Clan of the White Lotus

AKA Fist (or Fists) of the White Lotus
Hong Kong premiere: January 1, 1980
Director: Lo Lieh
Stars: Gordon Liu, Lo Lieh, Kara Hui, Lam Fai-Wong, Johnny Wang, Lee King-Chu, Yeung Ching-Ching, Hsiao Ho, San Sin, Cheng Miu, Wilson Tong
Story Overview: The evil Pai Mei, destroyer of the Shaolin Temple, has been killed by insurgents Wu Ah Biao and Hung Wei-Ting. But his brother, the invincible chief of the White Lotus Clan, is out for revenge. After Ah Biao is killed, his wife Mei-Hsiao and Wei-Ting escape to plot their own revenge, but Wei-Ting will need a lot of new skills to stand up to the White Lotus.
My Nutshell Review: Between this movie and Executioners from Shaolin, Lo Lieh, the greatest of the Shaw’s villains, created his most memorable character(s). That, some amazing chemistry between Gordon Liu and Kara Hui (a wonderful sparring dance in particular), excellent, varied and unique choreography from Liu Chia-Liang (you’ve never seen anyone fight the way Lo Lieh does in this), and a solid comedic turn from Lam Fai-Wong, combine to make this fundamentally silly picture one of the studio’s most fun and watchable.
My Flickchart Score: 94% (What’s This?)
Watch it free on Amazon Prime here.

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In-Depth Synopsis

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NOTE: In talking about this movie, we have to at least mention Liu Chia-Liang’s 1977 Executioners From Shaolin. This is sort of a sequel to it, and sort of a remake of it at the same time, much like The Evil Dead II or Desperado. But it would slow us down too much to discuss all the places where the two films coincide, and the more where they conflict, in the body of the synopsis, so I’m going to reserve that discussion for the final section. For purposes of the synopsis, the older film doesn’t exist, okay?—Audrey

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Action opening! We see Hung Wei-Ting (Gordon Liu) and Wu Ah Biao (Lee King-Chu) running through the burning remains of the Shaolin Temple to face Pai Mei (Wilson Tong). He is virtually invincible; he has only one weak spot (his “vital point”), but this is not anchored in his body. He can move it from his testicles to his eyes. If you attack one, he shifts it to the other. Our heroes defeat him by tearing both his eyes and his testicles out simultaneously in a pretty good fight as the credits play, though the fight would be better without all the freeze-frames.

Cut to a palace, where we see Governor Kao Ting-Chun (Johnny Wang) receiving a decree from the Emperor: Hung Wei-Ting and Wu Ah Biao are to be pardoned due to a public petition. They’ll be released from prison and have consfiscated property returned to them. Furthermore, the ban on the Shaolin has been lifted, there’s a blanket pardon for everyone who lived/worked within the temple, and the temple itself is to be rebuilt. Kao is clearly angry about this. The decree is publicly posted, and Wei-Ting sees that Ah Biao and the others are to be released, and rushes off to spread the news. Why isn’t Wei-Ting in prison himself, and since he isn’t, why did the emperor just order his release? Who knows? I blame the translation.

Meanwhile, Kao arrives at what must be the most-used location in all of Shaw Brothers, a temple or palace set at the top of a hill with a seemingly endless stair running up to it. In this film, it is Lotus Mountain, the temple and headquarters of the Lotus Clan. Kao enters to the welcome of the entire staff, but ignores them, asking only to see his uncle. This turns out to be the White Lotus himself, priest and leader of the clan, whose name might possibly be Pai Mak (Lo Lieh), but to keep things simple we’re gonna call him the White Lotus here. Kao informs his uncle that he’s in trouble and needs help, and tells him the news. If the Shaolin have a chance to build up their strength, they will certainly come for revenge against both men. The White Lotus agrees.

Cut to a simple family dwelling, where we see Wu Siu-Ching (Yeung Ching-Ching) practicing, doing a very fetching sword dance in the garden. Fans of the platform fighting game Soul Calibur II will recognize this as the same dance Xianghua (my own favorite fighter) does in her demo mode in that game. I love how blissfully unconcerned the chickens in the yard are with her antics. An apparently pregnant Mei-Hsiao (Kara Hui) watches while doing needlepoint inside the house. Wei-Ting rushes in to share the news with Siu-Ching, his own fiancee, and Mei, Ah Biao’s wife. The three set out to meet the returning prisoners.

 We see these prisoners walking along together and learn that Ah Biao is suffering from a leg injury of some kind. He is being carried, and once set down he moves with a walking stick. While they rest, he says that the rest should go on ahead to the village, and he’ll walk on alone to his home. He worries (accurately, as it turns out) that the governor will want revenge against the killers of Pai Mei, and there’s no reason for the other men to face his wrath since they weren’t involved. Once he’s recovered, he will help them destroy the Lotus Clan, but until then he’s just a danger to them. The men leave just as Ah Biao’s family arrive on the scene, Mei being helped along by Siu-Ching. Tearful greetings take place, and we see that Ah Biao bears the marks of torture, and that his right arm is also badly injured.

