Watch Five Shaolin Masters For Free

Best movie of this year hands down!

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Five students escape from the destruction of their beloved Shaolin Temple...now each must take revenge and train in their own separate fighting styles...they will become The Five Shaolin Masters!! The film focuses on Shaolin's historic rivalries with the Qing Dynasty, and in fact this is made clear in the prequel, "Shaolin Temple" (1976). Trying to keep the films straight is a challenge in itself, especially considering how many name changes tend to happen.Among the Cheh Chang films, this may have the most epic battles. I love the gimmicks of other films (such as the different "venom" styles), but here we have a great one-on-one fight that rivals anything you would see from Bruce Lee.

In 1974, Chang Cheh was roughly halfway through a career that already included such milestones as "The One-Armed Swordsman", "The Heroic Ones" and "Blood Brothers". While it can be argued that all martial arts movies are fantasies, Chang's films ("Blood Brothers", especially) were peopled by vividly wrought, three-dimensional characters that the viewer cared about. But, despite assembling a stellar cast for "Five Shaolin Masters", it is here that the veteran director begins to eschew character development. Of the titular masters, only Fu Sheng has any humanity; the remaining heroes (David Chiang, Ti Lung, Chi Kuan-chun, Meng Fei) and all of the villains (Wang Lung-wei, Chiang Tao, Fung Hark-on, Tsai Hung, Liang Chia-jen) are emotionless comic book figures, boldly but crudely drawn. From this point forward, Chang's characters and plots would become increasingly stylized until he was directing what were essentially live-action cartoons, like "Five Element Ninja". The films were still entertaining, but with rare exceptions (such as "The Chinatown Kid") were no longer engrossing. But hey, I won't get too stuffy in my analysis of what is undeniably an entertaining movie. There are lots of fights, both empty-handed and with weapons, and they're beautifully choreographed by Liu Chia-liang--soon to become a director in his own right--and Liu Chia-yung. (Look for brief cameos by the latter and by the Lius' adopted brother, "Master Killer" Gordon Liu.) Judged strictly on action, "Five Shaolin Masters" is a winner, and fans of the genre will want to see it more than once.

Chang Cheh´s Five Shoalin Masters is perhaps the Best Kung Fu Movie ever, besides the Bruce Lee Masterpieces. Ti Lung, David Chiang, Chi Kuan Chun and of Course Alexander Fu Sheng are just great in this Movie I hope this One (and the other great Shaw Brothers Movies) comes on Dvd sometime !!!

Chang Cheh's FIVE MASTERS OF DEATH (aka, FIVE SHAOLIN MASTERS, 1974) is an all-star kung fu film with five stars playing survivors of the burning of Shaolin Temple and five others as the villains who pursue them and track them down. The heroes split up and travel the Chinese countryside rallying the people to support the faction opposing the Manchus and then reunite about an hour into the film to re-train at the burned-out temple. Then the five villains, joined by three henchmen, arrive for the sprawling final brawl, all staged on a series of Taiwanese locations.Unlike the same director's SHAOLIN MARTIAL ARTS (1974, listed on IMDb as SHAO LIN MARTIAL ARTS) and SHAOLIN TEMPLE (aka DEATH CHAMBER, 1976), this is a fairly low-budget production and offers no shots of Shaolin or the burning of the temple. At one point, the heroes return to the charred 'temple,' which looks more like a burned-out storefront. This film forms a trilogy of sorts with SHAOLIN MARTIAL ARTS and SHAOLIN TEMPLE, although it takes place immediately following the events depicted in SHAOLIN TEMPLE.The five heroes are played by Alexander Fu Sheng, Chi Kuan-Chun, David Chiang, Ti Lung, and newcomer Meng Fei. Fu Sheng and Chi Kuan-Chun starred in SHAOLIN MARTIAL ARTS. All but Meng Fei returned for SHAOLIN TEMPLE. The five villains are played by Liang Chia Jen (aka Leung Kar Yan), Wang Lung Wei, Feng Ko-An (aka Fung Hak On), Chiang Tao and Tsai Hung. The first four were also the villains in SHAOLIN MARTIAL ARTS, although only Wang Lung Wei returned for SHAOLIN TEMPLE (where he played the same character, Ma Fu Yi). Not yet directing films himself, Liu Chia Liang (aka Lau Kar Leung) was co-fight choreographer on this one with his brother, Liu Chia Yung (Lau Kar Wing).Clocking in at 109 minutes, FIVE MASTERS is not quite as elaborate or full of spectacle as the other two films in Chang Cheh's Shaolin trilogy, but it's got a great cast of fighting stars and nonstop kung fu action and is a cut above the same director's other, lower-budgeted Shaolin films from 1973-76: HEROES TWO, MEN FROM THE MONASTERY, DISCIPLES OF SHAOLIN, and SHAOLIN AVENGERS.ADDENDUM (6/24/12): I finally watched the R3 DVD edition of this film from Celestial Pictures, which is in Mandarin with English subtitles. It clocks in at 105 minutes. I don't know if that's because four minutes were cut or because it was slightly sped up because of the transfer from the PAL encoding system. The latter's more likely. I was pretty amazed at the sheer number of fight scenes in this. It probably has more fight scenes spread out through it than any other Shaw Bros. kung fu movie I can think of. Also, I made a few corrections in my earlier review. I still don't understand why a "spoiler" warning was posted on it.