Five Shaolin Masters

Customer Reviews:

A somewhat lesser version of 'Shaolin Temple Strikes Back'. More of a comedy.......2007-04-08

While 2 totally seperate movies, 'Shaolin Temple Strikes Back' and 'War of the Shaolin Temple' are similiar in many ways in the storyline and have the same leading star. I don't know his name, but he gets a lot more screen time in this movie. Mark Long has played the senior type monk in a few movies I have seen, but this is probably his most serious role. He doesn't do too much fighting, but really shows off with his limited screen time. Chia Kai is the real star, even though his part in the movie is too brief. You may recognize him as the kung fu teacher in 'Of Cooks and Kung Fu' and 'Seven Steps of Kung Fu'. He is amazing to watch and this may be his best role ever as the drunken monk bartender teacher. His character is very similiar to Mark Long's role in 'Five Fighters From Shaolin', but I liked Chia Kai a lot more.

The story is basically about a kid on the run from an evil warlord and his army after he retrieves the Emperor's seal. Things are kind of slow going, that is until Chia Kai shows up doing his drunken bartending. Alan Chui is VERY good as the villain and the final fight is outstanding. The story has no possible chance of grabbing the attention of someone who is new to the genre, but good kung fu is all I look for. The lead star of the movie is very skilled but just doesn't look very fierce. Luckily, Mark Long and Alan Chui's screen presence make up for that. Also look for cameos by Chiang Sheng and Ricky Tien.

The sets have to be mentioned for how horrible some of them are. Some of the backrounds are really worn out but the grainy picture quality makes this a little less obvious. Plus it does add to the campiness.

3/5

Picture quality on the Tai Seng DVD is watchable. It is full screened which really hurts it, especially during the final fight.

Standard revenge movie.......2002-03-18

This is a pretty standard kung fu movie. The plot is your basic political intrigue mixed with monks and fighting. Nothing special there, and it isn't particularly well delivered to boot. There are a lot of holes and inconsistencies in this movie.

The action is good, but not great. The wire work was not obvious, nor was there a great deal of undercranking. The stunts and action were frequent and well done, just nothing to write home about.

This movie is wide screen anamorphic, but the video quality is not great. I guess it is as good or better than what I would expect from this period (mid 80's). The dubbing is decent, but maybe not enough crazy voices for my liking.

It was pretty easy to tell the good guys from the bad - the bad ones all wear funny hats with 2 foot raccoon tails hanging from either side. The good guys were mostly monks in white, blue, or orange. At least it was easy to follow.

The only memorable scene from the movie is the kung fu bartending done by the crazy old monk in the cave.

Overall a good movie, but you can do better.

shaolin strikes.......2001-09-21

I wasn't sure what to expect when i bought this movie but i surprised i picked up a classic movie filled with awesome fight
scenes great choerography wicked flipping and the ending fight scene is a showstopper the picture is very good for a old movie
and sound is great no complaints at all so pick this movie up
you will be thanking me later trust me i know good kung fu movies
i have been watching them for over 15 years know.

Decent Older Style Chop-Sockey.......2001-08-21

This movies fight scenes are done in a common older form of choreography. Instead of a constant stream of punches and blocks, each attack is performed and then a pause occurs before the next attack begins. The Jackie Chan sequence of punches and kicks could be described as being 123456. This movie could be described more as 1-2-3-4-5-6. However the non-fighting action scenes are tremendous at times, watch for the drunken shaolin monk. The shots are long and drawn out, not a lot of jumping and cutting going on in this film, so at least the actors knew what they were doing when it came to the action. The wire work was very subtle for this film, which is a nice change from the more typically wire-heavy genre of the time.

The plot is there, although it had some jumps that were completely odd and out of place. The characterization is the most frustrating thing, you could hardly tell what type of person the main character was, he went from stalwart hero to blustering overconfident youth, to whiny wimp, etc. Even for a film like this, you didn't get much of a sense of the character.

Overall the action was fine, with a few outstanding moments, and the soft elements (plot, storyline, characterization, etc) were good enough for this genre of film.

Decent Older Style Chop-Sockey.......2001-08-21

This DVD is done in the older fight choreography style, where the fighters throw a punch or kick and pause before throwing the next attack. So instead of a series of attacks being done in a 123456 style, it was done as 1-2-3-4-5-6. This is a common older choreography style for low budget kung fu flicks. Some of the non-fighting action is extremely good though, watch for the drunken shaolin monk. The wire work is very subtle for the most part, which is a nice change from the typical movie of this caliber and period.

The plot is very loose, and the characterization changes rapidly and without any obvious reasons. However, nobody really watches these types of films for plot or storyline, and the action is good enough to keep you interested.

DVD:

DVD

DVD