Shaolin Invincibles (1978)

Touches You

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

This is a classic kung-fu format movie that's surprisingly entertaining and well made.A tyrannical emperor kills the family of anyone that he suspects is not in alignment with his ways. Two girls who were orphaned by these killing, gets picked up by a monk in Shaolin temple, and grows up to be accomplished fighters. They go to avenge their parent's death by seeking out the emperor.I'm usually not so impressed by Taiwan produced movies from this era due to their bad directing, and production. But this movie seems to be of format familiar to them, and the end product came out just fine.Chia Ling plays the lead, and Carter Wong plays one of the co-leads. There're funny moments in this movie where two gorillas are part of the army of the emperor, and the sisters have to defeat them by attacking their weak spot. There are few other surprises in this movie, but somehow they don't turn out ridiculous, and adds to the movie.Chia Ling is one of the famous female kung fu actress of the time, and she's beautiful in this movie. She can also move, and put on excellent fight scenes.This is a very entertaining movie, and is recommended for viewing.

The film begins with the evil Emperor (incorrectly dubbed as "King" for the English language version) wiping out an entire extended family just for something he perceived as a minor insult even though it obviously wasn't. However, two young girls escape execution and, true to the standard Kung Fu cliché, work for years to perfect their skills so they can whip the Emporer's butt! The film is almost non-stop fighting with few connecting scenes. Along the way, the two girls meet up with two nice guys who are also masters of kung fu and together they battle lots of baddies--including two "gorillas" and their masters who have tongues that are about three feet long (I am NOT exaggerating). Plus, in the end there is a showdown with a guy in super-bizarre bug-eyed makeup.It's hard to take this movie seriously and I am sure the movie makers didn't as well. Because of this, it's a shame I really have to give the film a numerical rating--it's a great example of a terrible movie that is fun to watch. So, should it get a 1 or 2 or even an 8 or 9?!? I rate it a 3 for technical skill and acting--and this is being very generous. As for the script and production values, it deserves a 1 at best--especially due to the gorillas and guys with the Gene Simmons-like tongues. The gorillas consist of two people in the worst gorilla suits I have ever seen--much worse than the monster in ROBOT MONSTER and worse than gorilla suits you see around Halloween. They are so stupid, they are wonderful in a very tacky way. The tongue guys, as I mentioned in the first paragraph really have three foot tongues and seeing them fight in even more hilariously silly than the gorillas--though both might result in you rolling on the floor laughing.As for the print, it was a cheap mess of a DVD--the type they sell for a buck. The print was very washed out, fuzzy and the picture was severely clipped to fit the screen instead of letter-boxing it. This resulted in many occasions where you either saw someone fighting with someone off camera or even BOTH characters who were in a scene were absent, since in the original print they both were standing on the extreme right and left! I almost wonder if someone put a video camera up and recorded the film as it was shown--it was that bad. Also, this version was the dubbed English version, not subtitled. For a 1970s dubbing, it wasn't too bad, though I am a purist that always likes films subtitled. Plus, being dubbed, you have no idea what the original film was like--as so often the plots were re-arranged or changed in the process. However, even if this DID occur, there still were the stupid gorillas and big tongued guys AND so many of the punches and kicks didn't even come close to landing--yet they were accompanied by the loud slapping sound.What was the only plus other than it was so stupid it was entertaining? Well, the film ended very well--a cool conclusion to the reign of terror and a triumph for good and niceness!

Two young girls (Chia Ling and Chung-erh Lung), whose entire families were order executed by the king, are rescued by Shaolin monks and trained in the fighting art of Shaolin. Once they come of age, they decide to seek their revenge against the king. Sent to add them in their quest are two men also trained in the art of Shaolin (played to Tan Tao-liang and Carter Wong). Still it won't be easy for our heroes because the king has a formidable armed guard of skilled and treacherous Kung-Fu experts, his castle is filled with booby traps to protect him against intruders and finally he is bizarrely enough served by two seemingly unstoppable Kung-Fu fighting "gorillas" and their two human trainers, who possess fantastically long tongues which they make use of in combat.While truly weird as weird can get at times, especially the stuff involving the Kung Fu fighting gorillas (actually guys in the most ridiculous-looking ape costumes you're ever likely to see) and their long-tongued trainers (the tongues often look ludicrously fake too), this offers up a lot of exciting Kung-Fu fighting featuring our two lovely and quite skilled female leads and their male helpers. The story, aside from what's mentioned above, is fairly straightforward and easy to follow and the adventure as an whole proves quite enjoyable. That said, personally I couldn't help but get a kick out of the Kung-Fu "gorillas" and their trainers, as the scenes featuring them are so bizarre and unusual it's hard to take one's eyes away from them despite the utter disbelief one feels while viewing them. These two elements seem to nudge this one slightly into the realm of outright fantasy although thankfully the majority of the fighting scenes seem grounded in reality.

SHAOLIN INVINCIBLES (1977) is out on DVD now in a fairly good transfer and is worth checking out by fans of its stars Carter Wong (aka Huang Chia Ta) and Judy Lee (aka Chia Ling). For the most part, it's a fairly straightforward revenge yarn, in which Judy Lee is out to avenge the massacre of her family by the Emperor's men and is assisted by another young woman, played by Lung Chun Erh. The two infiltrate the Emperor's court by posing as maids. Carter Wong plays a kung fu fighter sent to help Judy by the monastery where she was raised.Things take a turn for the ridiculous with the mid-film introduction of two characters with very long tongues (that look like red plastic neckties sticking out of their mouths) and their trained kung fu-fighting "gorillas.' The gorillas are actors in the cheesiest, most moth-eaten ape suits ever seen on film, yet we're supposed to believe that they're actually gorillas! The two leading ladies fight the gorillas at the end, before taking on the `king' (whose relation to the aforementioned `Emperor' is never explained).In addition to these bizarre touches, the film is not very well-directed; everything moves a little slower than it ought to. But there ARE a lot of fight scenes, including a battle in a tavern that foreshadows the similar scene in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, especially since one of the women here is dressed as a male scholar in the same kind of costume the female fighter wore in CROUCHING TIGER. Overall, the film serves as an adequate showcase for the underrated Judy Lee who is costumed and photographed very attractively. Another kung fu star, Tan Tao Liang, shows up to help the heroines near the end. The film also retains a very nice original Chinese music score.