Now we return to the men he split off from, and it turns out that he was just in time, as they are set upon and slaughtered by Lotus Clan fighters. Let me just say that in a movie full of truly artistic action sequences, this one stands out as being very ordinary and boring. The bodies are searched, and it is discovered that Wu Ah Biao is not among them.

The family is sitting at dinner, catching up. References are made to the coming birth of the child, and the pending marriage of Wei-Ting and Siu-Ching. But then, fiery torches at the gates! A big fight breaks out in the garden between the two men and the invaders (identified by Ah Biao as “killers from court”), while the two women try to put out fires that have been started by torches being thrown into the house. It’s a lot of fun watching Ah Biao hop around whacking people with his cane. But they are too outnumbered, and soon both men are surrounded, plus which several of the invaders have now gotten into the house. Here we get to watch Kara Hui and Yeung Ching-Ching show off, fighting bravely against the Lotus, but Mei is clearly weak from her pregnancy and can’t sustain any attack for long.


 Just when all seems lost for the good guys, their remaining friends show up and counter-attack the Lotus Clan. Now all seems lost for the bad guys...but then the White Lotus shows up. Wei-Ting asks why he wants to hurt them, since the Shaolin have no feud with the Lotus Clan. This seems, incidentally, not to be the case, but we’ll discuss that later. The White Lotus explains that they have killed his brother, Pai Mei, and he wants revenge. Also they find out that he’s the uncle of Governor Kao, which apparently they didn’t know before. The White Lotus first fights Wei-Ting one-on-one, and even though he fights with a sword against an unarmed opponent, Wei-Ting is handily beaten, with the White Lotus finally just grabbing the sword out of his hand. He tosses it away, scornfully saying that he can defeat them all without any weapon, and so all the men attack. He does indeed kick all their asses. Wei-Ting and Ah Biao step back from the fight for a moment, and in that moment the White Lotus strikes each of the other men with a single blow to the abdomen, then tells them to run away while they can. They try, and he counts their steps on his oddly long and knobby fingers; after seven paces, each man falls down dead. This is his Deadly Palm, though we won’t learn the name ‘til much later in the film.

Now Wei-Ting and Ah Biao try to attack using the same Tiger/Crane technique that defeated Pai Mei, but not only can they not beat him, they can’t even make him stop laughing. Ah Biao shouts, “I’ll hold him off! Save the women!” and jumps back into the fray. The White Lotus orders his men to kill everyone, and Wei-Ting is now trying to hold off a small army at the door of the house, alone, but soon the women rush to his aid. Meanwhile, we learn another power the White Lotus possesses: he can make himself weightless (!), so that when anyone throws a punch at him he simply floats back, carried on the air displaced by the attack. Ah Biao is literally unable to lay a finger on him. The White Lotus lands an attack where he grabs him by the ribs with one hand and throws him through the air. Mei tries to help him, and a fatal blow aimed at her is deflected only by Ah Biao placing himself in its path, but Mei is knocked unconscious. Wei-Ting catches her as she falls, and Siu-Ching places herself between the two and the invaders, telling Wei-Ting to get Mei to safety while she holds them off. Reluctantly Wei-Ting does so as she fights the whole army by herself at the door. But the White Lotus realizes there must be a passage of some sort leading from the house and intervenes, driving her back inside. She dies there after a stab from her sword fails to pierce his throat (so it looks like he also shares Pai Mei’s invincibility!), and he orders his men to tear the place apart until they find how Wei-Ting and Mei escaped.

The next day, Wei-Ting and Mei hide in the forest, trying to recover from their injuries. Wei-Ting wants to go back and see if Siu-Ching survived, but Mei is sure she’s dead. She argues that they must find a safe place to hide. She has a cousin in a nearby town who will shelter them, and they set out. We also see the White Lotus, Kao, and several of their men having a nice celebratory dinner. Kao thanks his uncle for contributing to what he is sure is a victory, but he is worried that Hung Wei-Ting escaped. The White Lotus says that alone he is no threat, and all the others are dead. He might come for revenge, but if he does the White Lotus will kill him then, and Kao should just focus on killing the rest of the Shaolin.

Now we visit the site of the temple, where the work of rebuilding has just begun. Many men are laboring, and more men are arriving to volunteer, as an ancient priest (To Wing-Leung) collects for the project just outside the work zone. A crowd of men approach, carrying large baskets, and saying they wish to help. But once inside the work zone they reveal that the baskets are loaded with weapons, and they kill the workers as two men who stayed behind kill the priest and his assistant, after showing the Lotus Clan insignia they wear under their clothes. Incidentally, I’m pretty sure that one of the killers is played by Fung Hak-On, but I can’t find him credited anywhere. I mention this just to have an excuse to create an actor page for him.

