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Fist of the White Lotus

Fist of the White Lotus

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Weightless White Lotus!!
Review: If you really want to enjoy this film, you should try to see the prequel "Executioners from Shaolin". In this film we see Lo Lieh again reprising the role of Bai Mei the white lotus chief. He defies the laws of gravity by applying weightlessness to his style, which makes it practically impossible for anyone to beat him. He spins with the speed of light which totally bamboozles his opponents. After a series of severe walloping, Gordon Liu manages to defeat him using acupuncture to find his weak spot. The fights which are mostly between Liu and the white lotus are quite good. There is a lot of humor as well... Liu trying to break the white lotus with a ballet dance style tactic. This is good for old school martial arts fans.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very good all-around
Review: Just like I said, a very good kung fu film(directed by Lo Lieh and starring Gordon Liu) despite the recognizable 'must get revenge through some unique training' story line. About the choreography, the fights are mostly fast, clean, crisp, and impressive(kung fu fans will know what I'm talking about). As for the DVD, no extras on my Lion Video DVD, but the picture quality is mostly very good and it's in widescreen(its got black bars at the top and bottom anyway). The dubbing is about what you might expect(decent, but not great). Overall, a must add to your collection.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You filthy swine, what are you starring at?
Review: Lieh Lo (Enter the 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Dirty Ho, Daredevils of Kung Fu, 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Born Invincible, Shaolin Executioner) direct and stars in this fabulous martial arts extravaganza. After watching Fists of the White Lotus, I believe it to be one of the top 5 martial arts films of all time. It is now my favorite Gordon Liu movie also.

This Shaw Brothers classic stars Liu as a martial arts expert, who ends up not being the expert he believes he is. Liu and his brother start the movie by fighting the great Pai Mei, yes that Pai Mei from Kill Bill and Born Invincible. As the fight, progresses Liu and his brother kill Pai Mei in a two on one battle.

Pai Mai's brother Pak Mei's comes back for revenge for the murder of his brother. However, he also comes for revenge with a militia. Liu and his brother are attacked, along with Liu's wife and sister-in-law, who happens to be pregnant. Pak Mei and his militia kill Liu's brother and wife, but Liu is able to escape with his pregnant sister-in-law.

Liu, who at this time has perfected his Tiger technique swears revenge, and tries on several occasions to get revenge. He attacks Pak Mei with his perfected tiger technique, only to be almost killed, but spared by Pak Mei. Then he perfects the crane technique, only to be almost killed once again, but again spared by Pak Mei. He perfects two other forms of martial arts before even giving Pak Mei a challenge.

I personally enjoyed this movie far more then the more renowned Shoalin Masterkiller. As Shoalin Masterkiller is more of a movie about the actual training process, while Fists of the White Lotus focus on the combination of training, the techniques counters, and its use in the fight. I felt this was a very complete movie in terms of story and fighting sequences. A must have in your martial arts collection.

Grade: A+


Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Boys Playing With Paper Dolls
Review: Movie Summary: Two brothers use their complimenting fighting styles to kill an almost invincible White Lotus monk. The head of the white lotus clan takes his revenge by killing one of the brothers. The surviving brother tries out many different styles of kung fu in order to defeat the White Lotus Master. But the White Lotus only has one vulnerable spot that is well hidden. Can our hero find it before he himself is killed?

My Opinion: This is a fair Shaw Brothers offering. It follows the "fight and lose and then train until he's good enough" format of kung fu movie. The training scenes are interesting and fun with the hero learning the female style of kung fu as well as how to kick the butt of a life size paper doll. The White Lotus is a very cool character with his near invincibility. The force of the air from an opponents blows make him float backwards out of range of the blows. The flashbacks to the two brothers killing the first monk are very good. I would have liked to have seen them fight the second monk together as well. Overall this is a decent and fun Shaw Brothers Kung Fu movie.

DVD Quality: Video: Widescreen Anamorphic 1.85:1 This is a surprise! Sound: Dubbed Mono.

What You Should Do: Check this our if you are a Kung Fu movie fan. If you are a huge Shaw Brothers fan like me, you are going to want to own this one and all the Shaw Scope DVDs.

Related Movies To Check Out: Shaolin Challenges Ninja, Kid With the Golden Arm, Dirty Ho

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best kung fu movies ever!
Review: This is a great film! It has one of the best storylines and some of the best kung fu I've seen. Also, the quality of the dub is great.

Beware the 100 paces attack!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best kung fu movies ever!
Review: This is a great film! It has one of the best storylines and some of the best kung fu I've seen. Also, the quality of the dub is great.

Beware the 100 paces attack!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: good old school Shaw kung-fu
Review: This is an good old-school kung-fu flick from the Shaws. It stars two famous fighters - Lo Lieh and Liu Chia-hui, so the fighting is quite intense. An appearance by Wang Lung-wei is also welcome, but brief.

The DVD is quite good, semi-widescreen (1.85:1) instead of the normal 2.35:1 and you can tell there's picture cut-off. But the picture quality is great as is the sound.

A very enjoyable (but predictable) film, the fights between Lo Lieh and Liu Chia-hui are excellent.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Best of The Pi-Mei The Priest Triology
Review: This is the Best of the Three Pi-may the Priest Flims Meaning the White Hair monk (aka Lo Lieh ) Not enough has been said about Lo-Lieh contrary to popular opinion it is Lo-Lieh that all Kung fu Buffs should pay homage to because he brought the Ku-fu Movies to the world before Bruce Lee with 5 fingers of Death in 1971 and stars with his Main nemisis Gordon Lu the Great .....In this Flim the Second of the Three, the first one was a Classic Aka The Executioners of Death" The third one is a Slice of Death with David Chang " I would Reccomend getting all three of them for your ku fu movie libary....Now back to the Review....
The is all Shaw Brother flim Classic story Line that shows
Fu-ah-pow is relased from Jail and The White Lotus Group Must stop Him from rebuilding Shaolin Again Which Show you why when watching Ku-fu Meaning this type of Kung-fu compared to the Jet Le type that is protrayed today Shaw Brothers Kung Fu is way ahead of it's time.... Gordon Lu playsd the Guy who never says never in this epic ,although this one is more comedy than the others is shows The great Gordon Lu determenation to defeat The Lotus Chief aka Pi Mei the priest ,in this one the Priest use his Weightlessness as a weapon and his 100 step palm that can kill you as you walk away, the lingering effects of a butt whiping LOL, He learns to use the gracfull Embroidery techique after practicing on Mannaquins to prefection , however it took three tries to defeat Pi-Mei aka The Lotus chief ,, This a Must if your going to build up a ku Movie Libary because you have the very Best of Shaw Brothers Actors in Grodon Lu and Lo-Lieh these two actors have fought in dozens of flims including the other Epic The Master Killer... But this one flim of all else shows the True Skill of Grodon Lu .... Hope this review helps you....since I am a huge fan of Kung fu and have a massive Libary of Kung fu Movies ...I know my stuff ........

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best Martial Art Movies ever
Review: This MA Flick does it all Gordon Liu and the Lotus Chief put on a great display of fights. Also their is a lot of humor in it. I would recommend this to all Kung fu fans all over.
Halla Back
BDB #14

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Gordon gets beat up
Review: This movie is ok for a Shaw flick..lo Lieh is great in it..Gordon Liu attempts many different styles.. Fun movie..watch out for the knitting technique!


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