First martial arts film to put family at centre of the action, Lau Kar-leung’s Executioners from Shaolin is a masterpiece
- Shaw Brothers’ 1977 film is more than just a rip-roaring adventure with masterful bouts of kung fu action and characters that are well fleshed out
- The hero’s son draws strength not just from his slain father but from his mother, and fuses their fighting styles into a new form of kung fu to obtain revenge
The first martial arts movie to emphasise the role of the family unit in the martial arts world, and the first to integrate sexuality and gender with kung fu practice and philosophy, Executioners from Shaolin is a rip-roaring adventure with a big storyline that expertly fleshes out the characters between masterful bouts of kung fu.
All martial arts spring from Shaolin, the saying goes, and that’s where Executioners from Shaolin begins, too. After the burning of the southern Shaolin monastery – unlike its northern counterpart, probably an apocryphal institution – by the Manchus, who considered it seditious, a small band of monks escape and vow revenge on Pai Mei (played by veteran villain Lo Lieh), the traitor who killed their abbot.
Led by Hong Xi Guan (Chen Kuan-tai), the men first join the Red Boat, a vessel which traversed China spreading anti-government sentiment while putting on Peking opera performances. During a stop at a village, Xi Guan meets the feisty Fang Yung-chun (Lily Li Li-li, at the height of her fame) and is impressed by her skill at White Crane-style kung fu.
The two marry and have a child, Hong Wen Ding (Wong Yu). While Xi Guan studies Tiger Claw kung fu to defeat Pai Mei, the cheeky Wen Ding – who wears his hair in girly braids – grows up into an effeminate young man who is nonetheless skilled in his mother’s White Crane kung fu techniques. After Xi Guan is killed by Pai Mei while trying to avenge his master, Wen Ding realises that the way to beat him is to combine Tiger Claw and White Crane kung fu.
