Shaw Brothers Invincible Shaolin (1978) Review

The Shaw Brothers Invincible Shaolin (1978), also known as The Unbeatable Dragon, is another Venoms/Chang Cheh classic featuring the six main cast members of the Venoms crew. A period piece, the movie pits the North Shaolin school against the South Shaolin school after the Manchu plot to cause disruption and weaken both sides occurs. Featuring numerous training scenes, vicious bloody fights and the Venoms at their, this is a must see movie for any Shaw Brothers, Chang Cheh and/or Venoms fans.

We are introduced to the two main villains in the movie of General Xu, played by the perpetually notorious Wang Lung-Wei, and his second in command Captain Hua Shun, played by Suen Shu-Pei. They are to greet three new instructors from North Shaolin, Pao Siao Tung/Bao Shanxiong played by Lu Feng who uses the Iron Palm, Hsu Fong/Xu Fang played by Sun Chien doing the whirlwind kick and Chun Fei/Yang Zhongfei played by Chiang Sheng who uses a combination of the light skill (acrobatics) and a specialized polearm called the butterfly pole (which is a staff with a secondary, smaller staff piece attached with a chain on one end). Before meeting with them, General Xu discusses with his assistant the current Shaolin instructors from the southern school. There’s a court order preventing the spreading of martial arts from Shaolin except when it’s taught by monks or to the army. So the southern school is forced to send their people to help train the Manchu army. However, these people are brash and implied to not be very good. Hence, why the general sends for a new batch from North Shaolin.

These new instructors are pleasant and considered top of their class. The general asks for a demonstration where he’s prepared a test of three wooden dummies. Each instructor take turns briefly giving a sample of their abilities. By the end, General Xu is appeased and has them greet the southern instructors. As hinted, these other instructors are brash and ridicule the Northern instructors. However, to fix their rankings, the general insist on a friendly contest to see which side is best.

Yang starts off by flipping around and avoid his opponent. Eventually, his opponent grows hot, grabs a pair of swords and attacks Yang more ferociously. Thereafter, Yang grabs his pole and disarms his foe, giving him a small bash to end the contest. Then another instructor (Dick Wei) goes next and before he can attack Yang, Pao intercedes with his Iron Palm technique (which actually looks more like an annoying hand in shoved in your face).

He delivers a blow that knocks his opponent into some chairs while a third guy enters to fight Hsu. At this point, it’s clear to General Xu that the southern Shaolin instructors are no match and that the teacher had intentionally sent low grade people as a kind of passive aggressive protest to the Manchu authority. But like the other two, Hsu kicks his opponent down, attempts to help the guy then gets shoved for being polite.

Regardless, the Southern instructors are humiliated and the Northern instructors take their place. The three Southern teachers return to their rooms and pack them belongings. Soon General Xu and Captain Hua enter to inquire what their plans are. One admits that their kung fu was not sufficient and intends to return to their school to send more qualified people. General Xu then gives two of them a death blow that instantly kills them off. The third tries to retaliate but also receives a sharp blow to his ribs. As he’s dying, General Xu reveals his real intentions in ensuring that the school will send back teachers but with the mission to seek revenge.

Afterwards, Captain Hua arranges the dead teachers’ corpses to be returned to the south Shaolin school run by the sickly Master Mai Qi, played by Chan Shen. Teacher Mai has two sons, one of who is Mai Feng, played by Wai Pak of Snake Venom fame. Captain Hua lies about the three teachers’ fates, saying that the Northern instructors became vicious and caused fatal blows that left the three dead by morning. This instills hostility into the emotional southern Shaolin students. While Teacher Mai realizes that the Shaolin schools are effectively a single family, he recognizes that his students must be avenged and decides to send one of his sons and two more students to respond to the Northern teachers.

Back at the general’s quarters, the Northern teachers are provided with the former teachers’ residence. They have a small discussion about the mysterious deaths of the other three teachers where Captain Hua makes a bizarre comment about fate. After he leaves, the three instructors discuss their actual suspicion of what might be happening as well as revealing how they are only performing this service to protect their schools but do not actually want the positions. Nonetheless, they realize that they need to show deference to the dead and plan to visit Teacher Mai’s school. As Yang is about to make inquiries, he bumps into Su Yen/Xiu Yin, played by a young Kara Hui as a servant.

