Heroes Two (5 Stars)

"Heroes Two" is one of the key films in director Chang Cheh's Shaolin cycle for the Shaw Brothers studio. On the surface it's a straightforward kung fu adventure, but it's built around Chinese folk legends connected to the fall of the Ming Dynasty and resistance against the Qing rulers.

The film opens after the destruction of the Shaolin Temple. Qing government forces, often referred to in the film as Manchus, have burned the temple and massacred most of its defenders. One of the few survivors is the famous martial artist Hung Hsi Kuan, who escapes and becomes part of an underground resistance movement.

The Qing authorities desperately want to capture Hung because he's become a symbol of resistance. General Che Kang, a ruthless Qing commander and skilled fighter, organises a manhunt.

Meanwhile, another Shaolin fighter, Fong Sai Yuk, wanders through the countryside. Fong is immensely talented but impulsive and naïve. Che Kang quickly realises that Fong doesn't know the full political situation and tricks him into believing that Hung is merely a dangerous criminal.

The deception works. Fong tracks down Hung and, after a fierce fight, helps the Qing forces capture him. Word soon spreads through the resistance movement that Fong has betrayed a Shaolin hero. The rebels confront him and reveal the truth: Hung is actually fighting against Qing oppression and the people Fong has been helping are the real villains.

Horrified by what he's done, Fong decides to rescue Hung. His first attempts fail because General Che Kang is an accomplished martial artist himself. Eventually Fong joins forces with the resistance fighters, who devise a plan to tunnel into the prison where Hung is being held.

The film is based on a famous body of Chinese folklore surrounding the alleged destruction of a southern Shaolin Temple during the early Qing Dynasty. According to legend, the Manchu rulers feared that Shaolin monks and Ming loyalists were plotting rebellion. The temple was supposedly attacked and burned, with only a handful of masters escaping. These survivors then spread martial arts throughout southern China and founded many famous kung fu styles.

Fong Sai Yuk and Hung Hsi Kuan are both major figures in southern Chinese martial arts mythology and appear in countless novels, operas and films. Later audiences may know Fong Sai-yuk best from "Fong Sai Yuk", in which he was played by Jet Li.

Shaolin Martial Arts (4 Stars)

Historical background

Shaolin Martial Arts is set during the early Qing dynasty, after the Manchu conquest of China in the seventeenth century. In kung fu cinema, this period is commonly portrayed as an era of repression, with the Manchu authorities attempting to suppress Han Chinese martial traditions. Shaolin schools are depicted not only as places of physical training but as centres of cultural resistance. While the historical reality is more complex, the film draws on popular folklore in which Shaolin boxing represents discipline, moral integrity and opposition to unjust rule.

Unlike films that focus on the destruction of the Shaolin Temple itself, Shaolin Martial Arts is primarily concerned with regional Shaolin schools and the spread of Shaolin techniques among the civilian population.

Plot summary

The story opens with the Qing authorities attempting to assert control over southern China by targeting Shaolin-affiliated martial arts schools. Two formidable Manchu fighters are employed to eliminate a Shaolin school led by Master Lin. Their victory demonstrates the limitations of orthodox Shaolin techniques when faced with specialised and ruthless opponents.

Recognising the danger, Master Lin sends two senior students to seek advanced instruction from an ageing kung fu master known for his unorthodox methods. They hope to acquire techniques powerful enough to defeat the Manchu champions. Although the training is severe and the students gain new skills, they rush into confrontation prematurely and are killed. Their deaths underline one of the film's central themes: skill without patience leads to destruction.

With his strongest fighters gone, Master Lin turns to his remaining students, Li Yao and Chen Bao-rong. Li Yao, played by Alexander Fu Sheng, is talented but impulsive, confident in his abilities yet lacking emotional control. Chen is more restrained and methodical, providing a clear contrast between raw aggression and disciplined focus.

Both men are sent for further training, each under different masters. The film devotes considerable time to these sequences, emphasising repetitive drills, physical conditioning and endurance. Li Yao's training highlights hand techniques, power generation and sensitivity, including exercises that require precise control rather than brute force. These scenes reinforce the idea that true Shaolin mastery is earned through suffering and restraint.

Alongside the training narrative runs a restrained romantic subplot between Li Yao and Master Lin's daughter. This relationship softens Li Yao's character and gives him a personal reason to survive beyond revenge, reinforcing his gradual emotional maturity.

