Disciples of Shaolin stars Alexander Fu Sheng as a wandering pauper, Kuan, that comes to his brother’s city and finds himself in trouble almost immediately for being a perpetual goofball. Luckily, he’s able to fight his way out of most situations. Shortly after arriving he stops at the textile factory his brother works at, and finds the place in a bit of a situation. As it turns out there is a competiting factory in town, and that factory doesn’t believe in friendly competition. Rather, they send thugs over to mess things up for Kuan’s brother’s factory. Well, because Kuan is a Shaolin kung-fu master he begins to act defense for the factory as a job, and also tries training the staff in his kung fu. This works for a while, but not permanently as Kuan is to find out…

Disciples of Shaolin is a good, solid Shaw Brothers action flick. It’s not a high point of the studio’s action output, but it’s a fun chop-socky time waster, and a fun way to spend an afternoon. The film is anchored by the lightly comic performance by Fu Sheng, who fills a Jackie Chan-esque role. Though oddly, the film does end up going to darker, more melancholy places which I would have not predicted by the early tone.

88 Films presents Disciples of Shaolin in a very solid 2:35:1 with a 1080p transfer that looks very solid and filmlike. LPCM 1.0 tracks cover the audio spectrum, and come through crisp and clear in both English and Mandarin. Extras include a commentary with Samm Deighan, and another with Mike Leeder/Arne Venema. There is also an interview with Jamie Luk included on the disc as well as a trailer. RECOMMENDED.