Customer Reviews

Sword Masters: Two Champions Of Shaolin *Shaw Bothers*

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

 

 

I can finally get rid of my pan & scan bootleg quality DVD, and I have Sword Masters to thank. First, it's directed by the Godfather of HK movies, Chang Cheh; second, it's got the Venoms in it. 'Nuff said. Despite missing Philip Kwok (Kuo Chui), he is listed as the head choreographer. Kuo was having "ego" issues with Lu Feng, and he got so angry he refused to appear in it. In spite of his absence, it's still a great film; I feel it's superior to "Showdown at the Cotton Mill" ("Two Champions..." is sort of modeled after that). Lo Mang got to show his leading man talent, and Chin Siu-Hou (Fist of Legend) got his big break. The 15 minute end fight is not to be missed. I don't know too much about "Sword Masters" (they're doing Chang's 1970 classic "Heroic Ones" as well), but they did a decent job here. Remastered, widescreen, uncut and your choice of Mandarin or English. I'd go with the Mandarin because not only are the subtitles well done, but the English track sounded a bit muffled. I think it's fabulous that these classic Shaw Brothers movies are being re-issued like this.

Again, another DVD sleeve playing up a minor character, cool as his weaponry is; if this flick has four of the "Venoms" troupe in it, put some--or all--of THEM on the cover!...Wierd to watch this movie without Kuo Chui onscreen (at least he's behind the scenes on fight choreography, owing to conflicts with Lu Feng); it's a safe bet he'd be playing the Lo Meng part if circumstances allowed, and it's even more certain he'd give more nuances to the role than Lo Meng did (give Lo an "A" for effort, though). Still, when the newcomer gets through this Well Go USA release, they will appreciate the Image-quality picture, survive a Mandarin dub where the sound has been "enhanced" during [mainly] fight scenes (bound to be off-putting to purists, but it'll have to do until this reissue gets a do-over, if at all), and enjoy four "Venoms" in a story where director Cheh goes back to "Heroes Two" territory, more or less (with a scene that will make some recall "Showdown at the Cottonmill"). With the "Venoms", and their usual slate of supporting actors, this lifts the rating from 3 stars to 4. Beginners may want their first "Venoms" DVD to be ANOTHER release, however ("The Five Venoms" being the logical start)!

The "Two Champions of Shaolin" DVD released by Well Go USA under the Sword Masters name boasts a beautiful wide screen video transfer. After closer inspection of the disc its clear the video transfer is from the Celestial Pictures version and that's a bonus for fans of this movie. Once again the sound on this Well Go USA edition is not so great and could have been done much better. It seems that something was out of sync when the soundtrack was being done on the English dubbed version and it's inconsistent at times. Make no mistake; this is a five star Shaw Brothers movie, but once again I had to take off a star for the sound problems.

Filmed in (1978) Shao Lin yu Wu Dang (Hong Kong: Cantonese title) or The "Two Champions of Shaolin "(Hong Kong: English Dubbed title) reunites legendary martial arts director Chang Cheh with the Shaw Brothers Studios for more martial arts mayhem. Once again this Venoms kung fu cult classic pits the Manchu hating Shaolin masters against the Wutang warriors in an all out fight to the death. During the rein of the Ching Dynasty the anti Ching Shaolin masters are at constant odds with the deadly and highly combatative Wutang warriors who are in favor of the Ching government and against the Shaolin masters at all costs.

After his parents are killed a young Manchu named Tung Chien-Chin (Lo Meng) is accepted into the sacred Shaolin Temple despite being a Manchu and the very thing the Shaolin masters despise. When the time comes he is sent out to find the highly skilled Shaolin martial artist Wu Hui-Kan (Chiang Sheng) for a secret anti-Ching assignment. Upon his arrival in Guangzhou, Tung is confronted by the very lethal Wutang fighter Li De-chung (Yu Tai-ping) and during their frantic encounter Tung is injured from Li's deadly flying knives attack.

With the aide of Chin Pi-erh (Yang Tsing-tsing) and her brother Chin Tai-Lai (Sun Chien), Tung soon recovers from his injury and learns a valuable defense technique to combat Li's deadly flying knives attack. After a random encounter between Tung and Wu they realize that Li has seen them together and the two set out to rid themselves of Li for good. When the Wutang fighter Li is eliminated by Tung and Wu they are quickly confronted by Li's brother Li Pa-shan (Wang Li) and his men as they seek revenge for their fallen comrade. The two quickly realize they're in for the fight of their life. Later on Tung also proposes marriage to Pei and during their celebration the Wu Tang fighters wage an all out attack killing Pei and her brother and kidnapping Tung in the process. Will Tung be able to free himself from his captors and exact his revenge or will help come from an unlikely source, you'll have to check it out for yourself to see how it ends.

DVD Features:
- Play Movie
- Scene Selection
- Language Options:Chinese, English 5.1
- Subtitle Options:Chinese, English
- Original Trailer

As a fan of old school kung fun movies this is one of my favorite. Some of the best fighting I've seen in a shaw brothers film. The story is kind of weak,but didn't really bother me. The fighting scene at the end is excellent. My favorite venom sun chien aka the scorpion gets to bust loose and show his stuff in this one. Get this if you're a fan of the venoms of like good old school martial arts films. I would have given it another star if it had a better story and wasn't missing one venom.

Lo Mang is up against the entirely deceitful Lu Feng who does a tremendous job with his role here as the Monkey King of his three masked, monkey hitmen. When he first meets Lo Mang at the grave of someone he'd just murdered he delivers a truly excellent performance. Although laying out silken rugs and exquisite dishes before the unaware guests Lo Mang and co. the esquisitely deceitful Lu Feng then goes on to explain that, "me? I'm a nobody, just a traveling scholar, certaintly not as important as you famous fighters." we're talking spot on delivery with his lines here. This is the english dubbed version I'm citing here. He thoroughly deceives Lo Mang and co. while they're visiting the grave of comrades he (Lu Feng) and his monkey style henchmen just murdered. Great film. A must have for any venoms fan.

This is an above average kung fu movie, starring the five deadly venoms, who are always fun to watch. The fighting is very skillful and well coreographed, the movie is action packed, the plot is way more involved than the usual revenge theme, and the dubbing and acting are quite good. The unique thing about this movie is that at the end everybody dies except for a handful of minor characters, out of a brawl involving twenty or thirty guys. Neither the good guys nor the bad guys win, and none of the main characters survive. When the last of the main characters drops, the remaining guys scatter and the movie abruptly ends. I cannot think of any other movie where all the main characters die, good guys and bad, with no chance for a denoumont, unless you count slasher movies where Jason can die any number of times and keep coming back for more. In Go Tell the Spartans the bad guys survived, so that one doesn't count. I suppose everybody dies at the end of Dr. Strangelove, but then again that's not certain; they still have the mine shafts. Hell in the Pacific doesn't count because there are only two characters in the whole movie. Even if there was some downer western or war movie, how could the last guys accomplish mutual destruction? I declare this ending to be unique. Everyone dies, there's nobody left to speak any dialogue except extras who never have any lines anyway, there's nothing left to film, so it's the end of the movie.

I dont see why this movie received so many high scores. Just because it has some of the venoms? This movie is mediocre at best. No classic and it doesnt deserve even a 3.5. I dont have the time to really explain. But the kung fu isnt as good as it is in other venom movies. The storyline is good but the ending is mediocre. Its only worth a rental if you're a fan of the genre. Its about to get donated to the salvation army.