Jet Li's movie debut and the film that put him on the martial arts map at the tender age of 19. SHAOLIN TEMPLE is a very different beast to the Shaw Brothers flick of the same name, feeling very much like a classic mainland China production: lots of breathtaking outdoor scenery and real-world locations adding to the beauty of the picture. The plot has slight similarities to the Gordon Liu classic 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN in Li's transformation from impoverished escapee to kung fu master, but it ploughs a furrow all of its own. The cast is made up of real-life martial arts experts and combined with expert choreography the action is quite wonderful; there are moves and skills here you won't see elsewhere. A few moments of real and fake animal violence upset sensibilities a little, but overall it all works very nicely indeed. Two sequels followed.

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.

My rating of early kung fu movies is probably 20% story and 80% fighting and choreography. I never rate them on acting because the acting is tertiary.

The fight choreography was decent. I thought some of the fights lasted too long. Usually every fight except those with bosses are over rather quickly. It seemed that even fights with the lower level henchmen dragged on longer than they should have.

Still, this was early Jet Li so it's always worth taking a gander.