bob the moo The Tang Emperor is betrayed by one of his own generals, who installed himself as the new Emperor of the eastern region. The population of this area are the ones to suffer, with many forced into slavery to work at his demand. Chieh Yuan and his father are two such men but, one day Chieh and his father fight back and, although the two bravely hold off the guards, his father is killed as he instructs Chieh to flee to fight another day. Near-death, Chieh finds himself at a Shaolin monastery where he is taken in and nursed back to health. He takes up the teachings of the monks – in particular the martial arts – and prepares for the day he will meet his father's killer. In the meantime though, he has to worry about the many rules that his new life imposes on him.On some levels this film is a terrible mess of a thing. The plot is quite basic and the writers really need to hit three stages of narrative which are 1) events before the monastery, 2) events at the monastery and 3) events around the conflict that closes out stage (1). These are all in place but it is up to them how they fill out these three stages and, in this case, it must be said the answer is "not that well". We get lots of things happening but not of them are that good. Chieh manages to kill a dog (which belongs to the daughter of his master), eat meat (and get the others eating meat) and do all manner of things that kinda go against the whole Buddhist monk vibe that he had been working on. The film has these come up and be laughed off by the others and after a while it just feels a bit weird. I'm not defending Buddha here and if these bits had been funny or engaging then I would not have cared one bit but, as it is, they don't work and even as time filler they are not that worth while.In reality though, this doesn't matter because nobody has come to this film for the plot so much as they have to see Jet Li making his film debut and jumping right into film success. And jump he does (I'm not want to avoid rubbish linking puns) as almost all of the action in this film is impressive and engaging. Some of it is quite soft in regards the danger faced by our characters whereas some is pretty tough but whether it is a training demonstration or the final montage of fights, it is really impressive on physical and technical levels. It also helps that it is well short. Having just watched Transporter 3 recently, Shaolin Si comes over as a breath of fresh air in how it is willing to put the camera down and shoot action sequences where each take is longer than (gasp) 1 second and (brace yourselves) we get several moves in each take (no!). This lets us see that the cast can do their stuff and you can see why Li became a massive name because he is unbelievably skilled and has great physical control – heck I've started to make a little grunting noise every time I stand up whereas he seems to do the impossible in his stride. Looking back (and even then) Li does get all the attention but everyone else is just as good, with lots of impressive moves. Not everyone has as good a screen presence (the daughter being a bit weak for example) but when it comes to the action everyone performs.Shaolin Si doesn't have the greatest script and, by extension, the performances and also how much the viewer will care about the characters are also weakened. However in regards simple physical ability of those involved in the making it is very engaging indeed. There are consistent and enjoyable scenes of martial arts action – a couple stand out above the rest but all of them are impressive and fun to watch. Ignore the narrative but definitely stay for the action.

Reshep Thinking back, I was very lucky to find this film when I was about 20 years old, in HMV in Birmingham of all places.Although bought at random it soon began to get regular viewings between myself and friends, and along with Gordon Liu's 36 chambers of Shaolin became one of my favourite films.Although the dubbing was dire in my opinion, it could be forgiven when weighed up against all the various styles shown and fight scenes, and light comedy moments.I will never forget the scene when Li is spying on the other monks, esp the guy with a dart on rope spinning it underneath himself with only the back of his head and one foot touching the ground at an insanely quick pace.

blazeholiday I went into this film with a negative mind frame and came out quite pleased.There were a few times the movie slowed down, but overall kept great action. Jet Li's Wushu proves to be at best in his early years. He has to share the spotlight with a handful of other Martial Artist in this great film. They decided to cast actual Martial Aritist instead of actors. Which proves to be best fit for this movie which focuses the moves more then the acting! On a side note, the man Jet Li refers to as "Master" shows a down to earth approach with the monks philosophy. He shows both loyalty and leeway to his beliefs and the students below him.

pbtips No camera tricks. No high production value (even compared to the Hong Kong Kung Fu movies at that time). No stunt men/women. No wire. It is just pure Kung Fu. The location is real and so are the fighting. It belongs to the classic that we miss in today's Kung Fu movies. If you practice Kung Fu, you have to watch it repeatedly to learn a lot from the real masters. It is quite good for the first Kung Fu movie made in China (about 20 years ago).