Shaolin Invincible Sticks (1978)

Strong and Moving!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The movie starts quickly with the white eyebrows gang appearing invincible. Cut to the narrator and demonstration of various "stick" fighting weapons and techniques. Back to the movie and Don Wong is more interested in gambling and having fun rather than learning his family's tradition of "stick" fighting. Chang Yi wants to destroy all the "stick" fighting families. Don can "stick" fight but he is not good enough to inherit the family's most valued POLE so his family disowns him. (He should have known this day was coming but it is a surprise.) He is now wandering, broke and homeless. He encounters Kam Kong and after a fight they buddy up. Kam's uncle has a school that comes under attack. Don trains hard to regain the family's respect and ties. If there was a reason for this change in character it was lost in the dubbing or it was never there in the first place. There are more story lines but why bother? The whole point is for Don to come of age and return to his family as a master of the Shaolin pole. The other story lines are just filler material for in between the fights. They are not interesting and they don't augment the action at all.The fights are fabulous. The pole is my favorite weapon and the choreography here is all top notch. The fights are all the movie really has going for it in my opinion. Still I rate it about average and recommend it for fans of the genre.

In SHAOLIN INVINCIBLE STICKS, the somewhat pampered son of a famous stick-fighting family falls from grace (the family pole got stole) and must forever after prove himself worthy of respect. The one thing that he has going for him is his ability with sticks of every size; because, as most of us well know, it's not the SIZE of the Stick that counts, it's the SKILL with which one wields said stick. Two sticks are better than one (though THAT'S a matter of personal preference) and an extension rarely hurts... Just remember: keep a tight grip on one's pole at all times; just as the hero here does after beating after beating leads to an explosive climax...

When I watched this movie it was called Fists of Shaolin, which is odd because not a single punch is thrown in the entire film. However, if stick fighting is your thing then this movie is for you. I couldn't possibly comment on the authenticity of the fight scenes but they are certainly entertaining, especially the final duel. All the usual ingredients are present-bad dubbing, ridiculous characters etc. yet a lot of the humour appears to be intentional. The villain is a real highlight, sporting the trademark long white beard and hair which is so popular amongst evildoers in martial arts flicks. Although the story isn't particularly original and I wouldn't be surprised to learn the score was stolen from another movie I thoroughly recommend this film.

For fans of stick fighting this is a treat though the actual fighting, though featuring nearly every type of stick (including an iron bar) is not to the same standard as say '8 Diagram Pole Fighter'. But Don Wong Tao, though not a great actor, is athletic and dominates the screen. Chang Yi is great as Lu Tai-yeh, a Silver Fox type figure who for reasons never explained wants to kill every other stick fighter he can find. Ha Kwong Li and Kam Kong help along the way. The story is very ordinary, the comedy more than usually annoying (except for the probably unintentional humour of a teacher's dying words to his idiot son) but the final fight in a bamboo grove is worth waiting for. The Vengeance DVD is a reasonable print with bad dubbing. The only extras are a deleted scene.