THE DYNAMITE SHAOLIN HEROES (1977)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *sociological*

Two surprises about this low-budget chopsocky: that it's an early directorial effort by Godfrey Ho, who would become infamous in the eighties for churning out dozens of incoherent ninja-films, and that by comparison HEROES is fairly comprehensible, though the plot is still not easy to follow and it's easy to confuse the characters, since the only "name" actor in the film is Lo Lieh. 

In fact, I rather lost track as to whether Lo Lieh's character was or was not the secret identity of the film's only real hero, "the Lotus Man." In fact, the oddly named mystery-man seems to have borrowed a few tropes from Western superheroes. Though attired in regular Chinese clothes for the most part, Lotus Man's identity is masked by the basket-like hat known in Japan as the Komuso. And whenever the Lotus Man foils a crime, he leaves behind a dart with a lotus-flower attached, not unlike the spider-sigil left behind by the American pulp crusader The Spider.

To be sure, the "crimes" with which Lotus Man is concerned are sociological in nature. The historical setting is hazy, but I presume it must take place during the Qing Dynasty, because all the bad guys are looking for loyalists who supported the earlier Ming Dynasty. Lotus Man frequently shows up to help out Ming patriots, rather like the Scarlet Pimpernel succoring French royalists, but with more bare-handed fighting. (Lotus Man, unlike his enemies, uses no weapons.) 

Early on the plot also introduces what seems to be a B-plot, though it eventually takes over the film. Young Chinese aristocrat Ching Ching, daughter of Ming patriot Kang, is subjected to an arranged marriage to a prince, presumably a Qing (Lo Lieh). Ching Ching thinks the prince is a wimp and admires the heroic Lotus Man (Lois and Clark, anyone?) Then a second Lotus Man appears to confuse matters, though in due time the copycat is revealed to be one of the Qing enforcers, who's also in love with Ching Ching. 

The film's lively fight-scenes are mostly in the middle, while those at the climax prove forgettable. As noted there are no other central heroes but Lotus Man, though strangely, even though Kang and Ching Ching are not martial artists, they have a maid who fights the Qing henchmen about a minute before she's killed. The "dynamite" of the title is just more hyperbole, and no one is referred to in the English translation as a Shaolin. There is one Buddhist guy who doesn't like seeing the lotus, a symbol of peace, corrupted by the violent acts of a vigilante, but I don't think he was supposed to be any sort of "Shaolin."