EDITOR’S NOTE: As the journey through Cannon continues, this week we’re exploring the films of 21st Century Film Corporation, which would be the company that Menahem Golan would take over after Cannon. Formed by Tom Ward and Art Schweitzer in 1971 (or 1976, there are some disputed expert opinions), 21st Century had a great logo and released some wild stuff.
What is a mystagogue? According to Wikipedia, it’s “A mystagogue is a person who initiates others into mystic beliefs, and an educator or person who has knowledge of the sacred mysteries of a belief system.”
Fang Shao Ching (Carter Wong) has one of those mystagogues. His blind teacher refuses to reveal the 18th secret move to him as he’s too impatient. That said, if a martial artist uses the 18th strike, it doesn’t just kill their opponent. They die as a result of the blow as well. So maybe the teacher is right to not share this strike.
Soon, Fang Shao Ching and his sister Fang Ping (Feng Hsu) must protect a prince from the Ching government, which has taken over. They’ve sent many killers to murder him, including Yeun Ming (Chang Yi), who has perhaps the greatest weapon since the flying guillotine. He has these magnetic knives called the Bloody Birds that can either be knives, spinning blades, boomerangs, bombs or even drills that go right through flesh.
Sure, the fighting isn’t the best, but the main bad guy has skin that can’t be pierced and a throne that shoots bullets. Plus, you get rooms full of traps and I love when kung fu meets dungeon crawling. It’s no Shaw Brothers but is still pretty fun.
According to Temple of Schlock, this was originally called Da Mo Mi Zong and first played in 1976. It was first released in the U.S. by Headliner Productions as Mystagogue Superman and it as played as Killer Fists and 18 Shaolin Disciples.
You can watch this on YouTube.
B&S About Movies 
Dang it, I thought a Mystagogue was a place, like a weird magic temple/black lodge/fighting arena/death trap/drug initiation kind of place – like ‘The Octagon’ was in our 70s kids minds when those Chuck Norris commercials were playing every ten minutes. We had some pretty wild ideas about what went on in the Octagon. Turns out, it was just Chuck throwing ninjas around on the soft sand. So we moved out chips over the Mystagogue, which we never actually saw. Now it turns out mystagogue is a person — dang it.
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