Once their training is complete, Li Yao and Chen return to challenge the Manchu fighters. The final section of the film consists of a series of extended duels that test the specific techniques each character has learned. Victory is achieved not through superior strength alone but through correct application, timing and mental discipline.

The Manchu fighters are eventually defeated, restoring honour to the Shaolin school. The ending avoids triumphalism. Instead, it suggests that Shaolin martial arts must continually adapt and be preserved through teaching rather than open rebellion.

Themes and significance

Shaolin Martial Arts is less a political rebellion film than a study of martial development. It presents kung fu as a disciplined craft rooted in tradition, patience and moral responsibility. Alexander Fu Sheng's performance captures the transition from youthful arrogance to controlled mastery, making the film an important example of the Shaw Brothers training narrative.

Within the broader Shaolin cycle of the 1970's, the film stands out for its emphasis on learning and refinement rather than temple destruction or large-scale revolt. It portrays Shaolin not as a single sacred location but as a living system passed from teacher to student, surviving through adaptation rather than force.

Men from the Monastery (4 Stars)

Plot Summary

Men from the Monastery is a 1974 Hong Kong kung-fu epic set in the world of Shaolin martial arts heroes and Qing dynasty oppression. It isn’t a single straightforward narrative; instead the film is structured in four interlinked chapters, each focusing on the origins and exploits of three legendary Shaolin fighters before bringing them together for a dramatic final confrontation against overwhelming odds.

1. Fong Sai-Yu’s Trial and Return

The film opens inside the Shaolin Temple, showing Fong Sai-Yu (played by Alexander Fu Sheng) completing his intense training and passing through the notorious “Wooden Men Alley”, a traditional Shaolin initiation test of martial skill and endurance. Soon after leaving the temple he returns to his home region and confronts a powerful Wu Tang-affiliated master, leading to a brutal duel that establishes his skill and reputation.

2. Hu Hui-Chien’s Path to Vengeance

The second segment focuses on Hu Hui-Chien (Chi Kuan-chun), a hot-headed youth whose father is murdered by corrupt officials and martial artists aligned with the Manchu-backed factions. Despite trying repeatedly to retaliate, Hu is defeated until he meets Fong and is told to train at Shaolin. After three hard years of kung-fu training, he returns as a skilled warrior ready to avenge his father.

3. Hung Hsi-Kwan’s Guerrilla Fight

The third chapter introduces Hung Hsi-Kwan (Chen Kuan-tai), a fierce Shaolin disciple fighting as a guerrilla leader against Qing soldiers. Declaring his goal in blunt terms, Hung unleashes his wrath on occupying forces, and his resistance efforts become legendary.

4. Final Stand After Shaolin’s Fall

The climax follows the three heroes as they reunite amid the burning ruins of the Shaolin monastery (footage from the related film Heroes Two is used to show this event). With the temple destroyed by Qing forces, Fong, Hu, Hung and a small group of compatriots make a desperate stand against waves of imperial troops. Blood spills, alliances are tested, and the fight becomes a bitter struggle to the death with only one of them surviving, underscoring the sacrifices made in their resistance.

Historical Background

Although Men from the Monastery is a work of fiction, it plays on real-world legends and common narratives in Chinese martial arts folklore about the Shaolin Temple’s role in resistance against the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). In many martial arts stories the temple is portrayed as a centre of patriotic resistance; Shaolin fighters train and organise uprisings against the Manchus, who ruled China after overthrowing the Ming dynasty.

• Shaolin in Myth and Martial Arts Traditions

In Chinese popular culture, the Shaolin Temple has long been mythologised as a cradle of martial arts and of patriotic fighters who opposed foreign rule. Characters like Fong Sai-Yu (Feng Shih-yu) and Hung Hsi-Kwan (Hung Hei-kwan) are famous figures in Chinese folklore and martial arts literature. They are often depicted as masters of kung-fu and defenders of the oppressed, with their stories adapted and embellished across films, novels, operas and TV series.

• The Qing Dynasty Context

The Qing dynasty was established by the Manchus, an ethnic group from northeast China who conquered the Ming dynasty. Many historical dramas and martial arts films depict this era as one of turmoil and resistance, with rogue fighters and secret societies rising against corrupt officials and imperial control. While real historical details vary widely, the cinematic tradition uses this backdrop as a powerful setting for tales of honour, brotherhood and sacrifice.