We see Wei-Ting and Mei arrive at the shop where her cousin works, a shop that makes paper dummies. This cousin turns out to be played by Lam Fai-Wong, whose head is covered with scar tissue that makes his hair grow only spottily. It’s a weird visual identifier, but the Shaws often did things like that. This character seems to have several names, but we’re gonna just pick one and call him Nai-Cheng. She introduces Wei-Ting and explains what has happened, and he lets them live with him behind the shop, and also gets Wei-Ting a job there. We see him at work, trying to weave reeds into the framework for the paper dummies and having to learn to be gentle with them so they don’t break; it’s the first step he’ll take towards being able to beat the White Lotus, though we don’t know it yet (and neither does he).

Later, Wei-Ting practices his kung-fu, having decided that mixing his own tiger style with Ah Biao’s crane style will yield a Tiger/Crane hybrid boxing style that will enable him to defeat the White Lotus. Mei, working on her embroidery, watches him with dismay. We have a brief montage of him working and practicing, mixed with images of Mei apparently getting very near her due date, ending with him and Nai-Cheng having a meal together. “I need a favor,” Wei-Ting says. “I want you to coach me on Ah Biao’s crane boxing.” Nai-Cheng insists that he can’t, that it was too long ago and he doesn’t remember it. But what Wei-Ting really needs is to teach the style to someone else, to master what he remembers of his instruction by Ah Biao. I totally get this. Years ago, when I was studying physics, I used to try to break down and analogize the concepts I was learning to the point that I could explain them to my young adopted brothers, then only eight or so. I figured if I could do that, I would have proven to myself that I had mastered those concepts. It’s been said that the best way to learn is by teaching, and that’s what Wei-Ting needs from Nai-Cheng.

Of course, another purpose Wei-Ting has here is to up Nai-Cheng’s skills to the point that they can partner in the attack on the White Lotus (as he and Ah Biao did in defeating Pai Mei, though that has already failed against the White Lotus), and the following scenes show that this will just never work. Nai-Cheng is lazy, clumsy, and incapable of taking his instruction seriously. We have a short sequence of Lam Fai-Wong pulling out all the tricks in his comedy bag, including some pretty funny and surprisingly athletic business with a chair, as Mei gets increasingly annoyed. Finally she tells him the truth: his kung-fu is getting better and better, but he isn’t and can never be the match of the White Lotus using Tiger/Crane. But he says that he must try regardless, for Ah Biao and Siu-Ching and everyone else they’ve lost. So he sets off for Lotus Mountain.

He has to beat up a few grey-clad palace guards to get in (one of whom is played by Ho Kei-Chong) and then, once inside, he has to beat up some yellow-clad guards as well. But Kao shows up and they say mean things to each other before beginning a largely one-on-one duel. Gordon Liu vs. Johnny Wang is one of the more storied matchups in the Shaw Brothers catalog, and this one doesn’t disappoint (it’s nice that director Lo and choreographer Liu put so much effort into a side-show), but Wei-Ting is clearly the better fighter. All of this is enough to disturb the White Lotus in the middle of bathtime, but he takes the time to get dressed before coming down to deal with the interloper himself.

By this time the overmatched Kao has brought the temple guards back into the fray, and Wei-Ting is handling them all neatly, but once the White Lotus arrives all other activities cease. He scolds Wei-Ting for disturbing him on the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, the one day each year that he spends relaxing and meditating. Wei-Ting is, of course, unmoved by this and charges to the attack. The White Lotus notes that he is attempting to add Crane style to his normal Tiger style, but ominously, says that he hasn’t perfected it yet. Then the fight gets started in earnest, and it’s among the best things Lo Lieh has ever done. He spends most of the fight with his hands clasped behind his back, not even needing to use his arms to fight off his attacker. He simply leans, shifts his weight, changes aspect slightly and all of Wei-Ting’s punches and kicks just barely miss him. Smooth, seemingly effortless, beautiful to watch. Even when Wei-Ting’s on-target, the White Lotus’ weightlessness lets him simply float out of reach. After a moment, he announces “This isn’t fun anymore,” begins using his hands at last, and quickly wipes Wei-Ting out. “You must be out of your mind to fight me, with your childish Tiger/Crane skill,” he says. “You have no choice but to join your friend Ah Biao in hell for more lessons.” The defeated Wei-Ting barely manages to escape with his life.

The White Lotus sends a couple of men (Ng Git-Keung and, I believe, Lin Ke-Ming) to follow Wei-Ting, in hopes of finding his and his friends’ hideout. Wei-Ting cleverly eludes them by entering a restaurant and masquerading as a waiter, then slipping away while they search the place. He returns home to find Nai-Cheng in some anxiety; Mei has gone into labor. The baby’s first cries are heard as he shuts the gate. After a brief discussion with the midwife, who assumes Wei-Ting is the father, we go inside to see Mei, not a bit the worse for wear after her experience. She scolds Wei-Ting for being away while she was giving birth, and when Nai-Cheng spills the beans about where he was, she’s angry. He’s lucky to be alive and unhurt. He says that the fact that he survived proves that his kung fu is good, but he doesn’t understand why he can’t get close to the White Lotus. She tells him again that his kung fu isn’t good enough, but she will help him with his training once she’s regained her strength.

