The Master Killer (1978)

This movie is as nearly mistitled as GODZILLA'S REVENGE or GODZILLA ON MONSTER ISLAND and that's saying something, I'll tell you what.  Anyone who knows anything about basic Buddhism or Shaolin knows turning someone into a "master killer" is pretty antithetical to the core tenets.  Still, it is the US title, so one can blame World Northal for that, more than likely.  They really liked squeezing "killer" or "death" into any possible movie they could.  I'm happy to have this movie on a great looking DVD with all kinds of extras.

Having said that, this is a great movie.  Definitely one of Lau Kar-leung's top three, if not his best.  I've always been liked Chang Cheh's Shaw movies more than Lau's, but that's usually because his had better stories and weren't designed around kung fu set pieces, as grand as Lau's almost always were.  And some of those later comedy kung fu movies were just overly silly.

Man does this movie work.  The training scenes are just what one would expect to go through, and anyone who's ever taken martial arts knows just how instructors can be.  I do miss training and doing forms.  There's some really good actors in here as well, including that guy that plays one of the "fiery youths" that San Te recruits.

I really like it.