Two Champions of Shaolin (1980)

This is a fine example of the fast-paced, extravagant martial arts choreography that is the trademark of the venom mob. There is a enough fight scenes and brutal deaths throughout the entire movie to keep even the most demanding Chang Cheh-fan satisfied. The story is, as expected, just a mess of righteous, pure-blooded shaolin ming rebels spewing hatred upon the evil Manchurian Qing-government joined by the treacherous Wu Tang-clan. Some noble qing/wu tang-members (who were of course more or less forced to join this heinous bunch) realize that the ming-dynasty is the only true dictatorship for the Han-race and switch sides in secret. Who's who and what is really accomplished, I'm not sure of even after repeated viewing. What I am sure of though, is that the action is plenty and of very high standard. It's not the best venom movie out there, but it's pretty close. The last fight is reasonably long and the final death scene (ok everyone dies in this movie, I'm not kidding) is awesome. Highly recommended and well worth a place in your Kung Fu-movie collection if you stumble upon it.

The beginningMovie starts off great, you have a villain from the Wudang who is into flying daggers who wants to get rid of Shoalin dudes. So our hero Chinese Hercules runs into him & gets shanked...He finds sanctuary with in a house & meets up with two siblings who happens to know the counters of knife throwing techniques. They happen to be the kids of the guy who taught the bad guy how to throw knives, wow what are the odds. Anyway he bonds with them especially the cute sister. After finally mastering the counter to knife throwing technique he decide to go find this bad guy to teach him a lesson in playing w/ knives, but wait he runs into another Shoalin dude who self pro-claims being the invincible fighter, man these heroes are some arrogant guys, i love it. So they both team up & lure this knife throwing dude back to the knife throwing siblings place...Chinese Hercules counters all his knife throws & kills him. The end right, no, knife throwing dude Wudang clans wants to take revenge...They decide to challenge him to a one on one fight for the whole town to see. Things get out of hand, one on one become two against the whole gang. One dude gets his balls ripped off, where was the fatality in this in Mortal Kombat? Anyway, good guys win & they laugh there way to victory. Wudang clan gets even more angry but decides to put all the blame to the knife girl, the one Hercules likes. Its all because of her, so they make a plot to take revenge on her instead...The middleThis is when the movie goes downhill, it almost seem like they change the story or new director or something...So yeah like i said they blame the knife girl for all the problems. Hercules & her have a wedding & get married. Everyone is having a good time drinking while the newly married girl is in her room waiting to be non-virginized...Remember i said a dude got his balls ripped off well he has a sister, well she decides to go into the girls room disguise a servant. Girl is like who are you i never seen you before. Why are you taking my knives away? She was like, you don't need these on your wedding night. She was like i do need them, leave them here. She ends up getting shanked...Meanwhile, the dudes are getting drunk but remember the invincible fighter dude, well he's a good fighter but cant hold his liquor so they decide to put him in the storage room. After that the bad guys arrive & decide to clean house. They capture Hercules & take him back to their place. Invincible fighter wakes up angry but quickly anger turned to sadness as he realize all his buddies are dead. Then like 6-8 Shoalin guys find him & give him even more bad news. Shoalin has been slaughtered & they are the only survivors.Back to the villain camp, so they have Hercules captured & they are about to kill him & is saved by one of the Wudang clan member. He says, we aren't suppose to kill him yet. We have to wait for orders. OK fine, lets all leave & lock him alone in his room. Here comes the combo breaker that's right the one of clan members of Wudang the one who was adopted does a double cross. He saves Hercules as he feels they shouldn't be killing Shoalin people. He tells Hercules that the person who killed your Shoalin people was a strong fighter who uses a Trident spear & had 3 guys w/ monkey style. Be careful they are powerful.So Hercules goes back & mourns. He goes to the grave site & meet 1 scholar guy & 3 servants hmmmm They becomes friends. Rest of Shaolin guys come to grave site & one of the servant starts acting like a monkey hmmmm Anyway, they become good friends & they eat food. Invincible fighter says this guy is suspicious but Hercules says don't be so cynical, i mean come on Lu Feng does not look like a villain at all...The endingWhat's this, that scholar guys & 3 servants turns out to be the same guys who attacked the Shaolin. They go to the Wudang clan & says they have plans to kill all the Shoalin. Adopted kid goes to warn Shaolin clan about the plan. Then you get the classic bloody ending we all love. This movie could have been great but the middle really ruin the film for me. Not one of Chang Cheh best but still very watchable. Good character, villains, & weapons. Crappy execution in story...

Thank you Shaw Brothers for reissuing these classics!Two Champions is great example of Shaw Bros' magic. Having not seen most SB flicks with the exception of ol' skool Saturday Big Apple Movies or really poorly dubbed versions, this movie had me from the get-go. The vow for revenge (of COURSE!) and brotherhood are main themes, but there's a whole lot of fighting going on. The brotherly characters played by Lo Meng and Chiang Sheng come off well throughout the film. Their brash, arrogant natures show as these two won't back down from any fight. Also, add flying daggers and counter moves (a really FUN training sequence and battle), Wu Tang fighters, double crosses, fast intense fighting and Chang Cheh's dark tone and it's a great one to watch.More SHAWS please!!

I had some problems with how dumb they made Lo Meng in this one, :facing a un-known enemy and performing feats of strength as his introduction, again doing the strong-man act later almost to his death. the thing that saved it for me was a lot of good fight scenes, my favorite being the one where Sheng Chiang faces a fighter who over extends his kicks so instead of wasting time or energy he just reaches out and removes his testicles. I do enjoy the Venom gangs movies alot, the best being the ones with Sheng Chiang & Philip Kwok working together in their fights - that is the only thing missing in this film I think.