![]() There’s plenty of variety in the fighting techniques employed by the cast, ranging from grappling maneuvers from chin-na to masterful kicking techniques and plenty of good old kung fu fist fencing. Once the film itself gets going, the action is about as close to literally non-stop as you can get. It’s a cliché that doesn’t feel clichéd, and “Shaolin vs Lama” includes the addition of a brief overview of Shaolin history courtesy of the narrator. It all kicks off, literally so, with that most beloved staple of countless martial arts films of the era, a stand-alone sequence in which the cast all demonstrate their skills before a black curtain during the opening credits. It’s simply got everything – rigorous training montages, blindingly fast fight sequences, silly comic relief, wise old sages with impossibly long eyebrows, and treacherous villains who throw back their heads and cackle with abandon. Eventually, however, Yu-ting persuades the old man into taking him on as a student and he’ll need all the training he can get when Feng-lin returns with his band of followers to declare war on the Shaolin Temple.Īs classic kung fu flicks from the 70’s and 80’s go, “Shaolin vs Lama” belongs in the upper one percent. Yu-ting knows instantly that he’s found the teacher he’s been looking for after losing their initial duel, and begs to be accepted as his student, but Chi-eh refuses to accept any more followers after his previous disciple, a Tibetan Lama named Yao Feng-lin posing as a Shaolin student, betrayed the temple and stole a priceless manual of Shaolin martial arts. That is, until he comes across the eager Shaolin disciple Hsu Shi, who regularly ventures into the nearby town to fetch meat and wine for his eccentric master Pu Chi-eh. Unfortunately, Yu-ting keeps winning one fight after another and fears that he may never find the teacher who can elevate him to his highest potential. He spends his days traveling throughout China challenging any well-respected master he can find to a duel, vowing to bow down to the one who manages to defeat him as his new master. The only extra is a trailer but the budget price of the disc makes it worthwhile if you like martial arts movies.Įxtra Features: Scene selection, trailer.Sun Yu-ting is a highly skilled kung fu student, already well-versed in numerous styles, but the time has come to take his training to the next level. ![]() Now I'm going to defeat you!", it's clear that this film is all about action and it does feature some pretty impressive hand-to-hand combat. It should be noted though that this is not a film created to celebrate dialogue. The case is the same for the sound quality, which is slightly clearer and suffers less from distortion during musical crescendos. "Shaolin vs Lama" does suffer from a slightly grainy picture, but the print is in better shape than "Born Invincible". Such is the obscurity of these films that the available prints are well-worn. The other is " Born Invincible" and both are forerunners to a range of rare Hong Kong films long since thought lost. ![]() "Shaolin vs Lama" is one of two DVD releases from the new Kung Fu Connection label.
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