Customer Reviews

Shaolin Rescuers

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a classic venoms tale of brotherhood and loyalty, what venoms films are all about, and if you're a true venom fan, this is a must have. Packed with great fighting scenes and one of the best ending fight scenes I have ever seen, this is a movie no kung fu fan should be without.

Shaolin Rescuers is not the best Shaw Brothers production with the Venoms, but it is still extremely entertaining and filled with high-energy fight scenes.

It is always a pleasure to see the familiar faces of the Venoms and see how each character and choreography plays to their strengths. This one includes more comedic bits between the charismatic Lo Meng and Phillip Kwok as two food service industry workers (tofu maker and waiter, respectively) who use their environment to practice and learn kung-fu; it is a sheer thrill just to see Phillip Kwok use rice bowls and chopsticks as weapons. Lu Feng here plays the dapper villain -- no surprise; Sun Chien shows off his amazing leg work, and the always likable Chiang Sheng displays his acrobatic prowess, especially when using two edged weapons.

The plot revolves around Lo Meng and Phillip Kwok slowly grinding out a living while harboring ambitions of making a name for themselves somehow; until that moment they practice their kung-fu in secret. When Pai Mei and his Wu-Tang clan start killing off the followers of Shaolin, and a fleeing survivor crosses paths with Lo Meng and Phillip Kwok, their chance to fulfill their destinies comes into focus. With the aid of Sun Chien, a student of kung-fu adept at fighting on raised wooden poles, and Chiang Sheng, the two use their abilities to aid the fleeing survivor.

At times ridiculous and goofy -- Phillip Kwok often mugs it up with his finger up his nose -- and at other times exciting and thoughtful, this movie is certainly a must for fans of these actors, martial arts enthusiasts and Shaw Brothers completists.

I enjoyed this old school classic. Fighting scenes were good though not the best from the Venoms. They had much more talent than what they displayed in this film. I understand that the movie is quite old - didn't have great technology back then. My version was transferred to DVD horribly. In some scenes you saw the lines on the bottom and top of the tv screen and it faded light to dark in some areas. A horrible transfer does not take away from this picture.

this movie has nice fighting scenes but not cheh changs best work thats why I gave it a 3 star rating. I was only 10 years old when Black Belt Theater came on the scene on channel 11, though the titles of the movies are fuzzy to me, I do remember seeing this one. If you are a die hard fan of this genre like me you would know from seeing this movie it isn't the best of the genre but still it has it's moments. It doesn't compare to master killer, 5 venoms, 4 assassins, and super ninjas but still if your a hard shaw bros. fan add this to your collection!

This DVD has all of your Shaw Bros favortie actors, they gathered everyone for this battle! The final battle has about a dozen fighters-- none of which are the lowly henchmen type, its a full on battle of skilled warriors. Even better, they use lots of different weapons as well, building up to the final battle with the master spearman.

Still, despite having plenty of fighters and lots of weapons, the action in this DVD is not spectacular. Lots of the punches and kicks are performed slower than you'd expect, making it look like their not really fighting at all. Also, the camera is often way too close to the action for you to really appreciate the skills being displayed.

There are also some other strange elements that make their way into the film including a master teaching how to fight with a bowl and chopsticks. It might sound kind of cool, but it ends up looking foolish on-screen, when the student uses the chopsticks to fight against a swordsman. I'd recommend only to the die hard Shaw Bros fan.

