decision not to learn her crane style.Thankfully the son stands up to his father, and learns from his mother. When Hong returns to fight White Brows a second time, there is a sense of inevitability. The son fights to stop his father, who dissuades him with empty rhetoric, and then goes to his death.In this film this is very significant because the filmmakers have gone to great trouble to establish a strong family unit, only to have it torn asunder because the father is too set in his ways to change. Thus the audience really does feel a sense of loss, and are saddened that the wife and son cannot put the love they have for Hong into words. The need to seek vengeance has become very personal.The film itself has a wonderful mix of combat and training sequences; sizeable dollops of romance and humour (Cantonese style), and enough plot to hang everything together.Best of all, it actually has something to say: the film ends, abruptly, leaving you with very mixed emotions.I first saw this on a Southgate video. The new 2004 Celestial Pictures Region 3 DVD in 2.35 widescreen with rich saturated colours makes you want to watch the film over and over (it also has some very intriguing extras). And it does help to hear the film in its original Mandarin, rather than dubbed!8.5/10 * a 4 star martial arts classic.

This was one of those films that I watched over and over, whenever I could. I've seen it on TV, usually in NYC on Channel 5 Saturday afternoons at 1pm, 3pm, or 5pm, on Drive-In Movie. I have also paid to see it repeatedly years ago in the old Times Square movie theaters. They used to specialize in Hong Kong martial arts films before Giuliani killed them all off. That's one thing I really miss about the old Times Sq...This movie had it all: great plot and writing, great acting and action, even great dubbing. I really wish it would come out on DVD or even VHS...