Executioners from Shaolin (1977) Biography, Plot, Trailer

Executioners from Shaolin (1977)

Executioners from Shaolin or Hung Hsi Kuan is a 1977 Shaw Brothers kung fu film based on the life of Hung hsi Kuan directed by Lau Kar-leung. It is released as Shaolin Executioners outside of Hong Kong and as Executioners of Death in North America. The film is a multi-generational story of revenge pitting the disciples of Shaolin temple against the historical figure of Pai Mei, founder of Pai Mei kung fu. Later, the movie was released on DVD by Dragon Dynasty.

Plot

Opening crawl: “Having learned that the revolutionaries were using Shaolin Temple as an undercover, the Manchurian Count ordered Priest Pai Mei and his top disciple Kao Tsin Chung, Governor of Kwangtung and Kwangsi, to raid the shaolin Temple. They surrounded the Temple and set fire to it. In an attempt to rescue his disciples, Priest Chi Shan enter into a crucial duel with Priest Pai Mei.” The title scene is a battle between Pai Mei and Master Chi Shan in an empty red backdrop. Here we get the first display of Pai Mei’s mastery of internal kung-fu techniques that allow him to retract his privates into his groin. After using his body protection

techniques to ward off a clawing attack to the face, he traps a kick to the groin from Master Zhishan and delivers his own coup de grâce. Master Zhishan’s vision blurs as the scene changes to a more realistic scene of the aftermath of the temple’s destruction. Pai Mei’s protégé, area governor Kao Tsin-chung and his army, chase the fleeing ex-students of Shao Lin. Tung Chin-chin, after watching waves of other students fall to the pursuing army’s arrows, makes a heroic last stand to divert their attention. He falls to a hail of arrows, crushing the throats of the soldiers he is closest to. It is left to Hung Hsi-Kuan to lead the remaining students to safety.

Release, Reception

Executioners From Shaolin was released in Hong Kong on February 16, 1977. It was released in the United States under the title Executioners of Death and VHS in the United States as Shaolin Executioner. Mark Pollard of Kung Fu Cinema calls the film an “essential old school classic”, but the reviewer at LoveHKFilm.com says Executioners from Shaolin is “so-so”.