Shaw Me a Little Love, Baby...

The Shaw Brothers studios have been instrumental in the filmmaking careers of many people, including a certain director by the name of Quentin Tarantino. Their films helped shape the asian martial arts film as it is today.

Today we will tackle one movie from the extensive SB selection, the movie Five Shaolin Masters, directed by the legendary Chang Cheh. Since I can't remember much of the cast (there are so many of them it's hard to keep track with just one viewing)so I'll just tell you the story.

So, one fine day, the Qing emperor sends some evil Manchu guys to totally rape the Shaolin Temple. They succeed, and only six survive. Five of them are the titular Shaolin Masters of the film. Led by Hu Dedi (one of only two names I can remember) it also includes a Jacky Chan-ish funny young guy, a serious guy, Meng Fei's character, and some other guy, they escape separately then meet up in some river somewhere. Dedi then gives them some signals to memorize and tells them to recruit more patriots and allies so that they can have sweet revenge and overthrow the Qing court. They also suspect that this thing was an inside job, that there is some sort of spy or something that betrayed the Shaolin. They go their separate ways, running off into the sunset.

MEANWHILE, back in the Shaolin Temple, the sixth monk is walking along minding his own business. After he does something dagnasty evil you realize that this guy is the traitor that sold out the Shaolin. Eventually we are introduced to four other evil Manchu guys, led by the traitor, Ma Puyi and General Chang (or was it Ching? I forget) They have no name per se like the "Five Shaolin Masters," so for the sake of discussion we'll just call them the Fu Manchu Five. There's Ma Puyi, the General and his two Tonfa Baton lackeys, some Mantis Fist practicing guy, some guy with a wicked "flying axe" (an axe blade tied to a rope) and some other muscular guy.

We go back to the Shaolin guys, and their first efforts at recruiting allies and fighting the Fu Manchu Five prove disastrous. It is clearly apparent that compared to the Fu Manchu Five the Shaolin guys are pussies. This culminates in the death of a very strong ally, General Gao, in a rescue mission that aimed to rescue the Jacky Chan-ish fellow.

Realizing that they are pussies, the Shaolin guys decide to train, each specializing on how to defeat the techniques of their Fu Manchu Five counterparts. For example, the Shaolin who challenged Flying Axe Guy decides to counter with using a long range weapon, the staff. Jacky Chan lookalike decides to learn the Tiger and Crane styles against Ma Puyi, who doesn't know those styles, and so on. Eventually they learn to kick ass and they decide that the time is now.

Eventually they lure the Fu Manchu Five into a generic grassy river thingy, they fight, and a titanic battle of Shaw Brothers proportions ensues. After the fight, well, you'll have to see for yourself.

The camerawork is pure Shaw Brothers. Sudden zoom-ins, long panning shots, they're all in there. You also have your generic grassy area as a battlefield, used in many movies of the 1970s. It's chopsocky fun and refreshing to watch. Sit back and enjoy the ride.