• Shaolin Cycle Films

Men from the Monastery is part of director Chang Cheh’s so-called Shaolin Cycle of films made in the 1970s, inspired by these folk narratives. It links to other movies like Heroes Two (1974), which depicts the burning of the Shaolin temple by Qing forces, a recurring motif in martial arts cinema that symbolises the destruction of tradition and the unjust persecution of righteous fighters.

Place in Kung Fu Film History

Men from the Monastery belongs to the golden age of Hong Kong martial arts cinema, roughly the late 1960's through the late 1970's. By 1974, the genre had already moved away from wire-heavy wuxia fantasy towards grounded, physical kung fu, emphasising training, endurance and bodily sacrifice. This film sits firmly in that transition.

What makes it historically significant is how it codifies Shaolin mythology into a cinematic template. Earlier films referenced Shaolin loosely; Chang Cheh’s Shaolin cycle turns it into a shared narrative universe. Characters such as Fong Sai-Yu and Hung Hsi-Kwan appear across multiple films, sometimes played by different actors, sometimes in altered timelines. Continuity is less important than legend. This approach strongly influenced later franchises and television series that treated Chinese folk heroes as recurring archetypes rather than fixed historical figures.

The film also reflects a broader shift in kung fu cinema towards collective heroism. Unlike Bruce Lee’s star-centric vehicles, Men from the Monastery spreads attention across multiple protagonists. Brotherhood, loyalty and shared martyrdom matter more than individual victory. This ensemble focus became a hallmark of many Shaw Brothers productions and helped distinguish studio kung fu films from independently produced star vehicles.

Chang Cheh’s Influence as a Filmmaker

Chang Cheh was arguably the most influential director of Hong Kong action cinema before and during the Bruce Lee era. His impact goes far beyond choreography.

1. Masculinity and Tragedy

Chang Cheh introduced a distinctly tragic form of heroic masculinity. His heroes are rarely rewarded with peace or survival. Instead, honour is achieved through suffering, endurance and often death. In Men from the Monastery, survival is almost beside the point. The destruction of Shaolin and the deaths of its defenders are framed as morally necessary sacrifices.

This fatalistic tone became one of Chang Cheh’s signatures and influenced later directors who explored violence as a test of identity rather than simple spectacle.

2. Violence as Meaning, Not Decoration

Chang Cheh’s films are often criticised for their bloodshed, but the violence in Men from the Monastery is ritualistic rather than gratuitous. Training sequences, duels and mass battles all reinforce the idea that kung fu is earned through pain. This emphasis helped redefine audience expectations. Martial arts were no longer just exotic skills; they were expressions of moral resolve.

Later filmmakers such as Lau Kar-leung would refine this idea further by grounding violence in authentic martial arts lineages, but Chang Cheh laid the philosophical groundwork.

3. Myth Over History

Chang Cheh was not interested in strict historical realism. Instead, he treated Chinese history as mythic raw material. Qing oppression, Shaolin destruction and patriotic resistance are simplified and stylised to serve emotional clarity. This approach shaped decades of kung fu storytelling, where historical eras function more like moral landscapes than documented realities.

Because of this, Men from the Monastery feels less like a historical drama and more like a cinematic folk tale, passed down through repetition and variation.

Legacy

While Men from the Monastery is not as famous as some Shaolin films that followed, its influence is quietly substantial. It helped establish:

• The Shaolin Temple as a cinematic symbol of moral authority

• The Qing dynasty as the default antagonist of kung fu legend

• The idea of kung fu heroes as disposable martyrs for a greater cause

Later films and television series, from Shaw Brothers productions to modern mainland Chinese epics, continue to draw from the narrative structure and emotional logic Chang Cheh refined here.

In short, Men from the Monastery matters not because it tells a single definitive story, but because it helped define how kung fu cinema tells stories at all.

Chinatown Kid (4½ Stars)

I was somewhat confused when I put "Chinatown Kid" in my Blu-ray player today. The disc contains three versions, called the American version (115 minutes), the Hong Kong version (91 minutes) and the German version (81 minutes). The disc offers no description of the differences between the versions, so I had to figure it out for myself.

Only the Hong Kong version has been remastered for Blu-ray. As is usual for the Shaw Brothers films released by Koch Media, it's in the original Chinese (presumably Cantonese) with subtitles in English or German. The German version is dubbed into German with no subtitles. The American version is dubbed into English or German, but there are also no subtitles.

