1979 · kung-fu · shaw-brothers · shaolin
Shaolin Abbot
Directed by Ho Meng-Hua1h 24m1979
While international favorite David Chiang was best known for his roles as a grinning, streetwise, fighter in many Chang Cheh-directed classics, he rarely played a noble warrior monk. But here he portrays the great Chih Shim, the monk who saved the Southern Shaolin Temple. Making this production all the more notable is Lo Lieh, Shaws' first international star, who returns to a role he also made famous - that of Shaolin renegade Pai Mei. This, and even more, makes for a true martial arts epic of the first order.
Our read: Shaolin Abbot (1979) reads as a sombre, breathless, grounded kung-fu · shaw-brothers · shaolin entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook.
Sombre, breathless, measured kung-fu / shaw-brothers, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, measured.
- sombre
- kinetic
- intense
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“You want classic Shaw Brothers Shaolin monk fighting and training against Qing foes.”
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