Shaolin 2011

It's been a hot minute since I have had the time to really sit down and get into a flick so I could post a review. I finally got a free Saturday morning, so I decided to jump at the chance! My movie of choice this morning was Shaolin, also known as The New Shaolin Temple.

Shaolin, directed by Benny Chan, is an updated version of Jet Li's first movie, The Shaolin Temple. It stars Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers), Xing Yu (Ip Man, Flash Point, Kung Fu Hustle) and there is a special appearance by Jackie Chan.

Shaolin is set for U.S. release this September, but has been sitting in my entertainment center on DVD for a few month now, so I wanted to peep it and let y'all know my thoughts.

The movie is set in the warlord era of Early Republic China. Hou Jie (Lau) is the main character and the movie shows us his journey from greedy warmonger to righteous Shaolin monk. Hou Jie begins the movie as a ruthless warlord with his eyes on money, power and respect. Dude has his blinders on though because he doesn't see that his second in command, Cao Man (played perfectly by Nicholas Tse), is gunning for his number one spot. Cao Man tries to have Hou Jie taken out, and in the scuffle his daughter is wounded. Hou Jie goes to The Shaolin Temple out of desperation, hoping that they can save his daughter. She dies from her injuries, his wife leaves him, and dude's life is basically in shambles.

Hou Jie soon meets a cook monk named Wudao (Jackie Chan), who provides him food and shelter in his time of need. Feeling guilty of all the ill shit that he has done in the past, Hou Jie decides to devote his life to Shaolin. While at the temple, he learns Shaolin's principles through martial arts and he finds peace and is truly at one with himself.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Cao Man is into all types of shit. He has taken control of Hou Jie's army and is cahoots with foreigners. They are selling him weapons in return for Chinese artifacts. Cao Man is using the townspeople to slave and unearth these relics, and then killing them to keep his secret safe.

Cao Man soon finds out that his old leader is alive and in Shaolin, and leads his army to the temple to capture him. Hou Jie has a plot to distract his old boy while some of the other monks free the remaining imprisoned laborers. This eventually leads to Cao Man attacking the Shaolin with plans to destroy the sacred temple. Wudao is helping lead the refugees to safety, and is involved in one of the better fight scenes of the film.

Peep it here:

Hou Jie and Cao Man meet for a final battle, and Hou Jie is victorious, but he sacrifices himself to save Cao Man from a falling beam, and he eventually falls into a Buddha statue's palm for a peaceful death.

The surviving monks take out their remaining foes, but the Shaolin Temple is now in ruins. Wudao breaks it down that even though the Temple is gone, the Shaolin spirit inside of them.

Overall, I give Shaolin 4 out of 5 fists. I think it would have been a perfect 5 if there was a little more action, and if there more training scenes. I think the best part of any movie dealing with the Shaolin Temple is showing how these dudes go through all types of craziness to learn the ways of Shaolin. The training scenes in this movie were good, but could've been a lot better.

Regardless of that, the story was air tight and I think the performances by Andy Lau, Xing Yu, Nicholas Tse and Jackie Chan were all on point.

Shaolin is a must see. If you can cop it at your local Kung Fu connect before it hits theaters in September, do it.

There weren't too many clips on YouTube so I am going to leave y'all with the Official Trailer for the movie.

Peace & Blessings for now,

The Sage


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