This film as well as Magnificent Ruffians, aka The Destroyers are the two Venom's films with the most human element to the storyline. Lo meng and Kuo Chui are two laborers who want to have a more meaningful life than just working day and night for just enough to survive. A wounded hero (Pai Piao) enters the town seeking assistance from Chen Shan, a local martial arts school intsructor. Sun Chien is a student being unfairly chastised by a head student here as well as the instructor, Chen Shan. Sun Chien runs into Lo Mang and Kuo Chui trying to help this wounded hero recover. Lu Feng is hunting the hero, Pai Piao, goes to Chen Shan's school seeking assistance, and discovers Sun Chien is purchasing medicine for someone other than himself. This is when the real fighting is about to begin. Lo Meng and Kuo Chui do an excellent job as two friends fed up with their meaningless daily grind. An excellent scene is where Lo Meng (who can't read) asks Kuo Chui to read this parchment found on Pai Piao. Lo all embarrassed with asking Kuo to read to him, but finds Kuo can't read either, this is really good acting. There is a great deal of high quality sparring through the first half of this film, then upon Sun Chien being discovered the real fighting is about to take off. The film could be better, but the intention of the storyline, is very well conveyed. Chen Shan's unawaredness of his student mistreating Sun Chien is a mistake in the storyline and understandably unbelievable, yet this dosen't take up much of the story, and you do feel a bit resentful of the injustice. This film has a very well done english dub translation and the voices fit the faces decently. The sparring between Lo meng, Sun Chien, and Kuo Chui (who does a flip off these chairs piled up to about 15 ft. effortlessy. A very well shot scene right there. A definite must have for any Venom's fan and collector of real martial arts portrayed on film. The Venom's are the real deal doing all of their own stunts and were taught weapons in chinese opera schools. It is a bit fantastical, but that's part of the allure to Shaw Brothers entertainment. I hope funimation does a great job remastering the english dub, and hopefully it will be released on time, for sure.

another deadly venom classic you can add to your collection if you are ol' skool kung fu critic;i gave it 3 stars to compare to the other venom films

Ajin Chen and Yang Dabao are friendly acquaintences in the beginning, and the pair share a dream of becoming martial arts heroes. Occasionally sparring each other, they share their own personal experiences that had led them to practice kung fu. Their paths cross with Ming patriot Hung Xiguan from the Shaolin temple, who was spurned by the Lama clan after asking for their help, and they hide him from officials and nurse Hung's internal injuries sustained in a major confrontation with the WuTang clan. Chen and Dabao befriend a member of the Lama clan also, and together, these 3 guys fight alongside Hung Xiguan and Han Qi against WuTang members, then help Hung Xiguan & Han Qi escape again from the Qing officials.

Another film directed by Chang Cheh has a signature feature during fight scenes, a red screen, when someone is about to lose their battle, usually that is very violent and bloody. The cast has been in numerous films together and their fight sequences are breathtaking at times. The final encounter at the dye mill is astonishing as Lu Feng as Gao Jinzhong and Chiang Sheng as Han Qi always take it up a notch during the final battle. Kuo Chu showcases his acrobatic skills, Sun Chien and Lo Meng round out the cast.

Dvd is distributed by Funimation. Very simple menu to watch in Mandarin with English subtitles or dubbed into English. And if you like the mono sound over the surround sound, that is also available.

I rated this movie 4 stars. Some of the silliness between Lo Meng and Kuo Chu was just filler and could have been left on the cutting room floor in my opinion. It got a little tedious. But all in all, I would recommend it.

This is another in a long line of collaborations between the venoms and Chang Cheh. It is not there best (I think that would be Crippled Avengers), but it is highly entertaining. It has a storyline that has been used countless times in Shaw Brothers movies :the destruction of Shaolin Temple by the Ching and Wutang and the escape of Hung Si Quan.( I apologize for the incorrect spelling.) Even the actors give performances that they have used before in other films. So everything in it is familiar but it is not stale. The fight scenes are frequent and captivating. A film that should be in any kung fu film fan's library.

After having seen ALL of the Venoms' body of work, this is my absolute favorite. The Five Venoms might be the most famous, but it doesn't have much fighting, and what little there is is sub-par. Crippled Avengers has unusually involving characters with great fighting and lots of it, so it is pretty much their best film.

Avenging Warriors of Shaolin (aka Shaolin Rescuers) gives a lot a screen time to Chang Cheh's second and third string stables of martial arts actors and is memorable for fleshing out their characters more than in most of the rest of the Venoms oeuvre. It also contains the most amusing display of comraderie in the entire Venoms canon: that between Kuo Chui and Lo Meng as tofu restaurant waiters. The only thing that comes close is the interplay between Fu Sheng and Sun Chien in The Chinatown Kid. A lot of people find the repartee between Kuo Chui in this film to be cloying to the point of nausea, but once you get really used to the Venoms and love them, this film scores on so very many levels.

I understand how some may not like this film, and I do not recommend it to anyone to anyone who's seen less than at least three or four other Venoms films, but for the true fan, this is one that demands being played over and over again.