Shaolin Traitorous (1976) | WS (VHS) | USED | Subtitled

**USA ONLY**

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Title: Shaolin Traitorous (1976)

Alternate Title: The Traitorous

Genre: Martial Arts / Wuxia

Plot Synopsis
As a child in the Ming-era court, a young boy witnesses the cold-blooded murder of his parents by corrupt officials and elite fighters. He flees and patiently waits outside a temple of the Shaolin, eventually gaining admission and enduring rigorous training in the martial arts, including a deadly finger-thrust discipline that mirrors his future nemesis’s style. In adulthood he ventures into the world, allying with a woman whose family was slain by the same regime, and together they confront the cunning eunuch-official and his henchmen who orchestrated the atrocity. A climactic battle ensues involving massive formations of guards, drum-beaten attacks, and the ultimate duel for vengeance.

Cast and Crew

• Director: Sung Ting-Mei

• Writers: Chang Hsin-Yi

• Cast:

  • Carter Wong as Shang Yung

  • Polly Shang-Kuan as Hsiao Yun-erh

  • Chang Yi as Tin Erh Keng

  • Sammo Hung as First Head (henchman)

  • Fei-Lung Huang

IMDb Link: Shaolin Traitorous (1976)

Reviews from Letterboxd

1. Chuck Dowling – ★★★☆☆
   “The emperor’s royal guard are all a bunch of murderous jackasses. They murder a family, leaving behind a young boy. The boy goes to Shaolin Temple to learn kung fu and grows up to be Carter Wong. After 10 years he sets out to get his revenge, but to complicate matters there is also a lady. Shaolin Traitorous doesn’t excel at any one thing, but the sum of its parts is more than entertaining enough. The fights aren’t amazing, but each one usually has some truly goofy bit of business in it that’ll make it memorable. Sammo Hung is here playing a much older man and gets a surprising amount of screen time.”

2. DeadInside69 – ★★★☆☆
   “Revenge is a dish best spray painted gold.”

3. se13an – ★★★☆☆
   “Carter Wong, Journeyman of Martial Arts: You have a low budget martial arts movie but you need somebody who can throw down you get Carter Wong. Carter Wong never got to be a big name, he wasn’t the greatest actor but his martial arts were solid and frankly that is really all you need for a martial arts hero, the ability to beat up the other guy. He was a great brawler, not super nimble but that the physique to come across a guy that packed a serious punch. Ably assisted by Polly Shang, another great martial artist that never achieved her just rewards. The story is your standard train at Shaolin to defeat evil Manchu. It breaks no new ground or does any revolutionary but it knows its business and is a very solid brawler from the standard Martial Arts Plot B.”

4. Kevin McCormick – ★★★★☆
   “Concentrated joy. Technique and storytelling are great and all but they pale in comparison to all the things that really matter: villains with white facial hair, mastering martial arts through manual labor, brazenly re-appropriated stolen Ennio Morricone music, Shaolin monks, gratuitous aerial acrobatics, Evil Sammo, Polly Kwan and wizened alcoholic dish washers spouting gobbledygook like “Breath’s the base, use skill to defeat hard.””

5. Zero Ena ゼロエナ – ★★½☆☆
   “Kind sieht zu wie seine Eltern getötet werden und beschließt ins Shaolin Kloster zu gehen um Kung Fu zu lernen. Im Kloster angekommen ist erstmal hartes und jahrelanges Training angesagt, bis der Tag der Rache gekommen ist. Kommt euch bekannt vor? Nennt man halt Standard Revenge Vehikel und genau das ist was uns erwartet. Nicht mehr, nicht weniger. Einzig der Cast machen das alles nennenswert und vielleicht für den ein oder anderen Genre Fan einen Blick wert. Unseren Helden, nach intensiven Training im Erwachsenenalter, darf Carter Wong mimen. Wie gewohnt ist Carter Wong imposant, doch leider auch keine Charisma Bombe und seine 3-4 Gesichtsausdrücke zeugen auch nicht von großer Schauspielerei. Was ich sagen will, ich mag ihn aber…”
   (Translated: “A child watches his parents get killed and decides to go to the Shaolin monastery to learn kung-fu. Arriving at the monastery means hard and years of training, until the day of revenge comes. You know this one? It’s standard revenge vehicle and exactly what we expect. Nothing more, nothing less. Only the cast make it worthwhile and maybe for the genre fan a look worth it. Our hero, after intensive training in adulthood, is played by Carter Wong. As usual Carter Wong is imposing but unfortunately also no charisma bomb and his 3-4 facial expressions do not show great acting.”)

Meta Description:
Action-packed 1976 Hong Kong martial arts film featuring relentless revenge, Shaolin training and dynamic fights led by Carter Wong and Polly Shang-Kuan.