The narrative beings when a group of ex-Shaolin students are praying in a temple that has been overtaken by the evil Manchurians. In order to prove themselves as brave Chinese, the Shaolin students challenge the Manchurians to feats of martial arts. As a result, an opposing Manchurian kills one of the Shaolin students, and a fierce battle ensues that is soon disbanded by the governing officials. Seen as a public nuisance, the students are told to chalk the death up to a gang fight, and find themselves on the run from the Manchurians and their two new kung fu bad assess. Played by villain-veterans Leung Kar Yan and Wang Lung Wei, these two kung fu artists are masters in the external and internal body-armor technique made famous by the great Pai Mei himself.

The fugitive students must to split into two pairs so that they may find surviving kung fu teachers to continue their training. The first of these pairs is made of Gordon Liu and Billy Tang, two young actors who show amazing promise in this film, especially the always-great Gordon Liu. These two students are sent off to learn techniques involving speed and more specifically, the Eagle Claw technique. The second pair consists of two classic and well-known kung fu stars, Alexander Fu Sheng and Kaun-Chun Chi. Fu Sheng goes to learn the Tiger and Stork techniques (the two forms used to defeat Pai Mei in Executions From Shaolin), and Kaun-Chun learns the close ranged Wang Chun technique.

What sets this film apart from so many of the other Shaolin-students-seek-revenge films is the execution of its narrative. The film is not bogged down with broad slapstick humor, nor does it take itself too seriously. It also gives ample time for character development, and does not play out simply as a series of loosely connected fight scenes. The narrative flows in a deliberate manner, and every action and reaction is attributed to consequence and not coincidence. Every fight scene in the film is a result of character interaction and the flow of the narrative, and the fights are not used to merely fill time or portray acts of gratuitous violence.

Lau Kar Leung choreographed this film only a year before he would make his directorial debut with Spiritual Boxer. Kar Leung had worked on many films together with Cheng Cheh, and here his skills as action director shine as a beacon of martial arts mastery. The many fight sequences during the film are all expertly framed as the combatants move with grace and skill, and what appears to be a real grasp of the techniques at hand. Because of his real life martial arts training, Lau Kar Leung was able to train the actors to move like real kung fu fighters. The rolls, punches, kicks, parries, jumps and leg/arm locks all flow with effortless grace, as the camera tracks each and every movement with only a bare minimum number of cuts and edits. There are many sequences during the film where more than a dozen moves are exchanged between the opponents before a single cut is made in the footage - a test of real skill for both the director and the actor.

Before moving into the regions of pure martial arts exploitation with the Venom Mob, Cheng Cheh was a director who crafted films as good as any ever made. I have pointed this fact out in my review for Return of the One Armed Swordsmen, and it is evident in many other films. However, in Shaolin Martial Arts it is easy to see a craftsman creating a work of pure art. There is not a single frame of film wasted here, everything about the movie is economically streamlined and nothing feels superfluous or gratuitous. The one almost-sex scene is used to demonstrate the power of inner-armor kung fu, and the fights themselves are not merely displays of crimson rivers, broken bones and arterial sprays. Here Cheh works with a sense of maturity and a grasp of the subject almost unheard of.

But most of all however, Shaolin Martial Arts is just plain fun - it is pure visceral excitement. There are moments of true tragedy as heroes die, and there are moments of exhi larating triumph as heroes overcome the odds. The training sequences are inventive, and serve a purpose, and the actors' portrayals of the characters is natural and above all, commanding of the viewer's attention. The action is amazing, and it is especially satisfying to watch a young Gordon Liu, and the ever-charming Fu Sheng, both of whom demonstrate the reasons why they were considered to be two of the greatest onscreen martial arts superstars. Shaolin Martial Arts is a true classis in every sense of the word, and once viewed will not soon be forgotten, but will be remembered for its timeless example of martial arts cinema.