The following day, the three instructors visit Teacher Mai’s school where both sides are wearing blue. However, the other students are posed defensively while Teacher Mai speaks on the school’s behalf. Hsu tries to present their side as being friendly but the southern side are already hostile, even though Hsu makes an argument that he suspects a plot. Teacher Mai refuses to listen as tempers on their side rise. Before Hsu can further defend their side, Pao eagerly agrees for the duel.

Later, the three Northern teachers have another contest with the new batch of southern pupils. They mean to keep it friendly where Pao starts off in having one of the southern guys try to match palms with him. After ten strikes and retreated, that person would lose. Some jabronie decides he’s a bad ass and Pao laughs the guy off. The jabronie tries for a shitty quick strike and is pushed back. His comrades quickly realize that their friend is no match for Pao but the guy refuses to back away. Effectively, the two play a lethal game of pat-a-cake until Pao has the guy in a kind of weird palm facing grip.

While attempting to maintain his concentration, apparently this guy pisses in his pants on the floor.

Eventually, Pao has enough of this joker and gives him the good old Xing Kang Pam fatal blow, which ruptures his ribs apparently.

Captain Hua inspects the guy and says the obvious, “Ribs are smashed. He’s dead!” For which all hell breaks out as the other two South Shaolin students decide to go on the assault. But let me pause here and just say this death scene originally fucked me up. I was scared to watch this movie because it was bloody and gross back when I was a kid. Now, when I watch it, I find it hilarious. The guy challenging Pao is just such a gimp. He bleeds from the mouth for no good reason BEFORE getting his ribs smashed and he pisses in his pants on the floor and takes a shit (well, actually it’s sweat but when I first saw it, I thought he peed because he sucked so much dick in this lame ass “fight”). But it made Pao look like a monster heel even though Lu Feng really isn’t that big of a guy especially when you compare his physique to Lo Meng’s later on. But this death scene does establish just how powerful Pao’s kung fu is supposed to be as well as how he exhibits little self control, despite Hsu’s warning earlier. For my last comment on this, the so-called smashed ribs looked like cheap chicken bones that were glued onto the guy’s stomach. Until this all became digitized, I didn’t realize how the guy’s “rib cage” was supposedly sticking out. But now, with proper pausing and improved visuals, you can see just how cheesy it looks. I mean, it’s not like that gaping hole in Kane’s chest after the chestburster erupted in Alien.

Anyway, Hsu beats back Mai’s son and stops his round. However, seeing the opportunity for a cheap victory, Mai’s son tries to backstab Hsu and Hsu reacts with a kick that cracks Mai’s son’s head open and kills him. Yang’s opponent loses his cool and grabs a weight to to fight Yang. However, Yang uses his butterfly pole’s chain extension to smash the guy’s elbow in. He apologizes to the guy but his opponent is humiliated by the loss and leaves. General Xu declares the Northern group to be far superior to add salt into the survivor’s emotional wounds.

Back at teacher Mai’s school, the students inspect the latest dead bodies where Mai identifies how they each died. The survivor mentions his own defeat as well as the technique Yang uses. From there, Mai shuts down the school and orders all the students to leave and not seek revenge. At night, the surviving student goes before the shrine and leaves a letter, committing suicide with a knife. The letter basically explains how he is ashamed of being defeated. Mai and his other son discover the dead body. In turn, they decide to take revenge but need to train better. Mai sends his son off to another teacher called the Gardener to learn Wing Chun and has two of the other senior classmates to return to have them train.

At the training grounds, the Northern instructors perform their duties as General Xu and Captain Hua come around for an inspection. After their shift is over, they return to their quarters where Su Yen is waiting and brings them hot tea. She goes to flirt with Hsu in fanning him but Pao decides he wants some as well. Instead, she hands Pao a spare fan and Yang points out that Su only has eyes for Hsu as it’s clear they’re falling in love. In turn, they decide to take a walk around the city.

When Pao and Yang go to the city, they witness a pair of Qing troops taking fruit from a pair of peddlers. Pao and Yang think the situation is suspicious but Yang decides to grab a fresh pear without paying. One of the peddlers remonstrates and they enter into a philosophical discussion where the two peddlers condemn Pao and Yang as being bad because of their association with the Qings by being their teachers, despite any intention of being generous. In turn, Yang has Pao discuss their real disposition with the two females as he takes over duties. However, one of the women keeps him company.

