What was the title of that B grade kung fu flick?

Mycanid

First Post
Hey folks, a question to all you B grade kung fu flick fans.

Back in the mid 80's I was watching the kung fu theatre segment of late saturday morning tv programs (which is where I was introduced to my all time favorite Five Deadly Venoms), and came across another one whose title I simply canNOT find.

The gist of it was that there were three bad guy martial art masters who beat up a bunch of people and then three wimpy martial art guys go and train with other martial art masters who teach them exactly the school of how to counter and defeat the styles of the bad guys.

One of the bad guys (my favorite) had a quarterstaff with a short chain connecting the end of it to a shorter staff. Another of the bad guys was a master at kicking.

Anyway, the only school in particular I remember one of the good guys being trained in (and it was to combat the kicking master bad guy) was a school based on real close combat and staying close to an object ... that is, stay close to the body of the kicker and perpetually pivot around him and it is more difficult for him to kick you ... and giving short, powerful double handed strikes with the palm or with the hands to penetrate into the opponents stomach!

At the end of the movie only two (three?) of the combined heroes/villians survive. Somehow the town is invaded by a horde of troops with polearms and bows and arrows. The quarterstaff guy (my favorite) leapt into the arrow and knocked aside a horde of arrows fired at him while fleeing, but the second time he was turned into a pincushion. The movie ends with the survivors fleeing through the woods.

Sorry for the very general description, but that is all I remember. Any feedback would be appreciated!
 

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Mycanid said:
Hey folks, a question to all you B grade kung fu flick fans.

Back in the mid 80's I was watching the kung fu theatre segment of late saturday morning tv programs (which is where I was introduced to my all time favorite Five Deadly Venoms), and came across another one whose title I simply canNOT find.

The gist of it was that there were three bad guy martial art masters who beat up a bunch of people and then three wimpy martial art guys go and train with other martial art masters who teach them exactly the school of how to counter and defeat the styles of the bad guys.

One of the bad guys (my favorite) had a quarterstaff with a short chain connecting the end of it to a shorter staff. Another of the bad guys was a master at kicking.

Anyway, the only school in particular I remember one of the good guys being trained in (and it was to combat the kicking master bad guy) was a school based on real close combat and staying close to an object ... that is, stay close to the body of the kicker and perpetually pivot around him and it is more difficult for him to kick you ... and giving short, powerful double handed strikes with the palm or with the hands to penetrate into the opponents stomach!

At the end of the movie only two (three?) of the combined heroes/villians survive. Somehow the town is invaded by a horde of troops with polearms and bows and arrows. The quarterstaff guy (my favorite) leapt into the arrow and knocked aside a horde of arrows fired at him while fleeing, but the second time he was turned into a pincushion. The movie ends with the survivors fleeing through the woods.

Sorry for the very general description, but that is all I remember. Any feedback would be appreciated!

That was a Shaw Bros. movie called Invincible Shaolin, Directed by Chang Cheh and starring
Kuo Chui, Lo Mang, Lu Feng, Wei Pai, Sun Chien and Cheng Sheng.

Alot of these older Shaw BRos films are being remastered by Celestial Studios who now own the rights to the bulk of the Shaw Bros library and have done a FANTASTIC job of remastering and cleaning up the prints of these movies. I've been collecting them over the past few years and have been slowly but surely replacing my worn out VHS copies.
 

THAT'S IT!

Many, many thanks Shin ... I know one of the enWorlders would know SOMEthing about this.

Not too surprising that I liked it. I liked 5 Deadly Venoms and this was by the same director, it seems. :)

Wouldn't happen to know the name of the staff used by one of the northern shao-lin masters, would you?

I remember the eggs and the gardening now.... Great stuff!
 

While on the subject, what is the name of the 1970s king fu movie which involves a monk training for martial arts, and part of his training involves him filling up two buckets with water, climbing up a tall hill or structure, dumping the water, and walking back down to refill the buckets again?
 


Mistwell said:
While on the subject, what is the name of the 1970s king fu movie which involves a monk training for martial arts, and part of his training involves him filling up two buckets with water, climbing up a tall hill or structure, dumping the water, and walking back down to refill the buckets again?

That one is 36th Chamber of Shaolin or better known in the US as Master Killer starring Gordon Liu (Dirty Ho, Kill Bill vol.1, Fists of the White Lotus aka Clan of the White Lotus) and directed by Lar Kar Leung (Dirty Ho, Legendary Weapons of Kung Fu)
 

Well Shin. I am impressed by your knowledge of the genre. Must be a big fan. But thanks to you for helping out folks like me. :)

Still ... any idea on the name of that weapon I mentioned in the previous post? :\
 

Mycanid said:
Still ... any idea on the name of that weapon I mentioned in the previous post? :\

No sorry, nothing definitive yet. I'm pretty sure I saw it once in my copy of palladium's Mystic China but I no longer have that book. I'll have to check my copy of Hero Games Ultimate Martial Artist as soon as I get the chance.
 

ShinHakkaider said:
That one is 36th Chamber of Shaolin or better known in the US as Master Killer starring Gordon Liu (Dirty Ho, Kill Bill vol.1, Fists of the White Lotus aka Clan of the White Lotus) and directed by Lar Kar Leung (Dirty Ho, Legendary Weapons of Kung Fu)

One of the classics of the genre.

I keep trying to track down a copy of Kung Fu Beyond the Grave. A group of friends (who also were my Tai Chi class, including the teacher) rented it one night. It was a pretty average movie until a scene where two opponents pointed fingers at each other. Someone said "If energy beams come out of their hands, I'm leaving." They floated in the air, touched fingers to a big explosion. We couldn't stop laughing for ages.

With appearances by Dracula, Taoist wizards and clearly a self-referential sense a humor, I would love a copy for my collection.
 

The weapon form the 36th Chamber of Shaolin movie cover is a Yue Ya Cha aka the monk's spade or "moon's tooth" spade.

The staff-like weapon is (sometimes) called a Chang xiao bang aka the two sectioned (or lashing) staff.
 
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