After watching so many late Chang Cheh films recently that disappointed me in some way, I was wondering where were some of the films that I remember so fondly from the Saturday afternoon kung fu movies on TV from the early 1980's. Well wait and ye shall receive.
Two young bored martial artists train with each other when their jobs allow them. One a waiter at a restaurant (Kuo Chui), knows the Black Tiger style and is excellent fighting with stools and dish ware. The other, a Mantis student (Lo Meng), works at a tofu store. He trains using the tools of tofu production. They meet up with a young man (Sun Chien) who is studying the 49 post Big Dipper style. Together they get together and test each others skills in friendly matches. Meanwhile the evil White Eyebrow priest is wiping out all the Shaolin temples with his crew of super fighters lead by Lu Feng. A gravely injured Shaolin disciple escapes the massacre and comes to town looking for a Chinese acrobat (Chiang Sheng) to help him. The three hide him and vow to help. Enter the evil super fighters.
Shaolin Rescuers contains just about everything a Shaw classic should contain; Kung Fu training sequences, fights with common objects like chopsticks and stools, crazy super villains and good fight scenes at regular intervals. The great final fight is over twenty minutes long. The coordination of the actors is amazing. Overall the film is light in tone with a humorous tone throughout until the final confrontation. The Venoms are in top form in this film. Most of the stunts seem to be the true skills of the actors with few obvious uses of wires.
This film defines the classic kung fu entertainment of the early 1980's. Very recommended.
