To me, this movie is perfection.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

The DVD for this film is exceptional. Not only is the print absolutely pristine (except for a couple scenes which are a tad blurry), but it fortunately has a choice of either subtitles or a dubbed version. While I feel like a heretic for saying this because it flies in the face of my usual advice, I recommend you try the English dub (oddly, the second option--the first did not work on my machine), as it's simply better. To find out which was superior, I actually watched it with BOTH subtitles and dubbing at the same time--and repeatedly the captions seemed awkward and incorrect (or at least poorly worded).The film starts off rather badly, as like a bad martial arts film, there is a strong emphasis on VERY broad and obnoxious comedy. It is NOT funny and actually pretty stupid. I was very happy wen the film became more serious, as instead of 3rd rate comedy, the film switched to 1st-rate martial arts action. This didn't surprise me very much, as Shaw Brothers films usually have excellent martial arts. While the comedy continued here and there, at least the two complete morons from the first 20 minutes are not in much of the rest of the film...thank goodness! A martial arts master is stabbed and left for dead. While he's amazing at kung fu, he was (naturally) betrayed. He is found by idiot students of a martial arts school that sucks. All the students greatly overrate their own barely adequate skills and their master is second-rate. One of the stupid students is taught by the injured man--who, even injured, can beat this idiot without even breaking a sweat! Oddly, however, aside from just giving the guy a few hints, the jerk goes from barely adequate to a super-human fighting machine--a big plot problem with this film. So, when this injured master is later murdered by three baddies, you know that despite almost no additional training, the student will somehow kill them all to avenge his new master.The story is a bit derivative (with the standard revenge motive) and silly. BUT, fortunately, if you ignore all this, the action is top-notch. The fighting looks real, the actors are very skilled and it is head and shoulders better than the average martial arts film in this department. So, it's a good case of poor story with poor humor being saved by great action. Not among the Shaw Brothers' best, but still quite good.By the way, when the idiot goes off in search of the men responsible for the stabbing, he actually has a reasonably funny scene when he poses as a prostitute in a brothel. Seeing him in makeup trying to act seductive is kind of cute. But, naturally, he mucks things up, as he IS an idiot...a well-meaning one, but still an idiot! So I guess not all the comedy in this film was bad.

"The Master" begins like an old Western. A gang (gunslingers) of three known as The 3 Devils enter a tea house (saloon), looking for a man dressed all in white named Jin Tianyun. The film opens with a great fight, where The 3 Devils come at Jin Tianyun with fists & feet, throwing darts, tonfa, and knives.Meanwhile Gao Jian, a kung fu wanna-be, is practicing at a nearby martial arts school. His skills are pitiful and he's always being bullied by classmates. Jin Tianyun shows up injured at Gao Jian's door, and Gao takes him in and helps nurse him to health. Jin Tianyun takes a liking to the hapless Gao Jian and agrees to teach him kung fu behind his master's back.All the while, The 3 Devils continue to hunt for Jin Tianyun. The three finally catch up with "Brother Jin" at the school, and by this time Gao Jian's skills are honed like a razor's edge. He must rise to the challenge to defend his school and avenge his new "Master"."The Master" is well paced, has lots of the cheesy slapstick of this genre & era, and has some great fights, especially the final one where Gao Jian battles the best of The 3 Devils. I very much recommend this movie to fans of the genre.An interesting note: the actor who plays Jin Tianyun was in the recent Donnie Yen film "Dragon Tiger Gate".

THE MASTER is a very entertaining kung fu comedy from the last days of the Shaw Brothers. After the success of Drunken Master and Snake in the eagle shadow, the studio release this one, showing the great capacities of Chen Kuan Tai as "the master". The humor is a bit irritating but there are some good gags and the action is fast-paced. Kung fu choregraphies are good, like in the Jackie Chan movies of this era. This movies is not a masterpiece but it's really fun to watch: the plot is simple, there is a slightly erotic sequence, some violence and plenty of fights. If you like shaw brothers movies that go straight in your face like Monkey Kung Fu or Crippled Avenger, you will surly like this one! Worth catching for all kung fu fan, like the other Tony Liu movies, especially the crazy Holy Flame of the Martial World.

The Shaw Bros. have more than proved that they where the king of kung fu film production. In comes 3 Evil Masters, it follows the same storyline as most old school kung fu flicks. Orphan kid taken in and the master treats him like garbage.Chen Kuan Tai steps on the scene injured from a plot to kill him. The kicker is that he is also the same man that broke the cruel masters' ribs and agrees to teach the orphan kid kung fu. Chen Kuan Tai is then hurt again from a fight, he escapes only to run into the Evil 3 that has been trying to kill him.Finally they succeed causing the orphan student to extract revenge to the fullest. An early Shaw Bros. title, and a good one indeed. Check this movie out, you can't go wrong.