Men From The Monastery

Bluesky

Men From The Monastery (AKA Disciples Of Death) is part of the Shaw Brothers stable of Kung-Fu movies. It was shot alongside another film, Heroes Two by the director Chang Cheh. It is fun in parts but can by no reach of the imagination be called a good film.

The film does not actually have a complete plot. The first part of the film is a series of vignettes, short sections of backstory for each of the Shaolin warriors, the heroes. Then it stops dead. The Shaolin burns as the credits roll. The second part of the film is a massive fight to the death at the ruined temple. The plot, the connection between the prologue and the end, is all in Heroes Two.

When it comes to production values, Men From The Monastery hits a pretty low bar. The camerawork in places is truly awful and some of the sets look shoddy. The martial artists are highly competent at what they do. They display an exceptional level of skill in fight sequences and other stunt work. Unfortunately their acting ability is almost nonexistent.

The film does however have a couple of things going for it. There are a couple of really good martial arts set pieces: Fong Sai Yuk's (Alexander Fu Sheng) fight on the pile formation, and the final battle. It also has style. Chang Cheh makes extensive use of fast pans, tilts, pushes and pulls. They give the film a hyperdynamic feel, especially in fight sequences. Their insentient use throughout the film does become a bit wearing. During the final fight, Chang Cheh experiments with colour grading in a way that has now become iconic. When things go bad for the heroes, Cheh switches sharply to black and white. When a hero is gravely injured, black and blood red, with an almost rotoscoped feel.

If you are going to watch Men From The Monastery you should probably have a copy Heroes Two to switch into at the appropriate point, the burning monastery. If not a good film it is a historically interesting one, with some fun, if sometimes overlong, fight scenes.

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