Shaolin Plot... A nice hidden gem

[The Amazing Psycho Per]

In the world of Kung Fu movies, sometimes some titles are overly appriciated and overhype, ending up disapointing some fans, shaking their head in disbelief at how a movie so average can get such a reputation... But other times to the contrary, some films just fly under the radar, remaining only rarely mentioned, and when you give them a chance, you're in for a nice treat, but still shaking you're head in disbelief as to why nobody mentioned this one more often.

Such was the case for me with Shaolin Plot. I'll give almost anything involving Sammo Hung a try. Plus, when I saw the stellar cast, I wondered how could I go wrong.

First, the cast is quite misleading as a lot of the big names like, Yuen Biao, Lam Ching Ying and Fong Hak On hardly does anything. But this doesn't mean the movie has nothing to offer.

I'm not going to elaborate much on the story, as it is fairly simple. A mandchu prince wants to collect all the important books on martial arts, but the books held in the Shaolin Temple, proves to be more difficult to get. For such a simple screenplay, the director Huang Feng (Hapkido) manages to keep things interesting. It's an oddly constructed movie though, as it's hard to really pin down one principal character. There's James Tien character as the Wu Tang disciple who seeks revenge on Chan Sing's mandchou Prince, but for a big part of the movie, we hardly see him.

Moderate spoiler

Plus, it's a bit weird that, the Prince gets killed by the two Shaolin monks, one of wich is Casannova Wong, two characters of almost no importance in the entire movie.

end of moderate spoiler

But, to me what ultimately maters in a Kung Fu movie, is the fighting. This is just my opinion, but, to me, fighting choreography really came on it's own around 1978. By then, screen fighting became, crisp, fast, more fluid and immaginative. Shaolin Plot does offer some nice fighting though. When you've got Sammo hung at the helm of fighting choreography, it come has no surprise. Sammo was on the verge of directing some of his best work, and Shaolin Plot shows he was ready choreo. wise. So the action delivers, although it would have been nice to have more in the middle portion of the movie... But the final is nice to watch. You've got James Tien facing a hord of Shaolin monks and Casannova Wong unleashing some nice kicks. Sammo gets disposed of a little to easily though...

Although by no means a timeless classic, I do recommend Shaolin plot to any Sammo Hung or old school fans.

[northern b]

Among the collectors this is certainly known! One of my faves and I agree that this dosen't really get the mad hype of some titles.

Wonder if a dual track re-master of this will ever be released....

[falkor]

Although by no means a timeless classic, I do recommend Shaolin plot to any Sammo Hung or old school fans.

Its a typical 4/5 top rated kung fu film known and appreciated by many fans! However, there are genuinely many films on this level that are hardly ever discussed, say, for example, Shaolin Heroes with Doris Lung.

[The Amazing Psycho Per]

Among the collectors this is certainly known!

Its a typical 4/5 top rated kung fu film known and appreciated by many fans!

I don't doubt it's known by hard core fans, but I never heard of it before seing it... XD

[falkor]

3 behind-the-scenes images for you seeing as you liked it so much:

[falkor]

What else we got here then...

[Guest Markgway]

I seem to remember the best thing about that film being Chen Hsing's performance.

[The Amazing Psycho Per]

Thanks guys!

I seem to remember the best thing about that film being Chen Hsing's performance.

Yeah, well he does have a commanding presence. James Tien also surprised me. I only remember him for his roles in Brule Lee movies, but he does handle the job ok here, fighting wise I mean. He's not spectacular by any means, but he looks better then in any Bruce movies, wich shouldn't come as a surprise since anybody look better when not in a Bruce Lee movie...XD

But my favorite moment of the movie really is the one with the monks in the end, where they all pose in the different shapes before facing off James Tien... Classic stuff. This fight and the one between the two monks and Chan Sing truely make the movie for me. It's moments like those that separates average flick from good one.

By the way, who is the other monk with Casanova Wong? He looks like a very capable martial artist too.

