Crazy Shaolin Disciples (1985)

A great cast does not a great kung fu movie make, especially when it’s filled with juvenile humor and heavily edited and undercranked combat. CRAZY SHAOLIN DISCIPLES is unfortunately a product of its time, a nonsense Cantonese comedy that exploits its stars and makes a backwards leap in a played out sub-genre.

The film is directed by Yau Fung-hung, who is not a well known director and no doubt for good reason. With this effort, he falls somewhere between and far below filmmakers Karl Maka and Wong Jing, not an enviable place to be in my opinion. He takes the popular legend surrounding southern Shaolin Temple folk heroes Fong Sai-yuk, Hu Hui-gan and Hung Hei-kwun and uses it to basically fill 90 minutes with a lot of uninspired tripe that ditches any sense of reality for an excessively theatrical presentation that arguably has more in common with musicals than action movies.

The premise should be familiar to genre fans as Yau doesn’t stray too far from the basic legend that inspired numerous movies such as Chang Cheh’s SHAOLIN TEMPLE and Wong Jing’s NEW LEGEND OF SHAOLIN. Wanted by the Qing government, Ming loyalist and martial artist Hung Hei-kwun (Lo Meng) decides to hide out at Shaolin Temple by becoming a lay disciple. Hei-kwun takes with him the mischievous kung fu prodigy Fong Sai-yuk (Wong Yu) and his friend Hu Hui-gan (Chien Hsiao-hou). After passing an entrance trial, the trio join the temple’s lay disciple program for southern Shaolin practitioners that’s run by monk Jin (Philip Kwok).

This misfit crew quickly develops a rivalry with disciples from northern Shaolin Temple (presumably already sacked by the Qing government), who are led by Guy Hong (Lee Hoi-san) and count a talented monk named Wu Qing (Gordon Liu) among their number. The two groups engage in a series of pranks, frolic bare-chested in a natural pool and generally draw the ire of their masters.

After Hui-gan and his lay disciples accidentally release a crazy old monk locked up for straying from his teachings that they mistake for the abbot, both groups begin a contest to bring him back. Along the way, Hei-gan becomes romantically involved with a neighboring peasant girl, while Sai-yuk and Hei-kwun exchange blows with Wu Qing. Tossed in as the main foil to the Shaolin disciples is Qing court guard Chik Lian-jia (Lo Lieh), a nearly unstoppable one-man army who tracks Hei-kwun to Shaolin.

The film is made up of a dream cast as far as classic kung fu movies go. Wong Yu and Gordon Liu are both students of legendary kung fu filmmaker Lau Kar-leung, while Lo Meng and Philip Kwok came into their own under the tutelage of the equally legendary kung fu filmmaker Chang Cheh. Chin Siu-ho represents what was then the emerging generation of kung fu star, a talented performer who featured prominently throughout the ’80s. KUNG FU HUSTLE star Yuen Qiu has a small role as Sai-yuk’s mother. Lee Hoi-san, one of Hong Kong’s top heavies, rounds out the film’s list of highly talented stunt actors. That leaves Lo Lieh, certainly a capable and beloved stunt actor himself, but hardly capable of performing the kind of heavy acrobatic kung fu his character dishes out in this film. Not surprisingly, he’s doubled more than any other actor and enough so that his stunt doubles should have gotten equal credit for portraying his character.

Too bad this cast is wasted. Yau treats them as an ensemble, with no one standing out and many of them underused or their characters very underdeveloped. Gordon Liu, who should be treated as an A-list star, is looking more like a second string supporting player. Lo Meng looks uncomfortable trying to navigate between being the mature hero and a compulsory accomplice in his fellow disciples’ hijinks. Wong Yu, who did so well as a kung fu comedian when directed by Lau Kar-leung in the likes of THE SPIRITUAL BOXER and MAD MONKEY KUNG FU is incapable of stepping into the shoes of the late Alexander Fu Sheng, who played Sai-yuk so well in several Shaw Brothers productions before an untimely death. Lo Lieh only appears at the beginning and end and as already mentioned is heavily doubled. Chin comes off looking the best, but that’s not saying much.

Making this film nearly unbearable is a steady stream of lowbrow Cantonese comedy presented in the most uninspired way. Viewers can expect to find puns involving farts, urinating in a pool, performing “artificial resuscitation” on a female, making out with a door, cross-dressing, and stripping naked as a mandatory, group ice breaker. Yuen Wo-ping directed his fair share of cheesy kung fu comedies but at least his were also visually imaginative and usually featured top-grade kung fu choreography.

Martial arts action in CRAZY SHAOLIN DISCIPLES is decent at times, but unlike Lau Kar-leung’s comedies, it’s secondary to the comedy. Some of the sparring is good and the stunt actors and doubles all perform well when given the chance. But it all looks like bland leftovers from better kung fu movies.

Clearly, Yau Fung-hung had nothing new or enticing to offer. The film’s kung fu action is mediocre, the star-studded cast is misused and the dominate comedy is almost embarrassingly bad to even watch. One need only seek out nearly any other Shaw Brothers movie starring any of the same actors to find something far better.