The Rebel of Shaolin (1977)

A student at Shaolin Temple (Carter Wong) hangs out with a former abbot who was exiled for being a bit too into martial arts challenges, learning his secret techniques. When another student turns up dead and he is found on the scene he is accused of being the killer - and when it happens again he has to flee the temple. The abbots put out a warrant for his arrest - dead or alive.

The plot is a little hard to explain beyond that, though it does more or less make sense - perhaps more by leaning on genre tropes than its own merits. It's possible the version I saw is cut, as it lasts just 85 minutes and the plot makes some unexplained leaps at certain points, but I think it's more likely they just didn't really give a damn and wanted to make sure they got as many fight scenes in as they could before they ran out of film. A perfectly valid artistic choice, if you ask me.

This is a fine example of the chop-socky school of kung fu cinema - it's not trying to be clever or change how you look at the world, just give its familiar stars a chance to showcase their skills in entertaining fight scenes. The fights come frequently and offer plenty of variety. Everybody gets a chance to shine, and there are some fun moves and arrangements.

One for genre afficianados.