In the meantime, General Xu and Captain Hua gloat over the success of the plan. Back by the stalls, a new character shows up as Ho Yen Wu/He Yingwu played by Philip Kwok makes his clumsy entrance. Yang and Ho have a friendly fight when Yang tries to force one of the pears in Ho’s face. Ho grabs a pear and bites into it (which honestly looks good each time) and they continue fighting until he decides to walk away, nearly forgetting his bundle. But Yang reminds Ho and Ho pays for the fruit and gets his bag back. But Ho does suspect that Yang isn’t an actual fruit peddler.

Ho goes to teacher Mai’s school where his mood becomes somber in seeing the coffins of his dead classmates. Teacher Mai shows up and enforces that Ho must only focus on revenge. In the meantime, Mai’s song, Fong, arrives at the Gardener’s abode. As per his nickname, the Gardener busies himself amongst his flowers. Fong is forced to give the Gardener a letter to ensure that he’ll teach him. The Gardener rips away the letter smoothly and pushes Fong backward, making Fong realize that this guy is the real deal Wing Chun master. However, the Gardener does call out Fong’s father as being lazy, which I think is humorous because it says a lot more about teacher Mai’s actual subversive character in this movie. But he ends up accepting Fong as his student, even though the task is daunting. However, Fong’s only intention is revenge so he cannot fail.

At the fruit peddlers’ stalls, a pair of soldiers try to harass the two women. Then Ho Ming Pao/Zhangcheng played by Lo Meng appears to defend the two ladies’ honor. He thwarts the soldiers and chases them off as Yang and Pao show up. When Ho Ming tries to chase after the soldiers, Pao stops him. Yang explains that Pao is trying to save Ho Ming’s life because more troops will be coming as well as the fact that the two women are the girlfriends of Yang and Pao. Both Ho Ming and Pao separate with great admiration for one another where Pao realizes that the mysterious fighter didn’t ask for his name, in which case his girlfriend retorts, “Well, neither did you.”

Once again at teacher Mai’s school, Ho Ming meets up with Ho and Mai. Mai forces Ho Ming to view the shrine to reinforce the idea of revenge before having him seek out the mantis instructor. Ho Ming leaves and meets with Master Zhu Ming, who will teach Ho Ming the mantis fist. The teacher asks Ho Ming to strip down when we next see Ho Ming he ties his belt with the knot to the right side, which I believe indicates that he’s not yet a master (basically a disciple) whereas before he comes in with some cockiness. Master Zhu gives the origin story of the mantis then has Ho Ming start training his arms and finger strength by having him do specialized push ups over an open well. He placies two eggs under Ho Ming’s hands. Quickly, Ho Ming loses power and crashes down on the eggs. Then for dinner, Master Zhu serves the broken eggs as fried eggs along with rice. Ho Ming tells Master Zhu that he likes eggs and Master Zhu tells him, “That’s good.” Hence, anytime Ho Ming breaks eggs he’ll have them for dinner to avoid waste.

Over at the Gardener’s place, the Gardener explains the origins of the Wing Chun style and explains how it’s meant to suit a woman and requires suppleness and balance from the learner. Thereafter, he asks for a demonstration of Fong for his stance. Fong hops onto a pole and practices for a few moments before losing his balance and falling into some flowers. The Gardener then tells Fong that the penalty for falling into his plants is to have Fong fix all the damage he does.

Next, it’s Ho’s turn as he trains with a pole/staff using rings to improve his accuracy.

Each of the students from here on out go through their own trials and tribulations as their exercises grow in intensity and difficulty. Fong’s poles get higher to force him to improve his balance, Ho Ming must wear a heavy stone on his back while using less fingers for his push ups and Ho must learn to react to a counter attack by his opponent’s butterfly pole by parrying poles thrown back at him.

Regardless, they manage to gradually overcome their challenges. My favorite is Ho Ming’s victory when he only breaks a single egg and is allowed to have normal food. I swear the beef and chicken he chows on make me hungry!

