Customer Reviews

Shaolin Prince

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I rented this movie because of it's title when I was going through my ninja movie stage. Yes, there are no ninjas in the movie. But thank god for the misleading title or else I probably would have never come across this movie which has easily become my favorite martial arts movie and I've seen probably a hundred of 'em. It's definitely action packed and the martial arts is very good. More importantly it's a lot of fun to watch, theres never a boring moment which is something a lot of the other martial arts films lack.

The Shaw Brothers, the company known for their many releases of Hong Kong films for many decades ran by producer Sir Run Run Shaw, knighted by the British government and founder of Shaw University in Hong Kong and even founded the HK-TVB TV network was a major power behind the company and his third brother Runme Shaw (who founded South Sea Film), the film company would become known as Shaw Brothers Studio and become the first studio to bring Hong Kong cinema with sound in 1934.

The Shaw Brothers have created over a thousand films and with several having been aired on US television and some being released on video, the 1982 film"Shaolin Prince" (Shaolin chuan ren) aka "Iron Fingers of Death"gets its US DVD release courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment and would star popular Shaw Bros. action star Ti Lung, Derek Yee and Jason Pai Piao and would be directed by Tang Chia.

The film begins with the current emperor who has been betrayed by the 9th Lord (known as "Iron Fingers") who is after the royal seal in order to become the next emperor. Before they are ambushed, the current emperor asks for his soldiers to hide his sons, one who would be the crown prince. As the current emperor's soldiers carry other young boys to confuse Iron Fingers and his army, the race is on to hide the children and prevent them from being killed.

Eventually, the current emperor, his family and his soldiers are killed by the Iron Fingers but the young brothers are separated with the younger Wong Szu Tai living under the care of the Prime Minister (played by Ku Feng) and the eldest young brother Tao Hung who is raised by the bumbling 3 holy fools of the Shaolin Temple and are given the deceased emperor's royal seal.

The reason of why the three holy fools want to raise Tao Hung is because they have been punished and banished in the back area of the training ground and must live outside of where the other Shaolin martial artist practice. The rule that they must abide by is that they can't step outside of their temple and because of that, the three fools look at Tao Hung as their only chance of getting anything done in the outside, especially have him bring them food from the main temple. Also, they see it as a fun way for them to be entertained by training Tao in Shaolin martial arts.

Meanwhile, for his younger brother Wong Szu Tai, he will be raised by the prime minister and will be secretly trained in swordsmanship and martial arts. But most importantly, he will be trained using the missing Emperor's Sword that is strong enough to fight against Iron Fingers. As the Prime Minister and his men believe that the crown prince (Tao Hung) is dead, their only hope of defeating the evil Iron Fingers rests with Wong Szu Tai.

Fast forward to over 20 years later and Iron Fingers has a current emperor in place. But the truth is that Iron Fingers is the puppetmaster and the current emperor is nothing but a puppet who listens to everything that Iron Fingers tells him.

Meanwhile both Tao Hung and Wong Szu Tai have become men. Tao Hung (played by Ti Lung) has become an experienced Shaolin martial artist and has learned from the three fools and their style of Shaolin martial arts. Meanwhile, Wong Szu Tai (played by Derek Yee) has learned to fight with the Emperor's Sword (the only sword that can withstand Iron Fingers) and martial arts but lacks the confidence.

Because the young brothers are now older and in their 20's, Iron Fingers wants to make sure they are dead and he suspects both Tao Hung and Wong Szu Tai to be the Emperor's long lost children. Tao Hung who was raised by the three holy fools has no idea of his true lineage nor is he aware that he has a younger brother.

But one day, while trying to rid of a possessed woman of an evil spirit, Tao Hung would come across a man named Wong Szu Tai, not knowing that the man is his younger brother and both become friends and allies, not knowing that they are brothers and also not knowing that Iron Fingers and his men have targeted them for death.

Who will prevail?

VIDEO:

"Shaolin Prince" is presented in 16:9 widescreen and for the most part, Celestial Pictures has done a wonderful job thus far in their remastering of the Shaw Bros. films and "Shaolin Prince" is no exception. The picture quality for this 1982 film is quite clean and in fact, the film doesn't show its age until right in the end of the film when you hear the '80s music. But overall, this film looks great on DVD.

AUDIO:

"Shaolin Prince" is presented in Mandarin and English mono. Mandarin is the way to go for this film as the English dub is not only cheesy but the old original English dub sounds tinny and recorded badly. In fact, you lose a lot of the crowd ambiance and the background music if you watch the English dub.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"Shaolin Prince" comes with no special features but the FUNimation Entertainment trailers.

EXTRAS:

"Shaolin Prince" comes with a slip cover case.

JUDGMENT CALL:

An action-packed martial arts comedy from the Shaw Brothers!

Unlike the bloody and violent Shaw Bros. film "The Duel" (which comes out on the same day as "Shaolin Prince), this film "Shaolin Prince" is more comedy-driven with martial arts and even sci-fi elements. And for Ti Lung fans, another wonderful release from FUNimation Entertainment!

But what makes this film stand out compared to other Shaw. Bros releases? For one, the fact that the main character Tao Hung (played by Ti Lung) is being raised by three bumbling fools (who are not very smart but their martial arts is incredible), you can't help but laugh as these three Shaolin Martial Arts fools are just hilarious to watch and the fact that they are not that smart makes things quite interesting. In fact, it's as if all three men must share one brain in order to get something accomplished. But outside of their lack of intelligence, these men are great fighters. And for them to train Tao Hung of their way of Shaolin martial arts is pretty cool. But the fact that they try to find ways to trick him daily is quite interesting because it always backfires.