Before I decided which version to watch, I did some research on the Web to find out what the reason was for the three versions. Many fans of kung fu films call the American version the original version, simply because it's the longest version, but that's not true. In the 1970's it was common for Shaw Brothers to make films for different markets. Different scenes were inserted into different versions. In particular, German releases had less violence and American releases had more nudity. None of the three versions of "Chinatown Kid" can be called the original version, because they were released simultaneously. Even the German version, the shortest of the three, contains footage not found in the other two versions.

Several web sites compare the American and the Hong Kong versions, while dismissing the German version as inferior. The main differences are:

1. In the American version the two main characters, Tang Dong and Yang Jianwen, have approximately equal screen time. The Hong Kong version has less scenes with Yang Jianwen, putting more emphasis on Tang Dong.

2. In the American version there are love scenes with Tang Dong. (I don't know who his lover is, because I didn't watch that version today).

3. There's a completely different ending. In the Hong Kong version Tang Dong survives the final fight, in the American version he's killed.

I decided to watch the American version, but after five minutes the awful English dubbing annoyed me so much that I swapped to the Hong Kong version. Nevertheless, after the film was over I watched the final fight in the American film out of curiosity. I was amazed. They were two completely different fights, even though the same characters were taking part. In the Hong Kong film the characters were fighting with their fists, in the American version they were using knives. You can't get much more different than that. The Hong Kong version also has an epilogue missing from the American version.

Now let's get to describing the film. It's about two young men, very different to one another, even though they both come poor families. Tang Dong (played by Alexander Fu Sheng) comes from mainland China, but he's living in Hong Kong as an illegal immigrant. Yang Jianwen (played by Sun Chien in his first role) lives in Taiwan and has just completed his military service. He wants to go to America to study.

Tang Dong gets into a fight with a gang boss, who gets revenge by planting cocaine on him and calling the police. He beats up the police and has to flee the country. He stows away on a ship heading to America. He arrives in San Francisco at the same time as Yang Jianwen. Both of them apply for a job in a restaurant whose owner is prepared to hire illegal workers. They share a bedroom above the kitchen and become close friends.

The Green Tiger gang collects protection money from the restaurant's owner. The two friends see this and want to protect their boss, but he forbids them. He threatens to fire them if they start a fight. Yang Jianwen agrees, but Tang Dong beats up the gangsters in the street. His boss fires him immediately, but the fight is witnessed by the boss of the rival White Dragon gang, who makes him his personal bodyguard.

The two friends grow apart. Tang Dong rises in his gang's hierarchy and becomes rich. Yang Jianwen has trouble continuing his studies while working in the restaurant and turns to cocaine. The two men now look down on one another. Yang Jianwen despises Tang Dong as a gangster, while Tang Dong criticises Yang Jianwen for being a drug addict. What Tang Dong doesn't know is that the White Dragon gang is selling drugs to his former friend.

This is a very good film. While researching the differences between the three versions I read that most fans consider this to be Alexander Fu Sheng's best film. He was certainly an excellent fighter and a good comedian. The similarities with Jackie Chan are impossible to overlook, although he pre-dated Jackie Chan. Alexander was playing comic roles before Jackie Chan turned to comedy. It's tragic that his film career was cut short by his early death. He was killed in a car accident when he was 28.

Here are the film's lobby cards. I like lobby cards.

I'll definitely watch the American version some time soon. I'll watch it with the German dubbing, because it sounds much better than the English dubbing.

The Boxer Rebellion (4 Stars)

The title of this film is misleading. The action takes place during and immediately after the Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901, but it's not an attempt to tell the story of the rebellion itself. It's about three young men who join the Boxers, but are disillusioned and leave the Boxers before the rebellion starts, and then continue the fight after the rebellion fails.

These are the three brothers. I apologise for not being able to tell you their names. In conversation they call each other Big Brother, Second Brother and Third Brother, from left to right in the picture. All three are skilled martial artists. They hear about a religious sect in Peking led by a man called Li Chung, which he calls the Boxers. He promises his followers that they will be invulnerable to guns. Excited by this promise they join the sect, but they discover that it's a lie. Li Chung is only telling them bullets won't hurt them so that they'll be braver in battle.