Of course, this is only the beginning as more exercises that are equally if not more intense and painful are presented, each having different purposes to counter their foes’ key attacks. On the other hand, the General and Captain question why things are quiet. General Xu realizes that Mai won’t give up easily and continues to have Captain Hua. monitor the Northern teachers. The Northern teachers meet up where Hsu mentions how he discovers the way in which the original three had perished via deadly stomach/chest blows. He narrows down the candidates to General Xu and Captain Hua. Before he gets too serious, the other two take him to meet their girlfriends.

From there, Ho makes progress with his technique and takes a break. He encounters the teachers with their girlfriends at the restaurant next to their stalls. He overhears them talk about the teachers’ positions and realizes that the three are the North Shaolin instructors. He challenges Yang to a fight and rips off a pair of stools’ legs to use as weapons in having an equal contest. Hsu attempts to talk over the situation but Yang ends up agreeing to the duel. The two fight into the street where Yang’s light skill becomes the difference maker. Hsu makes one last attempt to talk but Ho, like the other south Shaolin men, is too upset and proud.

When the disgruntled Ho returns to Mai’s school, Mai notices his shameful disposition and correctly assumes that he got into a fight. Ho describes how he lost with Yang’s light skill being the key so Mai decides to start training Ho on that aspect. However, Mai does conveniently ignore the fact that Ho also concedes that Yang spares him because Mai is obsessed on revenge. Meanwhile the other pupils continue to advance in their training where Ho Ming work with weights and Fong is placed in smaller and smaller wooden rooms that he must fight his way out of. Ho combines his training with deflecting sticks with using weights on his legs to build his jumping technique and leg strength up.

The students’ make steady progress despite all their challenges. I think Fong’s situation is the most interesting in terms of the reward structure where he gets a meal each time he succeeds in conquering a level. At the same time, while he’s eating, you can see the sheer damage he’s doing on his knuckles and hands as they’re heavily bruised from striking the wooden walls all day.

Ho finishes his training first but discovers Mai on his bed bleeding. He already had been sick and stopped participating in training Ho.

At the Manchu HQ, Yang and Pao bring their fiances to meet both Hsu and Su Yen. As their romances blossom, all six discuss the next steps to growing their relationship.

Initially, Su Yen isn’t around so Yang locates her in Hsu’s room and accuses her of hiding.

Su Yen feels left out but the girls and Yang tease her about getting married to Hsu. However, Captain Hua is hiding around the corner and Hsu rushes out to grab him. Captain Hua though forgives the matter and tells the group that General Xu will be pleased in learning about Hsu’s upcoming marriage. Su Yen though is embarrassed by the attention and runs from the room, which causes everyone to burst into laughter. However, Yang and Hsu look at each other with Hsu shaking his head to reveal that Captain Hua isn’t the one who was responsible for the death blows.

Captain Hua sneaks back to General Xu to share the news. Initially, General Xu is unnerved by Hsu’s boldness in having an affair with the maid Su Yen (which apparently General Xu had sent which may imply she was spying on him). However, the sly Captain Hua shows his cunning because he mentions how Hsu’s marriage to the maid will allow General Xu to control the norther Shaolin instructors to further cause problems for the others. Finally, General Xu accepts the plan and takes it a step further by deciding to adopt the maid as his god daughter and approves of the wedding.

At this point, the south Shaolin pupils begin finishing their training with Fong completing his next inside a tiny wooden room.

As Fong goes through his round, Ho Ming probably has the most brutal physical training scene in the movie where he’s restrained partly by rubber bands (I think they call it Ox Bands) where he picks up stone weights and hurls them to demolish a tree.

On the other hand, Ho stays with Mai and cares for him. Then at the Manchu HQ, the three Northern teachers ponder over the marriage situation. Yang and Pao learn that General Xu is happy with the prospects and will adopt Su Yen as his god-daughter, encouraging Hsu to go along with the plan since they can continue to spy on General Xu. Also, they narrow down the remaining candidate for the murders to General Xu but have no ample proof at this stage. Nonetheless, Hsu is skeptical as it puts Su Yen in danger. Ultimately, the group are on a grander mission of restoring the Ming Dynasty to the throne and overthrowing the Qings so any sacrifice even personal is considered acceptable here.

Once the other two complete their training, they return to Mai’s school and meetup with Ho. By this point, Mai has become extremely ill and requires aid from the others. Despite his condition, he wishes for them to take him to the shrine of their classmates and has them swear an oath of vengeance. The students exchange concerned glances before taking the oath. Afterwards, Mai falls over dead.