[The Dragon]

Great photos! I need to check this out. It's on my wishlist...

[Tigerstyles]

The other guys is kwon yung Moon.. thanks for the pics falkor wicked rares..

maybe one day we will see a real dvd release of this.

[rederror]

One of my favourites. Picked it up in London on VHS bout 8 years ago, really bad copy but you get the picture. A great kung fu movie and the end fight is ridiculous!! Being a big Casanova fan i loved his performance, i think he displays some of his best kicking in this.

[falkor]

maybe one day we will see a real dvd release of this.

Don't need one; the copy I got is glass widescreen, subtitled.

[The Amazing Psycho Per]

maybe one day we will see a real dvd release of this.

Isn't the Joy Sales release sufficient?

[Yang Wu Liang]

"Isn't the Joy Sales release sufficient?"

I haven't seen it yet, I'll stick with my w/s dubbed version ta.

[HAZ]

Isn't the Joy Sales VCD only? I think there is a Media Asia DVD of this that's PAL. I've also seen another print floating around.

[The Amazing Psycho Per]

Isn't the Joy Sales VCD only?

:quiet: oops, my bad... you're right. I'm sure it'll turn out in DVD soon enough though...

[kungfusamurai]

Nice pics, but how come Kwan and Wong are holding hands? You'd think they were on a honeymoon!

It's such a shame this film wasn't put out along with the other Sammo films from mid to late 70s onto DVD by HKL or Fortune Star. And now Joy Sales is only putting it on VCD! I got it anyway because I couldn't wait.

KFS

[rederror]

Thinking about picking up the VCD actually as my VHS is cropped and poor quality. what's the quality like and is it widescreen?

thanks

[falkor]

Nice pics, but how come Kwan and Wong are holding hands? You'd think they were on a honeymoon!

It must be something to do with Korean tradition that us Westerners don't understand. Perhaps they are sworn brothers or something?

[carl douglas]

Wish Joysales stop releasing classic films in VCD only in today's climate of Blue ray and DVD 9. C'mon guys!!

[falkor]

Its bad brain...

[rdenn]

abbotwhite upload a deleted scene from shoalin plot with kam kong doing more shapes here than in the subbed version http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PhWRlVM6dRE

[The Amazing Psycho Per]

very nice... Thanks. Of all things, why delete a fight???

[Killer Meteor]

Well, this film is really impressive. A last gasp for serious kung fu from Golden Harvest before they jumped down the kung fu comedy well with IRON FISTED MONK, a film that may have been shot at the same time as this.

Some random thoughts

• Kam Kong gets a rare (maybe his only) chance to be in a HK production as opposed to a Taiwanese one...and he's playing a blind monk again!
• There's a special credit for the Singapore orchestra playing the score in this. And oddly for a Golden Harvest film, I don't think Joseph Koo was involved with this!
• Although the film is mostly played straight, Sammo does threaten to derail it at times with his goofy fake beard and a shot in an otherwise nasty and violent scene where he gives a silent titter like a schoolgirl from Mallory Towers. Just as well he went down the bona fide comedy route!
• Did Chang Cheh have a hand in this? I don't think I spotted a single woman in this!
• James Tien is definetly looking beefier than he did in the Bruce Lee movies. Although he packs a punch at times, he's propped too much with tricky edits and doubling. This was pretty much his last leading man role for a time, as he went down the indie villian route, before returing to Golden Harvest in the 80s to excel at playing Jack Nicholsonish bad guys.
• Much to my surprise, Tien is dubbed in the English version by Rick "Galvatron" Thomas, who is a dubber usually heard more in Shaw Brothers films. And he can't cry very convinicingly, even by English dubber standards!
• A special shout out to Korean guest stars Casanova Wong and Kwang Young-moon, who are at the top of their game, and easily steal the movie.
• Chen Sing spends a good chunk of this film looking like The Toxic Avenger!

8/10