Starring: Jet Li, Yu Hai, Wong Chau-Yin, Yue Sing-Wai, Wu Gin-Keung, Gai Chun-Wa
Director: Lau Kar-Leung
Choreographer: Lau Kar-Leung and company
Mormon Meter: Martial arts action, moderate violence
We've already dealt with two Mainland kung fu films on this website. Those were the two Young Hero of Shaolin films. They were full of excellent fighting and wushu (especially the second film), if not coherence. I like Mainland films. They have the talent to back them up and they know how to use it. They are known for their large casts of wushu stylists, beautiful scenery, and mostly no-nonsense storylines. In short, they are heaven for martial arts purists.
I've seen several Mainland movies in my day. I've seen Jet Li's first three movies, which are all great films (in spite of Jet Li having to share the screen time with so many other people). I've seen the two Young Hero of Shaolin films, which have already been reviewed. I saw a movie called Revenge of the Tai Chi Master, which was pretty good and boasted one of the most laughably abrupt endings committed to celluloid. The other Mainland film that I saw was The Undaunted Wudang, which had lots of Chinese internal styles (tai chi, pa kua, etc.) showcased. That was a great movie with some classic dubbed dialogue (ex. "The rascal must've spilled the beans."). There are other Mainland movies that I need to see and I hope I come across them here in Brazil.
This movie is, on paper, the ideal martial arts film. If you mix superior Hong Kong fight choreography, a very talented cast, and your usual Chinese scenery, you get the recipe for a classic. The final result isn't necessarily the classic I was hoping for (for some personal reasons I'll mention afterward), but it's the type of movie that Jet Li should've made more of.
The movie begins with a Qing official running through the Forbidden City screaming, "Stop the execution!" With an imperial decree in hand, he makes it through the guards to the gallows but he is too late. The man whose life he came to save is already hanging from the ceiling. The official reproves the culprit, Qing commander He Suo for executing an innocent man. He Suo responds by sending his men to kill the official. I guess if you've already kill one official, what's one more? I wonder what his alibi was? I wonder if he got himself into a pickle for that? I mean, it was in the Forbidden City and not in the middle of the Gobi Desert.
Cut to the Shaolin Temple in the North, where Zhi Ming (Jet Li) is venting his anger on a stack of paper pinned to a tree. He must be filled with a lot of anger, since he's not only punching through the paper, but he's beating the bark of the tree without realizing it. Anyways, we find out that Jet Li's father was the unfortunate victim of the execution and that Jet Li hasn't forgotten it yet.
However, before we get into that, we get to see Jet Li training a little bit at the temple under the tutelage of Master Zhi Ren (Yu Hai). Zhi Ren is preparing his class for an upcoming martial arts competition with another group from the school. The preparation is rather interesting as part of it consists of Jet Li sneaking in a snake from some beggars/students of his, skinning it (on camera), and then frying it (on camera too!), and then sneaking it into his team's buns at dinnertime. Interestingly enough, Zhi Ren, who must be more of a "spirit of the law" kind of guy, doesn't object. This must create some bad karma between Jet Li's team and Buddha, however. At the competition, which consists of two teams of Shaolin monks fighting over a paint brush to see who can write "Buddha" (Luo Han?) first on a giant flip chart, Jet's team loses.
But that's not all that necessary to the plot. So Jet finds out from his beggar pupils that He Suo will be in town soon to celebrate his birthday. So Ming sneaks out of the temple and dresses as a layman in order to carry out an assassination attempt. Unbeknownst to Ming, a woman named Sima Yin is preparing to kill He Suo too, with the help of Chao Wei, a layman studying at the Southern Shaolin temple.
As you might expect, the assassination attempt is a failure and soon the three would-be assassins are on the lam from He Suo and his personal guard. In an attempt to trap them, He Suo starts setting up road blocks and checkpoints to take a look at anyone who might be passing by. So, Ming does what anyone else would do in this situation: he dresses as a shepherdess and his accomplices as sheep and herds them through the checkpoints. You know, in all honesty, Jet Li makes a far better girl than Jackie Chan does. He's a lot better at being..."feminine" than Chan. I say this because Chan is known for comedy and Jet has always been something of a Steven Seagal here so it might be difficult to imagine Jet Li with much of a comic side. It's there and quite charming, actually.
After a botched attempt to sneak past the Great Wall (and of course, the subsequent fight), Ming and his cohorts are able to flee to safety. Unfortunately, Ming is found by Zhi Ren and his Shaolin pole squad, who had been sent to bring Ming back the temple. Back at the temple, Zhi Ming is sentenced to three years or so in a cave to ponder his mistake and repent. Meanwhile, Sima Yin and Chao Wei go back to the Southern Shaolin Temple to hide.
Ming, however, escapes from the Shaolin Temple and is soon on his way to the Southern Shaolin Temple to round up his compadres and take on He Suo once and for all.
