Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10432 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-07-08
• Rating: Unrated
• Formats: Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

shaolin shadow boxing, and the wu tang sword style...
other reviewers have already said a lot about the film, so i'll just say it's a classiz kung fu flick with some great kung fu fights (gordon liu hell yeah), a standard revenge/betrayal plot, a weird ending, and some limited but interesting background into the shaolin and wu tang rivalry/relationship.

so all right, what i'll talk about is this DVD release (the only reason i'm rating the film 4 stars instead of its deserved 5). well, these xenon released of classic kung fu films tend to suck pretty bad in quality, and this one really isn't an exception. the dubbing is awful (but pretty hilarious), and for some reason there are both english and chinese imbedded subtitles at the bottom of the screen. the subtitles are white and hard to read at times, and a bit of the right and left edges of the frame were cropped in the video transfer so the subtitles often get cut off too. the english subtitles are also horribly translated in relation to the english dubbing... they rarely match up at all.

(some of my favorite translation errors... dubbing says: "they really do hurt. they went right through me. i'm really in a lot of pain." while subtitles say: "the arrows make me feel uncomfortable." ......... dubbing says: "you'll be avenged!" while subtitles say: "we'll be enemies forever!" ha ha ha)

also, as a result of the edges of the frame being cropped, there's often a bit of action cut, both in fighting scenes and dialogue scenes. still, if this is the only version of the dvd you can get, its worth it since it's such an aweosme movie.

A Good Example Of Oldschool Kung Fu
This is a typical 70s/80s kung fu movie. It takes place around the same time that most other movies of the time did. It has most of the same types of costumes and characters that they all do. They are even played by the same actors that most of these movies. There isn't anything about it that really stands out from the croud. However, this is a solid movie, with solid action by everyone involved.

The story revvolves around two friends who are students of opposing schools. One is Shaolin (Gordon Liu), and the other is from Wu Tang (the beginning shows how Wu Tang seperated from Shaolin way back when). A majistrate of the area wants to learn both of their styles, but they refuse to teach him. So he pits both schools against each other so that he can use deception to steal their tecniques as they fight each other, as well as to see which style works best. In the end the two students are forced to switch styles to survive the final battle.

It has the usual fair of fighting, betrayal, fighting, training, more fighting, and of course fighting (it wouldn't be a kung fu movie without all that fighting now would it? ;) ) and Gordon Liu is as talented as ever. It is one of his better movies, and is a pleasure to watch, despite being average in most of its content.

If you are as much of a fan of kung fu as I am (hell, I'm taking classes three days a week), than I would suggest picking it up. It is a fine addition to your collection. If you are starting up your collection, and already have a few movies, it is still a good buy. However, if you have only seen the Matrix movies and think that this is the nest step, I would suggest getting Master Killer, or Legend of Drunken boxer before seeing this.

Better Than Nothing
I gave it 4 stars because the DVD quality looks so much like a direct transfer from VHS. Additionally, the subtitles don't match the spoken English dialog. However, the action is quite good and on par with any Shaw Brothers productions by Chang Cheh or Liu Chia Liang. The best fights are at the end when the main stars develop their own combinations of the Chin Kang Fist with Wu Tang Sword techniques and try to outdo each other.

SPOILER: Gordon Liu uses broadsword techniques instead of Straight Sword techniques and Adam Cheng uses Phoenix Eye Fist for empty hand Wu Tang Sword techniques.