The Shaolin Brothers (1977)

tdb · 10-20-2009, 03:42 AM

- dir Joseph Kuo with Cater Wong, Tung Li, Chin Meng

Carter Wong is an evil Ching prince that is trying to stop Ming rebels from delivering information that would bring down the empire. There's a personal vendetta and some Taoist hijinks in the mix, too.

Carter Wong once again impresses even though he just bookends the movie. Not sure why this is called THE SHAOLIN BROTHERS, because there didn't seem to be any Shaolin (the two little seen protagonists did share the same sifu, however). The plot's a bit incoherent, but the threads do eventually converge. It's a basher with plenty of sword and mixed weapon play. The fights are plentiful and energetic (lots of jumping and at least once, pretty fantastical). Some of the cuts/editing during the fights are jarring. This seems to be how Kuo made his movies, though. I've sat through THE 18 BRONZEMEN 1 & 2, THE 36 DEADLY STYLES, DRAGON'S CLAWS, and now THE SHAOLIN BROTHERS and all the fights have been shot in the same manner. The corpse gag predates THE SHADOW BOXING (SPIRITUAL BOXER, PART II) by five years. Funny how no one really got the supernatural corpse/vampire stuff right until Sammo (SPOOKY ENCOUNTERS/MR. VAMPIRE) came along. Solid, entertaining effort.

Kwok Choi · 10-31-2009, 05:36 PM

Yeah action wise this is good and I have always wondered about this zombie hop philosophy/phenomenon because once you are dead...well you are dead....no? I mean really dead.......right?
When we showed this film in theatres Shaolin Brothers was actually on all the posters/publicity etc but on the print and the title that appeared on screen was Magnificent....something...maybe Brothers/Warriors or Fighters.I remember the " Magnificent " but the rest of the title is a bit vague.What I do remember clearly is one of our customers trying to play a fast one after sitting through the entire movie and later protesting that we did not show the correct film advertised.Luckily the original poster,lobby cards with the title "Shaolin Brothers" were all true to the contents on screen.
My guess is that as the Shaolin craze was at it's height when this movie was released the distributors changed the title in the nick of time to cash in on it.

10-20-2009, 03:42 AM	#1
tdb Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 225	The Shaolin Brothers (1977) - dir Joseph Kuo with Cater Wong, Tung Li, Chin Meng Carter Wong is an evil Ching prince that is trying to stop Ming rebels from delivering information that would bring down the empire. There's a personal vendetta and some Taoist hijinks in the mix, too. Carter Wong once again impresses even though he just bookends the movie. Not sure why this is called THE SHAOLIN BROTHERS, because there didn't seem to be any Shaolin (the two little seen protagonists did share the same sifu, however). The plot's a bit incoherent, but the threads do eventually converge. It's a basher with plenty of sword and mixed weapon play. The fights are plentiful and energetic (lots of jumping and at least once, pretty fantastical). Some of the cuts/editing during the fights are jarring. This seems to be how Kuo made his movies, though. I've sat through THE 18 BRONZEMEN 1 & 2, THE 36 DEADLY STYLES, DRAGON'S CLAWS, and now THE SHAOLIN BROTHERS and all the fights have been shot in the same manner. The corpse gag predates THE SHADOW BOXING (SPIRITUAL BOXER, PART II) by five years. Funny how no one really got the supernatural corpse/vampire stuff right until Sammo (SPOOKY ENCOUNTERS/MR. VAMPIRE) came along. Solid, entertaining effort.

10-31-2009, 05:36 PM	#2
Kwok Choi Moderator Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 282	Yeah action wise this is good and I have always wondered about this zombie hop philosophy/phenomenon because once you are dead...well you are dead....no? I mean really dead.......right? When we showed this film in theatres Shaolin Brothers was actually on all the posters/publicity etc but on the print and the title that appeared on screen was Magnificent....something...maybe Brothers/Warriors or Fighters.I remember the " Magnificent " but the rest of the title is a bit vague.What I do remember clearly is one of our customers trying to play a fast one after sitting through the entire movie and later protesting that we did not show the correct film advertised.Luckily the original poster,lobby cards with the title "Shaolin Brothers" were all true to the contents on screen. My guess is that as the Shaolin craze was at it's height when this movie was released the distributors changed the title in the nick of time to cash in on it. __________________ _______________________________________________ In Loving Memory Of Linn Haynes Last edited by Kwok Choi; 10-31-2009 at 05:45 PM.

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