The Shaolin Kids (aka Shaolin Death Squad) (1975)

[teako170]

Was skimming HKCM and ran across this JK flick.

Looks like it has potential. Ran a search but didn't find any comments on this. Anyone seen...?

http://www.teako170.com/shaolinkids.jpg

[Morgoth Bauglir]

If this is the one where Cliff Lok is a villain and him and another guy use the same stupid death blow in every fight, then I HATED this movie. Good cast, but only glimpses of good fighting and a really bad story. Whatever you do don't get an English dubbed version. That was one of the many reasons I hated this movie.

[teako170]

If this is the one where Cliff Lok is a villain and him and another guy use the same stupid death blow in every fight, then I HATED this movie. Good cast, but only glimpses of good fighting and a really bad story. Whatever you do don't get an English dubbed version. That was one of the many reasons I hated this movie.

Sounds like the best part of this film is the poster then, eh?

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I would say so. It is a cool poster. I checked and it is the same movie I am thinking of. Every time a fight starts to get good, Cliff Lok and the other guy do their death blow and the fight ends. I rate the movie a 1.5/5.

[HAZ]

I bought this for a buck on sale with subs. I could never get through the first 30 minutes. The film is really dull & the subs are some of the worst I've read. Its the worst Mei Ah disc I own.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Dull is the perfect word to describe this movie. It tries to be really epic, but it fails miserably.

[Killer Meteor]

The Mei Ah disc is pretty weak, as is the film, but it has its moments

[zeus]

Just watched this one. No shaolin? and where were the kids?.Misleading titles!!!!!!!!!

[ShaOW!linDude]

Are you talking about this Gordon Liu film?

http://www.amazon.com/Shaolin-Kids-Hong-Kong-Gordon/dp/B00009WHT0/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1325167665&sr=1-1

If you've never seen it, you should check out Jet Li's "Kids From Shaolin". Really good!

http://www.amazon.com/Shaolin-Temple-2-Kids/dp/6305763232/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1325167665&sr=1-3

[zeus]

no im talking about this one

http://hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=8645&display_set=eng

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Yeah that is one hell of a bad title, and a pretty bad movie too. Hard to believe it's from Joseph Kuo.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I'd like to see someone review the movie that MIll Creek titled Shaolin Death Squad (actually I think Videoasia first named it Shaolin Death Squad). The movie is actually called The Shaolin Kids. Are there kids in this movie? I don't remember. The movie is horrible. It looks to have a bigger budget than most kung fu movies, it's directed by Joseph Kuo, and has an amazing cast including Chang Yi, Tien Peng, Poly Kuan, Carter Wong, Kam Kong, Jimmy Lee, Chia Kai, Liu Ping, Cliff Lok, Wong Fei Lung and Yee Yuen. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it is good. I've actually rewatched it a couple times hoping that I would like it more.

Is anybody willing to take the plunge and review this? In return I'll review a movie you hate.

BTW there is a movie called Shaolin Death Squads and it is a good flick. It's based off the same story as Rebelious Reign.

[DragonClaws]

I'd like to see someone review the movie that MIll Creek titled Shaolin Death Squad (actually I think Videoasia first named it Shaolin Death Squad). The movie is actually called The Shaolin Kids. Are there kids in this movie? I don't remember. The movie is horrible. It looks to have a bigger budget than most kung fu movies, it's directed by Joseph Kuo, and has an amazing cast including Chang Yi, Tien Peng, Poly Kuan, Carter Wong, Kam Kong, Jimmy Lee, Chia Kai, Liu Ping, Cliff Lok, Wong Fei Lung and Yee Yuen. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it is good. I've actually rewatched it a couple times hoping that I would like it more.

Is anybody willing to take the plunge and review this? In return I'll review a movie you hate.

BTW there is a movie called Shaolin Death Squads and it is a good flick. It's based off the same story as Rebelious Reign.

I picked up the Joseph Kuo directed Shaolin Death Squad on the R2 M.I.A DVD. I remember being disappointed by it too. I'd like to give it a second chance at some point see if I change my mind.

I'm tempted to re-watch Tiger Over Wall today after all the discussion about this one:smile:.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

I picked up the Joseph Kuo directed Shaolin Death Squad on the R2 M.I.A DVD. I remember being disappointed by it too. I'd like to give it a second chance at some point see if I change my mind.

Yeah it's so disappointing, you feel the need to watch it again. Very weird.

[DragonClaws]

Yeah it's so disappointing, you feel the need to watch it again. Very weird.

lol, I'm a bad Kung Fu film masochist . I did put this on in the early hours of morning when my attention span was fading.

Sometime I enjoy a film more second time round.

[ShawAngela]

Does anyone can tell me if these are the same movie or not, please ?

I bought recently Shaolin death squad and when the title appeared on the screen, both titles were mentioned, so, I don't know which one I got, and according to hkmdb, the casts are different for each movie, though I had read somewhere years ago that it was the same movie, so, I'm a little bit lost...