Obviously, Tao is much more smarter and so, it's quite fun to see how Tao tries to make their traps backfire. As for the sci-fi element, there is a part in the film in which Tao Hung and other Shaolin monks are doing a sort of exorcist and trying to rid of the woman's evil spirit that is possessing her. She grows nails (think X-Men's Wolverine) that can get incredibly sharp and she starts flying and disappearing all over the place. But have no fear as the younger Wong Szu Tai has the emperor's sword which is not only unbreakable but it can emit laser like blasts. So, what is interesting is that Wong Szu Tai has this weapon that can shoot this blast but only uses it this one time and yet he gets himself beaten up quite a few times throughout the film. I guess the laser blast is for evil spirits only.

And of course, you have the jealous Shaolin Monk who is working with Iron Fingers to kill or embarrass Tao Hung. He also provides some comedy support as he is constantly being usurped by Tao Hung. Then you have Iron Fingers who wears an iron glove with its index and middle finger pointing straight out and defeating all his enemies and easily snapping their swords when the sword is between the fingers. That was quite intriguing.

Despite the sci-fi elements and humor, this is a pretty cool martial arts film as the fight choreographers were really thinking beyond the box of what they can accomplish. Of the many Shaw Bros. films that I have watched thus far, this one really stands out because of its action and comedic scenes.

Overall, with two Shaw Bros. films coming out on August 3rd, you have the bloody violent martial arts film "The Duel" or the comedy/sci-fi martial arts film "Shaolin Prince". Both are worth checking out and are highly entertaining martial arts films. Check it out!

The ability of one film to imbue the hokey, ridiculous atmosphere of ancient Chinese Kung-Fu has never been matched with the style and audacity of "Death Mask of the Ninja". While it's true, there are no ninja (for heaven's sake, ninja are Japanese, not Chinese!), the artistic style of the E-Ching spirit wells from this work with more than it's fair share of "poke fun at ourselves" comedy. Not that the film should be taken lightly; the 18 Buddah attack and the "Finger Star"projectile, (which actually looks like a marble), are staples of this reviewer's vernacular and ledgends in this genre. The three holy fools, (Woo Chi, Woo Li and Woo Bi) are avatars of the particular thematic flavor. I recommend it with the highest guilty pleasure!

I've reviewed about every fu movie I've seen, and have seen many many many that are not on there so I went on the vhs side to see if I recognize anything and this death mask movie caught my eye. The box that is being shown for this movie is obviously a drawing from another movie. This movie stars ti lung and a very young derek yee. But this has to be my favorite performance ever from the great jason pai pao. Jason is the evil 9th prince and tried to kill the father of these 2 kids. So one of the kids goes to learn at shaolin. The other goes to live with the prime minister. They both learn kungfu of course. And the 9th prince is looking for them, why who ask, because they could come back for him one day, geez, do you ever watch kungfu? Now you kinda get the feel that the movie is going to be a slapstick comedy, and while it is, it is also very serious and has a kick ass deep story. There is like a dude who fights with a fire sword, a guy who comes out of the water, and there is also a traitor in shaolin, this is really deep.

Now as far as shaw brothers movies go, I have to say that this movie is EASILY one the best from run run shaw's company. I don't know who directed this, I am certainly not going to trust amazon with what they say, but this guy was WAY ahead of his time. I saw Lau Ka-leung attempt wire tricks like this in disciples of master killer(great movie), and that was 4 freaking years after this was made, and really didn't live up to this. This movie is not only the first of it's kind, but also one of the best still today. This was not the first, just the first to get this crazy with what they are doing. You have to see it to believe it.

The version I have is from this RED SUN company that I have been seeking out dvd's by them. Thsi one is not as good as the other s I have from them, only english dub, but it does have that crystal clear picture, so go screw yourself special features, I got what I wanted.

The dvd case I think says iron fingers of death, but when the uncut movie starts, I finally saw the real name of this movie::SHAOLIN PRINCE. Which is a very appropriate name for this. Movie running time is 96 minutes. Trailers are from flying guillitine 2 and executioners of shaolin(how the hell did I never see this, don't worry I will review Chen Kwan Tai versus Pai Mei, that is a guarantee).

I have been searching for this movie for over 20 years and I finally found it here. It's taken me so long because of the misleading title and the hokey cover depiction. I was brought up on this movie, and when I was a kid, I always referred to it as "The Three Holy Fools". My Dad was and still is obsessed with this movie. Needless to say, it got to me and my search is now finally over. I went to a search engine and just typed in "The Three Holy Fools" and up came this page from amazon.com. I hope everyone else will enjoy it as I have. So, Bye for now, or in Japanese...Osu!

I found this one when I was a kid. Of course the title and the box art has zero to do with the movie, but it is still an awesome kung fu flick! I hope it is on DVD some day.

this is a must buy if you are a fan of shaw brothers or old school martial arts films . the only reason i gave it four stars is that i have seen it many times before . enjoy

There are no ninjas in this movie. There are no deathmasks, either. Nor is there any ninjutsu, either the Hatsumi or the Kim variety. That said, however, this is one of the best chopsocky movies I've ever seen. Epic-style, it details the adventures of two princes and their quest to regain their birthright, stolen by "The Ninth Prince" when they were mere babes. The eldest bro practices "I Ching"(?) kung fu, the other uses (apparently) Tai Chi Sword. Maybe this movie just caught me at the right time, but I've since watched it many times. I'd suggest renting it first, though. The three "Holy Fools" (eldest brothers' teachers), are hilarious, but lethal. Oh yeah...the dubbing is atrocious. And a better title would be "The Three Princes". The whole thing looks like an ancient Chinese fable.