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	The Shaolin Temple "Jet Li's first movie and one of the best martial arts movies ever made!" - Yi-Long The Shaolin Temple (1979) AKA: Shaolin Temple Director: Cheung Hsin Yen Cast: Jet Li, Yu Cheng Wai, Yu Hai, Din Nan, Chang Jien Wun, Ji Chuan Wah, Hu Chien Keung, Wong Kwang Chuan, Sun Jien Hwu, Yin Tee Wah Running Time: 92 min. Plot: Based on a legend from Shaolin Temple folklore, Jet Lee plays a vengeful youth, Chieh Yuan, who joins the Shaolin Temple in order to acquire the necessary skills to fight a vicious warlord who murdered his father. After many years of training Chieh Yuan believes that he is ready to take revenge for his father's death, but the warlord's kung fu skills prove too mighty for the monk, who just manages to escape back to Shaolin to train in earnest for a second innings! Jet Lee is sensational in his debut film role, showing a remarkable intensity that still enthralls audiences into the '90s. Reviews NUMSKULL'S REVIEW: Watch enough modern-day cop stories and Americanized Hong Kong films, and a straight-out chop socky flick like this almost seems new and innovative. Shaolin Temple is an above average kung fu movie, in most ways much like a million others from the 1970s, remarkable mostly for being Jet Li's first film (and for possibly setting some sort of record for animal cruelty; a toad, a dog, and some sheep all bite the dust before the half-way point). He certainly got off to a better start than Jackie Chan did; this movie is clearly superior to most of Jackie's drek with Lo Wei, The Man With No Clue. A few of them, admittedly, provided a modicum of amusement (especially Dragon Fist), but this film is more endearing somehow, and does not pretend to be anything more than what it is (Spiritual Kung Fu was supposed to be funny). The plot is about as hackneyed as they come, with Jet Li training in Shaolin kung fu to avenge his father's death (how many times have those last five words been used to describe martial arts movies?). As silly as that is, it's kind of hard not to like a film that concludes with about 20 minutes of almost non-stop fighting involving dozens of warriors. Jet and the supporting players duke it out on other occasions as well, with no high-flying or little exploding thingies...just old-as-the-hills hand-to-hand combat the way it was meant to be, from back in the days when it took more than special effects and a pretty face to appear in a martial arts movie and not make a fool of yourself. The result is a fun little flick that kind of makes you want to go out and beat up some bad guys, and maybe expand your culinary horizons as well (dead dog and ram's penis, yum yum). NUMSKULL'S RATING: 7/10 YATE'S REVIEW: The greatest martial arts film I have ever seen. Jet Li is great in his first film role and proves that he dosent need wires to be an amazing martial artist. The film also benefits from some great scenery, tones of fight scenes, and most of all the good natured(yet believable) comedy. What I enjoy most about this film is it's realism and historical accuracy. This movie proves that Jet Li is THE God of martial arts cinema. YATE'S RATING: 10/10 YI-LONG'S REVIEW: Jet Li's first movie and one of the best martial arts movies ever made! Although it is a very basic story, it is extremely well done, lighthearted and fast, and it immediately showcases Jet Li's undeniable screen-presence, charisma and (of course) his perfect Wushu skills. All wushu performers in this movie are real-life martial arts masters, and apparently no tricks whatsoever were used in the action scenes (no wires, no trampolines etc), not even for that 900-degrees spin Jet performs!!!. This movie showcases many different kung fu styles, like drunken-boxing, sword-fights, mantis-style etc etc etc (ALOT okay!?). All of the fightscenes are really outstanding, except for the final scene in which Jet kills the bad guy (ah duuuhhh....) rather easily, which is fairly short. This is also a Mainland China production (which was 3 years in total production time), so the viewer gets to see the REAL shaolin temple, as well as some other beautiful scenery. This is a pretty old movie however, so most viewers are probably already spoiled with the experiences of more recent HK-Kung fu movies, in which is the action is faster and the camerawork and the choreography is more daring and faster. Just enjoy the action and be amazed by the unbelievable talents of Jet Li and Co. YI-LONG'S RATING: 9/10

The Shaolin Temple

"Jet Li's first movie and one of the best martial arts movies ever made!"

