David Chiang and Ti Lung, co-stars of many of Chang Cheh's early 1970s kung fu films, play soldiers who seek refuge in Shaolin after a disastrous loss on the battlefield. Alexander Fu Sheng plays Fong Si Yu (spelled as Fong Sai Yuk when Jet Li played the part in 1993) and Chi Kuan-Chun plays Hu Wei Chen, both characters they'd played in earlier movies. The students are all chosen on the basis of their willingness to kneel outside on the temple steps for days at a time, without eating, drinking or resting, to show their dedication. The training scenes themselves are remarkable for the cleverness and scope of the techniques employed, from leaping up with weights on one's legs and balancing on jagged rocks to stoking fires and stirring huge vats of rice to learn pole fighting. The film focuses on the training of an impressive group of heroes, each in a different style or specialty, all while the ruling Manchurian forces contrive to undermine the stability of Shaolin Temple. kung fu stars in one cast than any other film, with the possible exception of Chang's later SHANGHAI 13 (1983). It's two hours long and boasts more Shaw Bros.

Previously, Chang had made several films about the aftermath of the burning of the temple, in which Fong Si Yu and the other fugitives flee the Manchus and regroup (HEROES TWO, MEN FROM THE MONASTERY, FIVE MASTERS OF DEATH, etc.), but this is the only one that actually includes the final battle and the burning of the temple. It tells the story of the final months of the Shaolin Temple, culminating in a raid by Manchu warriors and the burning of the temple. DEATH CHAMBER (aka SHAOLIN TEMPLE, 1976) is the closest Chang Cheh came to making a true kung fu epic.

Shaolin techniques images