Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #52850 in DVD

Customer Reviews

Buddha's name be praised and repeated ad nauseam
This is a fun, fantastic movie. Alexander Lo Rei stars as an accomplished student looking for post-graduate tutorial services. He finds masters and challenges them to a friendly contest to see if they would be a suitable teacher for him. I love that about the movie right away. If a dude can't dodge my swing, I don't wanna learn to fight from him, ya know? So he helps a young monk with some trouble and the boy offers to take him back to meet his master... a drinking, meat-eating monk. Lo Rei experiences the monk's foot-in-mouth technique, which is really, really gross, and begs the dude to accept him as his pupil, and give him an altoid. The monk refuses of course, because his last student betrayed him and stole the secret manual. The monk's previous student is the film's bad guy, as per usual.

Though this does have a plot, you'll notice the tough, complex, and frequent fight choreography more than anything else. Some good weapons fights, a lot of hand to hand, and all of it very good. I have a hard time with the silly humor in a lot of old-school flicks, and what little this one does have is actually funny.

Unfortunately, it is not in widescreen but the picture quality is very good. If you like old kung fu movies at all, this one is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. I can't believe I didn't hear about it sooner. I liked it quite a bit the first time I watched it, but thought it was a little overrated. The second time, I wondered what on earth my problem was with the first viewing. It got that much better, and it will for you too.

1983

An impressive martial arts film chock-full of great action
If you see the word Shaolin in a film title, there's a pretty good chance you're looking at a pretty good martial arts film. Shaolin vs. Lama (1983) is an excellent example, as this film goes predominantly old school, filling the screen time and time again with plenty of fabulous displays of kung fu. It's generally regarded as director Lee Tso-nam's best film and should find itself a place on many a must-see martial arts film list. It does have a few stray moments of goofiness, but there's nothing goofy about any of the many combat scenes.

Alexander Lo Rei stars as Sung Yee-tung, a sort of wanderer who has spent the last five years searching for a master to teach him kung fu. Sung isn't exactly a novice, and so far no potential expert has passed his test (if a potential teacher can't beat him in a fight, he sees no use in becoming his student). One day he happens upon a young monk who sneaks into the city daily to fetch meat and wine for his eccentric master, and that meeting leads him to the teacher he has been searching for. The old man, Pu Chi Eh (Sun Jung-chi), acts like he may have been out in the sun for too long, but he has little trouble showing Sung that his kung fu is of comparatively poor quality. Unfortunately, this Grand Master refuses to take Sung (or anyone else) on as a student because his last student, Fan-lin (Chen Shan), betrayed his fellow monks, absconding with the temple's most precious martial arts manual. As fate would have it, though, this same Fan-lin soon reappears for the first time in over a decade, executing his plan of wiping out all of the local clans. Sung gets mixed up in the coming conflict when he meets up with a young woman being pursued by Fan-lin's men, but he discovers he has many things to learn (technique-wise as well as Buddhist-wise) before he can possibly defeat his master's traitorous prior student.

The fight choreography is excellent, and the skills of all the performers make this a kung fu cinema fan's absolute delight. Most of the contests are bare-handed fights, although staffs and swords also come into play a good bit. Li Wei Yun fights like a banshee with her sword, and I am a little disappointed that she did not get more screen time; it's always a treat to watch a female martial artist teach the fellows a few new tricks. Speaking of treats, Sun Jung-chi really puts on a show as the quirky yet deadly Pu Chi Eh. Most impressive by far, however, is Fan-lin, whose Shaolin-taught skills have actually been improved upon over the years since he betrayed the temple (which is not too surprising given the fact that the Shaolin manual he stole discusses the most advanced of fighting skills). No one is a match for him, including Sung - not until, that is, he has trained and practiced night and day for months and learned the deadly move known as the Finger of Buddha.

Obviously, I enjoyed Shaolin vs. Lama a great deal. There's nothing like good old traditional kung fu fighting, especially when the combatants are all as talented as those in this film. No martial arts fan could go wrong with Shaolin vs. Lama.

One of the greatest old school kung fu movies ever and sadly one of the last
Alexander Lo Rei stars as a young wanderer who likes to challnege kung fu masters to duels to see if they are better than him in this classic kung fu movie. This is his way of finding the right teacher. It shouldn't work very well but with classic English dubbing and spectacular fight scenes it sucks you right into it for the entirety of the film. William Yen plays a young monk who has a CRAZY master. Sun Jung Chi (from Leg Fighters) plays the crazy muscular monk with unstoppable kung fu. So Lo Rei finally finds a master and becomes a monk. Now we find out that the Tibetan lamas want to take over Shaolin. The new leader of the lamas wants to take revenge for his master and kill the head Shaolin priest. Enter my favorite kung fu star Chang Shan(Chen Shan). You always know when the villian is good when you don't even remember the hero after seeing a movie. Unfortunately Shan came on the scene when the old school films were wrapping up and he never really had much of a career. Most of his movies like Wild Panther and Flag of Honor can be a bit difficult to find.

If you want to see a movie with some of the greatest kung fu ever and a lot of WWF style body slamming, then this is the perfect choice. Easily a perfect 5/5 of the kung fu genre.