Executioners from Shaolin (1977)

Chen Kuan Tai falls for the beautiful Lily Li after the death of his master and the burning of the shaolin temple. Kung fu foreplay includes a battle of his Tiger style against her Crane style. Lo Lieh plays the murderous eunuch with a super sucking groin. And it's just as humorous to see as it sounds. Wong Yu plays the son of the two kung fu lovers. Inexplicably he dresses as a woman even as he ages.

Considered a kung fun classic, I found it to be rather average. Lau Kar Leung's direction and martial arts choreography saved the film for me. The fights were well choreographed and creative without looking overly staged. It helped that some of the better kung fu actors starred in this movie: Lo Lieh, Chen Kuan Tai, Lily Li, Wong Yu, Chiang Tao, and Gordon Liu.

The plot revolves around revenge and training, taking place over twenty years. There are a lot of gaps in the storytelling. Fortunately, the training sequences are entertaining and well done. It does have one of the most abrupt Shaw Brothers endings ever. Due to the choppy style of storytelling it's not a movie I'd recommend unless I knew the person enjoyed well done fight sequences.

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Weirdly fascinated by testicles

Unusual to the point of being downright eccentric, Executioners from Shaolin carries a significant amount of generational weight while also serving as an incredible showcase for Lau Kar-Leung as an action filmmaker. From its blistering opening credits, a surreal, red-tinted deathmatch to its ferocious, bloody freeze-frame climax, the film is littered with fabulous choreography and wonderfully realised action. Unfortunately, it is bitterly unfocused as to what it wants to be, not lingering long enough on one thing to truly grab me, trying to balance a marital drama and the typical Shaw Brothers revenge yarn to less than stellar results, thanks to a brutally uneven pace and a weird fascination with testicles. There are some decent comedic beats here and there, but the film doesn't make the best of its lighter moments, often taking away from the revenge hook that supposedly drives the narrative, with the shift in focus from father to son robbing us of a fulfilling conclusion to this tale of vengeance. Performance-wise, there's an exceptionally brief but memorable role from Gordon Liu, Lily Li is wonderful, especially alongside Chen Kuan-Tai as the sympathetic and obsessive father figure, but it's Lo Lieh's turn as the villainous and nefarious Pai Mei who is the real highlight and has gone on to be the stuff of legend. The only real sore spot is Wong Yu, who doesn't really leave much of an impression beyond what might be one of the worst haircuts and wardrobes I've ever seen in a Shaw Brothers film. Although epic in scope, Executioners from Shaolin ultimately feels as if it's been cut down to the bone, not emphasising any of its narrative threads to truly tie us down. It's an odd film in that its flaws are more about what is not seen than what is seen, while it may not be the slickest or fastest film in Shaw Brothers' output, its heart and ambition still shine through.

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