Shaolin is one of those stories that integrates a number of life lessons into an action adventure. This movie is akin to top grade martial arts films such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which has long been one of my personal favorites. The story gives the viewer something of a history lesson into the tyranny in China when warlords had no concern for the people only a desire to increase their territorial hold and gain power.
In this story Hou Chieh commands a massive army that wages war to take control of the city Tengfeng,Henan, China. This ruthless, dispassionate tyrant is portrayed very convincingly by Andy Lau, who has quite an impressive film career, I recall him from House of Flying Daggers. Second in command to General Hou is Cao Man (Nicholas Tse) who is very astute in taking in all the Tyranny 101 lessons.
This film had some off the chain equestrian stunts, with horses traversing stairs, doing front and side flips, whereas I could not help but to cringe at some of the scenes. I can only hope that no animals were harmed during the filming, so PETA is not up in arms, perhaps the visuals were the result of some very creative computer generated imagery, but things looked very real.
This is a religious based film where the territorial war spills into the Buddhist monks Shaolin temple, we see that the monks are the only entity that cares for the people and the temple is the only sanctuary that the people have against the warring armies. There is a bit of a Robin Hood mini story taking place in the background of everything else that is going on with some of the monks at its core. I found it interesting that the Shaolin temple was identified as the birthplace of martial arts, having seen quite a few of these tales I do not recall credit being given for where it all began.
There were several recognizable faces in this tale including the Shaolin cook, Wudao(Jackie Chan), this seemed like a small role compared to some of the other big movies he has performed in, but he did show he still has it where martial arts are concerned. This was a very entertaining story, with plenty of martial arts and other action so much so that the two hour running time is barely noticeable. I give this film a big Buddha green light.
In this story Hou Chieh commands a massive army that wages war to take control of the city Tengfeng,Henan, China. This ruthless, dispassionate tyrant is portrayed very convincingly by Andy Lau, who has quite an impressive film career, I recall him from House of Flying Daggers. Second in command to General Hou is Cao Man (Nicholas Tse) who is very astute in taking in all the Tyranny 101 lessons.
This film had some off the chain equestrian stunts, with horses traversing stairs, doing front and side flips, whereas I could not help but to cringe at some of the scenes. I can only hope that no animals were harmed during the filming, so PETA is not up in arms, perhaps the visuals were the result of some very creative computer generated imagery, but things looked very real.
This is a religious based film where the territorial war spills into the Buddhist monks Shaolin temple, we see that the monks are the only entity that cares for the people and the temple is the only sanctuary that the people have against the warring armies. There is a bit of a Robin Hood mini story taking place in the background of everything else that is going on with some of the monks at its core. I found it interesting that the Shaolin temple was identified as the birthplace of martial arts, having seen quite a few of these tales I do not recall credit being given for where it all began.
There were several recognizable faces in this tale including the Shaolin cook, Wudao(Jackie Chan), this seemed like a small role compared to some of the other big movies he has performed in, but he did show he still has it where martial arts are concerned. This was a very entertaining story, with plenty of martial arts and other action so much so that the two hour running time is barely noticeable. I give this film a big Buddha green light.