REVIEW: ‘Shaolin Rescuers’ (1979)

A bean curd seller and a restaurant waiter dream of making their mark in the world with their kung fu skills. The chance comes when they end up helping a famous rebel who has escaped the destruction of Shaolin Temple.

Phillip Kwok and Lo Meng are the perfect comic team in this relatively lighthearted Chang Cheh and Venoms collaboration.

Ying (Phillip Kwok) and Chun (Lo Meng) are two young men in their prime, stuck with menial jobs. When their bosses are away, they spar and dream of becoming famous kung fu fighters. For about the first 25 minutes, the film takes on a humorous and laidback tone that is by no means dull. Kwok is right at home with his usual comical approach to kung fu and he also performs some terrific acrobatics. Meng’s entire interaction with his character’s boss, a bean curd shop owner is a riot. The two befriend Chu Tsai (Sun Chien) who is being ostracized at his kung fu school.

Eventually, the main plot begins when we witness the white-browed Pai Mei, famed for being the traitorous priest who burned down Shaolin Temple corner several of the school’s remaining heroes. San Te (portrayed by Gordon Liu in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin) and Feng Shi-yu (aka Fong Sai Yuk) are murdered while Hung Si Kuan escapes with his life. Turned away by Chu Tsai’s teacher, Feng ends up in the care of the three young men who struggle to find the money necessary to bring him back to health. But the medicine proves to be their undoing when a spy figures out that Chu Tsai is harboring the rebel. Nearly captured, Feng and his three companions decide to hide at Chu’s school. After defeating the school’s teacher, the four plus Han Chi (Chiang Sheng) are trapped by Kau Ching-cheung (Lu Feng) and his small band of fighters who have been tracking the rebel. Kau and his anxious fighters wait till dawn to engage the men so that none will escape in the dark. In a final battle employing various weapons, Feng and his companions manage to defeat Kau and his band before the Ching army arrives. Finally fulfilling their desires, the badly wounded Ying and Chun finally die for a noble cause by staying behind to stall the army so that Feng can escape.

While everything in the film is quite conventional, the ample humor, range of weapons and quantity of highly entertaining fights makes the Shaolin Rescuers a worthwhile film to see. Its certainly one of Chang Cheh’s more refreshing films since it relies less on bloody carnage and more on story and character development.