Executioners From Shaolin

Pai Mei Kung Fu
Roo Down, Sport!

Executioners From Shaolin
aka Hong Xi Guan
aka Executioners Of Death
Hong Kong 1977
Directed by Chia-Liang Liu
Shaw Brothers/Celestial Pictures
Arrow Blu Ray Zone B

Warning: Spoilers abound but, you know, they’re no more than you would expect from the film anyway.

The seventh entry in Arrow’s Blu Ray box set ShawScope Volume One is Executioners From Shaolin. It’s another epic of punching, kicking, needle dropped soundtrack cues (War Of The Gargantuas, anyone?) and lots of sound impacts. As in, it’s very entertaining and watchable and, also, happens to contain a quite iconic villain in one of his early appearances.

The film starts off with two grandmasters fighting against a red backdrop, representing a fight they are having while the Shaolin Temple is burning. Yep, it’s yet another kung fu film set after the burning of the Shaolin Temple by the Qing government and, once more, the main heroes flea the burning temple to fight the tyranny in their own way. The opening credits fight involves the white browed, white bearded Bai Mei (played by Lieh Lo), a character who is often translated in English as Pai Mei and who has made a number of appearances in films over the years. In this opening credits battle, he uses what I can only assume are the kung fu honed super powers of his testicles of doom (either that or he has no balls, hard to tell... I think he’d be fatter if that were the case, though). Anyway, his opponent gets his foot stuck tight in Pai Mei’s lower regions and the villain pulls his partner along with the power of his undercarriage before dealing the killer blows. It’s just as well they show us these key moments because the white browed monk will use this technique at least twice more in the narrative.

Meanwhile, survivors of the massacre are trying to escape, including Gordon Liu, who fights off a load of Quin dynasty warriors in a spectacular post titles combat, to allow his fellow survivors to get away. He eventually falls when the watching archers have had enough, thus making this a short appearance but, of course, although he doesn’t fight Pai Mei in this movie (although I believe he does in others), he would also go on to play Pai Mei himself in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volume 2.

Another hero, Hong, played by Chen Kuan-tai... who practices Tiger Style kung fu... escapes and leads a bunch of survivors, all in hiding on ‘red ships’ as acting troupes. Much is made in the film, in terms of screen time, of his short courtship and long marriage to Fang, played here by Lily Li, who practices the Crane Style as her main element of kung fu disciplines. Eventually the Quin government get wise to the red ships and start burning them all, forcing the survivors to separate into smaller batches. After Fang gives birth to their son, Hong perfects his tiger style for another ten years before seeking out Pai Mei in his temple for revenge in his betrayal of the Shaolin Monastery... and for the death of his master (which we see in those opening credits). He is easily defeated but manages to escape, although his best friend dies helping him and also giving him the information that Pai Mei can only be beaten by hitting all of his pressure points in the hour of the goat only (between 1 and 3pm). Why Pai Mei’s invisible, mystical body defences can only be penetrated in that time period is anyone’s guess.

Anyway, Hong trains for another seven years while Fang trains their youngster Wending, played at this point in the film by Wong Yue, in the crane style. Then, father Hong goes off to fight Pai Mei again but he doesn’t return, himself falling victim to Pai Mei’s Groin Of Doom technique, as I have just named it.

So the son trains for a little longer (from a rat shredded and incomplete manual showing the tiger style) and goes to fight Pai Mei, finally beating him as we are told on the bizarrely hasty freeze frame which concludes the picture without any real warning.

And it’s great. Lots of action and nice use of the fast zooms and some cool kung fu choreography. The director also does nice things with the camera, for example, as when a fight with Pai Mei has already started, showing part of the fight through his just removed, see-through outer robe which his assistants are holding up still as the combat has already started.

My favourite thing about the movie is the ingenious training doll the two generations of kung fu heroes use to train. I don’t completely understand it but it’s a wooden dummy with absolutely loads of pressure points highlighted by marked marbles... filling many channels carved out of the dummy. As each pressure point is accurately hit, the marbles from that part of the channel unlock and then spill onto the floor. It looks and sounds great in the extended training montages and, in the last use, the marbles are replaced with many lit candles which the hero has to snuff out to complete his pressure point targeted exercises. It’s good stuff and I’m wondering if this brilliant prop will be turning up in any other movies at some point.

And, yeah, not much more to add but Executioners From Shaolin, despite having no actual executioners from Shaolin in it (and why would the Shaolin Temple have need of executioners anyway? This makes no sense!), is an absolute blast and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. One of the better ones I’ve seen in this genre for sure although, it has to be said, it’s hard to make the call because most of the films so far in this first volume of ShawScope box set have been pretty good. Definitely worth a peek.