Shaolin Tiger Claw

1974
Directed By Tin Chi Ng

SYNOPSIS

A young man (Cliff Lok) quests to be the best in kung fu. He discovers one of the best masters around is in prison, so he gets thrown in jail. He meets the man known as The Tiger (Kien Shih) and demands a fight. The Tiger wants nothing to do with him, so he knocks The Tiger out and escapes from prison with him. The Tiger has many enemies outside of prison and the young man must fight them all off to preserve his chance to fight him.

MY THOUGHTS

An unremarkable but serviceable kung fu film.

The plot is threadbare, but you usually don't turn to kung fu films for intricate plots - it's all about the action. Shaolin Tiger Claw delivers fight after fight. The film was clearly a low budget affair, so you don't have the best fight choreographers. The choreography is still strong, but after awhile each battle starts to look like the one before. The fights are still very entertaining to watch, filled with many flying fists and the occasional weapon. Some of the fights are very lengthy, yet no one ever seems the least bit fatigued, which is more than odd.

Cliff Lok was clearly chosen for his fighting ability as the lead. He lacks the charisma and screen presence that made people like Bruce Lee, Sonny Chiba and Jackie Chan some of the big stars of the genre.

He's followed/assisted by a young woman. Her role is never explained. Is she a girlfriend/friend/sister/hired assistant? Who knows. She's just there.

The lackluster DVD transfer makes the low budget cinematography look even worse and the unusual dubbing takes most of the emotion out of the characters.

I went into the film worn out after a long day at work and just wanted some mindless action-filled entertainment and Shaolin Tiger Claw delivered just that.