Movie Review: Shaolin Temple (1978)

Shaolin Temple stars Shu Feng, Lam Kwong Jung, Chia Ling, Mak Kong Lung, Cheun Yuen and Liu Ching. The 1978 film tells the story of an emperor being over thrown by one of his generals and what happens afterwards.

The Ministry of War, Chung Wei Li, betrays the emperor and takes over the kingdom. The queen, feeling bad for recommending him, kills herself and the princess, not wanting to be Chung Wei Li's bride, kills herself. Chung Wei Li kills the king and takes over the thrown. In his dying words he makes his trusted general, General Ho, promises to care for his son and makes his son promise to avenge his death. General Ho loses his life guarding the prince, but not before he sends his two trusted soldiers off with the prince to find his two daughters and get the cure for the poison dart that the prince was hit with. The prince will die in seven days if they are unable to get the secret potion, which is guarded by Monks, to cure him. Throughout the film the prince has moments of delirium from the poison. After meeting up with the two daughters of General Ho the quest to save the prince's life becomes a battle of the fittest. Will revenge be sought or will the prince falter? They only way to find out is to watch the film.

In this film there are plenty of weapon forms to be enjoyed by all martial art movie lovers. With one daughter doing more weaponry type of fighting and the other doing a mixture of both weaponry and hand to hand combat there is something to be said about women fighting men and being good at their craft. The stories of salvation and revenge play together well in this film and all come to a head at the end of the movie.