Lui xuan liang huo shao hong lian si

This was my introduction to Chinese martial arts movies, caught it on "Kung Fu Theater" on a Philadelphia station 25 years ago or so. The plot, such as it is , involves a man, a woman and a boy who are out to rescue a prince who has been kidnapped by a villain called "The Baron" in the dubbed version I saw. Has some fantasy elements,enough humor to release the tension. The heroes go their separate ways but reunite for the final showdown, each has their talent-the man, his fists, the woman her sword, the boy uses a hoop. And of course each is a one man (or woman) army. Good miserable rainy,snowy or icy stay-at-home day entertainment.

It starts with a guy (Tung Li) on horseback stops at a tea house. His helpful waiter explains the movie story line to him. A fight erupts and our guy shows his considerable skills. Lung Fei, as the baron, then takes his men away. The waiter already explained that the baron runs the town but fears the abbot at the temple where the monks have been killed off suspiciously. At about the nine minute mark Chia Ling meets Tung Li as an old friend.

I have two copies of this movie. Both are digital files that can play on a HDTV. One is English dubbed but comes from India and looks like it was videotaped from a television broadcast. It is 4:3 screen size. The other copy is wide screen and also has the same English dubbing.

The movie has Shaw Brothers production values but not fight choreography. The fights all seemed to be missing something. A lack of focus can be expected at times in even the better of these movies. Here the lack was often simple coordination and timing. The fight scenes with the monks were so back I deducted a point from the rating. Chia and Dorian were as good as ever. That's with the exception of Chia fighting the monks. Tung Li had been making this genre of movies since the 1960s but his skills are no better than ten years earlier.

I rate it just average for the year and genre of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984.

The first great thing I have to say about this release, is that it is presented in letterbox widescreen allowing for a full view of the directors vision.

Unfortunately as with most of the Hollywood East titles, the film itself is a washed out print - still quite watchable but just unfortunate they couldn't have cleaned it up somewhat. Well, what do you expect for £1 I guess..?

Red Lotus Vs Lama is quite the lavish production, wonderfully filmed with great costumes and plenty of locations which just makes me want to see a full HD version in original language. While very much fixed on a solid story, the fights come aplenty and - while not spectacular - are quite enjoyable to watch.

Kung fu superstar Judy Lee (classmate of the equally wonderful Angela Mao Ying) gets to let loose a number of times which is great, but it takes a good hour into the film before super-kicker Tan Tao Liang pops up to help. When I say pops up, I literally mean he pops up. It's as if the (then) popular actor was on the next hill filming something else and was just passing by. Because after that quick fight scene, he's very quickly out of the picture again!

The evil clan of Shaolin monks really don't get any action until after the hour mark also kicking off in a battle with the queen boxer using weapons that look like the Flying Guillotine, but are just giant iron bells on chains!

The last 30 minutes of the film is pretty much just a solid block of swordplay and kung fu fighting and while still quite serious, lends itself to some unintentional laughs. This starts with random scenes of a giant eagle (with elevator sound effects) thrown in for giggles, a few wobbly sets, sudden wire enhanced moves, and those typical 70's background fighters doing little dance moves as if to look busy.

That said, the final battle at the Red Lotus temple is pretty damn good, with our heroes taking on the monks and extended bad guys with some great moves and choreography (not to mention that damned giant eagle). And for once, this prides itself as a 70's kung fu flick that just doesn't freeze-frame on the final blow but instead offers a final scene of remorse, drama and discussion as to their final actions.

Overall: Not a classic in any sense, but delivers a lot of fun and highly watchable!

Well paced movie with plenty of fight scenes, almost all of which are dominated by an unbeatable female. Many fights feature more than one female in action. Chia Ling (Judy Lee) has by far the most fights, her scenes are very convincing. Moderate gore, not a classic, but a must if you like fighting females.

My (UK) version is called Red Lotus vs Lama. This may be a remake of part of the 1928 27-hour long Burning of the Red Lotus Monastery, a landmark of Chinese cinema, which has been lost.

This seems to me (as a non-expert) close to perfect in the Shaw Bros. type tradition and a must-see for any fan of the genre. Around 70% of screen-time is high-quality, highly competent martial-arts action of various types. Some of the villain characters fight with huge bells on long chains and one of the heroes uses what appears to be a small wooden hoop.

Given the huge action-bias, the story is wisely kept very simple: an old baron wants to seize the throne from a young prince, and he is supported by various corrupt officials and army officers, the local martial arts master, and an army of yellow-clad warriors, led by Lama. The one problem I had with this was the very long cast of characters, and the difficulty of remembering so many Chinese names. Fortunately for once, most of the main characters look quite different from each other, and (in my dubbed version anyway) many are referred to by title rather than name.

Lots of good guys rally round to save the prince and combat the usurpers: a loyal general who isn't the greatest fighter, a young brother and sister, the children of the evil master, who are a lot better, a wandering handsome drifter-ronin type who happens to be in the area, a long-haired drunken comedy-turn, a young boy (who uses the hoop) and a giant eagle which must be a contender for the worst special effect in movie history. Best of the best and star of the show is the ever-wonderful Chia Ling (aka Judy Lee of "Chou/Queen Boxer" and a hundred others). Ling is the queen of kung fu cinema and her character soon takes leadership of the motley band. She's a fine martial artist - here she fights with a sword rather than her fists, but keeps it sheathed most of the time, which is both interesting and amusing.

The acting and script don't really matter in this one - nothing does except the fighting and I repeat that's great! This is available to buy online under the title I gave above, and if you enjoy films like this, don't even hesitate.