Very disappointing...

Am I Missing Something?

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This is the one where Gordon Liu gets acupuncture, and later tries it as a form of attack against Lo Lieh (Five Fingers of Death) as the white eye- brow'd bad guy. Are there any guys with long white hair and white eyebrows in Shaw brothers movies who aren't evil?I thought this one was pretty overrated, unfortunately. It frequently tops lists of best kung fu movies ever made - I thought its sort-of-prequel, Executioners From Shaolin, was better. Aside from the aforementioned acupuncture, this one doesn't have much I haven't seen before. One plus, though, is more of an emphasis on the female martial artist, whose skills are very impressive.

The story of this movie is almost identical to that of Executioner from Shaolin, and it might be even appropriate to title this movie Executioners from Shaolin II. The similarities are as follows:1. An evil master who has white hair and beard (both played by Lo Lieh in the same make up) attacks Shaolin Temple, and one of the monks swears to avenge the dead comrades. 2. The master has weak spot that moves around his body. 3. He can give a vice grip on an opponent with his groin area. 4. A woman teaches kung-fu style which eventually helps to defeat the enemy. 5. Hero challenges the enemy twice. 6. Eventually the evil master is defeated by accidentally getting struck in his weak spot.So there you have it, the main plot of these two movies are identical. Both are fantastic old school kung-fu movies with actual story and not just one mindless fight scenes after another. I kind of like the original because I'm a Chen Kuan Tai fan, but either movie in my opinion is a great martial arts piece from that era.

This movie is, bar none, the most fantastic kung-fu film ever made, all centered around the main performers, particularly Gordon Liu and Kara Hui, and specifically the star-director, Lo Lieh. Lieh is probably the grandmaster of kung-fu films, and his ability to take even the most mundane sneering thug character and give it life is a credit to his acting. Lieh plays Priest White Lotus here, a white-haired super-villain whose fighting technique consists of essentially becoming as untouchable as a ghost. Priest White Lotus cannot even be touched, much less struck, and the displays of power combined with his eerie abilities make him visually stunning.But it's more than simple physicality. Lo Lieh gives this supernatural force so much humor, vitality, and humanity, that Priest White Lotus is elevated into one of the great onscreen villains ever, in any genre of film. The scene where Priest White Lotus fights the vengeful hero Liu, who has attacked Lieh during his bath, forcing the Priest to block vicious blows while naked and pulling on his houseclothes, is simply one of the unbelievable joys of watching this movie. You'll laugh, not because the scene is played for laughs, but because the scene is GREAT, and the two actors are dead-on incredible, and you can't believe what you're seeing. And the final conflict between Liu and Lieh cannot be described. There is a frightening majesty to Lieh's Priest, and Liu's hero the perfect culmination of the kung-fu revenge-hero, that the viewer is inawed by them. They become god-like in their techniques, and yet more human as their familiarity through repeated battles reveals just how much alike the two men have become. The two, evil and good, are seperated not by their skill or philosophy, but by the need for one to nullify the other. They have become so close that it is impossible for them both to exist. FISTS OF THE WHITE LOTUS is a great film, and unforgettable.

FISTS OF THE WHITE LOTUS (aka CLAN OF THE WHITE LOTUS, 1980) has a standard kung fu storyline of a student forced to learn different kung fu styles in order to defeat the superior skills of a villainous master who killed his brother and other family members. This simple structure, however, allows for a succession of expertly staged kung fu bouts and imaginative training scenes featuring some of the genre's top-ranked performers. Gordon Liu (MASTER KILLER) stars as the student. Kara Hui Ying Hung (MY YOUNG AUNTIE) co-stars as his sister-in-law who teaches him women's kung fu styles, a soft response designed to counter the opponent's hard blows. (She makes Gordon learn embroidery at one point.) Their training scenes together are quite graceful and laced with humor and give the impression of an elegant dance team at work. After Gordon's use of women's kung fu fails to defeat his enemy, he turns to another teacher to learn an acupuncture-based style which targets an opponent's pulse points, a technique which finally does the trick.Lo Lieh (FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH) plays the white-haired villain and is credited with the film's direction. The great Wang Lung Wei plays one of Lo's henchmen and fights Gordon early in the film. Lau Kar Leung choreographed the fight scenes, but his directorial touch is evident throughout the film, which closely recalls his own EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN (1977), which has a similar structure and also features Lo Lieh as a white-haired villain.