Shao Lin si
Tags: cult, violence

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with the chief Shaolin Monks realizing that time is not on their side and they must train more fighters to fight the Qings. The monk Hai Hsien (Shan Mao) opposes this as he is secretly working for the court. Outside many men are sitting in front of the temple waiting to be accepted in, Fang Shih Yu (Alexander Fu Sheng), Ma Chao-hsing (Tony Liu) and others, as the temple tests the will of potential students by making them wait outside for days, eventually the two are accepted in for "training". Fang Shih Yu becomes frustrated immediately as Shaolin methods of teaching martial arts are rather obscure, although Ma Chao-hsing begins learning the five animal styles from the start.
Elsewhere, escaped Ming soldiers Tsai Te-cheng (Ti Lung), Hu Te-ti (David Chiang), Yen Yung-chun (Szu Shih), and Ma Fu Yi (Wang Lung Wei) arrive close to Shaolin looking for a place to hide from the Qing. Hu Te-ti suggests they go to Shaolin and they are instantly accepted, which frustrates three more students trying to get acceptance into the temple, Lin Kwong Yao (Kuo Chui), Huang Sung Han (Lee I Min), and Hu Hui Chien (Kuan-Chun Chi). The three are eventually accepted and begin their obscure training. Tsai Te-cheng learns the wing chun style from a strange female monk and Hu Te-ti learns the iron whip. This forces Hai Hsein to secretly go to the court and report to Prince Hoo (Lu Feng) that Shaolin has been training new fighters.
The Qing scheme to destroy Shaolin. Hai Hsein returns to Shaolin looking to recruit more traitors to set up the temple for a raid. All the accepted students become close friends and proficient in their kung fu, except for Fang Shih Yu (who is unknowingly learning tiger boxing but is impatient). He keeps getting into fights with Ma Fu Yi, who is disgruntled with being at Shaolin. A mysterious figure at night (perhaps his friend Ma Chao-sing) begins teaching Fang Shih Yu the tiger-crane style and he defeats Ma Fu Yi in a friendly spar. This sparks the curiosity of Hai Hsein as he takes Ma Fu Yi under his wing and recruits him as a traitor. Things begin to go sour at the temple due to the treachery of Hai Hsein and Ma Fu Yi and it is eventually attacked by thousands of Qing soldiers, and an all-out battle occurs at Shaolin Temple with only eight Shaolin devotees escaping the ensuing massacre.

Review: "The Shaolin Temple" is the first Chinese martial arts film to use gongfu artists instead of actors.
Initially, the Japanese investors hired actors, but didn't like the results, so they hired regional and national wushu champions.
Although Jet Li is the main character and his wushu is exceptional, don't underestimate the other gongfu artists; they are just as good.
The film was two years in the making due to injuries the cast received doing their own stunts.
The credits state that the fight choreography was done by Pan Qing Fu, but this is not so.
The cast choreographed their own fight scenes and deserve the credit they've been denied..
Kung Fu. If you want to see a non-stop action Kung Fu flic, this movie will be a good choice.
More fighting than talking, and good fighting at that.
The actors were taken from the chinese national wushu team, and these guys coordinated the fighting scenes themselves without a stunt coordinator.
Many styles and weapons are used, such as drunken staff, mantis boxing, and such.
The shaolin monks in the film don't seem to take their rules very seriously...
they eat meat(dog meat!), drink wine and kill people...The movie was shot on location at the shaolin temple.
Shaolin Temple was such a huge hit in Asia, that it made hundreds of chinese children go to the temple in hope of learning shaolin Kung Fu. Also Jet Li's first movie..
Jet Li's first movie, and it set the stage for his future success.
Really good kung fu, really good action, and not too many slow points.
Pretty typical storyline; evil warlord kills boys father, boy escapes to Shaolin temple, improves his skill and fights a lot of people.
But for a movie this old, the fighting is really done well.
I'm sure that this is a pretty hard movie to come across, but if you ever get the opportunity to see it, by all means take advantage of it..
Pure Kung Fu. No camera tricks.
No high production value (even compared to the Hong Kong Kung Fu movies at that time).
It is just pure Kung Fu. The location is real and so are the fighting.
It belongs to the classic that we miss in today's Kung Fu movies.
If you practice Kung Fu, you have to watch it repeatedly to learn a lot from the real masters.
It is quite good for the first Kung Fu movie made in China (about 20 years ago)..
A great film from Jet Li. This is Jet Li's first film as a lead actor, and it doesn't disappoint.
The martial arts action is great and the scenery around the Shaolin Temple in Luoyang, China is breathtaking.
There are a variety of weapons and styles that are showcased in the film, adding to the action.
In particular, seeing the 3 sectional staff used in combat was really cool, and there's one guy who does flips off of his head!It is a rare one to find but if you can find it, I recommend seeing "ShaoLin Temple"..
True martial arts movies without any fake.
