Heroes of Shaolin
Aka – Hero of the Wild
Ever since I read the small paragraph that the book – Deadly China Dolls
– has on Doris Lung Chun Er, I have wanted to watch something with her in
it. Now that I finally have, I would like to see much more. What the book
has to say is that this Taiwanese actress began her film career in the early
1970s appearing in films such as Shaolin Wooden Men (starring Jackie Chan),
18 Bronze Girls of Shaolin and Half a Loaf of Kung Fu also with Jackie. But
most of her near 70 films are now fairly obscure Taiwanese kung-fu films.
I read that apparently her emotional makeup was unstable and a parade of
bad love affairs caused her to try and commit suicide three times. Directors
began to shy away from using her and her career dwindled down within a few
years of this film. That’s a shame because though she looks to be quite young
here and her fighting abilities are difficult to judge, she has quite a presence
and beauty about her that is unmistakable. Dark piercing eyes, a lithe quick
body and a great smile gave her the potential to be a star. Not to mention
that she looks great in headgear which is always a big plus with me! I googled
her and could find next to nothing about her life.
In this film she is a secondary character and doesn’t appear in it until
after the half way mark and then is involved in three fights. The focus of
the film is on Chan Sing who challenges a man to a kung-fu match and defeats
him. The defeated man out of shame then kills himself, but before he dies
makes Chan promise to track down and kill a traitor for the Manchus. The
man’s teenage son (Ting Wa-chung) has witnessed all of this and tries to
kill Chan, but he is easily fended off. Chan then tells the boy to come with
him – that Chan will train him well enough to exact his revenge against him
– and that the boy should feel free to attack him ala Cato in the Pink Panther
series whenever he wants. So the boy continuously attacks Chan even when
Chan is going to the bathroom! Chan is a tough trainer though – when the
boy picks up a stray puppy Chan grabs it and kills it – and says, “you should
only have room for hate”.
Hwang Jang-lee (in traditional villain white hair and white bushy eyebrows)
plays the traitor and to get to him Chan first has to fight Lo Lieh but only
after Ting beats the hell out of Lo Lieh’s ward in sort of a Junior Championship.
You have learned well Grasshopper. Then Hwang sends two of his grandchildren
fighters to stop Chan - a treat is ahead – they are Yuen Biao on sword and
Corey Yuen on spear. It is almost old school kung fu vs New School with Chan
having been a mainstay at Shaw for years and Yuen and Corey soon to be stars
at Golden Harvest. At Shaw Chan almost always played the villain but here
he is an honorable man, even saving a woman (Chen Ming-li) from being trafficked
in prostitution. At this point Doris as the third grandchild finally shows
up just as Chan is up in the bedroom of the woman he saved – back in the
game – great timing Doris. He won’t fight her until she calls him a “cheap
trickster”. Those are fighting words! The fighting is constant and fairly
good with some quick time choreography. The choreography is from our two
boys Yuen Biao and Corey Yuen along with Yuen Shun-yi of the Yuen Clan. A
lot of kung-fu action that everyone gets involved with and a good story with
a sweet ending. For some.
My rating for this film: 7.0
