Ren zhe wu di aka Five element ninjas (1982)

More Shaw Brothers!

Five element ninjas is about two different martial arts clans battling out. The good guys are winning, that is until the bad guys bring in ninjas. What follows is 105 minutes of kick ass kung fu with lots of cool weaponry and fight styles. Almost too much of the good stuff. The plot is silly but entertaining, just fight upon fight upon fight and in the end I felt the movie could've been 20 minutes shorter. The fights are bloody though and never gets boring, but I actually had to take a short break toward the end.

Still good fun of course, and the haircuts are mindblowing. A decent, violent kung fu movie that would have benefitted from some nudity but in the end is good stuff for the fans. I dont regret buying it but I was perhaps expecting more after that masterpiece that was Portrait in crystal but still, you cant dislike this kind of goodnatured fun.

Shui jing ren aka Portrait in crystal (1983)

I still curse myself regularily for not "discovering" Shaw Brothers until just a few years ago. Their 70:s and 80:s horrormovies are nice and nasty and full of nudity and gore, but one thing I wasnt aware of was the fact that a whole bunch of their kung fu movies were equally fun. A perfect example of this is Bloody Parrot from 1981 and and even better example is Portrait in crystal, an extremely entertaining movie by Shan hua, the same director as Bloody Parrot.

There is a legend that says that if you pour blood on a crystal statue, it will come to life and do your bidding. Our hero is a crystal carver and when one of his statues is stolen, he finds himself accused of creating a crystal assassin who is trying to kill the leaders of the poison clan. Of course there is another evil at large and our here will have to fight a lot of nasty people and then there's the nice poison that makes people explode. A bit like Luigi Cozzis Contamination, but without the extreme slow motion and a Goblin score.

Actually, the only negative thing I can come up with when it comes to Portrait crystal is that Bloody parrot had more nudity. Nuff said.

The 77 minutes are brisk and paced well with a decently clear story, something that Bloody parrot had way too much of. The fightscenes are well coreographed and all the different martial arts extra (the poison, etc) are well thought out and only adds to the supreme entertainment. There is a little nudity, but there could've been more I suppose, though it doesnt really detract from the fun. Assassins, gore, fights, blood. Portrait in crystal is excellent fun and a must for Shaw Brothers fans.