Clan of the White Lotus (1980)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

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

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

So yeah, I was looking forward to watching this, being a fan of old school kung fu flicks and all. But somehow this really didn't do it for me. The main problem I had with it were the action scenes: they lack ouch. You see, mostly when I watch martial arts flicks I cringe when I see people get hit, kicked or when they fall down. But in this flick it was all so... painless. These guys and girls were all dancing around beautifully, pretending to hit and kick each other but you never believe it. I know, a lot of old kung fu flicks have the same problem. But still, a lot of them don't. I mean, look at some of the stuff Jimmy Wang Yu did in the early seventies. That stuff still kicks major ass. This Clan of the White Lotus doesn't anymore. To think it was made around the same time Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung were already making a name for themselves with daring stunts and amazing fight choreography makes this seem even more dated.

Another churned out Hong Kong production by the Shaw brothers in what can be seen as a Kung Fu cult classic starring the likes of Gordon Liu and Leih Lo as the priest white lotus in colourful performances. The story follows that Shaolin students being released from prison, to only be hunted down by members of the white lotus clan. Survivor Hong Wen-Ting seeks revenge against the priest white lotus for killing his best friend and his fiancé For me there's something nostalgic about the sub-genre, which always brings a smile. Fun, brash and exciting all rolled into one. "Clan of the White Lotus" spends a lot of time either on the masterfully shot and heart racing choreographed martial arts involving the many attempts to take the priest white lotus' life and that of Hong Wen-Ting constantly training to change and strengthen his fighting style to do so. While frequently violent and bloody, it stays rather comical. These tend to be around the training and the constantly amusing charades involving the White Lotus and Hong Wen-Ting. Lieh Lo also directs; crafting out eccentric set-pieces with precision and impressionable images clocking in with creative slow-motion and detailed backdrops. The only thing is that a uniformity pattern starts to work its way in.

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Excellent kung fu, the choreography blew me away. They use no wires or CGI to create the absolutely breathtaking martial artistry here. Gordon Liu is a man who's brother is killed by the evil White Lotus, an old man with mystical kung fu powers. Caring for his brother's pregnant wife, Liu vows to avenge him and his village for Lotus' evil carnage. After a failed attempt to beat him one on one at the Lotus' palace, Liu receives training by none other than the wife herself, who teaches him a female type of kung fu, a style accompanied by grace, smoothness and patience. It is this form that Liu uses to eventually defeat the Lotus. I love how the wife is used in this movie, being very feminine yet not just a weakling. Hollywood should take note, you can make a woman look strong in a kung fu film and make it believable, not the way Hollywood does it by making the female untouchable against a male opponent. Here, not only do women get beat by men, but, EGADS! they get killed by them, too. I guess women are humans after all. Anyway, the wife here clearly is instrumental in defeating Lotus and is more a salute to women than any American kung fu film will attempt to do. Gordon Liu shows why he is underrated, though his films have not been and have received well deserved accolades. WHITE LOTUS is a better film than MASTER KILLER (Liu's other film, the more famous one.) It is more fast paced, not as talkative, and it is also reasonably lengthed. FIST OF WHITE LOTUS is one of the best kung fu films ever made, and it is a must for your collection. 9 out of 10.

FISTS OF THE WHITE LOTUS (aka CLAN OF THE WHITE LOTUS, 1980) has a standard kung fu storyline of a student forced to learn different kung fu styles in order to defeat the superior skills of a villainous master who killed his brother and other family members. This simple structure, however, allows for a succession of expertly staged kung fu bouts and imaginative training scenes featuring some of the genre's top-ranked performers. Gordon Liu (MASTER KILLER) stars as the student. Kara Hui Ying Hung (MY YOUNG AUNTIE) co-stars as his sister-in-law who teaches him women's kung fu styles, a soft response designed to counter the opponent's hard blows. (She makes Gordon learn embroidery at one point.) Their training scenes together are quite graceful and laced with humor and give the impression of an elegant dance team at work. After Gordon's use of women's kung fu fails to defeat his enemy, he turns to another teacher to learn an acupuncture-based style which targets an opponent's pulse points, a technique which finally does the trick.Lo Lieh (FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH) plays the white-haired villain and is credited with the film's direction. The great Wang Lung Wei plays one of Lo's henchmen and fights Gordon early in the film. Lau Kar Leung choreographed the fight scenes, but his directorial touch is evident throughout the film, which closely recalls his own EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN (1977), which has a similar structure and also features Lo Lieh as a white-haired villain.