After killing the notorious Pai Mei (Lo Lieh), Hung (Gordon Liu) returns to his village and seems to be ready to finally settle down and marry. But the White Lotus won't let him go so easily. Led by the Chief (also played by Lo Lieh), the clan attacks the village and kills everyone except for Hung and Mei (Kara Hui).

Of course, Hung swears revenge and sets off to kill the Chief. However, Hung's kung fu is not good enough, and he is defeated. Downtrodden, Hung begins to study various forms of kung fu in the hope of finding one which can stop the Chief.

Like I said, the plot ain't exactly Vonnegut material here. The actors try and salvage what they can out of the exposition scenes, but they are hampered by a half-ass scripting attempt that relies way too much on comedy, especially at times in the film when tension should be building. In particular, the whole bit where Hung learns a feminine style of kung fu is just painfully unfunny and goes on for way too long.

But you can throw most of that sort of stuff aside if you're a fighting fan. The brawls in Clan of the White Lotus are top-notch. They're not the best that the Shaw Brothers studio produced, but given the fact that this was made at a time when both the studio and old-school martial arts movies in general were in a bit of a downward spiral, one has to think that the film-makers did the best with what little resources they had to work with.

Perhaps because of those budgetary restrictions, there's not a whole lot of variety in the combatants; the vast majority of the fight time centers on Gordon Liu and Lo Lieh. That turns out to not be a bad thing at all, since they're two of the top movie martial artists, and make each of their clashes seem fresh.

Despite the strength of the action sequences, at the end of the day, this reviewer feels that Clan of the White Lotus is a bit over-rated. The exposition scenes really drag down the momentum the fights create. Nevertheless, it's a very good old-school flick that should definitely satisfy fans of the genre.

After his best friend, and his fiancee are killed by Pai Mei and his troops, Liu Chia Hui and his sister retreat and plot there revenge. When at his first attempt he is almost killed, he has to come up with a new form of kung fu to battle Pai Mei's incredible skill, and get his vengeance.

The story is very formulaic for a Shaw Brothers production, but all of the players are at the top of there form. Whether it is Lo Lieh's "Eight Steps Kung Fu" (after hitting his opponents, they all take eight steps back and drop dead!) or Liu Chia Hui superb skill with a steel whip, this is a joy to watch. Some of the final fight and training are a little silly (he trains in what can only be described as Acupuncture Kung Fu), I think this was bought on by Shaws insistence in adding comic element to the films, after the success of the Jackie Chan movies of the time.

Lo Leih shows he can be a very good director, although obviously helped in the action choreography by Liu Chia Liang. Fans of Shaw Brothers movies need no recommendation from me to see this movie.