Martial Arts of Shaolin is basically a remake of Shaolin Temple, Jet Li's first movie. These two movies, in addition to Kids from Shaolin, are often referred to as a triology. That's true only in terms of the cast, which the three films share. The relationship between this movie and the first one is something akin to the relationship between the first and third Chinese Ghost Story films, which were basically remakes set in different eras. This movie takes place in the Qing dynasty, where the first movie took place in the Song Dynasty, which I believe was a difference of about 1000 years or so. Nonetheless, both films deal with Jet Li studying at the Shaolin Temple in order to prepare himself to seek vengeance on the corrupt warlord (played both times by Yue Sing-Wai) who killed his father.
Besides the different dynasties in which the two films take place, there are a few subtle differences between these two films. Lau Kar-Leung lightens the tone of this movie a lot more than the first one. There is a lot more humor in this movie than in the first one. Sure, there are moments of drama and violence, but it's balanced by some of the humorous antics of Jet Li. At one point, he dresses up as a female shepherdess (which makes this the second movie that I've reviewed in which Jet Li cross-dresses) to get him and his friends across the military checkpoints. That's probably the comedic high-point of the movie, which really should be seen by everyone since his American movies have almost always portrayed him as being a stoic and serious person with little or no sense of humor. That scene will quickly put an end to that.
Another difference between the two movies is the importance of the Shaolin Temple (in this case, temples) in the storyline. At the beginning of this movie, Jet Li is already a martial arts dynamo at the temple and flees the temple relatively early in order to make an assassination attempt on his nemesis. Most of the movie is spent with our heroes on the run from the Qing army. In the first movie, a lot more time was spent at the temple in order to showcase Jet Li's training and also the subsequent assault on it. Here, while the two temples are somewhat important, they play as big a part in the story itself.
Now, Lau Kar-Leung has always been interested in making movies dealing different martial arts styles, martial arts philosophies, conflicts between styles, etc. One of the titles of this movie (I think it's the literal translation of the Chinese title) is North Shaolin, South Shaolin. Lau Kar-Leung takes the opportunity to show us some of the differences between the two styles, and also shows off various other styles as well. Northern style is generally known for having more of an emphasis on kicking than the Southern styles, which use more fists, iron forearms, horse stances, etc. Compare Jet Li to Wu Gin-Keung in the finale: Jet uses his feet whereas Wu uses more short attacks in which his defense is an offense in itself. Also, notice that Wu's character studies at the Southern Temple, and Wu isn't a monk, but a layman. The Shaolin Temple in the South was famous for taking in laymen; Fong Sai-Yuk and Hung Hey-Kwun are among the most famous pupils to study there. When Jet Li goes to the temple to visit Wu, most of the kung fu practioners are normal people. It's an interesting contrast to the Northern Temple where Jet's character trains.
Now, with all this in mind, anyone who comes into this movie expecting anything special in the plot department or anything like that will be grossly disappointed. In spite of its release date, this is strictly and old-school chopsockey film, no more, no less. Old school films aren't known for intricate plots, moralizing, political statements (generally), or anything like that. They are known for having copious amounts of fights and stories which are mere excuses for such. I've read a number of negative and lukewarm reviews of this film. I know that we all are entitled to our own opinions, but I feel that people that criticize this movie on the grounds of the plot and characters are really looking way beyond the mark.
I think that people who are raised on the New Age films from the 1990s and the Crouching Tiger... generation will have a difficult time with these older flicks and will find it hard to appreciate things like depictions of different styles and philosophies. They see the choreography as dated, the storylines as thin and/or pointless, complain about the acting, etc. It was a gradual adjustment for me to like the old school; I used to prefer the New Age films. Now, although I like all films for their own merits, I lament that Jet Li never made more old school chopsockey films, especially considering how many films of his used wires. People b**** and moan about Jet Li's pre-OUATIC films, but they should stop and think that few of his movies from the 1990s on have had physical peformances to match his first five or so films.
In all honesty, I hardly think that anyone who goes into a movie starring Jet Li and directed by Lau Kar-Leung will really say to themselves, "Wow, two of the great martial arts movie talents working together! I can't wait to see the storyline on this baby!" Well, maybe there are. But I don't imagine these people are normal. But then, what do I know? Most people will go into such a movie saying, "I hope the fight scenes kick butt!" And well, they do. Lau Kar-Leung definitely knows how to build up the fight scenes. We all too often have watched movies where the movies builds up and then peters out before the climax. This movie, thankfully, builds up to the climax. Each fight is successively more impressive until we reach the showstopping climax where *spoiler alert!* Jet Li and Wu Gin-Keung lead a two-man assault on the villain's personal boat and then are assisted by the North Shaolin pole squad and the South Shaolin layman sword platoon. The final action blowout is exhausting melee of Northern style kung fu (which emphasizes kicking), Southern style kung fu (Lau's specialty), various styles, and various weapons.