From there, Captain Hua reports back to General Xu about teacher Mai’s demise. Captain Hua plans to attend the funeral to further stir up problems with the southern students to get them to move quickly by telling them about the wedding and General Xu’s adoption of Su Yen. In turn, General Xu says he’ll set up an ambush on whomever the win is. Captain Hua visits the school where the funeral is held. Despite Captain Hua’s politeness, he does make it clear in emphasizing the upcoming wedding. Fong and Ho Ming call into question the northern instructors’ possible defection to the Qing but Ho thinks something else is going on. Yet because of the blood oath they swore, Ho maintains that he will carry out teacher Mai’s last wish for revenge.

The next day General Xu hosts a private party for Hsu and Su Yen’s wedding. Su Yen looks incredible here I must say.

The group exchange toasts to one another. When it’s Hsu’s turn to propose a toast to the General, General Xu refuses to be called General, which makes Hsu show some concern for the odd change in tone (maybe a bad translation here?) However, the south Shaolin students arrive to interrupt the party. Captain Hua stands back with a smirk in admiring that his assumptions were right in drawing out the south Shaolin pupils. As the two groups confront each other, Ho Ming realizes that Pao is the guy he met by the fruit vendor stall. However, Fong is steadfast about taking revenge whereas Hsu tries one last time to placate the south Shaolin men in suggesting that there’s a plot. This time Ho agrees in his own suspicions but says because of the oath he took, he must respect his teacher’s wishes for revenge but thinks that after fighting the truth may come out.

In turn, Pao formally greets Ho Ming and exchanges names and introduces himself and his technique over some wine. When Pao learns of Ho Ming’s background as a mantis practitioner, his respect increases although they both know that they must fight to the death.

The other four likewise formally exchange names and prepare for their fights. The three women try to protest while General Xu dismisses their concerns calling the affair “men’s business.” Ho wants to have a serious fight with Yang as Captain Hua sneaks off after consulting with the General. Yang eyes Captain Hua suspiciously and agrees to Ho’s terms, but it’s clear that he has other plans because of how his side already is weary of the General and Hua.

From here on out, it’s war between both sides where we get Chang Cheh and the Venoms at their best. Multiple scenes of the sepia flashback training sequences are used here where we see how the south Shaolin students counter their northern counterparts with their learning. While that occurs, the General sits back quietly observing as the three women helplessly watch. Also, Captain Hua gathers the Qing troops waiting to pounce.

Hsu is the first to make a mistake, kicking in a wall and trapping himself which leaves him open to Fong’s close range Wing Chun attack. As Hsu separate, he smiles at Fong telling him that his brother is avenged but wants him to hear the entire story of how his brother had died. Once Fong hears what happened, Fong calms down and realizes that perhaps Mai and he went overzealous in their desire for revenge. Nonetheless, Hsu though dying wants to try and stop the others from killing each other.

The pace picks up as Hsu stumbles out to warn the others but can’t get the words out. Pao sees his mortally wounded friend and pushes Ho Ming away. Ho Ming flings a potted plant to temporarily blind Pao as Ho Ming goes in for the kill. Pao has the opportunity to smack Ho Ming but recalls earlier about Ho Ming talking about being the heir (his name is “Ming” implying how he’s connected to the Ming Dynasty) So Pao hesitates whereas Ho Ming does not and splits Pao chest open with his finger strength.

Finally, Yang and Ho finalize their fight where Yang jumps on the roof but refuses to assault Ho. However, in spotting Yang, Ho delivers a spear-like shot to Yang’s stomach with the end of his pole and Yang snaps Ho’s pole off but leaves the end sticking from his belly.

Despite wounding Yang, Ho is surprised at Yang’s reaction where he insist that they needed to fight seriously and wonders why Yang refused to attack him while he had the chance. Yang tells Ho that they aren’t foes so there was no need to fight. That makes Ho finally realize the mistake of it all since the northern teachers were not murderous people and that the revenge plot was distorted. In turn, General Xu makes his move and delivers a crippling blow to Ho. Yang stands over the wounded Ho as Hsu confirms that it was General Xu’s death blow that killed the first three south Shaolin men. Armed with the truth, Ho Ming and Fong attack General Xu just as the Qing troops close in on the Shaolin men.

