InjunNose By 1980, the entire genre of Chinese martial arts movies--which, in my estimation, had always benefited from its rough-edged quality--was being formalized into something comparable to American soap operas or even Italian Mannerist painting. Better production values are fine, but not when the end result is a film so slick and shiny that it's painful to look at. In technical terms, "The Master" (which aired on cable TV in the mid-1980s as "Three Evil Masters") is a product of its time, but has enough heart to work. Yuen Tak convincingly portrays a bullied, low-ranking student at an unethical kung-fu school who gives refuge to an injured martial arts master (Chen Kuan-tai, who's always worth watching). Chen was wounded in a fight with three bandits who have been terrorizing the countryside, and in exchange for food and shelter he teaches Yuen some valuable moves. Gradually, Yuen becomes a better fighter and must singlehandedly confront the bandits--led by fearsome, white-haired Wang Lung-wei--when they decide to take over the kung-fu school. Terrific fight choreography by Hsu Hsia, and a maddeningly catchy opening theme (which plays beautifully over Chen Kuan-tai's first brawl with the villains) by Eddie Wang. Seven and a half stars.

MartinHafer The DVD for this film is exceptional. Not only is the print absolutely pristine (except for a couple scenes which are a tad blurry), but it fortunately has a choice of either subtitles or a dubbed version. While I feel like a heretic for saying this because it flies in the face of my usual advice, I recommend you try the English dub (oddly, the second option--the first did not work on my machine), as it's simply better. To find out which was superior, I actually watched it with BOTH subtitles and dubbing at the same time--and repeatedly the captions seemed awkward and incorrect (or at least poorly worded).The film starts off rather badly, as like a bad martial arts film, there is a strong emphasis on VERY broad and obnoxious comedy. It is NOT funny and actually pretty stupid. I was very happy wen the film became more serious, as instead of 3rd rate comedy, the film switched to 1st-rate martial arts action. This didn't surprise me very much, as Shaw Brothers films usually have excellent martial arts. While the comedy continued here and there, at least the two complete morons from the first 20 minutes are not in much of the rest of the film...thank goodness! A martial arts master is stabbed and left for dead. While he's amazing at kung fu, he was (naturally) betrayed. He is found by idiot students of a martial arts school that sucks. All the students greatly overrate their own barely adequate skills and their master is second-rate. One of the stupid students is taught by the injured man--who, even injured, can beat this idiot without even breaking a sweat! Oddly, however, aside from just giving the guy a few hints, the jerk goes from barely adequate to a super-human fighting machine--a big plot problem with this film. So, when this injured master is later murdered by three baddies, you know that despite almost no additional training, the student will somehow kill them all to avenge his new master.The story is a bit derivative (with the standard revenge motive) and silly. BUT, fortunately, if you ignore all this, the action is top-notch. The fighting looks real, the actors are very skilled and it is head and shoulders better than the average martial arts film in this department. So, it's a good case of poor story with poor humor being saved by great action. Not among the Shaw Brothers' best, but still quite good.By the way, when the idiot goes off in search of the men responsible for the stabbing, he actually has a reasonably funny scene when he poses as a prostitute in a brothel. Seeing him in makeup trying to act seductive is kind of cute. But, naturally, he mucks things up, as he IS an idiot...a well-meaning one, but still an idiot! So I guess not all the comedy in this film was bad.

Maxime Frechette ALL TIME KUNG FU CULT CLASSICshaw brothers -a young kungfu student helps save the life of a stranger who he later finds out is a great kungfu and sword master. in return for his good deed the man agrees to teach him. unfortunately his current master doesn't like the competition and kicks him out of the school. the master gets a small group of men to slay the 3 evil masters but they don't have much luck and the only person left alive is the master. the 3 evil masters also take over the school as there new headquarters. the student which got kicked out of the school hears about the situation and goes to reclaim the school.Another Shaw Brothers kung fu classic. Nice story, good acting, and the most impressive, the wushu skills of the actors. I really recommend this movie for thoses of you who enjoy real traditional kung fu.The principal actor in this movie is stunning !!If you practice traditional martial arts you will see and understand some moves, it is really nice !!Once again, very good movie, worth watching.

kowalski37 Decent plot and good classical 80s Kung Fu make this a worth seeing film. Contains some quotes used in GZAs 1995 album Liquid Swords, and as a general rule of thumb, any film that the Wu Tang quote is worth seeing. I would put this on a par with 5 Deadly Venoms. Classic plot line of - young student with potential is studying under a poor Kung Fu master and is bullied by fellow students. He looks after a real master who is wounded by the 3 evil masters and who teaches him an old, powerful form of Kung Fu to eventually defeat the 3 evil masters. "The Sword. It's the best weapon of all. Two sharp edges and a long spine. The blade is very thin and it's easily damaged you'll remember that. The vital thing is the point. Pay special attention to it, your life could depend on it".