Dynamite Shaolin Heroes (1977)

"I'm wearing a mask because I may have to kill you"

Dynamite Shaolin Heroes was a strange title for this Korean kung fu flick. There was no dynamite (darn!) and nothing related to Shaolin. I tend to steer clear of Korean martial arts movies from this era as much as I can because the quality was commonly low and that’s saying something for this genre. Usually, only Lo Lieh or Hwang Jang Lee can lure me in. To my surprise, DSH was watchable.

The Ming rebels are hiding the two surviving princes hoping their government can be re-established. There is a list of Ming rebels, not just any list, but a list written in blood. The evil strawberry blonde Viceroy is determined to get his hands on that list. Kang is helping the rebels and arranging a marriage for his daughter to an “idiot,” who is not only incapable of protecting her, but also annoying. Another man desires to marry the daughter but she turns him down flat because he used to be a killer. Fortunately, whenever a lone rebel or the fiancée is attacked a basket-headed fighter comes to the rescue! He never kills anyone meaning the bad guys keep attacking and killing the supporting good guys. But suddenly, he begins to kill the attacking bad guys led by the Viceroy. Holy doppelgänger Batman! Now there are two heroic basketheads. One who kills and one who doesn’t. Who could they possibly be?

Lo Lieh played the Killer and a man hopelessly in love with the female lead. Kwon Yeong Moon was the incapable fiancé and Not Killer. In real life, Kwon would go on to train Sylvester Stallone and Muhammed Ali in taekwondo. The moves were fast with lots of flipping and rolling around on the ground, often with characters doing the gymnastics in synch. While the moves may have been faster than other kung fu flicks from this time period the kicks and hits often missed by a mile (km).

Godfrey Ho directed this film, he of the cut and splice movies with ninjas added to random existing films. Here he had two heroes who were both in love with the girl. Oh, and there was a prince and the rebel list to protect. I was generous with my score because the basic concept of the competing basketheaded heroes was at least a stab at originality. The acting was acceptable even though Kwon did not strike me as leading man material. The version I saw was badly cropped, faded and dubbed with British accents. With films in this shape, it’s usually better for them to be dubbed because the white subs often run off the screen and are rarely legible on the light background.

While Dynamite Shaolin Heroes wasn’t a great film, for a 1978 Korean kung fu film it was above average. As always, I grade these on a curve, and for this Lo Lieh film I was extra generous.

24 March 2025

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