Because he’s badly wounded, Ho tells Fong and Ho Ming to escape and warn everyone about the Manchu plot.

The fight between Ho and General Xu is actually pretty amusing because each time the General uses his hands, it makes a “bing bing!” type of sound.

Hsu ends up killing Captain Hua with a series of kicks to his chest, grabbing Captain Hua’s sword with his bare hands and bleeding.

But before he can do more, two soldiers paint a nice red X on his chest before Sun Chien can do one of his rigor mortis shots with a quick turn of the head death.

In the meantime, Pao fights off the legions of Qings who attack him with spears. He grabs a load of the spear ends and tries to break them off with his strength. However, the effort causes his split chest to spray blood in one of the most gory scenes in the movie. Nonetheless, his final effort he stands protectively in front of the gateway to the main HQ chamber.

With his two friends dead, Yang warns Fong and Ho Ming off. As the troops move Pao’s body, everyone inside can see his gruesome fate. Fong and Ho Ming leap to the roof as rooftop archers try to shoot at them. Yang flies to parry the first batch of incoming arrows but gets struck by a second rain.

That leaves General Xu to try and prevent the escaping pair. As he leaps up, so does Ho and General Xu splits Ho’s pole with Ho striking at General Xu at the same time in a double death blow. One major comment here is that you can see Wang Lung-Wei squirting out a packet of blood from his hand. Ho does the same but his position makes it harder to see. But it does look really cheesy.

With General Xu dead, the army is pacified and both Yang and Ho reach out for one another, having poles sticking from their stomachs. Yang’s fiance runs up to him and cries as Ho characterizes Yang’s fighting as funny but claiming that he’s a hero regardless. However, Yang sees the situation from a more practical and less idealistic eye as he dies and states how it’s not much (pointing to his weeping would-be widow).

With Ho dead as well, the other two women run after their fallen men and cry while the soldiers surround the scene. Then the final scene is with the two surviving Fong and Ho Ming running with their white shirts on as the ending credits show.

So this was one of the more intense Chang Cheh movies as the 80s started to approach. The Venoms’ flicks usually were the more bloody of the Chang Cheh error in terms of how much outrageous gore could be shown. In this movie, we got to see rib cages burst out, heads getting knocked in, bloodied arms, chest split in half, hands bleeding from death gripping swords, explosions of blood. But the violence matches the theme of revenge here, which is a key element in the movie.

The plot mostly is quite simple in that the two schools go to war after being deceived. The bulk of the movie is the southern side training up while the northern side continues to unravel the mystery of the Qing plot. Intermixed is the romance piece which is used to exploit the northern teachers’ dispositions as possible traitors to Shaolin and the Ming cause.

But if we examine the revenge theme here much closer, I believe there’s a secondary issue occurring. While it’s clear that General Xu and Captain Hua are straightforward villains, the other misguided soul is teacher Mai. His position in the movie isn’t as clear cut but he becomes so obsessed over revenge that he dismisses any attempt at diplomacy and remediation with the Northern teachers. In fact, you can see how he plants the idea of revenge in his students and his actions are very one sided. When Ho realizes that Yang refuses to kill Ho during their second encounter, teacher Mai does not acknowledge that perhaps the Northern students are innocent.

And though teacher Mai starts off somewhat sickly, the incidents with his students’ demise I think are what causes him to become deathly ill. His falling health is not only physical but mental because of his obsession over revenge. We can see this when he tells Ho Ming and Ho to only think about revenge, which reveals his emotional and psychological state. In addition, I think he’s a bad teacher in general not just in technique but in attitude. His students are hot headed and don’t listen to reason, which to me is a reflection of himself. I think he sees his students’ death not only as a dishonor to Shaolin but mostly to himself, which makes the situation very personal to him (beyond the death of his other son)

Along those lines we need to examine the idea of destiny/fate here which comes up a few times. Initially, Pao is the one who is dismissive of fate at the beginning but once the vengeful school shows up at the end, he calls it destiny. It’s a strange change in disposition because the northern instructors generally are more rational (except Pao who is described by Captain Hua as being “tough but dumb”). I think part of this notion of fate is how there had been this long standing hatred towards the Qing/Manchus/Mongolians by the patriots. That makes revenge inevitable to a degree.

