Who Will Win?

 

 (imdb)

SHAOLIN VS. MANCHU-1984-The Manchus want to get rid of all the Shaolin monks. The Shaolin abbot puts a monk named Rocky (Man-Hoi Ling) in charge. When a prostitute is attacked by soldiers, Rocky saves her but later she says Rocky raped her. He's punished then literally thrown out of the monastery. It turns out Rocky's chief rival, Jouan is a spy for the Manchus who set Rocky up, then kills the abbot. After the Manchus fail to kill his accuser, Rocky takes her to live with his aunt and she spills the beans. The evil spy becomes the new abbot and has monks fighting each other. Mostly everyone gets killed (including a little kid) but Rocky gets revenge. The ending is a little weird probably due to bad editing and dubbing. 

Director Chiu-Jun Lee was also an actor. The DVD I saw also had the trailer which took me right back to the days when movies like this were the mainstay of the Harris theater on 42nd street in NYC.

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Your Kung-Fu's Good

THE SHAOLIN AVENGERS-1976-This Hong Kong produced martial arts period piece is based on the legend of Shaolin martial artists Fong Si Yu (Alexander Fu Sheng) and Hu Wei Chien (Kuan-Chung Chi). In flashbacks Fong is violently (and comically) trained by his mother (!) who beats him with a bamboo stick and dunks him in a vat of wine. Parts of it are very funny (a scene with a matchmaker is hysterical) and the Fong character does a lot of dumb things but basically the story is serious and violent. Director Cheh Chang made nearly 100 martial art movies including the classic FIVE DEADLY VENOMS.

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Still More Kung-Fu Fighting

CLAN OF THE WHITE LOTUS-1980-During the credits 2 guys beat up an old man. This leads to a vendetta against the Shoalin by the Lotus Clan. The new lotus clan's leader kills one of the guys but the other (Gordon Liu) escapes with his dead friend's pregnant wife. The Lotus clan starts killing everyone. The guy and the girl seek refuge with her brother. It's easy to see why director Lo Lieh (who also acts in this Shaw Bros. produced Hong Kong entry) not Bruce Lee started the Kung-Fu craze in the USA. This features lots of crazy fighting (with choreography by Lau Kar-leung)!

Also called FISTS OF THE WHITE LOTUS.

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