1978 · kung-fu · shaw-brothers · shaolin

Invincible Shaolin

Directed by Chang Cheh · 1h 46m · 1978

Three North Shaolin teachers are called on by the Manchus to teach their soldiers and are urged to challenge the current South Shaolin teachers. They defeat the South Shaolin teachers and, that night, the head general kills the South Shaolin teachers and blames their death on the North Shaolin teachers. The South Shaolin master sends more of his pupils, who are killed accidentally by the North Shaolin teachers. He finally sends two more of his students to train with old masters and trains one student himself with the goal of finally defeating the North Shaolin experts.

Our read: Invincible Shaolin (1978) reads as a sombre, breathless, grounded kung-fu · shaw-brothers · shaolin entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.