Shaolin contre Lama

SHAOLIN VS LAMA is a fabulous kung-fu film, complete with an excellent plot involving a stolen Shaolin manuscript detailing all the 72 techniques. The thief, a Tibetan Lama masquerading as a Shaolin student, becomes a master fighter and criminal, gaining power through murder and manipuilation of the fighting clans. A young street fighter, seeking higher knowledge of

kung-fu by challenging any teaching master he meets, in order to find a master he cannot defeat, is drawn to the Shaolin temple and put at odds with the murderous Tibetan monks.

In rapid, but logical succession, a series of fights occur, escalating to operatic heights. The villain is a vicious, unstoppable monster; the young hero is loyal and determined. There are no extraneous kung-fu fight scenes, everything plot-wise is tight and staccato, with each confrontation revealing volumes of character. As in the best of the genre, the fighters, who have conditioned their bodies to absorb and deliver incredible amounts of punishment, eventually turn out to be human in two distinct ways: upon finding redemption, and just before death. An excellent film.

This is a low budget, by the numbers, been there done that, totally formulaic martial arts movie from Taiwan that came out when the entire genre of martial arts movies was starting to stink like old meat. Yet I find about ten reviews here all saying how much they liked it.

How is that even possible? I think it comes down to two things. The best of these movies are simply all about the martial arts. Here is a simple story about a guy on a journey to learn all he can about martial arts. The only other thing is pacing. Hardly two minutes go by before another fight breaks out. Yes, it is quantity over quality, but at least the fights all look different and have good power and focus. That's all it takes for an enjoyable and quickly forgettable 90 minutes.

I've red many favourable reviews for Shaolin vs. Lama here and on different Kung Fu-movie forums and I have been recommended to see it when asking for good independent flicks that can compete with the Shaw Brothers and Golven Harvest productions of that era. Unfortunately, I'm vastly disappointed, but not to the point where I wouldn't watch it several times again, simply because it's so entertaining.

The English dub is horribly funny, and provides us with some nonsensical dialogue and Australian-sounding voice actors, which adds tons to it's charm. If you like this type of low-budget style dubbed Kung Fu movies, you'll be sure to get lots of laughs out of this one as well. The outrageous characters, especially the Shaolin and Lama monks with the longest white eyebrows you'll ever see and crazy hairstyles don't make the movie any less worth watching, trust me.

The problem I have is the fighting, which I was told would be amazing. I can easily say, it's not. It's very rough, stiff and repetitive, especially if you compare to contemporary Kung Fu movies from Lau Gar-Leung and The Venom Mob. However, there's a lot of talent involved, and many moves and blows are excellently executed. The action is plenty and has a certain cartoonish feeling about it, which together with the obsessive overuse of undercranking to speed up the already wacky choreography, makes the Kung Fu very watchable and entertaining. Bare in mind though that it's not good fighting per se. If you want to see really good fighting in an independent Kung Fu movie, look for classics like: 7 STEPS OF KUNG FU, HELL'Z WINDSTAFF, 7 GRANDMASTERS, DAGGERS 8, and SNAKE DEADLY ACT. I sincerely recommend Shaolin vs. Lama, mostly since in all it's cheesy glory, it's a good way to spend an hour and a half any given day.

A very enjoyable film to say the least. Certainly not the best Hong Kong has to offer, but it is still very good. I especially like the plot of the story. It's nice to a deviation from the typical kung fu movie, of "you killed my brother, now I must avenge him" or the "I'm the best there is, and I'm just going to get better."

I think the best overview of this movie was written by "robotman-2." He very accurately described the main points of the movie, especially the ending where he said "...(The evil monk) eventually turn(s) out to be human in two distinct ways: upon finding redemption, and just before death..." What I think he was trying to say about the movie was: The evil character found redemption just before his death, thus proving him human. The last line spoken by the evil monk was a great line. He said "I must die in order to prove Buddha's existence." This is really great, because earlier on in the movie, one of Buddha's teachings was questioned when a Shaolin monk asked why the Shaolin sect let evil exist, if it went against the teachings of Buddha. And the last line of the bad guy wraps up this question. Terrific!

The dubbing of the movie was slightly Australian influenced, and you could hear it in the voices. A little lacking in emotion at some points, but still very well done. The fight scenes were also well worth watching, especially the very first one between the hero and his Shaolin master before the monk would officially take him as a pupil. It was really goofy to watch a guy trying to learn kung fu from a monk master who wants to eat a whole chicken. Pretty cool stuff.

I really enjoyed the succession of this movie. Everything seemed to fall into place, right down to the last utterance of the bad guy right before he committed suicide. Only a slight hinderance with the dubbing leaves this movie a 6:10. I only give it a 6 because there are some movies out there that kick the pants off of this movie, but are of a different genre. That is why it is hard to give this movie only a 6. Good day gentlemen.

While Hong Kong created most of the kung fu films people think about when the genre is discussed, Taiwan had a lively industry churning out cheaper but frequently entertaining kung fu movies. While Hong Kong could boast higher production values, the Taiwanese often countered with more action and this film is a great example.

Wandering kung fu student, searching for a teacher who he can't beat up, hooks up with an eccentric Shaolin Temple monk who is an alcoholic and meat eater. The student gets embroiled in the Temple's fight with an ex-disciple, a covert Lama monk, who stole the secret Shaolin fighting manual 12 years earlier. The Lama monk returns and attacks the temple for sheltering a beautiful girl he's trying to kill or marry. There a comedic monk involved also.

OK, nothing unusual plot wise here. There's little in the way of character development at all. We never learn much about the hero besides his search for a teacher. The Shaolin monk is a stock eccentric you've seen in HK films like Shaolin Drunkard. The comedic monk is a stock rascal and the villain is exactly what you would expect from this kind of film. what's great about this film and lifts it above the hundreds of others? First of all the fights are frequent, long and very well done considering the low budget. The actors are almost all excellent martial artists and acrobats. The beautiful girl is the weakest in the cast. The choreography is very complex and ambitious. There are times that it seems the actors are missing movements but it keeps moving along at such a fast pace, the mistakes are soon forgotten. Second, there's quite a bit of Buddhist philosophy in the script and that really lifts the whole film up. It seems that the film was actually shot in a real Buddhist temple and there are actual monks as extras. This temple also shows up in the raucous film "Ninja, the Final Duel".

The scene with the Shaolin monk fighting while eating a chicken is great although the "bad foot" technique he uses is quite disgusting. Most of the monks in this film have insane eyebrows. I've never seen anyone with eyebrow hair like that. And what's with the Shaolin/ Lama feud? Where did that come from and why are there enough films about it that it could be considered a sub-genre?

Unfortunately the only version available is a horrible TV print with Australian dubbing. This makes some of the action tough to watch. Do these films still exist in Taiwan?

It's fun and if a better print ever shows up I'll give it an 8.