General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Shaolin and Wu Tang (少林与武当)

Shaolin and Wu Tang (少林與武當; also released as Shaolin vs. Wu Tang) is a 1983 Hong Kong kung fu film directed by and starring Gordon Liu (Liu Chia-hui), in which a Qing-dynasty lord manipulates two best friends from rival martial arts schools into a duel so that he can learn both of their styles¹^•². It was an independent production by Hing Fat Film Company, but it drew heavily on Shaw Brothers talent: Lau Kar-leung, director of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, produced the film and staged its action³. The film is best known outside kung fu fandom as the source of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan's name and of several of its most famous audio samples³^•⁴.

Key fact	Detail
Original title	少林與武當 (Shao Lin yu Wu Dang); English titles include Shaolin and Wu Tang, Shaolin vs. Wu Tang, and Shaolin & Wu Tang⁵
Director and star	Gordon Liu (Liu Chia-hui), with Adam Cheng, Ching Li, Idy Chan, and Johnny Wang Lung-Wei⁶
Production	Hing Fat Film Company, Hong Kong, 1983; produced and action-directed by Lau Kar-leung³^•⁷
Release	Hong Kong 7 July 1983; Taiwan 2 July 1983; France 23 October 1985; Japan video premiere 21 September 1986⁵
Runtime and box office	87 minutes; HK$2,821,952 at the Hong Kong box office⁸
Reception	86% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer with 1,000+ audience ratings; 7.0/10 on IMDb from about 1,200 votes⁹^•¹⁰
Legacy	Provided the Wu-Tang Clan's name and samples used on their 1993 debut album³

Spoilers

Plot

The story follows a familiar premise of the genre, the engineered feud between the Shaolin and Wu Tang schools, which a scholarly account of Hong Kong martial-arts cinema calls one of the genre's most reliable dramatic antagonisms¹⁴. Master Liu and Master Law run rival schools in the same city, one teaching Shaolin fist fighting and the other Wu Tang swordsmanship. Their top students, Hung Jun-kit (Gordon Liu) and Chao Fung-wu (Adam Cheng), are close friends despite their masters' rivalry¹⁵.

After the two students spar at a brothel, word reaches the local Qing lord (Johnny Wang Lung-Wei), who concludes that the two styles could be dangerous and decides he must learn both to protect himself³. Rather than training at the schools, he poisons Master Law and withholds the antidote unless he surrenders the Wu Tang manual; the master instead has his student demonstrate the moves and deliberately steps into one, dying while making his pupil promise never to give up the secrets³. The lord then engineers a fight to the death between the two friends, each representing his school, so that he can observe their secret techniques; the film builds to a finale in which the rivals uncover the plot, and reviewers note that its resolution carries a message of cooperation rather than division¹³^•².

Production

The film was made independently of Shaw Brothers, the Hong Kong studio that had dominated martial-arts cinema since the 1960s, but it carries the studio's fingerprints. Lau Kar-leung, the choreographer and director behind The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), served as producer and action director, and the cast is filled with Shaw Brothers performers including Gordon Liu, Johnny Wang Lung-Wei, Chan Shen, Kwan Hoi-San, Lee Hoi-Sang, and Elvis Tsui³^•⁷. Reviewers note that the film feels like a Shaw Brothers production in its story structure and casting, even though its budget shows: one critic describes it as "take your friends to an open field" kung fu filmmaking, with fights strong enough to shine despite the threadbare production values¹¹^•¹².

Attribution of the direction is not settled. Most sources credit Gordon Liu, and several call the film his directorial debut³^•⁹; the Far East Films review calls it his second film as director and notes that it is sometimes claimed Liu Chia-liang (Lau Kar-leung) was behind the camera¹³. The screenplay is credited to Huang Pa-ching, with co-writers Katy Chin and Chi-kien Wong⁷.

Reception

Critical response has been favorable but measured. The film holds an 86% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, with audience reviews praising the choreography while noting plot holes and a rushed ending⁹. MUBI users rate it 7.1 out of 10, and it appears on IMDb's list of the best independent kung fu films with a 7.0 rating from about 1,200 votes²^•¹⁰. The Far East Films review gives it 4 out of 5, calling the opening sequence an absolute belter and the finale beautifully choreographed, while acknowledging plot holes covered by good-quality action and a fine cast¹³.

Legacy and the Wu-Tang Clan

The film's afterlife exceeds its box-office footprint. In the early 1990s the Staten Island hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan took its name from the film, and RZA sampled dialogue from its English dub on the group's debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993), most famously the line "If what you say is true, the Shaolin and the Wu Tang could be dangerous" on "Bring Da Ruckus"³^•¹⁶. A scholarly study of Afro-Asian performance records that the group drew from the film not only its name but performative codes for its lyrics, narrative structure, and movement style¹⁷. RZA has described renting the VHS on 42nd Street to sample it, making a pilgrimage to the actual Shaolin Temple and Wu-Tang Mountain, and later working with Gordon Liu on The Man with the Iron Fists³.

The film should not be confused with Chang Cheh's 1980 Shaw Brothers picture of the same Chinese title, 少林与武当, which stars Lo Mang and ends with the two schools destroying each other¹⁸.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Martial arts films › Released 1943 to 1985

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026; Nov 11, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026