Five Shaolin Masters a.k.a. 5 Masters Of Death (Chinese: 少林五祖) is a 1974 Shaw Brothers kung fu film directed by Chang Cheh, with action choreography by Lau Kar Leung and Lau Kar Wing.

Five Shaolin Masters
Directed byChang Cheh
Written byI Kuang
Produced byRun Run Shaw
StarringDavid Chiang
Ti Lung
Alexander Fu Sheng
Chi Kuan Chun
Meng Fei
Wang Lung Wei
CinematographyKung Mu To, Hsu Te Li
Edited byKuo Ting Hung
Music byChen Yung Yu
Distributed byShaw Brothers Studio
Release date
  • 25 December 1974 (1974-12-25)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryHong Kong
LanguagesCantonese
Mandarin

The film focuses on Shaolin's historic rivalries with the Qing Dynasty.

Plot edit

Five young fighters survive to escape the burning Shaolin temple after the Qing soldiers destroyed it in Shaolin Temple. The five regroup and establish secret codes to identify themselves and fellow patriots. They swear vengeance and decide to enlist other patriots, then reunite to escape from the Qing forces. They also commit to uncovering the identity of the traitorous insider who had sold out the Shaolin temple.

The traitor, Ma Fu-Yi, joins with top Qing fighters to eliminate the rebels, but he is exposed by Ma Chao-Tsing, one of the five Shaolin escapees, who gets captured. Hu Te-Ti meets up with a group of Shaolin fighters secretly posing as bandits and recruits them to help rescue Ma Chao-Tsing. Their bandit leader is killed in the process, so the bandits join the rest of the Shaolin patriots to fight the Qing invaders.

Suffering successive defeats at the hands of the Qing kung fu experts, the five young fighters return to the Shaolin temple ruins to perfect their kung fu and prepare to take revenge for their destroyed temple and murdered comrades. Each of the five must face a more seasoned master in single combat, so each trains to master fighting forms and techniques to counter the specific skills and weaponry of each individual enemy, man-to-man.

Cast edit

The five Shaolin patriots:

Their five main adversaries:

External links edit


Release edit

Five Shaolin Masters was released in Hong Kong on December 25, 1974.[1] It was released in the United States as 5 Masters of Death.[1]

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Five Shaolin Masters". Shawscope Volume One (booklet). Arrow Video. 2021. p. 20. FCD2076.

External links edit