The passage of some months is marked by a close-up of the infant fading into the close-up of a significantly larger and older child, and Mei cradles the boy while Wei-Ting continues to practice by torturing Nai-Cheng. Now he has him hanging by a rope from a tree, swinging back and forth while Wei-Ting chases him and tries to get in a good blow. The force of Wei-Ting’s blows generates a breeze that causes the candles to gutter. Mei notices that the breeze also knocks over the paper dummies warehoused nearby, and remembers how the White Lotus similarly floated away from her husband’s attacks. She tells Wei-Ting that he’ll never succeed if he just practices speed, because the White Lotus’ technique is designed to defeat it. She uses a dummy to illustrate this. Wei-Ting can never hit it; the harder he attacks, the faster it is blown backward by the force of his blows, always staying just out of reach. Then Mei steps up and effortlessly punches holes in it, finally tearing its arms clean off. Wei-Ting argues that her style is no good; it’s too gentle, not forceful enough. But she shows that her style (Wing Chun, maybe? Someone more knowledgeable tell me in the comments) approaches softly but focuses all power on the actual contact with the target, not becoming forceful until the last second. Hers is a specifically feminine style, and he asks her to teach it to him. She agrees, but first he must become like a woman, including doing embroidery and caring for the baby. Once he’s mastered all that, she will teach him. The handling of this idea, by the way, is pretty surprising for a movie made in 1979, but more about that in the next section.

We have a montage of Wei-Ting doing all this stuff, trying to thread a needle, carrying the baby on his back while he works, trying to calm its crying, trying to do needlepoint without just punching the needle roughly through the cloth. As with his first scene trying to bend the reeds in such a way that they don’t break, he is learning to be gentle and mindful of what he’s doing. Finally, Mei begins his training. She tries to show him her technique, but must first remake everything about the way he moves. His muscles are tight, and he must relax. His movements are swift and brutal, they must be languid and smooth. He makes three moves when he should only make one. His center of balance is far too high, which she demonstrates by bending over backwards until her arms, outstretched above her head, nearly reach the ground behind her. When he tries it, he simply topples over. At first he does everything wrong, but as he continues to ape her movements he becomes more and more fluid.

After some unspecified period, we see him moving as well as she does, and she tells him to now combine what he’s learned with his Tiger/Crane. He does well until he practices on Nai-Cheng, where we see that he still unleashes his power too early. Mei tells Nai-Cheng to stand aside and steps in herself, and we have the finest scene in the movie and one of the most beautiful sequences the studio ever produced. The two engage in some slow-motion sparring that is really just a perfectly-choreographed, perfectly-realized dance, fantastically balanced and graceful. Unfortunately it is all-too-short, as Wei-Ting soon realizes that it requires him to touch her in ways that aren’t appropriate for an unmarried couple(!). Mei upbraids him for this, saying that he’s her only chance at revenge and he must fight her as if she were the White Lotus, and I’m with her. I wish they had just decided to go ahead and marry at this point if it would have meant more of the dancing, but she finally agrees with him. But Nai-Cheng has a solution: just beat up the paper dummies! We find that he is now able to hit them, as Mei looks on approvingly. He trashes so many dummies that Nai-Cheng’s boss (Cheng Miu) begins to wonder what’s happened to his stock. He’s got a big order going out in just three days! Why don’t they have more dummies ready? Nai-Cheng claims that the cats have destroyed a lot of the stock, but he’s working hard on a new batch.

Now there’s a sequence that I don’t fully understand, but what I think happens is that Nai-Cheng sends Wei-Ting on an errand just so one of the workers can make a set of cheaper, easier dummies specifically for him to tear up while everyone else finishes the big order. This is not explicit, though, and the dummies look just the same to me. Anyway, Wei-Ting makes quick work of them (possibly because they’re defective in some way?), and this leads him to decide he’s ready for a re-match with the White Lotus. He tries to tell Nai-Cheng where he’s going, but his friend is sleeping and doesn’t want a conversation, so he just sets out for Lotus Mountain.

We see Nai-Cheng waking up the next morning, realizing that Wei-Ting isn’t there and where he must have gone, and setting off after him. Somehow he catches up, even though Wei-Ting had a several hour head start, and begs him not to go. It’s too soon; he isn’t strong enough yet. He needs more practice. But Wei-Ting has decided, thanks Nai-Cheng for caring, asks him to looks after the family, and says he’ll be back soon. He goes on, and after some hesitation, Nai-Cheng again follows.

He reaches the temple and this time avoids the small army of guards, going directly to the White Lotus’ chamber. He rushes to attack, but is ambushed by two swordsmen who act as the White Lotus’ bodyguards, not that he needs bodyguards, really. I suppose it’s just so he doesn’t have to be bothered (and in fact, for several minutes, he doesn’t even acknowledge Wei-Ting’s presence). The two swordsmen (played by San Sin and the soon-to-be-great Hsiao Ho) turn out to be much more dangerous than the troop of guards Wei-Ting fought the last time, and even to be more dangerous than Kao. It’s not easy for an unarmed man to fight off two swordsmen, but Wei-Ting manages in fine fashion. Finally he pulls off a really great move: the two stab at him simultaneously, and he turns sideways so that their swords pass through the front and back of his tunic without cutting him. Then he takes the weapons out of their hands. For a moment roles are reversed, as he attacks two unarmed opponents with a sword in each hand, before throwing the swords at the White Lotus, who ducks just in time as the swords bury themselves in the wall behind him. So now he finally has to pay attention.

