![]() The villain is a vicious, unstoppable monster the young hero is loyal and determined. In rapid, but logical succession, a series of fights occur, escalating to operatic heights. 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. 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. SHAOLIN VS LAMA is a fabulous kung-fu film, complete with an excellent plot involving a stolen Shaolin manuscript detailing all the 72 techniques. Do these films still exist in Taiwan? It's fun and if a better print ever shows up I'll give it an 8. ![]() This makes some of the action tough to watch. 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. I've never seen anyone with eyebrow hair like that. Most of the monks in this film have insane eyebrows. The scene with the Shaolin monk fighting while eating a chicken is great although the "bad foot" technique he uses is quite disgusting. This temple also shows up in the raucous film "Ninja, the Final Duel". It seems that the film was actually shot in a real Buddhist temple and there are actual monks as extras. Second, there's quite a bit of Buddhist philosophy in the script and that really lifts the whole film up. 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. The choreography is very complex and ambitious. The beautiful girl is the weakest in the cast. The actors are almost all excellent martial artists and acrobats. 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 comedic monk is a stock rascal and the villain is exactly what you would expect from this kind of film. The Shaolin monk is a stock eccentric you've seen in HK films like Shaolin Drunkard. ![]() ![]() We never learn much about the hero besides his search for a teacher. There's little in the way of character development at all. The Lama monk returns and attacks the temple for sheltering a beautiful girl he's trying to kill or marry. 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. 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. While Hong Kong could boast higher production values, the Taiwanese often countered with more action and this film is a great example. 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.
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