Hong Kong Five Shaolin Masters is a Hong Kong–Taiwan co-production — one of only a handful of such cross-border film titles indexed here.
Synopsis
少林五祖
Hu Te et al. escape the burning Shaolin temple after the Qing soldiers destroyed it in Shaolin Temple. The group of 5 decide to develop secret codes to identify fellow patriots, enlist those patriots and eventually meet up again to escape to the south away from the Qings, and also identify the traitor who sold out Shaolin temple. Ma Fu Yi, joins the Qing top fighters to eliminate the rebels but is exposed by Ma Chao-Tsing who gets captured by Ma Fu Yi. Hu meets up with a group of Shaolin men secretly posing as bandits to rescue Ma as their leader is killed in the process, thus the bandits join the rest of the Shaolin patriots.
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #42 of 836 Hong Kong films indexed here (95th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +1.2 points above the Hong Kong average of 6.3/10.
Among Hong Kong Action productions specifically: #18 of 516 (top 3%).
Hong Kong × Taiwan Co-Production
Other Hong Kong×Taiwan titles
Other Titles From Chang's Film Company
Action + Drama in Hong Kong
136 Hong Kong titles in our catalog blend the Action and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Five Shaolin Masters itself).
The 1973–1975 Hong Kong Window
Among 24 Hong Kong films we catalog from this window, Five Shaolin Masters places #3 — near the top of its class.
The 1970s Hong Kong Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1970s in Hong Kong, 122 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Five Shaolin Masters premiered alongside 8 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 8 other Hong Kong films in 1974.
The 51st Hong Kong title from Hong Kong we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1955).
Our Hong Kong catalog contains 836 titles in total (828 films).
Audience Engagement
24 audience reviews — more than 48% of Hong Kong films in our index.
Popularity sits at the 48th percentile among Hong Kong films.
Production Details
| Primary Country | Hong Kong |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | Hong Kong, Taiwan |
| Original Language | Chinese |
| Production Companies | Chang's Film Company, Shaw Brothers |
| Runtime | 1h 50m |
| Release Date | December 25, 1974 |
| IMDb | tt0072991 |