In order to fight Qing oppression, three heroes of Shaolin including Fong Sai-yuk (Mang Fei) go toe-to-toe with the Wu Tang Clan and its Abbot who employs three doppelgangers identical to the heroes.

When good kung fu stars appear in a bad Taiwanese film, you get Invincible Kung Fu Trio. The charismatic Mang Fei and superkicker John Liu headline the cast along with support from Angela Mao in a throwaway role, Kam Kong appropriately as the villain, and Liu Ping as the heroic elder. Sadly their performances are wasted on a lousy story involving doppelgangers with yin-yang symbols on their chest and a Wu Tang abbot who magically changes hair color in every other scene. Bad editing and directing, as well as ridiculous sound effects nearly torpedo the whole film if not for some mildly diverting kung fu action.

Mang Fei does indeed play Fong Sai-yuk, the Shaolin hero made famous by Jet Li in Fong Sai Yuk (1993) and its sequel. Mang is joined by John Liu and Tong Lung who all play Shaolin heroes trying to fight the Qing rulers. They supposedly all have schools and ‘brothers’ who fight with them, but budget limitations must have forced the director to allow nothing more than the mention of these things. The focus of their struggle falls to the Wu Tang Clan, longtime rivals of Shaolin who have sided with the Qing. Wu Tang’s new abbot is Kam Kong, intentionally depicted as two different people. One has black hair and appears mostly at Wu Tang temple, while the other has white hair and seems to live in a cave and practices the ‘Butterfly Stroke’ (a lame kung fu technique rather then the swimming style). After challenging Kong Kam, a hot-headed Tong Lung is poisoned by the Butterfly Stroke and his brothers come to his rescue. John Liu is captured and the other two hide with a kung fu master (Liu Ping) and his daughter (Angela Mao). After some forgettable training, the whole gang breaks John out of his little cage. More generic training ensues before the trio crash a festival in honor of Wu Tang’s leader in order to defeat him for good. But first they must literally fight themselves as duplicates of the trio attack.

Nothing remarkable stands out in this film. Rather, its virtually all disposable. With the direction featuring too many extreme zoom-ins, random cuts to unexplained scenes, and poor continuity, anything of value wouldn’t be worth enduring anyway. Lesser Taiwanese filmmakers often mix magic and mythology with kung fu, in part to distract the viewer from the fact that the fight choreography is sub-standard. In this case, they attempt to give Kam Kong some sort of a black magic aura, with his Butterfly stroke that involves sweeping the hands in front of an opponent to cause internal injury. There is also this silliness about the alter ego that serves no purpose, except to confuse the viewer with Kam’s color-changing hair. The doppelgangers and how they are made is never explained. Surely this saved the filmmakers even more money by re-casting the same actors in different roles. The effect of having the heroes fight themselves is negated by sloppy editing and mediocre fighting.

The biggest tragedy of this film is that the two best screen fighters, John Liu and Angela Mao are both terribly misused. Mao gets a few licks in, but mostly just plays the standard female fighting side dish with no flavor. Liu’s kicking is put to some use, but his role is also muted. Then again, no one really looks good in this film. The choreography and camera work is really bad for the most part. The best example is when the the festival erupts into fighting as John Liu and Tong Lung are surrounded by circling Wu Tang fighters. Mang Fei comes in to attack the outer ring while continuing to dance around. The attempt to coordinate this scene into a classic Chang Cheh circus formation becomes a confusing mess. The only weapon use worth mentioning is Tong Lung’s twin discs that look like cymbals or giant coins. Tied together by fabric, he wields one in each hand and tosses them at an enemy or twirls the straightened fabric like a baton.

Invincible Kung Fu Trio is pretty much an unintentional joke and the dubbing crew seems to have caught on. During fights you’ll hear the sounds of cows mooing, spaghetti Western gunshots ricocheting, dog barking, and even a train! As ridiculous as it sounds, it can only be considered an improvement.

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