Stars: Lo Hei, Chang Shan, William Yen, Li Wei Yun

Director: Lee Tso Nam

Summary: Sung Yo-Ting is anxious to improve his Kung Fu skills, and eventually becomes a pupil at the Shaolin Temple. After becoming the star pupil he finds himself involved in recovering a stolen manuscript.

In search of a master, a kung fu obsessive named Ting rescues a young Shaolin monk from a group of local gangsters and decides to use the opportunity to his advantage, persuading the monk to sneak him into the Shaolin temple. Thrown out soon afterward, he engenders the hatred of the Golden Wheel Lama, leader of the notorious Flying Eagle Gang, by rescuing a girl from its thugs/members. Now that he's in the sights of the once peaceable monk gone bad, Ting's only chance for survival is to unlock the mysteries of Shaolin.

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Originally made in 1983, Shaolin vs Lama is an example of the kung fu movie at its most cultish. The story is largely unimportant but concerns Yu Ting and his search for a kung fu master, a search that leads him into conflict with the Flying Eagle gang and their leader, Golden Wheel Lama. This is as far as it goes plotwise, not that that really matters. The focus of the film is, of course, the fight sequences and breathtaking they are too, though the whole film is given unmistakable aura of campness by its comical English dubbing. Still, it would be churlish to argue with the glowing recommendation of the Wu Tang Clan's Rza (a man who knows his kung fu stuff) of Shaolin vs Lama as one of the giants of the genre.

On the DVD: filmed in a rather basic manner, Shaolin vs Lama is a colourful visual experience but not one that particularly shines on DVD. The 2.0 Dolby Digital sound gives the fight sequences an added bite but, as is so often the case, the potential of the format is frustratingly underused. There is no attempt to provide any sort of background to the film or the kung fu genre in general, instead leaving us with scene selection and the original theatrical trailer. --Phil Udell

Aspect Ratio:	Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	Cantonese
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Interactive Menus, Scene Selection, Trailers
Year:	1983
Release Date:	February 2, 2004
Runtime:	95 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	P P A 1494
Label:	M I A
Keywords:	Shaolin, Martial, Lama, Arts, Vs
Genre:	Martial Arts