He starts by pretty handily slapping Wei-Ting around, attempting his Deadly Palm, which Wei-Ting blocks by kicking his shoe up to prevent the palm making contact with his chest. Now, for the first time, he seems to have succeeded in annoying the White Lotus, who is unused to anything he does failing. For a moment the fight is more even, with Wei-Ting at one point even using the White Lotus’ weightlessness against him, pushing him away to give himself time to recover from a fall. Now he breaks out his new style, and is able to get in close enough to grab the White Lotus’ eyelids and pull them wide open. The White Lotus looks at his new stance and asks, “What’s wrong with you?” but Wei-Ting simply replies, “You’ll soon see,” and comes prancing in on a new attack. He manages to tear his enemy’s clothes, causing the White Lotus to say, “You’ve done well. You’ve got the right technique, but unfortunately my vital spot is well-hidden. Try and find it!”

Now the White Lotus simply keeps moving, making no attack, allowing Wei-Ting to try again and again to hurt him. In the process his outfit gets ruined, and while no damage is done, he realizes that Wei-Ting has become dangerous enough to be taken seriously. “Your technique is still not strong enough for a master. I guess I’d better show you. Watch me then!” and he simply demolishes Wei-Ting, finally hitting him with his 100-Pace-Palm. This, of course, is the same as the attack that killed Wei-Ting’s friends at the beginning of the film, except the victim dies after 100 steps instead of seven. The White Lotus gives him this extra time so that he won’t die on the spot and soil his sanctuary. Wei-Ting, blood pouring from every (visible) orifice, runs outside, falls, and rolls down the steps to the bottom. But of course this saves his life, since he doesn’t actually take 100 steps before losing consciousness. Nai-Cheng, waiting below, puts him on his back and carries him home.

Back in their little shack, Mei and Nai-Cheng sit by Wei-Ting’s bed, where he lies unconscious with a large, ugly hand-print on his chest. Mei wonders what they can do to save him, and Nai-Cheng says they must get a doctor, but they have no money. So he goes to his boss (the one played by Cheng Miu) and asks for a salary advance. The boss points out that he already owes money against his salary, and Nai-Cheng says that Wei-Ting is badly hurt and will die without a doctor. When the boss says that Wei-Ting is always fighting and deserves what he gets, Nai-Cheng tells him that it’s different this time, because he was injured fighting for revenge against Chief White Lotus. Suddenly the boss is interested. He tells Nai-Cheng to return home, and he’ll join him soon.

The boss arrives at the shack and examines Wei-Ting. He determines the nature of the injury and says if he’d walked another 19 steps he’d be dead now (amazing how precise he can be!). He performs acupuncture on Wei-Ting, and sets him on the road to recovery. They thank him, and he says it’s his duty. He’s a revolutionist, fighting the Qing. That’s why he so often travels, and in fact he’s leaving the next day. He tells them to remove the needles in three hours, give Wei-Ting the medicine he’s brought, and let him rest. He’ll heal soon.

Cut to the next day, and the boss stops by to look in on Wei-Ting before he leaves town. Wei-Ting is much better, sipping some broth and able to sit up. He thanks the boss for saving his life, and the boss says he ought to thank Nai-Cheng instead for carrying him back. He leaves his acupuncture manual with Wei-Ting, saying he might find it useful. Wei-Ting reads through the book and realizes that it might help him find the White Lotus’ vital spot. There’s a brief aside here, where we see Kao and the White Lotus discussing the fact that he must be dead and that they can relax, but mostly we follow Wei-Ting as he learns the knowledge contained in the manual, once again using Nai-Cheng as a practice dummy. Mei, bringing their dinner, finds them hard at work and asks what they’re doing. Wei-Ting explains that acupuncture is a cure, but also a deadly weapon, and asks Mei to get him some embroidery needles while she’s out the next day (to which, of course, Nai-Cheng reacts with horror). But the next day is the Dragon Boat Festival, and Wei-Ting has a plan.

So, he returns to Lotus Mountain for the third time, to face the White Lotus for the fourth time. Along the way he meets and kills Kao in a throwaway scene; Johnny Wang deserved a better death than this, but we’re in a hurry to get to the main event. Wei-Ting arrives at the temple, and this time decides to sneak in. He crawls into the culvert that the White Lotus’ bathwater is pouring out of (why does he always want to disturb the poor man’s bathtime?) and launches a surprise attack (if you ever wanted to see Lo Lieh’s cock, now’s your chance). We have a short scuffle wherein the White Lotus holds Wei-Ting off while attempting to get dressed, and finally his swordsmen attack to give him breathing room. Wei-Ting again defeats them, this time killing them in the battle. Interestingly, Gordon Liu uses a chain whip in this fight. It looks very like his signature weapon, the three-section staff that he invented as San Te in 36th Chamber of Shaolin, only smaller and made entirely of steel, with sharp points at the end.

