A Martial Arts Double Feature

A passion of mine that I've got away from recently is watching Martial Arts movies.  The new El Rey Network has been airing a lot of the Shaw Brothers movies and I recently had a chance to catch up on a couple.  "Shaolin Mantis" and "Five Element Ninja".

"Five Element Ninja" is a movie directed by the legendary director Chang Cheh.  It's like most of these films a revenge tale.  The main character gets his revenge on a clan of ninja's who destroy his school.

The ninja's represent the five elements, ( gold,wood,fire,water and earth). I'm not familiar with the star of the film but one of the other actors is Meng Lo who was part of the Venom Mob (starred in the Five Venoms).

The other movie I watched this weekend was "Shaolin Mantis".  This was directed by Lau Kar Leung another classic director- choreographer of this time. David Chiang stars as a spy sent to infiltrate a group of rebels.

He ends up teaching the grand daughter of the group leader, falls in love with her and they eventual marry.  The story ends up showing the main character learning a Mantis technique by watching a praying mantis and getting revenge there is also a big twist at the end.

Great movies that I'm glad I finally had a chance to see.