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Not the same.

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

SHAOLIN DEATH SQUAD - Usurpator Carter Wong becomes a paranoid tyrant. He sends his best fighters Polly and Cliff Lok to Shaolin where rebels hid a general he is after.

SHAOLIN KIDS - Yi Yuan plots against the emperor, kills a rival whose adoptive daughter is Polly. She joins forces with Chang Yi, his son Tien Peng, Carter Wong and others against Yi Yuan.    

Edited October 8, 2019 by Chu Liu Hsiang

[ShawAngela]

Thank You very much for the plots @Chu Liu Hsiang, it appears that it's Shaolin lors that I watched, then.

From what you say, it seems that Polly plays a bad character in Shaolin death squads...Maybe her first bad role in her filmography  ?

[Chu Liu Hsiang]

I did not see SHAOLIN DEATH SQUADS myself but read a review by someone I know. She starts out on the wrong side …  

[DragonClaws]

On 10/8/2019 at 8:54 AM, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

SHAOLIN DEATH SQUAD - Usurpator Carter Wong becomes a paranoid tyrant. He sends his best fighters Polly and Cliff Lok to Shaolin where rebels hid a general he is after.

SHAOLIN KIDS - Yi Yuan plots against the emperor, kills a rival whose adoptive daughter is Polly. She joins forces with Chang Yi, his son Tien Peng, Carter Wong and others against Yi Yuan.  

 

I wonder if these movies were made back to back?, similar casts, both made in Taiwan?.

 

I don't think I've watched Shaolin Kids(1977), but have a R2 copy of Shaolin Death Squad on DVD.

 

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by DragonClaws

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Why would they necessarily be made back to back, it's not the same company or director. Death Squad is from First Films and helmed by Chan Siu Pang, While Kids is a Joseph Kuo flick and thereby a Hong Hwa production. Lots of crossover in cast and crew sure, but the same can said for a myriad of Kung Fu films from this era. By that rationale, you might as well throw in Mysterious Heroes which also sports much of the same people in front and behind the camera and that's a Goldig film, if I remember correctly, from the same year.

Edited October 10, 2019 by TibetanWhiteCrane

[ShawAngela]

Shan Kuan Ling Fung, Carter Wong (with a beard, I almost didn't recognize him !), Chang Yi, Tien Peng and Kam Kong play the good guys who are aware of a plot against the king and try to stop  the plot and save him.

Cliff Lok and others play the bad officers who are on the "ministers who plot" side.

So, with such great artists and plot, you can guess that one can't be bored by watching this movie ! Chang Yi plays a good general, for a change, and all the fights are very good. There is even O Yau Man who plays an officer (or a monk, I don't remember) who helps Polly and Tien Peng to talk to the king when they stop him on the road to the trap.

I recommend this movie.

[ShawAngela]

I watched my Mei Ah original Mandarin language with English subtitles dvd release of Shaolin kids and...discovered that the movie was the same as Shaolin death squads !! I had already bought this latter years ago, then forgot that I had bought it, bought it again from @SMK with another cover, hoping that it was a mistake in the title and that I would finally get Shaolin kids, then,found that I had bought this latter from buyoyo years ago and I'M SO DISAPPOINTED to discover that I finally don't have the real movie called Shaolin kids !!

Wait ! I just took a look to hkmdb, and discovered that I actually have Shaolin kids thrice and that I never got Shaolin death squads !!

 

According to the Chinese title of Shaolin death squads, this movie should tell the story of Lu Si Niang, the lady who is supposed to have killed the Emperor Yong Zheng because he had ordered to slaughter her father and family because he was a well-read person who wrote books and circulated them among the population, which lead to some revolts against Yong Zheng (at least, it's what is shown in the series Legend of Yung Ching ; I haven't watched the TVB series Lu Si Niang, legend of a Ching Lady, so, I don't know if the two series show the same reason that lead Lu Si Niang to  assassinate the Emperor. I also remember it was somehing like that that was shown in the Shaws' movie The lady assassin...).

And what is more confusing, is that, according to the English translation of Shan Kuan Ling Fung in Shaolin kids, she is supposed to be called Liu Hsing Er, which is very near to Lu Si Niang, and if there are mistakes in the English translation, well, it's even more confusing because she might play the same character in both movies...

In addtion to that, hkmdb shows a picture from Shaolin Death squads which is actually a picture from Shaolin kids, showing both TIen Peng and Shan Kuan Ling Fung, but TIen Peng doesn't play in Shaolin death squads...

Does any German speaker can confirm that the German title Das Todliche geheimnis der shaolin is the right title for Shaolin death squads and owns the movie and can tell me if it's really Shaolin death squads with Ko Fei and Shan Kuan Ling Fung, or if it's the same as Shaolin kids, please ?

Edited May 2, 2020 by ShawAngela

[ShawAngela]

I updated my post regarding Shaolin kids, with a question to the forum members.

If I could get an answer, it would be very nice of you, thanks.