This join venture of Hong Kong and mainland China started the 1980's boom of martial arts flicks in China.Jet Li is the protagonist in this movie and unlike his later works, there is no stunt, no cable, no crane, no other equipment, no special effect, no fake moves, and no artistic creations.
Every move is real, and the Hong Kong producers & director ingeniously employed the Chinese martial arts athletes of provincial teams and one from the national team, Jet Li, instead of ordinary actors to perform, thus giving a very realistic view..
Just GREAT!.
I love this movie.
In fact, when I saw it, I started to love kung fu movies.
If you have seen this movie you will know why.
Because this is the greatest kung fu movie ever made.
No "Hero", no "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", this movie is the best.
Great story, even greater fights - what else do you need?
This is the first Jet Li's movie and it made him star.I will not tell you the story.
See the movie and you will know it.
If I could, I woul give "Shaolin Temple" not 10 but 20/10.
Don't waste time with reading comments, just go and see this great movie!.
Make sure to check this movie out if you can find it!
As Eric Yu says, the plot is rather typical, but the fight scenes are really well thought out.
The martial arts choreography was done by Pan Qingfu, who stars in the movie as one of the bad guys and who was also the coach of the Chinese national wushu team at one point.If you'd like to check out another movie with Pan Qingfu, this time playing himself, watch Iron and Silk.
It's rather silly, but Master Pan is pretty cool and Mark Salzman is awfully good at wushu for a white guy..
The impressive physical sequences cover the weaknesses in most of the other areas.
The Tang Emperor is betrayed by one of his own generals, who installed himself as the new Emperor of the eastern region.
Chieh Yuan and his father are two such men but, one day Chieh and his father fight back and, although the two bravely hold off the guards, his father is killed as he instructs Chieh to flee to fight another day.
Near-death, Chieh finds himself at a Shaolin monastery where he is taken in and nursed back to health.
He takes up the teachings of the monks  in particular the martial arts  and prepares for the day he will meet his father's killer.
In the meantime though, he has to worry about the many rules that his new life imposes on him.On some levels this film is a terrible mess of a thing.
The plot is quite basic and the writers really need to hit three stages of narrative which are 1) events before the monastery, 2) events at the monastery and 3) events around the conflict that closes out stage (1).
We get lots of things happening but not of them are that good.
Chieh manages to kill a dog (which belongs to the daughter of his master), eat meat (and get the others eating meat) and do all manner of things that kinda go against the whole Buddhist monk vibe that he had been working on.
The film has these come up and be laughed off by the others and after a while it just feels a bit weird.
I'm not defending Buddha here and if these bits had been funny or engaging then I would not have cared one bit but, as it is, they don't work and even as time filler they are not that worth while.In reality though, this doesn't matter because nobody has come to this film for the plot so much as they have to see Jet Li making his film debut and jumping right into film success.
And jump he does (I'm not want to avoid rubbish linking puns) as almost all of the action in this film is impressive and engaging.
Some of it is quite soft in regards the danger faced by our characters whereas some is pretty tough but whether it is a training demonstration or the final montage of fights, it is really impressive on physical and technical levels.
Having just watched Transporter 3 recently, Shaolin Si comes over as a breath of fresh air in how it is willing to put the camera down and shoot action sequences where each take is longer than (gasp) 1 second and (brace yourselves) we get several moves in each take (no!).
This lets us see that the cast can do their stuff and you can see why Li became a massive name because he is unbelievably skilled and has great physical control  heck I've started to make a little grunting noise every time I stand up whereas he seems to do the impossible in his stride.
Looking back (and even then) Li does get all the attention but everyone else is just as good, with lots of impressive moves.
Not everyone has as good a screen presence (the daughter being a bit weak for example) but when it comes to the action everyone performs.Shaolin Si doesn't have the greatest script and, by extension, the performances and also how much the viewer will care about the characters are also weakened.
However in regards simple physical ability of those involved in the making it is very engaging indeed.
There are consistent and enjoyable scenes of martial arts action  a couple stand out above the rest but all of them are impressive and fun to watch.
Ignore the narrative but definitely stay for the action..
A must see for Jet Li fans.
This is a very cool movie, I loved every second of it.
Jet Li, in his first film, displays some of his most brilliant fighting moves and skill.
It's no wonder this flick made him a superstar and martial arts icon.The acting is quite alright, though the plot, which really no one cares about, is actually quite interesting.All of the fights were totally massive and stylish, the pace was excellent.
The weapons fight between Jet and the main bad guy general dude is awesome.
Jet moves unbelievably fast in this bout and they repeat this excellent performance in the final battle.
Jet shows true skill, just like the rest of the cast here..
This is a quite a good movie really.
This movie is really not that bad.
I men the story is a bit thin but the actors play quit well.
And to think that this is a Jets first film its wary god.
One cool thing about this movie is that you will find most of the characters of this film in a later film called The Shoaling Temple 3: Martial Arts of Shoaling.
This movie deserves good grads.
I went into this film with a negative mind frame and came out quite pleased.There were a few times the movie slowed down, but overall kept great action.
Jet Li's Wushu proves to be at best in his early years.
