Executioners from Shaolin

Lau Kar-leung's meticulous kung fu revenge film, in which a survivor of the Shaolin massacre spends years, and a generation, trying to develop a technique capable of defeating the white-browed traitor who destroyed the temple. The villain's invulnerable body is a genuine puzzle the film takes seriously.

Lau's respect for the mechanics of the styles, crane versus tiger, sets it apart, and the training and research are the story rather than filler. It is one of the great Shaw Brothers kung fu films, patient and precise where others are just fast.