The opening sequence of a Shaolin Monk who's been kicked out of the monastery batting several monks is a great scene. It is worth rewinding to watch several times. It leads into the story of Besties, Chun Kit (Gordon Liu Chia-Hui), A Shaolin Practitioner and Fung Wu (Adam Cheng Siu-Chow),a Wu Tag Practitioner, who try to remain friends despite the animosity between their "schools" The Wu Tang were created by the exiled monk and there's been a rivalry sine that day. (Think Romulans vs Vulcans).I am unsure if Johnny Wang Lung Wei's character standing actually is, as it's not made clear in the movie. Some reviews say he's a prince. What is clear, is he is determine to learn every Wushu style known in China and will obtain te knowledge by hook or crook. His present focus is on Shaolin and Wu Tang styles. His plot to obtain the knowledge includes using his own sister, Yue Lam (Ching Li). He wants the books for both styles of Kung Fu. The lousy lighting in version I watched made some scenes makes it difficult to see. Lung-Wei sets up Fung Wu to kill his own Master, after making it appear the Master was poisoned by the Shaolin. The Master was killed because he refused to hand over the Wu Tang sword book. Fung Wu refuses to do likewise so Lung-Wei has him thrown into a psychiatric unit for disturbed women, where he is befriended by Yue Lam, who was placed there by Lung-Wei. Chun Kit learns of Fung Wu's incarceration and attempts to help his friend. He brings food to the inmates so he can teach Fung Wu Shaolin techniques, using Yue Lam as the go-between. Chun Kit finds a way to spring Fung Wu from prison and they bring along Yue Lam. They venture to Chun's home, where his sister, Yan Ling (Ida Chan Yuk-Lin) awaits them. The Qin army appears seeking Yue Lam and Fung Wu for escaping the prison. It was nice to see the women fighting against the army, rather than sitting on the side lines whining as I have seen many women do in these types of movies.Yue Lam is captured by the Qin and taken to Lung-Wei who is pleased to see she has learned the Wu Tang sword style and the Shaolin hand style. He is eager to learn them from her. They venture back to their home to begin the training.Fung Wu and Yan Ling encounter Wu Tang as they are making their escape from the Qin. The WU Tang are looking for Fung Wu to make him pay for killing his master. Fung Wu agrees to go with them so long as they leave Yan Ling, a Shaolin Practitioner alone. Yan Ling sees Qin troops surrounding them and steps between Fung Wu and Qin arrows to protect him. Fung Wu is dragged way by the Wu Tang as Yan Ling lays dying. Chun Kit finds Yan and demands to know what happened. Her last words are Wu Tang, so naturally Chun Kit thinks thinks Wu Tang has killed her. He goes off to a Shaolin Monastery to learn proper skills to defeat the Wu Tang. Fung Wu, who was tossed into a prison by the Wu Tang to repent, becomes a Wu Tang priest to exact revenge on the Shaolin for allegedly poisoning his master.Lung-Wei organizes a competition between the two groups. He wants to learn which is the best and then study that style completely. Chun Kit and Fung Wu have been chosen to represent their groups. The friends at first refuse to fight. When Lung-Wei make it clear no one leaves someone wins, the friends challenge each other, while obviously holding back their full strength. Lung-Wei gets irritated and demands each use their skills properly. Both sides are stunned to hear Lung-Wei knows of their teachings. Lung-Wei demands the competition be a battle to the death. When Chun Kit and Fung Wu refuse, Lung-Wei's men appear arms to the hilt. Lung-Wei orders the men to fight or be killed. Yue Lam appears and tries to force the friends to fight by having them fight her. This only infuriates Lung-Wei, who decides to fight the friends on his own.Lung-Wei finds himself being defeated when the friends use each others styles against him. Yue Lam begs her brother to stop fighting as the combination of Shaolin and Wu Tang styles appears undefeatable. Lung-Wei only stops fighting after being severely injured by the combine styles. The movies ends with Chun Kit and Fung Wu proving the styles are nearly the same and therefore equal. I gave this an 8 as it had all the ear markings of a Shaw Brothers film, which I adore, good and bad. Gordon Liu's Wushu skills are always a pleasure to watch.

SHAOLIN VS. WU TANG is a stand-alone effort for Shaw Brothers star Gordon Liu, here directing as well as starring. The film is clearly indebted to Shaw and sometimes feels like a Shaw movie in all but name. It's about some super fighting schools and the rivalry between Liu and the slightly arrogant Adam Cheng, which is brought to the fore by the scheming machinations of super-villain Wang Lung Wei (another Shaw staple).Although the film suffers from the usual quality issues evident in the print, it's still a lot of fun and packed with wall-to-wall action. Liu partakes in many of the strenuous bare-chested training sequences that he's well known for, while Wang Lung Wei sits on his throne and broods for the most part, although he does get up to fight our heroes in the exciting climax. Plenty of other Shaw regulars like Ching Li, Chan Shen, and Lee Hoi Sang show up in supporting roles, and if this isn't quite top-tier material, at least it provides decent entertainment from beginning to end.

Using the classic martial arts storyline of the villain who wants to learn the secret style of fighting, SHAOLIN v WU TANG is dope! In this one, we get two friends, one from Shaolin school and the other from Wu tang. After a foul up that results in the murder of the Wu tang master, the two friends soon become enemies, then on a mission to seek acceptance to become monks and challenge one another.The only disappointing thing about this flick is that it's fight scenes don't compare with the beginning of the film, And that's just a training sequence!!!! Still this is one of the masterpieces of Kung Fu film. Keep an ear out for some of the dialogue that was sampled on Wu Tang Clan's CD "36 Chambers".

An excellent martial arts movie. My favorite part is the beginning sequence where the lone wu-tang warrior fights against a squad of monks. The beginning fight scene is worth every penny it costs you to buy the movie.