Shaolin Kids
Aka - Shaolin Death Squad
Aka - Shaolin Posse
Well, none of these titles are really accurate as there is no death squad
nor kids nor a posse nor anything to do with the Shaolin except a very brief
training bit of Shaolin monks at the very beginning - and then never seen
again. Nevertheless, this was a very solid Taiwanese martial arts film with
a good cast, excellent production values and most amazingly a really good
widescreen video transfer in Cantonese and with easy to read subtitles. That
is such a rarity of most of the non-Shaw kung-fu films from this period that
it was cause for celebration. And a plot that is more complicated than you
killed my father, now I have to kill you.
Though in fact a father is killed and as he is dying he orders his daughter
to get revenge. That is fairly standard but the filmmakers added a lot around
that. Premier Hu Wei Yung (Yi Yuan) is planning a little usurping hoping
to replace the Emperor. He has made alliances with the Japanese and forces
to the north. But first he wants to get rid of some of the Emperor's advisors
and poisons Liu Po Wen. In a stroke of bad luck for the Premier, Liu has
a daughter Hsin who is a master of kung fu - played by the always adorable
Polly Shang-kuan. Slightly larger than a bread box. She along with a few
loyalists discover the plot to kill the Emperor and are able to steal a letter
that would seal the Premier's fate - but all sorts of things happen to stop
them from getting it to the Emperor. That would be a ton of action, killing
and the Black and White Killers!
These two guys work for the Premier and everyone says how great their kung-fu
is - super kung-fu - ya maybe but not that super. They have some little trick
they use called Heaven Matches Ground - which is deadly but to me it basically
looked like one of them bends over and the other launches off of him at his
target. I would just step aside but no one does. Polly does her share of
mutilating - right after her father dies she runs off in anger and runs into
a group of soldiers - they trade insults - and then she kills them all. Just
what any girl would do. The choreography is basic but busy and it comes in
all forms - one on one, one on many, many on many. You have to admire Black
and White - when one of them gets his arm caught in a rope he does the obvious
thing. He cuts off his arm and gets back to the fight. In the cast on the
loyalist side are also Carter Huang, Tien Peng, Chin Kang and Chang Yi. A
pretty good group of martial arts actors - and what makes the film interesting
is that they all don't make it to the end. Heaven Matches Ground!
