Shaolin Avengers (1976)

Shaolin hero Fong Sai-yuk (Alexander Fu Sheng) endures harsh training in order to master invincible Shaolin kung fu and sets out with his brother and his friend Hung Hei-kwun (Chi Kuan-chun) to seek revenge against vicious members of the Wu Dang clan.

Chang Cheh, the master of gratuitous bloodshed and bare-chested heroics is at it again with Shaolin Avengers. This kung fu classic starring the very popular Alexander Fu Sheng is chock-full of senseless martial arts violence, stylized bloodletting and male bonding set amidst the conflict between Manchu oppressors and Shaolin Temple. With a large cast of notable screen fighting legends, this movie should be a winner, but falls somewhat short due to an inept story, too many fumbling flashbacks and only adequate kung fu choreography.

Shaolin Avengers is Chang Cheh’s take on the legend of Fong Sai-yuk, one of many real-life kung fu heroes who emerged from the fall of Shaolin. The film is a sequel of sorts to Chang’s Shaolin Temple where we witnessed the destruction of the Temple and the scattering of its lay disciples. Fu Sheng reprises his role the mischievous Sai-yuk, who along with Chi Kuan-chun as Hu Huigan go to battle with villainous members of a kung fu school related to Wu Dang and the traitorous Pai Mei, AKA White Brows.

Chang kicks things off with a climatic battle between the heroes and their foes that plays out during the course of the movie between long flashbacks depicting how they ended up in that situation. Sai-yuk, his brother (Bruce Tong) and his mother have vowed to avenge his father’s death by disembowelment from an Eagle Claw technique. Apparently, the only solution is to make Sai-yuk invincible. In a type of training scenario that Chang Cheh’s former action choreographer Lau Kar-leung surely would have disapproved of, Sai-yuk simply has his skin treated with herbal wine and lashings to make it impervious to bladed weapons. There is no emphasis on any real kung fu technique or philosophy among any of the heroes and thus, the action falls into purely contrived fantasy. Ever looking to have his heroes die in gloriously brutal fashion, Chang does give Sai-yuk one Achilles’ Heel, notably his anus. I have no intention on elaborating on that further except to say that it should be no spoiler to know that Sai-yuk dies a young man.

The most famous exploit of Sai-yuk was his famous duel atop wooden poles which takes place in the film. As with other filmed versions, the ante is upped by using very tall poles surrounded by deadly spikes. Most of the fight is conveniently shot from the thigh up, while the fighters’ steps betray the fact they are obviously standing on a flat platform rather than poles. Having seen several version of this fight I cannot say this one is any better than any other.

As for the film’s remaining fights, it’s all routine action made less engaging by the flashbacks and by the generic nature of the combat. In one case, Chang actually has a flashback within a flashback which is really too much. He makes use of black and white and red filters to emphasize past tense and brutal violence. The red coloring has been used better by Chang in previous films. It’s the kind of technique that’s too glaring to be constantly reused and Chang should have left it alone after his initial experiments because it does little for this film.

Fu Sheng is without a doubt the best choice for playing the fun-loving Sai-yuk and he did so on several occasions throughout his short lifetime. The rest of the cast are all filling out typical roles adequately. One exception is Chi Kuan-chun who starts out with bad kung fu and must be rescued by the far less intimidating Fu Sheng. He goes through some poorly conceived Shaolin training for what seems like ten minutes of his life and emerges a kung fu super man. Venoms fans will get to see Chiang Sheng and Lu Feng in brief supporting roles here. Bruce Tong gets one of his bigger roles as Fu Sheng’s elder brother and does quite well.

The rest of the choice roles go to the villains, all played by genre favorites including Lung Fei, the fierce Choi Wang, Johnny Wang Lung-wei, and Leung Kar-yan. Most of these stars would find greater fame in subsequent years, particularly Johnny Wang who became a regular villain in Lau Kar-leung’s films and Leung Kar-yan who worked extensively with Sammo Hung, more often in heroic roles. In Shaolin Avengers, none of them stand out, although Choi Wang has the most presence. One oddity is the handling of the main villain, White Brows, played by the lesser-known Chan Wai-lau. Chang makes this character a passive observer for most of the film and he only briefly acts at the very end. You see him on several occasions and expect him to give a good fight, but we never get one.

Shaolin Avengers is one of Chang Cheh’s lesser works. It’s not a bad kung fu movie when compared with many independent features, but is far from matching Chang’s more imaginative movies and sees the director resting on too many of his own conventions. It’s also clearly missing Lau Kar-leung’s kung fu expertise, who had recently split from Chang to direct and choreograph his own movies. With no standout performances aside from Fu Sheng’s turn as Fong Sai-yuk, this is a non-essential old schooler best served to diehard genre enthusiasts.