Though Sammo Hung began his film career as a child actor, it took him years to earn starring roles. For Hung’s first lead, we go to 1977’s The Shaolin Plot.

Desperate to master every form of martial arts, Prince Daglen (Sing Chen) seeks manuals to learn all these methods. Eventually he only needs two to finish the set.

Prince Daglen sends a vicious renegade monk called Golden Cymbals (Hung) to get one of these texts. Daglen himself needs to infiltrate the Shaolin temple on his own to obtain the final book and accomplish his goal, but he’ll need to fight Little Tiger (James Tien), the last Wu-Tang student, to do so.

In other words, one should expect a movie light on story and heavy on action from Plot. That doesn’t seem unusual for martial arts films, though, as most fans flock to them for their stunts more than their characters and narratives.

The thin nature of the tale becomes an impediment for Plot, however, because it goes through long stretches with little to no martial arts material. While it starts and finishes with a bang, the extended middle section sags.

Not that this segment lacks any form of thrills, as it allows for the occasional fight to manifest. However, too much of it plods.

Despite the movie’s inherently flimsy story, this middle portion spends a lot of time on unnecessary narrative elements. If Plot developed these or its characters, I’d enjoy this material, but nothing major arises.

As much as Plot seems to want to offer something with a bit of depth, it doesn’t get there. It lacks the substance it needs to turn into anything more than a slow drama.

During that extended middle section, that is. When allowed to focus on wild battles, Plot manages to come to life.

Mostly, as some choices threaten to sabotage those strengths. For one, the soundtrack attached comical sound effects to the weapons used by Golden Cymbals.

That character’s name comes from his use of thrown cymbals to attack his opponents. I like this inventive concept but the decision to give the weapons goofy audio backfires, as the cymbals in flight often sound like bad B-movie flying saucers.

Even with various drawbacks, the martial arts sequences manage a lot of pop. Plot finds creative ways to depict its conflicts and these give the movie zing.

Too bad the film’s attempts at drama become so tedious. As much as the fights entertain, the extended and sluggish middle section of the flick means it will tax the viewer’s patience.

The Shaolin Plot appears in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Overall the movie looked positive.

In general, the movie came with reasonably precise sharpness. Occasional slight soft shots materialized – most of which appeared to stem from the source photography – but the majority of the flick seemed well-rendered.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects emerged, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt natural, and print flaws remained absent.

Plot opted for a fairly natural palette. The hues felt vibrant and full.

Blacks seemed pretty deep and dense, while shadows displayed fine clarity and smoothness outside of some murky “day for night” material. Overall, this became a more than satisfying presentation.

Don’t expect much from the iffy LPCM monaural soundtrack of Plot. Speech suffered from a fair amount of edginess and never seemed especially natural, though the lines remained intelligible.

Neither music nor effects boasted much range, and they turned fairly shrill at times. Some mild background noise manifested through the film. I’ve heard worse 1970s Asian soundtracks, but this one nonetheless felt subpar.

Note that in addition to the original Mandarin audio, the Blu-ray comes with an English dub. I sampled some of it and found it predictably awful in terms of acting quality.

When we hit the disc’s extras, we find two separate audio commentaries. The first comes from film historians Frank Djeng and Michael Worth, both of whom sit together for a running, screen-specific look at cast and crew, stunts and martial arts, sets and locations, genre domains and connections to other films, and their general thoughts about the movie.

Veterans of the format, Djeng dominates the commentary, and he does fine. Worth throws out a decent array of notes but this one largely belongs to Djeng, and he manages to offer a positive view of the various topics.

For the second commentary, we hear from film historians Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. They also chat together in their running, screen-specific view of cast and crew, stunts and martial arts, sets and locations, genre domains and connections to other films, and their general thoughts about the movie.

In other words, Venema and Leeder touch on domains similar to those of the Djeng/Worth, and inevitable repetition occurs, especially when they discuss cast/crew careers. Nonetheless, they come at the film from a somewhat different slant.

Along with their enthusiasm, this helps make the track engaging, even when it becomes repetitive. I think they push their comparisons between Star Wars and martial arts movies too hard – and too often – however.

Alternate English Credits span two minutes, 10 seconds and show the same footage as the theatrical version but simply with different text. This seems nice for completists but no one else appears likely to care.

In addition to two trailers, we conclude with an Image Gallery that offers 36 elements. These mix shots from the flick and some ads to become a mediocre compilation.

When it focuses on its martial arts scenes, The Shaolin Plot becomes pretty entertaining. Unfortunately, it devotes too much time to dull stabs at narrative elements that just make it drag. The Blu-ray comes with pretty solid picture, iffy audio and a mix of bonus materials highlighted by two commentaries. I think Plot offers enough to intrigue genre fans but its drawbacks make it a mixed bag.