- Yi-Long

The Shaolin Temple (1979)

AKA: Shaolin Temple

Director: Cheung Hsin Yen

Cast: Jet Li, Yu Cheng Wai, Yu Hai, Din Nan, Chang Jien Wun, Ji Chuan Wah, Hu Chien Keung, Wong Kwang Chuan, Sun Jien Hwu, Yin Tee Wah

Running Time: 92 min.

Plot: Based on a legend from Shaolin Temple folklore, Jet Lee plays a vengeful youth, Chieh Yuan, who joins the Shaolin Temple in order to acquire the necessary skills to fight a vicious warlord who murdered his father. After many years of training Chieh Yuan believes that he is ready to take revenge for his father's death, but the warlord's kung fu skills prove too mighty for the monk, who just manages to escape back to Shaolin to train in earnest for a second innings! Jet Lee is sensational in his debut film role, showing a remarkable intensity that still enthralls audiences into the '90s.

Reviews

NUMSKULL'S REVIEW: Watch enough modern-day cop stories and Americanized Hong Kong films, and a straight-out chop socky flick like this almost seems new and innovative. Shaolin Temple is an above average kung fu movie, in most ways much like a million others from the 1970s, remarkable mostly for being Jet Li's first film (and for possibly setting some sort of record for animal cruelty; a toad, a dog, and some sheep all bite the dust before the half-way point). He certainly got off to a better start than Jackie Chan did; this movie is clearly superior to most of Jackie's drek with Lo Wei, The Man With No Clue. A few of them, admittedly, provided a modicum of amusement (especially Dragon Fist), but this film is more endearing somehow, and does not pretend to be anything more than what it is (Spiritual Kung Fu was supposed to be funny).

The plot is about as hackneyed as they come, with Jet Li training in Shaolin kung fu to avenge his father's death (how many times have those last five words been used to describe martial arts movies?). As silly as that is, it's kind of hard not to like a film that concludes with about 20 minutes of almost non-stop fighting involving dozens of warriors. Jet and the supporting players duke it out on other occasions as well, with no high-flying or little exploding thingies...just old-as-the-hills hand-to-hand combat the way it was meant to be, from back in the days when it took more than special effects and a pretty face to appear in a martial arts movie and not make a fool of yourself. The result is a fun little flick that kind of makes you want to go out and beat up some bad guys, and maybe expand your culinary horizons as well (dead dog and ram's penis, yum yum).

NUMSKULL'S RATING: 7/10

YATE'S REVIEW: The greatest martial arts film I have ever seen. Jet Li is great in his first film role and proves that he dosent need wires to be an amazing martial artist. The film also benefits from some great scenery, tones of fight scenes, and most of all the good natured(yet believable) comedy. What I enjoy most about this film is it's realism and historical accuracy. This movie proves that Jet Li is THE God of martial arts cinema.

YATE'S RATING: 10/10

YI-LONG'S REVIEW: Jet Li's first movie and one of the best martial arts movies ever made! Although it is a very basic story, it is extremely well done, lighthearted and fast, and it immediately showcases Jet Li's undeniable screen-presence, charisma and (of course) his perfect Wushu skills. All wushu performers in this movie are real-life martial arts masters, and apparently no tricks whatsoever were used in the action scenes (no wires, no trampolines etc), not even for that 900-degrees spin Jet performs!!!. This movie showcases many different kung fu styles, like drunken-boxing, sword-fights, mantis-style etc etc etc (ALOT okay!?). All of the fightscenes are really outstanding, except for the final scene in which Jet kills the bad guy (ah duuuhhh....) rather easily, which is fairly short. This is also a Mainland China production (which was 3 years in total production time), so the viewer gets to see the REAL shaolin temple, as well as some other beautiful scenery. This is a pretty old movie however, so most viewers are probably already spoiled with the experiences of more recent HK-Kung fu movies, in which is the action is faster and the camerawork and the choreography is more daring and faster. Just enjoy the action and be amazed by the unbelievable talents of Jet Li and Co.

YI-LONG'S RATING: 9/10