Shi xiong shi di qi chu ma

Basically a bunch of oddballs are recruited by a Kung Fu master named Master Sher(John Liu) to be trained for a truly deadly, dangerous and somewhat suicidal rescue mission. "Don't push them so hard Master..they'll come to hate you."

"I don't want them to die..that's all." At first these guys are laughably inept and downright embarrassing to their master but after one particular embarrassing defeat at the local brothel they come to realize the value of the knowledge the master possesses and finally become serious about becoming trained fighters and show considerable improvement in attitude as well as skill as the time approaches to undertake the mission. The ending to this otherwise fun film is unfortunately rather dark and takes away from the enjoyment although there are two very entertaining if somewhat lengthy kung fu battles as a result of this.

Years ago I kept seeing the VHS box cover for this at the local video store. My buddies and I looked at it, saw the title, and laughed hilariously at what had to be the biggest piece of Kung Fu b-movie schlock ever transferred from celluloid to video-tape.

Needless to say we rented it. And, it turned out to be a pretty decent movie ... in a kung-fu sort of way. The would be heroes shirk their training, but learn the hard way that there is no easy way to success.

We see them regain new strength and resolve, and eventually launch forth to succeed in their mission.

Me, I don't know what I was expecting when I rented it 30 years ago. I figured it had some stupid plot about two rival schools fighting, horrible dubbing, and maybe even some high wire acrobatics. Not quite the case.

Don't get me wrong. It's still Taiwanese B-movie fare, but there's a little more heart here than what one might've expected from that era of kung fu films.

Enjoy with some popcorn.

I received a copy of this movie for Christmas, and I must say that it was pretty funny. Especially the dub job. It seems there was one guy providing all the voices (including the women's voices!) One exchange that was particularly hilarious was the two guards talking about going to the "house of ill repute", with the one guard saying "Well, don't let me down!" I was curious if there was any info available on the work of the other actors besides John Liu. I know that I saw the actor who portrayed "Shorty" in an earlier Jackie Chan movie whose name escapes me as I type this. In any event, this is an entertaining movie that reminds me of the old kungfu flicks that used to come on every Saturday afternoon. Just a little piece of nostalgia.

Loved this film. All the characters were unique and special in their own way. The comedy was pretty good. One scene was very touching and made me cry (you'll know when you see it). The martial Arts scenes were very beautiful, artistic....the choreography was like watching ballet...the action scenes were creative and brutal. And the star, John Liu, is one of the best kickers in martial arts cinematic history. I highly recommend this film to all you old school kung fu film fans.

Action, Comedy and a good storyline to boot. One of my favorite "Old school" Kung Fu Flicks of all time. Right up there with Master Killer, Shogun Assassin,& the 5 Deadly Venoms. The story line was good and had some good humor to it as well. You will come to like all the character personalities in the movie. I would definitely recommend it to the fans of the old school Kung Fu flicks that used to come on Channel 5 in NYC in the mid 80's. If at all available for purchase, I suggest that you add it to your collection. You will not be disappointed. I had it on VHS and then the tape broke and I wasn't able to find it again and then I stumbled on to this site.I hope to own it again one day. Along with classics.