Customer Reviews

Shaolin Against Wu-Tang: 10-Film Collection

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I highly recommend this set to all kung fu fans. I got mine on another website for HALF the price wink wink. Out of the 10 movies, 4 of them are undeniably great/classic:


-Shaolin vs Lama (Excellent video quality, best I've seen)
-Shaolin Against Lama (Very Good quality)
-Shaolin vs Wu Tang (A bit dark but still very watchable)
-The Undaunted Wu Tang (Not the greatest quality but still watchable)


Keep in mind, Shaolin Vs. Lama is up there on any greatest martial arts movie ever made list. Here's the other 6 movies:

-Shaolin Death Squad (Decent movie)
-Wu Tang Magic Kick aka Mars Villa (Good movie)
-Duel of the Tough (Haven't watched it)
-Shaolin Mystagogue (Decent movie)
-Fight for Survival (Haven't watched it)
-Unbeaten 28 (Good movie)


So, basically I've watched 8 of the ten movies and none of them are bad. The movies range from okay to great. The quality of Shaolin Magic Kick aka Mars Villa is good and so is that of Shaolin Death Squad. I haven't checked out the quality of the other movies yet, just letting you know what I think of them in general.


Note: This comes in 3 discs with 2 of them being double-sided. There's 2 movies on each side. There's also an error on the second disc as Shaolin vs Lama isn't labeled but it is there. What can you expect? It's Videoasia, couldn't be a perfect release but not really a biggie.

If you want to get some decent kung fu flics, you gotta pick this one up. Although the transfer quality is not too bad, and some are better than others, for the most part these are pretty watchable. Like the previous reviewer said, two of the discs are double-sided, so please be careful as to how you handle them. I personally can't stand double-sided discs because when lifting them out of difficult cases, you risk your fingers touching the play side by mistake - which both sides are actually the play side. One of the titles was not listed on the DVD and I thought I was cheated, but the 10th one was there on one of the double-sided discs. If you can get through hours of "Buddha bless you and Buddha's name be praised", you will be on your way to watching some fun flicks. Here's a short break down of some of these flicks without giving anything away:

Shaolin against Lama - Decent flick. Much action and very enjoyable. OK transfer. The picture is jumpy off and on and can cause you to feel a bit dizzy trying to keep up if your eyes are tired to begin with.

Duel of the Tough - The dialog in this one has got to be the funniest I've ever heard. There's more cursing in this flick than any other I've ever come across.

Shaolin Mystagogue - Decent flick, nice transfer with a very predicable, but nice plot.

Shaolin Death Squad - Decent transfer. The plot: kill the king at any cost. Another predicable plot, but also nicely done. There's tons of action and fighting scenes throughout.

Wu Tang Magic Kick - Very clear transfer, but some of the English dubbing was way off in this one. Still very watchable though. Although I enjoyed this one, the plot is something to be desired. Tell me, what hero and master of one of the top kung fu schools promises his nagging wife he won't fight again or use his Magic Kick style with so many ruthless and brutal bad guys in the area? Of course he gets teased as hiding behind his wife's skirt. Anyway, when there's non-stop treachery, robberies, thuggery and death all around, you know what happens then. Anyway, his wife turned him into the neighborhood punk.

Fight for survival - Pretty clear transfer and a decent dub job. Shaolin, well at least a cripple rebel of Shaolin, takes on the first female student to train in order to retrieve the valuable Shaolin classic books from a group of thugs who stole them from the temple. There were too many scenes in this flick that was totally unbelievable which caused me to laugh myself to tears. Limbs growing, catching knives with teeth, oh gosh. If you're having a bad day, watch this one first.

Unbeaten 28 - I watched this one a long time ago on a separate DVD. View my earlier review of this one.

Shaolin vs Wu Tang - Gordon Liu does his thing in this one. The last time I watched this one, I saw it on Beta. Yeah, that long ago. It felt good to watch it again. There's tons of great fighting scenes, very believable stunts (you know how Gordon Liu does it) and a decent transfer to DVD. If your having a good day, watch this one first.

Shaolin vs Lama - The beginning words of this flick is freakin hilarious to me. "The origins of Chinese kung fu are shrouded in the midst of antiquity as far back as prehistoric man, imitating the movements of animals as he sat around the cave fire. And so the tradition was handed down." Give me a break. Besides the obvious evolutionary garbage, this is a clear transfer, decent overdub and nice fighting scenes throughout. You will enjoy this one.

Undaunted Wu Tang - The beginning states "The Undaunted WuDang", what a careless mistake! Don't waste your time with this one. It started out not even getting my attention. Horrible transfer and the worst in the bunch!

The blurb says that the Shaolin and Wu Tang Temples were originally friendly but had different viewpoints on the world. The Shaolin follows the ways of Buddhism whilst the Wu Tang believed in Taoism. Eventually the differences also expanded into politics and the two clashed in spectacular battles. Here for the first time is an action packed look into both sides of a rivalry that made history! See the Shaolin clash with the Wu Tang in a battle of ideals and principles. COMMENT: For $17.99, this 10 film collection is a real bargain. However, the film does not follow one from another. Rather than saying that this collection presents a coherent history (or whatever)it is more fitting than the collection is called "eclectic" in the pejorative sense of the word. There is no attempt whatever to "integrate" the various viewpoints, techniques or principles. All the movies fly by the seat of their pants. I gave this collection a 5 star because of its "bargain" nature and that seen singularly, it does represents a sound story.

I am a die hard old school kung fu movie buff and this dvd was packed with some of the best kung fu films, the classic wu-tang vs shaolin battle as usual is epic. great dvd with good action packed kung fu movies.

There is one absolutely awesome movie in this collection (Shaolin vs WuTang). The quality of that movie is decent. Its panned and scanned but you can't find it widescreen anywhere anyway. So you get one of the greatest Kung Fu movies ever, a couple of movies ranging between very good and good. And one or two stinkers. Even the stinkers have the redeeming quality of being amusing due to how ridiculous they are if you're into that sort of thing. I tend to like Kung Fu movies I can take fairly seriously and are only funny when they intend to be, albeit in their odd 70's Kung Fu humor, kind of way.
There is more than enough good stuff here to justify 15 bucks and shipping. I would say its worth that just for Sholin vs WuTang. Plus you get a bunch of other good ones too.