Now it’s down to just the two of them, and early on this fight has a different feel. Wei-Ting seems to be fighting on a more equal footing; in fact, early in the fight he rips out the White Lotus’ bushy white eyebrows! We find out that Wei-Ting has hidden dozens of needles in his long braid, and using the languid, graceful movements he learned from Mei he begins poking them into the White Lotus’ chi centers, looking for his vital point. At various times he makes him hiccup, laugh, cry, and cough as he goes. He eventually robs the White Lotus of the use of his arms, then of his legs, and then fills his head and torso with needles hitting every chi center until he runs out of needles. Wei-Ting thinks he’s won, but by a supreme effort the White Lotus rises to his feet, and by focusing his chi causes all the needles to burst out of his body. Wei-Ting has missed his vital point! He attacks Wei-Ting and now the battle seems to be going against our hero, but before the White Lotus can finish him, he grabs the hairpin from the White Lotus’ own wig and attacks the only target he hasn’t gotten to yet: the palms of his hands. And that does it! No wonder the White Lotus likes to fight with his hands behind his back. Wei-Ting at first thinks he’s pretending, but soon the White Lotus does actually drop dead, and Wei-Ting runs jumping with excitement, shouting “I did it!” ANOTHER SHAW PRODUCTION

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THE EXECUTIONERS FROM SHAOLIN PROBLEM:

Sequel or remake? I think the opening sequence basically rules out sequel; they would have simply re-used the footage of Pai Mei’s death from the first film. Instead they changed it completely. A different actor plays Pai Mei (I can think of no reason Lo Lieh couldn’t have played both parts, with the White Lotus being Pai Mei’s twin rather than simply a brother). The final battle takes place at the Shaolin Temple rather than the set that this movie calls Lotus Mountain. Pai Mei is killed by two men, one using Tiger style and the other using Crane style, rather than one man using a hybrid of the two styles. Plus, Pai Mei isn’t the only person who dies in both films. Johnny Wang’s character is killed by Chen Kuan-Tai’s Hung Hsi-Kuan in the first movie, as well. Plus, the character Gordon Liu is playing here, Hung Wei-Ting, is the same character played by Wong Yu earlier. So it can’t really be a sequel. It makes better sense to call it a remake, and the Shaws certainly had a history of remaking their own films after very short periods, but there are still problems with that. First, typically when they did that, they would set the sequel in a different era (as with The Duel and The Flag Of Iron), but this one clearly takes place at the same time, right after the Ming Dynasty was overthrown by the Qing. Also, if this is a remake, why include the opening sequence at all? Why not simply have Lo Lieh once again playing Pai Mei? It’s pointless to kill him off at the beginning if the whole point is to have him for the whole film. Have them kill someone else instead, someone whose death raises the ire of Pai Mei and Governor Kao. Hell, have it be Kao, maybe. Give Johnny Wang a decent death that means something in context, instead of being an afterthought.

Here’s what I think: the Shaws realized they had something special with the Pai Mei character (more below), and wanted another film with him. Plus, in between these two films being made, Gordon Liu (who had died early in Executioners) had been in 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Heroes of the East and had become perhaps the studio’s biggest star, so they wanted him back, too. And of course, since they never allowed re-releases of their films, they could hope that people had forgotten certain plot elements in the intervening years. The inconsistencies between the two films are simply a relic of the era in which they were made. It wasn’t like folks could watch Executioners on VHS before going to the theater to see White Lotus, so they just threw something together and counted on the style of Liu Chia-Liang, the charisma of their leads, and the hazy memories of their audience to make it work. And weirdly, it does. I actually prefer this one to the original. In any event, I find that it’s easier just to pretend that these two films are completely unrelated, despite having a few characters and plot devices in common. Trying to weave them together in my head doesn’t seem to be worth the effort.

BEST THING ABOUT THE FILM: The White Lotus/Pai Mei himself. For a moment, let’s put aside the discrepancy between the two films and pretend he’s the same guy in both, which isn’t much of a stretch no matter how many times he’s died. Lo Lieh (who directed this and played the character in both films), Liu Chia-Liang (who directed the first film and did the choreography for both), and I Kuang (who wrote the first) really created a masterpiece in this character. His overwhelming confidence, the fact that the laughter and insults never stop, even when he’s fighting, and that broad smile, along with the trademark white hair, beard, and eyebrows and his unique fighting style, make him the most distinctive character in the Shaw canon. And beyond, really; kung-fu geekdom in this country (the U.S., for any international readers) is among the most obscure and insular fandom communities around, and important, landmark films for us are virtually unknown even to most serious film fans. Very few Shaw Brothers characters have transcended the genre to become even small players in the larger pop culture landscape. Maybe Gordon Liu’s San Te, possibly Jimmy Wang Yu’s One-Armed Swordsman, but above them all is Pai Mei. There’s a reason he’s the guy Quentin Tarantino chose to resurrect for his Kill Bill movies. He’s bigger than these two movies, to some extent bigger than the genre itself. He’s one of the truly classic villains in all of cinema: scary, arrogant, dangerous, flawlessly skilled, and unfailingly funny; a charming, amoral killer. I wish Kevin Feige (of Marvel Studios) would watch these movies and see what a proper villain ought to be.

