The Shaolin Kids

Wuxia New Pussycat

The Shaolin Kids
aka Shao Lin xiao zi
Taiwan 1975 Directed by Joseph Kuo
Eureka Masters Of Cinema Blu Ray Zone B

So here I am up to the sixth of the eight films in Eureka’s Cinematic Vengeance - Joseph Kuo Blu Ray boxed edition. It’s one of the earlier ones represented here (made only a year after Shaolin Kung Fu - reviewed here) but, it’s easily my favourite movie so far in this set because it manages to balance both the spectacular physical action (including those amazing high jumps, often performed backwards and reversed) and a half decent story.

Now, I’ve no idea what Shao Lin xiao zi means (google translate really is no help at all with this stuff) but I have to question the validity of the truly terrible English title big time. I mean, for some reason this is called The Shaolin Kids but, well, there’s not much shaolin kung fu action, more the weapon held action of the standard wuxia film. I mean, there’s a kung fu school of adult students in the opening credit montage who disappear and then form a good guy army to help out in the last 20 minutes or so of the movie, as an instructor demonstrates his appreciation of their prowess by thoughtfully stroking his beard in an approving manner... but I don’t think this really qualifies as a major component of the film, to be honest. I’d let that slide but, yeah, there are also no kids in the movie. So, to title the film up with words that are completely absent from the contents of this movie seems a bit absurd.

But apart from that, it’s all good. Polly Ling-Feng Shang-Kuan from the Shaw Brothers classic Dragon Inn (reviewed here) plays Liu. She sees her father poisoned by a vengeful prime minister and then discovers the evil doer is plotting to gather armies to overthrow the Emperor and take the kingdom for his own nefarious purposes. However, she and her allies have the secret golden letter, which acts pretty much as a confession to the chief villain’s intentions. The rest of the movie is a cat and mouse between the various factions as the Prime Ministers two villanous henchmen use their ‘Heaven and Earth’ killing moves to pursue the good guys who intend to intercept the Emperor and warn him of the plan. Lightning fast jumpy, energetic wuxia fighting ensues and it’s a really fun watch, it has to be said.

In addition, the director and cinematographer, despite the low budget associated with Kuo’s films, go all out. The shots are colourful and full of period costumes and the photography is crisp and with an interesting return to symmetry for the look of a lot of the scenes. The interiors especially are filled with shots (augmented by cut aways to various people, of course) where the main architectural focus is front and centre with the characters bleeding off to either side of the main focus... such as when two characters are seen playing a game of Go near the start of the picture.

And, of course, the action is spectacular, especially from Polly Ling-Feng Shang-Kuan herself, who does some neat stuff by throwing ropes around her, which helps defeat the deadly ‘Heaven and Earth’ move when the time comes. I imagine the various actors and actresses who used to take part in these spectacular fights must have come away with a lot of bruises and fractured bones during their shoots. 

The sound effects on this one are crazy. The clothes of wildly flailing, lethal limbs make loud ruffly sounds and the wonderful moments where a good or bad guy lands about ten punches on an opponent in the space of two seconds are orchestrated almost like a piece of music, with different tones of hits creating different kind of breaks in the rhythm. They reminded me of souped up versions of the sound design that Woody Allen used in his hilarious ‘hitting Diane Keaton with a bottle’ scene in Love And Death. Or maybe something that MGM might have used to add interest, to add a touch of audio diversity to the tap dancing scenes in their wonderful musicals.

All in all, The Shaolin Kids, Shaolin-less and kid-less as it is, was a huge hit with this audience member. A beautiful example of kinetic action and story beats, not always as formulaic as you might at first expect, coming together to deliver a slice of action spectacle which isn’t as one note as some of Kuo’s other movies, for sure. I’m really looking forward to seeing the last two films in this set now, involving the 18 Bronze men. I’ll get onto those soonest.