The brothers leave the Boxers, who now have 50,000 members, but they watch closely when the rebellion starts. The first action of the Boxers is to attack a Japanese camp, and they're slaughtered when they run unarmed into machine gun fire. The three brothers lead a better planned second attack, intending to steal a machine gun, but even though they kill a large number of Japanese soldiers they fail. The brothers survive, but most of the Redshirts are killed.

Li Chung's next step is to cleanse the city. Foreigners in the city (mostly Japanese and British) are killed, but they also attack any Chinese they consider to be traitors. This includes banks where foreigners have deposited money, making the Boxers very rich.

At this point I was becoming surprised. This is a Chinese film, made in 1976, but it paints the rebels in a very negative light, just as bad as the foreign devils. There's very little Chinese patriotism in the film.

The foreigners send an army made up of soldiers from eight countries: American, Austrian, British, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Russian, led by the German General Waldersee. Their combined forces overwhelm the Boxers, and there are mass executions in the street. It doesn't stop there. General Waldersee orders that the whole population of Peking should be executed for supporting the Boxers. The only ones who can stand up to the invading forces are the three brothers.

Any sense of realism the film might have had dissipates in the last 45 minutes of the film. The brothers rush into battle, usually one at a time, defeating 20, 30 or more soldiers at a time. I don't say that as a criticism. This isn't meant to be a documentary film. One of the main tropes of martial arts films is that a single fighter can defeat a large group of opponents.

Do you recognise the Third Brother? It's Alexander Fu Sheng, who was only 21 at the time, but already Hong Kong's biggest martial arts star. He was an exceptionally talented fighter, but he was also an outstanding comedian. He was Jackie Chan before there was a Jackie Chan. His fights in the last half hour of the film are full of comical stunts. It's tragic that he died at the age of 28.

When the film was shown in British and American cinemas in the 1970's, it had a running time of 73 minutes. The Blu-ray that I watched today is the first English subtitled release of the uncut Hong Kong version, 143 minutes. Wow! That means that almost half of the footage was cut from the international version. That must have totally ruined the film.

The Proud Twins (4 Stars)

This is a strange film. The plot is serious, but it's played like a comedy. Fu Sheng isn't just a good fighter, he's a born comedian, with slap stick routines that remind me of Jackie Chan.

The princess of  Yi Hua was in love with her teacher, Jiang Fung. She wanted to marry him, but he fell in love with her maid Hua Yuet Lo. They ran away to live in the mountains, so the princess sent her soldiers to pursue them. The maid had given birth to twin sons. The princess had the parents killed, but she planned an extravagant revenge on the whole family. She separated the twins. She gave one son to be adopted by her housekeeper. She gave the other to be raised by a gang of villains. The twins grew up without knowing who they were. When they were 18, she ordered Hua Wu Cheh (the twin in her palace) to seek out and kill Jiang Xiao Yu (the villainous twin). It didn't matter to her which one of them died. She would only tell the victor afterwards that he'd killed his twin brother, in order to crush him with grief.

That's a dramatic story, but as I said above, the film is a comedy. Jiang Xiao Yu is brought up to be a master thief, and he's also a skilled fighter. His fellow villains trained him, but now he's a man they're jealous of his skills and they chase him away. He gets into various mishaps, such as being given a fake treasure map that leads him into a forbidden temple. He's also kidnapped by a woman who keeps men as slaves. She forces men to have sex with her 18 times a day, killing them if they fail. 18 times? I wouldn't last a single day!

Hua Wu Cheh saves Jiang Xiao Yu's life several times, because he's been given strict instructions that no one else is allowed to kill him.

Hua Wu Cheh is accompanied by six beautiful swordswomen...

but Jiang Xiao Yu has to rely on himself.

Maybe he has a little assistance. He meets a young warrior on the road called Tien. Wait! Doesn't Tien look like a girl? At first I thought it was another case of transgender casting, like in "The 14 Amazons",  but then Jiang Xiao Yu sees Tien naked and finds out she's really a girl.

Is he really that stupid? In my whole life I've never once met someone and had to ask if he's a man or a woman. Whether the person is young, middle-aged or old, I can always tell the difference. Even Fu Sheng with his long hair is obviously a man.

Or at least, it's obvious to me. In the film he's mistaken for a queen!

