A.K.A. Warriors of the Sacred Temple

I would have needed an abacus to count the number of fights in this film. While the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest were making loads of martial arts films in Hong Kong in the 1970's, Taiwan was doing so as well. But for the most part they were not nearly as well budgeted, consisted of basic kung-fu without a lot of fancy wire work or large sets and had very simple plots to hang a lot of action on. Back in the day of ratty stores selling dubbed kung-fu video tapes, they were filled with films from Taiwan with a few well-known stars showing up constantly. Because low-budget or not these Taiwanese films had a lot of talent from actors who had trained in various Peking Opera schools. Of course, most of these actors went back and forth between Taiwan and Hong Kong.


This film has a few big names in it. Though getting top credit Chia Ling (aka Judy Lee) is only involved in a few action scenes - which is a shame because she along with Angela Mao and Polly Shang-Kuan are a legendary female trio from Taiwan. Chia Ling made her name in one of her earliest films (The Avenger aka The Queen Boxer) in which in the final scene of the film she kills everybody in town. By 1977 though her career was winding down. The main character is played by Don Wong-tao who was in fact Korean but starred in a multitude of kung-fu films always with the same shaggy haircut it seems.


One of the villains - Commander Tsao - is played by Leung Kar-yan who is amazing - he ended up working with Sammo Hung quite a bit and though Leung had no formal training he was able to imitate any form of kung-fu style and quickly learn intricate choreography. Check him out in The Victim (1980) for some astonishing choreography. The son of the main bad guy is none other than a very young Stephen Fung who became much more famous as an action choreographer than an actor but check him out in the very underrated Pom Pom and Hot Hot for his choreography as well as his action moves. And finally the main bad guy whose name may not be as familiar but his face should be if you have watched a bunch of these is Chang Yu who kind of looks like Lee Van Cleef and always seems to be the bad guy with incredible skills.


The film is really just a set up for action. It is the basic Ming vs Qing tale of rebellion. The King of the now defeated Ming's has been in sanctuary in Shaolin Temple for two years. But Chia Ling comes and tells him that the Ming's are ready to revolt but that he has to get safely to the town they are gathering in. To do so though he has to travel through Qing territory. The Abbott gives him the 10 Brothers of Shaolin - all recent graduates - to protect him - but primarily Don Wong. Danger is everywhere as hundreds of Qing warriors are out to kill him and pop up out of nowhere constantly ready for a fight. I mean constantly. The action as I mentioned above is very basic - lots of different kung-fu styles on display - but very little in the way of acrobatics - a little trampoline I think - no wires and the action runs at real speed so feels a little slow. Not a great film by any means - and probably not a good film by most measurements but I was in the mood for some old-fashioned pow pow pow sound effects.
The version I saw was dubbed. Took me back a ways to when the only kung-fu films you could get in America were those dubbed tapes out of hell.