Shaolin Temple (1982)

The Tang emperor is betrayed by one of his generals, who installs himself as emperor in the East Capital. The son of one of his slave workers escapes to the Shaolin Temple, learns kung fu, and sets out to kill the traitor, who killed his father.Apparently, the movie's popularity swiftly encouraged filmmakers in China and Hong Kong to produce more Shaolin-based movies. Further, the film spawned a revival of popularity in mainstream martial arts in China. What it was about this movie as opposed to earlier martial arts movies, I have no idea. That is sort of the strange thing about these films for me -- maybe because I am not initiated, they tend to blend together (much like westerns also blend together for me). I don't quite see the nuance.Which is not the say the film is bad. In fact, it is quite good and draws a firm line between romance and Buddha. And the scenery. Wow. I don't know if these are real locations or sets, but it is world's better than the one-dimensional scenery we find in the Shaw Brothers movies.

There are some spoilers down below. Just a bit of a heads up. It has some pretty good fight sequences, and some emotional drama that managed to get to me. I was lucky enough to find a subtitled version online, so did it live up to what I expected? For the most part, yep! Right from the outset with the drama orientated opening, which was my cue to realize I was at least going to get a quality film. I'm a big fan of Jet Li's. I enjoyed his motives for revenge, and never say die attitude, but I felt they could have gone a lot further with it. My only complaints about this movie are this. It's that there are some rather unfunny slapstick sequences. Martial Art stars like Jet & Jackie Chan are infamous for these, and usually they are a hoot, but I didn't like them very much in this one. Maybe I'm being a stickler, but I don't find a dog "accidentally" being killed very funny. I also didn't appreciate the slaughtering of multitudes of sheep. It made me very uncomfortable, and turned me off for a little bit. It does have some decent training sequences and the fight sequences, despite presumably being filled with wires were above average. Jet Li shows off that charisma that he is well known for here. It's no surprise as to why he achieved stardom.Final Thoughts: It was a pretty good film, and always interesting. I wouldn't say it was awesome, but it did provide me with entertainment for the most part, which is all I care about. Well worth watching if you manage to find it 7/10

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.

This is Jet Li's first film as a lead actor, and it doesn't disappoint. The martial arts action is great and the scenery around the Shaolin Temple in Luoyang, China is breathtaking. There are a variety of weapons and styles that are showcased in the film, adding to the action. In particular, seeing the 3 sectional staff used in combat was really cool, and there's one guy who does flips off of his head!It is a rare one to find but if you can find it, I recommend seeing "ShaoLin Temple".