bob the moo When Hung Wending and Brother Biu defeat Priest White Eyebrows, the White Lotus Clan comes out for revenge. When Shaolin monks are released from captivity, Ko Chun Chung and the master White Lotus Priest slaughter them and turn towards Ting and Biu. Wending and his pregnant sister-in-law flee the battle to fight another day. The next day comes but Wending's crane and tiger style is clearly no match for the White Lotus Priest – and no matter how much he practices on the hapless Brother Shing, it is not getting better. Once her baby is born, his sister-in-law teaches him some unusual techniques to try to refine his skills to be capable of winning.The opening battle of this film confused me a little bit, until I realized that it was more or less picking up from the end of Hong Xi Guan (Executioner from Shaolin). From here we get a plot which is fairly generic in terms of its details – a boss villain of great power, and a man who will train to defeat him, leading to a big final battle at the end. In this way the film does just what it does and there is not really much in the way of story beyond the tickboxes it goes through. What makes it good though is that there is a good sense of humor throughout. It takes a minute to get to, but once Brother Shing is in the film, it gets consistently very funny – both in his performance but also the way that Wending embraces the more feminine style of kung-fu. Between these two factors it is quite amusing.The action is mostly good, although having watched a lot of films using weapons recently, I did miss this aspect of it since most of this is hand-to-hand. I also am not a fan of the whole 'retractable groin' thing – I remember it from the previous film and, although it is used less here, it is still in the character. Generally though the performances of Liu and Lo are both very good, playing off one another well. I was perhaps not as taken by the action as I would have liked, but it is done with a certain amount of fun, while the majority of the film does have frequent laughs and chuckles, making it an entertaining if slightly silly affair.

EyeDunno I've just finished watching Fists of the White Lotus for about the 12th time. Finally, I decided to check the web for information on the actor who played Priest White Lotus (sadly, he has been dead several years, now). Yet, I find that there has been a continuing saga on the role of Pai Mei, once who tried to destroy student Hong Wen-tin, played by Gordon Liu, who ends up playing the evil priest decades later in Kill Bill II. ***SPOILERS CONTAINED*** So here's this white- haired priest, shown with these almost supernatural powers of being invincible. At some point in the film, he even seems like a magnet, repelling the force of attempted blows. The harder the protagonists punch, the more difficult it is to actually hit him. It seems just too much to fathom, if the viewer watches the film as simply a martial arts fan. But there may be some truth to the story... ***END SPOILERS***With Pai Mei's popularity spanning decades, I found through several search engines about how much influence Pai Mei (known as the very real Taoist priest Bak Mei) has on the martial arts world. All the references to Tiger style kung fu actually originate with Bak Mei, and there are many schools now calling themselves various forms of "White Eyebrow School" for kung fu. It turns out that the basic story of Pai Mei's vengeance being taken out on the Shaolin temple and its monks and followers in this film is followed in many forms. And when I discovered that the real Bak Mei had so trained and practiced his "White Eyebrow" style so proficiently that blows to his body made by punches or weapons barely had any affect on him, I had to return to view Fists of the White Lotus again. So now, it seems to me that these almost incredible films on such legends are perhaps loosely based on the lives and deaths of real people who made significant contributions to the history of Chinese culture.FOWL is a ride through the early days of interjecting some form of humor to break up the endless and tiring mass production of the basic storyline of Hong Kong kung fu films: Character kills another. someone gets angry, seeking revenge. Someone else is just as angry, revenges trade and escalate until the two dueling characters duke it out. Sometimes the humor in FOWL is a bit dull or bland, or simply not funny. But the action sequences still are terrific! It seems like director Lo Lieh (who is also the lead antagonist) filmed everything in normal speed for many of the sequences, and the mastery of Lo and Gordon Liu are incredible. Add a splash of super slow motion with a continual flow of groovy music, and you have a decent HK action flick for the lover of the martial arts flicks from the late 70's and early 80's. Shaw Brothers classic, to say the least, and it delivers you with a solid- hitting palm technique. It's not the best one out there, but should be in the DVD library of Gordon Liu and Shaw Bros. fans.

gjhong I must have seen this Shaw Brothers movie on TV in the 1980s because it seemed very familiar as I watched the DVD. Apparently this is a sequel to Executioners from Shaolin. The movie opens with a flashback to a fight between white-haired monk Pai Mei and a two-man team featuring Gordon Liu and another fellow. The monk is extremely tough so it is necessary to double-team him with Tiger Style and Crane Style. This is the setup for the current story where Pai Mei's brother Pak Mei another white-haired monk is out for revenge. In this adventure there is no partner to use Crane style so Gordon needs special training to make up for it. It was a lot of fun watching Gordon learning woman's style kung fu to get an advantage over Pak Mei the White Lotus. Check this one out at the video store if you get the chance because Gordon Liu will be a white-haired kung fu master named Pai Mei in Kill Bill Volume 2.

bajbij ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Excellent kung fu, the choreography blew me away. They use no wires or CGI to create the absolutely breathtaking martial artistry here. Gordon Liu is a man who's brother is killed by the evil White Lotus, an old man with mystical kung fu powers. Caring for his brother's pregnant wife, Liu vows to avenge him and his village for Lotus' evil carnage. After a failed attempt to beat him one on one at the Lotus' palace, Liu receives training by none other than the wife herself, who teaches him a female type of kung fu, a style accompanied by grace, smoothness and patience. It is this form that Liu uses to eventually defeat the Lotus. I love how the wife is used in this movie, being very feminine yet not just a weakling. Hollywood should take note, you can make a woman look strong in a kung fu film and make it believable, not the way Hollywood does it by making the female untouchable against a male opponent. Here, not only do women get beat by men, but, EGADS! they get killed by them, too. I guess women are humans after all. Anyway, the wife here clearly is instrumental in defeating Lotus and is more a salute to women than any American kung fu film will attempt to do. Gordon Liu shows why he is underrated, though his films have not been and have received well deserved accolades. WHITE LOTUS is a better film than MASTER KILLER (Liu's other film, the more famous one.) It is more fast paced, not as talkative, and it is also reasonably lengthed. FIST OF WHITE LOTUS is one of the best kung fu films ever made, and it is a must for your collection. 9 out of 10.