WORST THING ABOUT THE FILM: This isn’t even a problem with the film itself, really, but I wish I had access to a Cantonese version with English subs. I like to watch both that version and an English dubbed version to compare when I’m doing one of these write-ups, but if I’m only gonna have one I want the original language. I get a better feel for what the characters are actually saying in those, and so with this one I feel like there are things I don’t understand that would make sense if the English version wasn’t the only one available (examples below).

SHAWISMS: We could definitely talk about the Shaw Brother’s Patented Abrupt Ending here, since there are no more than ten seconds between the White Lotus’ death and the final freeze-frame of Wei-Ting jumping for joy. The extended and unusual training montage is very much a Shawism as well, plus Wei-Ting not being able to defeat the White Lotus until the fourth time he faces him (even Rocky isn’t that patient, but Shaw Brothers makes their heroes work harder than Stallone does). But I do want to take a moment to introduce an unsung hero of the studio’s film, dubbed by fans the Flying Carpet. This is a prop rug that was reused so constantly in the movies that it became a bit of a character its own self. It appears here in the very first scene after the opening credits, when Governor Kao receives the Emperor’s messenger. Watch him when he kneels; that’s the Flying Carpet he’s kneeling on. Now that you know what it looks like, keep an eye out for it in other Shaw Brothers productions. It’s an easter egg from before that concept was created.

NITPICKING: The Lotus Clan insignia worn by the assassins who kill the men rebuilding the temple is just sad. A piece of paper with a drawing of a lotus, pinned onto the front of their clothes? With all the needlepoint being done in this movie, couldn’t someone have done some decent badges for those guys? It’s just not very intimidating.

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Kara Hui never does get very pregnant in this, does she? She’s at the “barely showing” phase for half the film, then suddenly she’s at the “new baby” phase. I wish real-life pregnancies went so smoothly.

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When Wei-Ting kills Kao, he asks just before he dies “Where’s Priest White Lotus?” But he already knows that. He was on his way there! I have to assume that this is just the dub, and that on set Gordon Liu said something that made more sense (perhaps something along the lines of “That’s for Siu-Ching!” or “Ming Forever!”), but again, the absence of a Cantonese dub with a direct English translation is the biggest problem with this film. I hope it gets a proper U.S. DVD release soon.

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As good as Wei-Ting’s fight against the two swordsmen is, there are a couple of moments where their blades definitely just...stop on contact with his skin. An inexplicable lapse on the part of Liu Chia-Liang.

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Speaking of the swordsmen, why are they played by different actors during the final battle? Were Hsiao Ho and San Sin busy on another film that day? Or are these two different characters? Wei-Ting didn’t kill them the last time they faced him, so if they’re new guys the White Lotus must have just hired them. That seems precipitous, doesn’t it? But possible, of course. Still, I wish they’d just stuck with the same two guys.

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The politics of this one are a little hard to work out. I mean, they seem obvious on their face. It appears that the Lotus Clan are in league with the Qing, and Ah Biao, Wei-Ting, and the Shaolin in general are pro-Ming (which would certainly fit with how the Shaolin are usually portrayed). Also, it appears that Pai Mei was with the Lotus. Kao, whether an actual member of the Lotus Clan or not, is definitely pro-Qing, since he is the governor and wouldn’t be allowed to hold that position if he opposed them, so even if our heroes don’t know that Kao is the nephew of Pai Mei and the White Lotus, they must know he’s their enemy. So why are Ah Biao and Wei-Ting surprised when the White Lotus shows up at their house to kill them? They say the Shaolin and White Lotus have no grievance, which is clearly untrue if one is supporting the current government and the other is leading a violent insurgency. That’s like Robert E. Lee telling Abraham Lincoln that they have no grievance. It makes no sense. Plus, only moments earlier Ah Biao has declared his intention to help “destroy the Lotus Clan” once he’s healed from his injuries, so even if he IS surprised, he’s being hypocritical here. And later, when Wei-Ting meets Kao at Lotus Mountain, he asks why Kao is trying to wipe out the Shaolin. I mean, isn’t it obvious? Would you ask an exterminator why he’s killing termites? Is this something else we have to put down to bad dubbing?