Next, let’s address the usage of women in the movie. While Pao’s girlfriend Chen Cui Ying played by Niu Niu is flippant, mostly the women are used as these willowy creatures who have no place in the fighting. In a way, General Xu’s views of the fighting “this is men’s business” to me is an implicit mindset of Chang Cheh himself. In particular, Kara Hui would later break out as one of the top female martial arts movie stars ever but she only received that chance through roles such as My Young Auntie where Lau Kar-Leung would give her a massive break. Here, she’s depicted as nothing more than a flirtatious, weeping, willowy creature who does nothing except serve as a possible distraction in the end fight and as a token person being used for the general’s plot. But I do think movies like this merely enforce my view that Chang Cheh was a misogynist.

But the best parts of this movie really were the training sequences. I do think that some of the training was more fictitious and outrageous because of how exaggerated certain aspects were. But this movie really, for me, made Lo Meng a super star because it’s really his training sequences, which were the most realistic and/or intense in the way they were done. If you look closely at some scenes, you can see small cuts or rashes on his skin, implying possibly that he experienced some issues on set. The parts where he does finger push ups and the ox band stretches were the most intense parts.

That does lead to the actual kung fu itself. As far as I know, only Lo Meng and Sun Chien were legitimate martial artists. Lo Meng is known for his mantis style so this movie really was a showcase for what he could do. I think in Lu Feng’s case, it’s hard to say if he was exhibiting a real style. I have read that Iron Palm is done by hardening up/building callous on ones hand using things like iron filings. Marco Polo has Fu Sheng practice with special beans that cause him to wear a stone wheel done to build up his callous. And Wai Pak’s usage of Wing Chun, while philosophically sounding correct, I cannot say for certain if it’s something he actually knew. But like Shaolin Martial Arts where Chi Kuan-Chun practices Wing Chun, the key piece was seeing Wai Pak’s bruised hands to demonstrate the punishment one must endure to build up the hand strength to pierce opponents.

Then let’s talk about food since this probably is my favorite topic for this movie. I think the Venoms’ movies more than others in the Shaw Brothers would showcase food as a key element. Lo Meng’s egg eating parts probably are some of the more famous ones where he effectively does his version of the Rocky drinking raw protein in those moment. But you can see Wai Pak also having some meals in between training sequences which to me show this training – reward structure. However, the food parts are very personal to me because my father and I would watch movies like these and try to emulate them in the kitchen. Even to this day, I still make scrambled (fried?) eggs with white rice and either spam and Vienna sausage because of nostalgic moments for my dad.

Pacing-wise, I think it’s uneven. It’s not as smooth as The Five Deadly Venoms, which probably was the best movie these six produced. I think the training scenes, while visually fun, end up becoming overbearing at a certain point because they don’t really move the movie forward that much. When you compare these training scenes to Lau Kar-Leung’s handling of training, the ones shown here seem less accessible and more fantastic. Also, they don’t exactly make you want to practice kung fu because of how ridiculous the efforts are like standing on a super high pole with one leg or having some sort of wooden machine smashing into your chest. I think Lau Kar-Leung has accused Chang Cheh of not knowing how to shoot kung fu scenes and there’s moments where you can see the philosophical differences.

Also, whenever we change to the northern instructors’ plot, the movie slows down immensely because all they do is talk or are with the women, who seem useless sadly. The more exciting parts are the training and fighting scenes. When we do get them, the pace picks up immensely. But there’s a lot of downtime.

Finally, let’s talk about Kara Hui here. I think this might’ve been her first real major role where she receives a significant boost as a character. But she’s exceptionally cute here. I have to admit if I met Su Yen after Hsu’s death, I would’ve tried proposing to her and teleporting her back to my time (or maybe 1986) and having her live with me because she seems like a treasure to have around.

At any rate, this is a Venoms classic for certain. I know anyone from the early 80s who were fans of Black Belt Theater probably would remember this one especially because it had a ton of hardcore training sequences. You cannot forget the various stylistic devices Chang Chen used back then like his trademarked sepia training flashbacks, the zoom in/out camera shots, the upclose death knell expressions, slow motion work and heroic sacrifices. It’s definitely got manly energy here and may even invite some people to want to learn kung fu. Me? I’d prefer to eat eggs and rice.