Shaolin Martial Arts (1974) Review

“Shaolin Martial Arts” Theatrical Poster

Director: Chang Cheh
Cast: Chi Kuan Chun, Alexander Fu Sheng, Fung Hak On, Feng Yi, Leung Kar Yan, Gordon Liu, Lau Kar Wing, Johnny Wang Lung Wei, Tino Wong Cheung, Irene Chan Yi Ling, Bruce Tong Yim Chaan, Simon Yuen
Running Time: 107 min.

By Ian Whittle

“I go out and sweat blood to make a swell picture and then the critics and the exhibitors all say, ‘If this picture had love interest it would gross twice as much.’“

That’s a line from my all-time favourite movie, King Kong (1933), but I bet Chang Cheh frequently found himself saying it. His Yang Gang style of filmmaking became increasingly male-dominated as the 70s progressed, but every so often he presumably came under pressure from the front office, and he would suddenly let the girls into the treehouse (though heaven forbid they should be allowed to do anything as cool as fighting). The main example is probably 1978’s Invincible Shaolin, in which three of the Venoms each get a girlfriend, and in several ways, that film is a remake of 1974’s Shaolin Martial Arts – a film that feels less like a Chang Cheh movie, and more like one from its co-choreographer, Lau Kar-leung.

Set generations after the destruction of the Shaolin Temple (which Chang and Lau had just shown in Heroes Two and Men from the Monastery), the films begins with a ceremony at which both Shaolin and Manchu students are present. A petty squabble over a ritual results in a Manchu killing a Shaolin student, and a fight breaking out. The Manchu government decides to crack down on Shaolin and has its martial instructors (Fung Hark-on and Kong Do) recruit two Qi Gong experts (a debuting Leung Kar-yan and Wang Lung-wei), who are practically invulnerable.

The Shaolin master (Lu Ti) sends two students (Gordon Liu and Bruce Tong) to learn new kung fu styles from an eccentric master (Chiang Nan), who makes them learn the wacky way – grabbing fish from the river and pulling bark off trees with their bare hands. Since Chiang Nan nearly always played treacherous, wormy villains, it’s probably no surprise that neither student is able to defeat the Manchu villains, and the Shaolin master kills himself.

But two other students (Alexander Fu Sheng and Chi Kuan-chun) manage to escape, and go to learn the Hung Kuen and Wing Chun styles from two other eccentric masters (Yuen Siu-tien and Feng Yi), whilst their doting girlfriends look on. Will the secret kung fu, and the power of love, be enough to defeat the machinations of the maniacal Manchus?

Rather unusually, there is no music for the title sequence of the film, which shows Fu Sheng, Chi, Liu, Tong and Wang demonstrating their skills in the woods. I suppose the intention was to give the film a documentary feel, but it just comes across as though the soundtrack is defective. This rather sedate pace then keeps up through the beginning of the film, with the ceremonial ritual shown in full whilst characters explain the circumstances. After the blood-and-thunder intros of the previous two Shaolin films, this takes some getting used to.

Where the film score is in the casting coup of a young (and beardless!) Leung Kar-yan, who is appropriately creepy as a sinister thug with retractable genitalia! It’s very different from his later roles, and ironically, Leung looks a lot more like Bruce Lee here than any of the official clones ever did! By contrast, Wang Lung-wei is somewhat hampered by being relatively chubby here, and his recurrent fatal attack is to challenge people to punch him in his super strong belly. After three or four schmooks die this way, I was really hoping the heroes would just bop him in the nose instead!

And as a prophetic taste of things to come, Fu Sheng learns kung fu from Yuen Siu-tien, in a prototype of the roles he would play in later comedy hits like Drunken Master. And it is very unusual in a Chang Cheh movie to have a scene where an old kung fu master and a young lady sit down and talk about her romantic future. Maybe Lau Kar-leung did direct this after all?

Ian Whittle’s Rating: 7/10