In between making kung fu movies at Shaw Brothers studios, Lau Kar-leung’s brother Kar-wing directed the independently-produced Warrior from Shaolin with Kill Bill star Gordon Liu in the lead. This low budget movie is a mishmash of uneven genre elements and ill pacing, yet Kar-wing’s small group martial arts choreography is excellent.

Warrior from Shaolin kicks off by placing itself during the Japanese invasion of China that leads up to World War II. A mortally-wounded patriot with a map of Japanese troop locations delivers it to monks at Shaolin Temple with a request to transport it safely to a Chinese agent with an unusual bump on his back. With the Japanese not far behind, the map ends up in the hands of monk Fu (Gordon Liu) who begins the dangerous quest. Two conmen who believe that Fu’s map box contains valuable treasure start tagging along with him. An odd series of misadventures begin with the conmen getting mixed up with hopping corpses and agents of the Japanese. Meanwhile, a Chinese couple with great kung fu skills (Lau Kar-wing and Lily Li) begin working for the Japanese by tracking down Fu. They recruit the greedy conmen to help them, but Fu appeals to their patriotism. After getting captured, Fu meets up with his contact and with the help of the conmen, the pair attempt to retrieve the now hidden map and escape, but they run straight into the hands of their enemies and must fight it out.

Production and action direction on this film is attributed to the “Lau Brothers” which should give potential viewers relatively high expectations. The Lau brothers rival the Yuen Clan and Sammo Hung’s crew at Golden Harvest for making the best kung fu classics. They generally consist of Master Lau Kar-leung, his blood brother Lau Kar-wing, and Kar-leung’s disciple Lau Kar-fei (AKA Gordon Liu). It’s doubtful that Kar-leung actually worked on this film, although he may have acted as an executive producer of sorts. More likely, this was simply a collaborative effort by Gordon Liu and Kar-wing to get something whipped together outside of the studio system for whatever reason. Kar-wing was not his brother’s equal, but was still a very competent action director and stunt actor in his own right. Unfortunately, that’s about all this film has going for it.

Warrior from Shaolin is a good example of a rushed project from top talent. When pressed, the crew are still able to muster some awesome fights, but the story is wholly disposable. The main premise is that Gordon Liu has to get this map into the hands of an agent, but the filler that’s created to make this a ninety-minute feature seems like it’s just that, filler. Too much time is wasted on dull comedy and the scene involving hopping corpses is pointless and has nothing to do with the plot. The use of a disco version of Beethoven’s 5th is mildly amusing though.

Where the film gets interesting is in the kung fu choreography. Kar-wing constructs elaborate battles between individuals and small groups that includes very dynamic movements and acrobatics that require precise timing. The lovely Lily Li and Kar-wing play a married couple who fight as a single unit. Their movements are intertwined and it becomes Gordon Liu’s challenge to keep them apart as his only way of defeating them. This tandem action can also be seen in Odd Couple, another film featuring the talents of Kar-wing. Liu is in good form, but fans may be disappointed to see that his leading role gets hijacked for a time by Eric Tsang and his screen partner.

Good kung fu and action performances from well-known leads makes Warrior from Shaolin better than it should be. Without the backing of Shaw Brothers, the Lau brothers cannot do much with anything outside of the fighting. With considerable gaps between action, maintaining interest will be the greatest challenge. This is the type pf film best watched by fast-forwarding to the highlights.

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