He has to share the spotlight with a handful of other Martial Artist in this great film.
They decided to cast actual Martial Aritist instead of actors.
Which proves to be best fit for this movie which focuses the moves more then the acting!
On a side note, the man Jet Li refers to as "Master" shows a down to earth approach with the monks philosophy.
Nice kung-fu, terrible movie.
I've been watching classic martial arts films for about 10 years now, ranging from serious drama to absurd comedy.
You can find all sort of things in this genre, although they tend to have great fighting scenes regardless.
This film is not an exception.
The kung-fu is brilliant, and you can enjoy the use of several weapons as well as excellent unarmed combat.
However, I find the movie boring and very disrespectful towards Buddhism and Shaolin.
Perhaps the fact that I had to watch it dubbed also took its toll and I ended up disinterested and bored.
If you are fond of Shaolin, I'd recommend any film by Shaw Brothers instead..
Early Jet Li. My rating of early kung fu movies is probably 20% story and 80% fighting and choreography.
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..
Solid Film.
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.
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..
important for jet fans to see..
Shoa lin TempleThis is important for Jet Li fans to see his humble start.
I think Jet can act pretty good now, but here is acting was clearly rough.
That is ok because you never see jet move like this anymore.
This is the way to see jet show why he was a champion martial artist.
Just an amazing athlete in general.The film starts off with this super hilarious song about the shoa lin temple.
The story is pretty pointless you killed the my father- let me join the temple so I can learn martial arts  You don't have what it takes  Yes I do  Blah, blah.
The same basic story was told so much better in the 36th chamber of shoal in.
You are not watching this movie for the story it is for Jet kicking some serious butt.Since my user name is what it is it should be no surprise the only thing I hated about this movie was all the disgusting meat-eating.
I am used to people eating dead animal flesh in movies but it was super offensive to have Buddhist Shoalin monks eating flesh off the bone.
I am sorry but no monk would say as long as you have Buddha in your heart you can eat meat..
Thinking back, I was very lucky to find this film when I was about 20 years old, in HMV in Birmingham of all places.Although bought at random it soon began to get regular viewings between myself and friends, and along with Gordon Liu's 36 chambers of Shaolin became one of my favourite films.Although the dubbing was dire in my opinion, it could be forgiven when weighed up against all the various styles shown and fight scenes, and light comedy moments.I will never forget the scene when Li is spying on the other monks, esp the guy with a dart on rope spinning it underneath himself with only the back of his head and one foot touching the ground at an insanely quick pace..
Heavy on culture and drama, but a solid debut for Jet Li. There are some spoilers down below.
Just a bit of a heads up.
It has some pretty good fight sequences, and some emotional drama that managed to get to me.
Right from the outset with the drama orientated opening, which was my cue to realize I was at least going to get a quality film.
I'm a big fan of Jet Li's.
My only complaints about this movie are this.
Martial Art stars like Jet & Jackie Chan are infamous for these, and usually they are a hoot, but I didn't like them very much in this one.
Maybe I'm being a stickler, but I don't find a dog "accidentally" being killed very funny.
It made me very uncomfortable, and turned me off for a little bit.
It does have some decent training sequences and the fight sequences, despite presumably being filled with wires were above average.
Jet Li shows off that charisma that he is well known for here.
It's no surprise as to why he achieved stardom.Final Thoughts: It was a pretty good film, and always interesting.
Well worth watching if you manage to find it 7/10.
Great martial arts movie, some odd plot points.
If you can ignore the animal cruelty in the film, and just focus on the martial arts, this is truly an impressive film.
Unfortunately, quite a bit of screen time is wasted while Jet Li accidentally kills a dog, and then proceeds to consume it.
It is quite an odd scene, with other novices from the Shaolin Temple coming out of the trees to enjoy a good old German Shepherd kabob.
There is another scene where a lamb's throat is crushed by a follower of the evil king, and his lackeys run around killing sheep with lances.
I understand the setting was long before the existence of PETA, but it was nonetheless surprising (disturbing) to see actual animals butchered on camera.Nevertheless, the Kung Fu in this movie is spectacular.
Jet Li and his co-stars have such incredible command of their movements, it is breathtaking.
The action sequences pull no punches, there are no comedic Jackie Chan moments, instead it is all-out war to the finish.
In my humble opinion, the fight scenes are some of the best ever filmed.R..
Great movie.
I think it's one of the best Jet Li movies.
The martial art  performances are all real, so it shows how hard the Shaolin monks can  be.
Jet Li acts a little dizzy hero, Chuyun, but he's nice and tough,  so he can be appreciated.
I think Chuyun really liked him, not just respected like the  others.
The other Shaolin monks knew that he's mad, but they didn't  really mentioned it.
Chuyun was really heartless when he killed the  dog, but it was only accidentally.
It is very evil when somebody wants  to destroy a peaceful temple just because of his own proud.
The poor  abbot couldn't do anything, he just sacrificed himself for the temple.
I love this movie because of it's great technique's, and beautiful  scenes.