Let me take a moment to make a special note. Yue Sing-Wai, who plays He Suo, is a champion swordsman from the Mainland. From my research on this movie, it seems that he had researched a special sword which had been lost for hundreds of years. He spent some 14 years researching and reconstructing the sword. In the finale, there's a delirious 3-on-1 weapons battle where he shows off his excellent swordsmanship. Yue Sing-Wai also appeared in the Mainland epic Yellow River Fighter and played a Wudang (re: Wu Tang) sword master in Kids from Shaolin.
Under Lau Kar-Leung's direction, Jet Li gives one of the most impressive martial arts performances of his career. Whereas the first two Shaolin Temple films were rather "rough around the edges" in terms of choreography, Lau's talent and years of experience brought a certain "polishing" quality to the fight scenes. This is especially true with Jet Li's performance, which is crisp, fast, acrobatic, flexible, and intricate all in one. Jet's footwork is unbelievable--not in the sense of flying double kicks and stuff (which we all like), but with regards to how fast he moves and utilizes them. In addition to his Northern style, Jet Li also gets to show off a little bit of pa-kua (one of the Chinese "internal styles"; the "good" Jet uses it in the climax of The One) and the preying mantis style, in addition to some weapons work. He gives the type of performance that we wish we could see more of, but unfortunately, Jet Li's popularity really soared during the New Wage era of the 1990s and thus, many of his movies used lots of wire work instead of this.
Being a Mainland Chinese martial arts film, the entire cast is made up of talented wushu stylists and anyone who's seen Jet Li's other films will recognize most of the supporting cast. Yu Hai, who played Jet's teacher in the first Shaolin Temple and father in Kids from Shaolin, once again plays Jet's teacher. He fills his role with large doses of charisma and fatherly affection, in addition to some wicked mantis fighting. Yue Sing-Wai practically reprises his role from the first Shaolin Temple film as well, playing a crooked Qing commander. There are other familiar faces, including Gai Chun-Wa (New Legend of Shaolin and Fong Sai Yuk 2). The entire cast is talented and, under Lau's direction, everyone looks great.
That's actually my complaint about this film. Well, not exactly. The problem with this movie (and the other two Shaolin Temple movies shared this same problem) is that's an ensemble piece. That isn't so much a complaint and shouldn't be under most circumstances, but there's one thing that bugs me. When everybody is kung-fu fighting, that means Jet has to share his screen time with everyone else and his fight time therefore is lessened. It's a matter a taste, I know. But, this is Jet's only movie with one of the greatest choreographers ever...I want him to have lots and lots of fight scenes, without having to share so much of the action. The biggest crime is committed in the initial assassination attempt; Jet Li really doesn't fight at all(!) How can you have a major set-piece without Jet Li participating? What's up with that? It's disheartening, I tell you!
In all honesty, I've gotten that way with other movies. I felt like that in Dragons Forever when I thought Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung took away from Jackie's fight scenes. Then I discovered the greatness of these two and welcomed their fight scenes with open arms. Whenever I like a specific actor and buy one of their movies, I tend to want the fight scenes to focus on them and only them. But that's just me.
In any case, I will point out that this movie got a nomination for Best Action Design at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 1987. It lost to Ching Siu-Tung's Witch from Nepal, a fantasy-actioner starring non-martial artist Chow Yun-Fat. I haven't seen that film, although I doubt it could hold a candle to this movie or the other martial arts movies made that year. I suppose that by 1986, when this film was released, the old school film was already an anachronism...a thing of the past. By this time, most of the martial arts film were taking place in modern times and were starring people Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. However, I'm glad that Lau Kar-Leung was willing to stick to his roots and make this movie. This movie will make you understand why Jet Li is Jet Li.
I read an essay that Jet Li wrote about this movie. He spoke of the difficulties of shooting this money, due to the unequal treatment of the Mainland cast and the Hong Kong crew. He said the Mainlanders' creative input was also heavily diminished. He summed it up as being the most tension-filled film he made. Luckily, it didn't result in too much of a karma cost. However, I wonder if that explained why Jet Li's fight scenes were less than I wanted. Will it be?
Nonetheless, this is a good example of a Lau Kar-Leung movie and although some people see it as only an average film or so, I think it deserves a lot more recognition. It has gotten a decent* DVD release so I think that now it will. I don't think Lau Kar-Leung will be around much longer and I understood that Seven Swords on Mt. Tian will be his last film. I could be wrong. However, Mr. Lau, I wish to pay my respects to you. *puts right fist in left palm and bows*
Blake's score: 4.25/5
*- I have the Beverly Wilshire DVD which is pan-and-scan and taken from a bad print so the picture isn't good and the subtitles are cut off. It's better than nothing, though.