Like others of the Shaw Brothers films I've been watching recently, a problem is that there are too many characters. It's difficult to remember all the names, even if the names are amusing. For instance, this film has villains with names like Sex-Starved Bai Hai Sin, Demi-Devil Yin Jiao Yau, Cannibal Li Da Jue and Smiling Dagger Ha Ha Er. The Green Fairy is easy to recognise because she's always dressed in green, obviously, but in the fight scenes, of which there a lot, it's difficult to keep track of who's who.

I thought at first I might give the film a lower rating, but it gets better towards the end when the comedy is reduced.

Kid with the Golden Arm (4 Stars)

It's no coincidence that I've been watching so many Chinese films lately. I'm getting sick of the people around me blaming China for the Coronavirus. My ex-wife told me a few days ago, "After this is over I'm never going to a Chinese restaurant again". What a stupid thing to say! Even if China really is to blame for the Coronavirus (which I doubt), what good does it do blaming the hard-working restaurant owners in Germany? They don't sell bat soup. The most exotic meal I've ever eaten at a Chinese restaurant in Germany was Sweet and Sour Kangaroo. And it was delicious!

The first thing I'll do after the Coronavirus quarantine is go to a Chinese buffet and enjoy a large meal. If possible, I'll visit a Chinese restaurant in Schwäbisch Hall, because there are two restaurants that I prefer to any in Stuttgart. They're more expensive, but they have a better selection. For now, I'll just content myself with watching good Chinese films. Two months ago there was a special offer at Amazon.de in which I was able to buy Shaw Brothers films on Blu-ray for five Euros each. I jumped at the offer and placed a ridiculously large order. Now I'm finally getting round to watching them.

This is a completely different film to "The New Shaolin Boxers", that I watched yesterday. It was obvious to me that Fu Sheng was a skilled fighter, even if everything was choreographed. In "Kid with the Golden Arm" it doesn't look like genuine fighting at all. The fight scenes look more like ballet, with arms, legs and various weapons clashing stylistically in mid air.

It's unclear when the film is supposed to take place. It's kept deliberately vague. It could be any time between 1000 BC and 1800 AD. A shipment of gold is being delivered to a famine stricken area. Government agents have hired four skilled fighters (Hero Li, Miss Leng, Short Axe Yang and Long Axe Fang) to assist them, because a gang called the Deadly Valley wants to steal the gold. Deadly Valley's leader is the Kid with the Golden Arm. Actually his arms aren't golden, he just wears gold bracelets. Translation? He has four fighters in his gang: Man with Iron Arms, Silver Spear, Iron Fan and Copper Head. Wow! They sound like the villains from a super-hero film.

There's also a wild card. Sheriff Hai Tao turns up to oversee the transport, working independently of the others. His speciality is that he's always drunk. He pulls a wagon with enormous jugs of wine, as well as carrying several small flasks on his person. When he walks he staggers, but when he fights he's unbeatable. There have been a few martial arts films with drunken fighters. That seems to be a running joke, a contrast to the holy Shaolin monks.

It's obviously a low budget film. In the outdoor scenes we can see that the sky and clouds are painted on a wall. They didn't put in much of an effort to hide it. Didn't they think anyone would notice?

I've read that this is one of the most highly acclaimed Shaw Brothers films. That's surprising. To me it looks like a comedy romp. The fights are like a series of vignettes, strung together by a paper thin plot. Yes, there's a lot of violence. People die in the fights, but the battles are so surreal that it's difficult to take the deaths seriously. I enjoy the film, but I wouldn't call it one of the best.

The New Shaolin Boxers (4 Stars)

A question for my Chinese readers: what does the Chinese title of this 1976 film mean? The official English title, "The New Shaolin Boxers", doesn't make sense. It seems totally irrelevant to what actually happens in the film.

Zhong Jian is an idealist young man. He fights injustice wherever he sees it. If he sees a woman being attacked he rescues her, and if people refuses to pay in his uncle's restaurant he beats them up. The trouble is that he does more harm than good. What's the point of forcing someone to hand over ten dollars for a meal if a dozen tables and chairs are shattered in the fight?

Despite the criticism, Zhong Jian doesn't change. His martial arts teacher, Master Zhou, sends him to learn a fighting skill called Choy Li Fut from an old monk.

Why does the training with monks always involve carrying buckets of water up hundreds of steps? Just asking. Is it really essential, or are the monks just too lazy to fetch their own water?

