Shao Lin zhen ying xiong

Well! Some kung fu movies are intentionally but not successfully humorous, and other kung fu movies are intentionally but not successfully serious. This is one of the latter kind. To its credit, it tries to play it straight, with no annoying comedy per se, but the unintentional comedy is palpable! Like the scene when the evil monks roll down the hill and just keep on rolling and rolling and rolling... Priceless! And in general, the way the evil monks fight in patterns - very interesting-looking, but utterly nonsensical and ineffective! I gotta say the last scene with the blue and golden bronzemen was extremely cool-looking (if a bit short)!

The movie contains plenty of fighting, and some of it is quite good. There are a few too many characters, and the story doesn't make that much sense. The end (again) comes very abruptly, before the two heroes even get a chance to combine their two styles (which they keep saying they're gonna do). All in all, though, I'd say the movie gives a good impression of what the average second-rate but solid kung fu movie is like, silliness and all! There are definitely some good things in here.

However, I can't call this a *good* movie, because much of it is very silly. But it is also very funny, and the oodles of fight scenes towards the end are highly entertaining. So the movie gets from me a fairly generous rating of 6 out of 10. It's definitely good for some laughs!

Gordon Liu, the Master Killer is the star in this all-time classic kung fu flick. In other words, the actor used by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill 1 and 2, was chosen because of his previous kung fu film performances and Quentin wanted him. All of the references to the Shaolin Temple throughout Kill Bill are there for people who understand and have seen these old flicks. The "guy with the mustache" as you say, is Pai Mei, who was used in the old Wu-Tang v Shaolin Movies and has returned in Kill Bill. Ironically, Gordan Liu used to be the character fighting Pai Mei, whereas in Kill Bill he IS pai mei... The influences continue... Many Sound Effects used in Kill Bill are in fact direct samples from the original Kung Fu movies. Anyone who has watched and followed the original movies can see and connect with what Quentin is trying to (and has) achieved in Kill Bill 1 & 2. So, of course Kill Bill isn't even close to being a "copy" of any of these movies.. As with all great movie directors, Quentin HAS been influenced by the all-time classics and greats of this genre, and this is the reason many people don't fully understand or appreciate his work. Brilliant Film, if you like Kung Fu, you should see this!

I stumbled upon this film as it had been boxed up as a "Wu-Tang presents" product and I figured that I would take a look as I like Wu and I like martial arts. For those handful of people who do not know, Wu-Tang have used martial arts clips and such in their records and videos to good effect and there is a certain amount of "cool points" that they have taken from using cheesy martial arts standards within their products. This film is one of them unfortunately and it feels like it is a film that perhaps one of them watched (or had put in their hands by a marketing man) and enjoyed because of the clichés rather than being a film that really deserved the extra exposure of Wu-Tang's "re-blogging". I say this because personally I found the film to be fairly standard stuff and it left me wondering why this was picked to be pushed into the US market ahead of other films.

The plot here doesn't really matter but it is essentially about two men separated by their fathers as babies, each of whom are experts at their own style and technique but who must come together to defeat a stronger threat to them. The details of it all are unimportant – not just to the viewer but also to the makers as it doesn't really have much of a narrative flow to it. What it does have though is plenty of fighting, all of which is solid and enjoyable even if it doesn't have much in the way of impressive routines or moves – those used to Jackie Chan dazzling you will be disappointed here. What the fights mostly consist of is good physical work with terribly overused sound effects scattered over the top without any care or attention. They are, I hate to say, fairly standard compare to some of the more impressive feats in other films.

However they are part of the wider appeal of the film because they are such a standard. Like them we also get the wild facial hair, the stock characters, the heavy US dubbing and lots of sound effects – basically everything you see when anyone does a spoof of martial arts film from the 1970's. As such it is fine and it provides enough action to allow the viewer to have cheesy genre fun. However there is little to it beyond this and those looking for a "good" martial arts film would do better looking elsewhere.