THOUGHTS:

Watch the way Lo Lieh moves in his fight scenes. Nobody had ever moved like that before. Every move he makes speaks volumes. He’s just toying with the people he’s fighting, giving them a chance to hurt him before he moves in for the kill, knowing they won’t be able to take advantage of it. As I mentioned in the synopsis, it’s amazing how often he doesn’t even use his hands, just keeps them clasped behind his back, and completely controls fights by slightly shifting his ground, untouchable, knocking bewildered opponents around with hip checks and shoulders, until he gets bored and destroys them in seconds. And watch the scene where Gordon Liu and Kara Hui spar with each other, how graceful their movements are. I’ve already written about how gorgeous that scene is above, but it’s worth mentioning again. They deserve a lot of credit for that, of course, but the fight choreography Liu Chia-Liang put together for this film is second to none. He has films that are more highly-regarded, but this one is unique for how eloquently the characters’ movements tell a story of their own.

Still, the stars deserve credit. As good as the work done by Liu and I Kuang in the creation of The White Lotus/Pai Mei was, nobody else could have played him like Lo Lieh does. That scowl, and then that broad grin, the insouciance of his movements, and those hot, hard eyes are things that I doubt anyone else could have matched. Gordon Liu is right there with him, though, with his boyishness, his enthusiasm, his willingness to try anything that might help him defeat the villain. His intensity is the perfect counterpoint to Lo’s half-amused/half-bored aloofness.

And there’s some gender politics with Liu that are pretty surprising, as well. Remember, this was made in 1979, and yet when Wei-Ting realizes that being taught by a woman to fight like a woman might help him win, he dives right in. No worry that it will stain his manhood, no embarrassment at doing “woman’s work.” And nobody around him thinks twice about it, either. When he goes to work with the baby on his back, we don’t see anyone snickering at him or throwing insults. The closest we get is a casual remark from Nai-Cheng that he might actually become a woman, which both Wei-Ting and Mei ignore, and Nai-Cheng himself forgets immediately. Compare that to, say, Jackie Chan’s Drunken Master (1978), where Jackie’s character balks at one of the eight “drunken fairies” whose styles he is supposed to ape being a woman. Acting feminine, even alone with his master, is something he flatly refuses to do. It’s kind of amazing that Gordon Liu, only a year or two later, has no hint of this narrow-mindedness. Of course, a proper feminist critique might well posit, “But why do men and women need separate styles at all? And why are sewing and child-rearing woman’s work? And why is the woman’s style softer? And why couldn’t Mei have been the partner Wei-Ting needed to fight the White Lotus?” which are valid questions. I’m not claiming Clan of the White Lotus is a feminist manifesto. But it does feel like its acceptance of a woman as a teacher, and of her style as capable of victories beyond the reach of Wei-Ting’s Tiger/Crane style (which, in case you don’t know, is Hung Gar, the same style Huang Fei-Hong used in hundreds of movies where he’s an untouchable bad-ass), is way ahead of its time and deserves to be celebrated. I bet that a lot of women watching in 1980 really enjoyed that.

On the subject of Kara Hui, go back and watch the scene where the Lotus Clan attacks our heroes in their home again, specifically the bit where the bad guys enter the house and she and Yeung Ching-Ching have to fight them off alone while the boys are busy out in the front yard. Yeung is very good here; her movements are fluid and believable, her balance and her stance are pretty close to perfect. She looks good fighting those guys. But when she has to do something truly acrobatic, like a flip, there’s suddenly a cut where her stuntman steps in for her. Now watch Kara Hui in that same scene. When she does those same moves, the camera never cuts away from her. That’s the difference between a fine performer and a star. Kara Hui didn’t need anyone to step in for her! She could do everything the boys could do, and she was proud of it. She’s a supporting character in this, but it’s an unforgettable physical performance that presages the sort of work she would do once she got to be THE star of a movie.

So with unique choreography and three great stars giving performances that are at or near their personal bests, why isn’t this my favorite Shaw Brothers movie ever? Well, maybe it’s a bit too light-hearted; the movie seems to forget that there are tragedies both historic (the burning of the Shaolin Temple) and personal (the deaths of Ah Biao and Siu-Ching) at its heart. I certainly don’t want the movie to be emotionally draining or depressing, but it does seem that everyone just gets over everything bad that happens, with the exception of a couple of moments where Kara Hui seems to be carrying a certain emotional weight. Johnny Wang doesn’t get to do much, to the point that I’m surprised they bothered to put his character in the film at all. I want more out of him. He’s a favorite. These are not major complaints, of course, but while this isn’t my absolute favorite it’s very high on my list (#10 as I write this, out of more than a hundred films), and in that rarified company small complaints matter. Still, a classic from the studio, and one that appears to be undervalued, given that it’s never had the sort of Special Edition treatment that several others have received, and that the online fan community seems to prefer Executioners from Shaolin by a pretty wide margin (looking at its ratings on IMDb and Letterboxd). I would recommend it to any fan of kung-fu films. Furthermore, if I was asked to pick a first film for someone who was considering maybe getting into the Shaws catalog, I might well pick this one. It’s beautiful, accessible, and entertaining, and ought to appeal to anyone who is into martial arts, or just anyone who likes watching human bodies moving in expressive, unexpected ways. A real delight.