When Zhong Jian is visiting the village he hears that his former master has been killed by a local gang leader. He tells the monk that he wants revenge, and that's the only person he has on his side. He's taught essential fighting skills.

Fu Sheng, the actor who plays Zhong Jian, was only 21 at the time he made the film. His first acting experience was as an extra in "The 14 Amazons", and his talent was immediately recognised. After only four years, this is his 16th film. It looked like he was going to have a big career. He could have become one of the biggest Chinese stars of the 20th Century, but he died at the age of 28 in a car accident. We can be thankful that we have 43 films to remember him.

In the pre-credits scene, Fu Sheng demonstrates Choy Li Fut for uninitiated viewers like me.

Once more, I'm curious about the accuracy of the translations. I welcome my Chinese readers to leave comments below.

Fu Sheng
20 October 1954 – 7 July 1983

The 14 Amazons (4 Stars)

This is a 1972 film about the heroic deeds of the Yang family. They were a courageous family that provided generals for the Song Dynasty for over 200 years. It's not doubted that the Yang family really existed, but the stories told about them have become the subject of folklore, exaggerated from generation to generation. This is probably the most fanciful of the stories.

In the 12th Century General Yang Tsung Pao died defending the Song Dynasty against barbarians from Western Xia. They're weird barbarians whose soldiers dress like Santa Claus. When the report comes of his death, the Song Emperor wants to negotiate terms of surrender. General Yang's great grandmother refuses to accept defeat. She says she'll lead an army to fight the barbarians. 13 of her female descendants will be her lieutenants.

The 14 women are impossible to follow through the film. That's just too many. They're all named in on-screen text in an early scene, when they meet to celebrate Yang Tsung Pao's birthday, but most of them are never addressed by name in the dialogue. It's stated in a song on the way to battle that they're four generations of women, but I found it difficult to figure out exactly who's who. Since this film is based on a written tale, it's possible that someone who's read it can tell me exactly who's who.

The great grandmother is easy enough.

Tsou Lan Ying is addressed as grandmother.

I'm not sure about Ken Chin Hua. She's either the daughter or the sister of Tsou Lan Ying.

Mu Kuei Ying is the wife of General Yang. She's the main character in the second half of the film, so it's easy to follow her. Ken Chin Hua is either her mother or her aunt. It's possible that the (unnamed) great grandmother is only her grandmother.

Yang Chiu Chu is Mu Kuei Ying's sister.

Yang Chiu Lan is also Mu Kuei Ying's sister.

Yang Pa Mei is either Mu Kuei Ying's sister or her daughter. I can't be sure.

I'm also unsure whether Yang Chiu Mei is her sister or her daughter.

Tung Yueh Ngo is a relative. I have no idea how she fits into the family.

Huang Chiung Nu is another relative.

Ma Sai Ying is yet another relative.

Chai Chun Chu is another relative. Judging by the grey streaks in her hair she's probably meant to be an older relative.

I also don't know how Yang Pai Feng fits into the family.

Judging by the conversation at the birthday party, Tu Chin Ngo isn't a relative, but she's a close friend of the family.

That's the 14 Amazons from the film's title, but there's one more person.

Yang Wen Kuang is Mu Kuei Ying's son. The great grandmother doesn't want him to go into battle because he's the last male in the family, so the Yang family would come to an end if he died. Despite all the fighting women, the Song Dynasty was a patriarchal society, and families only continue through the male heirs. However, he insists on joining the battle, and he's one of the best fighters in the army.

He? Somehow he looks like a girl.

Yes. He's played by the actress Lily Ho. I might be getting old, but I can still tell the difference.

But nobody in the film doubts his gender for a moment. When the enemies capture him they call him a boy, even though his armour shows the form of breasts beneath it. Is that supposed to be a stupid joke by the director? I don't get it. I could post half a dozen screenshots, and in every one he would look more feminine than the last.

I've never been to war, but isn't a floppy Santa hat impractical in battle?

But then again, the Amazons hardly cover their heads appropriately. They go into battle wearing jewellery that looks like an extravagant tiara. And that's the boy on the left, in case you didn't recognise him.

After watching the film I thought it looked familiar. It was remade in 2011 as "Legendary Amazons". I should watch it again to compare the two films. I just reread my review, and I was also confused by the large number of characters. Five Amazons would have been easier to follow, but it had to be 14 because it's a true story. Maybe.