Shaolin (2011)

A competent and action pack Shaolin movieÂ… It is of a moment of distinction to proclaim that Benny Chan's latest blockbuster, not only revisited the glory days of Jet Li's first ever movie, but also reunited two of the biggest Hong Kong actors ever. Mr. Andy Lau and Mr. Jackie Chan appears on screen together for the first time since 1994's Drunken Master 2. The moment they appear together, the screen goes on fire. It is a special little segment that excites HK cinema fans, including myself. However, Shaolin fails to exceed the audience expectation and the result is a competent and efficient movie that contains wonderful action sequences, but nothing more.

The real problem of director Benny Chan is not direction, but rather the criminal under usage of Fan Bing Bing and Nicholas Tse respectively. Tse for one, should be critical of his own performance. His villainous turn is neither convincing or menacing. In fact, he should take a leaf out of Mainland's actor, Liu Ye – book of acting. His evil laugh is more cheesy than imagined and his overacting is far too laughable than villainous. A poor effort from someone who have improved immensely in films like Beast Stalker and Pigeon Stool. As for Fan Bing Bing, she performs wondrously in her extremely limited screen time. Her teary eye caught my attention, but with just two significant scenes, she is officially wasted.

All in all, Benny Chan improves from his previous Aaron Kwok's endeavor – City Under Siege. From cheesy to competent action blockbuster, Chan perfectly casted superstar Andy Lau in a role that allows him to go through the motions. At the end of the day, this is a highly effective film for what it is. Unfortunately as with most Benny Chan's movies, the film entertains, but fails to delivers anything special or original to make a good film, great. Basically, Shaolin is a good film, but not great……(Neo 2011)

I rate it 7.5/10

• www.thehkneo.com

Fmovies: This is one of my favorite movies, period.

It handles the evolution of a man from a brutal, uncaring fighter through the heights of success, to complete and shattering loss where he discovers what is truly important beyond himself.

I could watch this over and over: thrilling action sequences, along with the story of a man's growth to true maturity, compassion and valor. This has it all! Great acting, visually stunning, worthwhile plot. Highest recommendation if you enjoy martial arts and foreign movies.

Andy Lau gives his all. And it certainly shows on screen. I do wonder why has he not done more Hollywood movies. Maybe he does belief parts of things that he said in this movie, cannot really tell you what it is, but I think those who have seen it get it.

The effort to make this movie a little Hollywood-like certainly shows. I guess it is to attract audience. But I do miss closeups and landscape views, since they are not that many in this movie. Action scene is wonderful, but dimmed down to make pace of the movie. Overall it is understandable, though lacking in power and presence of the scene, Acting-wise, no complaints.

I do feel sorry for the scene placements, it just doesn't make sense. It feels rushed at times, and slowed down quickly, than rapid changes of action scenes and dramatic scenes. And the music with it certainly did not help since there is countless time I thought the movie was over, but then the music and scene start action again. Needs to learn this one from the western counterpart.

Speaking of western counterpart, the villains, damn they were awful. All of them, through the dire of Andy's acting, you get their presence. But without Andy, I would beat up the villain easily, they just look too nice, bad acting. But given the circumstances of the greatness of the movie, still A for effort.

Lastly, the CG and Special effects. Just because you can do big, does not mean you must do big. Play it on occasion and it would look great. Play it too much and the power will fade away. I'm guessing that is why they cut and paste scenes overlapping too much when the action starts to get going. Should learn more from Lord of the Rings for the action scenes.

Thank you.

Shaolin fmovies. There's nothing better than a film with an uplifting moral message bought to you interspersed with lots of martial arts action and blowing stuff up. I can therefore heartily recommend this film.

Whilst being a good watch there is also some good old-fashioned silly translations to add to the enjoyment. "Don't mess with the Shaolin Temple" is one fine example and another is "You bastards come and attack the temple, I'll send you to the Netherworld." (I don't know if you get this with the English soundtrack as I was watching the subtitled version.)

There's a solid storyline and the usual stuff about the baddie finding redemption and making good his evil ways but it's not as 2-dimensional as these plots often are as you see the effect on Andy Lau's wife and daughter in no uncertain terms. The martial arts action is good though not outstanding. Jackie Chan has a supporting role but when he does eventually get an action scene it is laugh out loud funny and absolutely true to the character he plays in the film.

It's not the world's best film but it would be hard to go wrong with this if you want to watch an entertaining epic with lots of action. I'm intrigued to know how much of the battles scenes and destruction of buildings was CGI and how much miniatures. I suspect it was a mixture. I'll have to listen to the DVD commentary to find out

In 1982, The Shaolin Temple puts Jet Li into the spotlight as a young man highly skilled in martial arts, which path-ed his acting career into the fame he has today.

Around 29 years later, director Benny Chan comes with a new adaptation of the classic, which shares a similar story with a new cast. Here, we have Andy Lau, Li's co-star in The Warlords (2007) taking the leading role of Hou Chieh, a ruthless warlord who crosses path with Shaolin Temple and sees transformation of himself from a ruthless warlord to a monk with compassion. Together with Nicholas Tse and Jackie Chan in a special appearance, Shaolin marks the first Chinese blockbuster to hit the screens of Asia in 2011.

The story is set in China after the fall of Qing Dynasty with various warlords fighting over the territories. Hou Chieh, a ruthless warlord who bear grudges with Shaolin Temple and sets to get rid of the people around him for his own benefits, was betrayed by his right-hand man, Tsao Man (Tse). It not only leads to the death of his daughter, but also makes his wife (Fan Bing Bing) decided to leave him for good. After being taken refuge by the cook (Chan), the cook enlightens him and Hou decided to become a monk in Shaolin, leaving down the past behind him and start a new life. Though disciples in Shaolin bears grudges with Hou in the past, they accepted Hou. Eventually, we will see how Hou and the disciples defend Shaolin from the invasion of Tsao's army and the Western powers.

The plot sounds no novelty in it, where we can see how the protagonist repents from his sin to the mistake made in the past, to how they will defend in what they believe in. Here, we have seen how the Buddhist teachings have been integrated into the plot. In relating to the Buddhist teaching on the term 'you reap what you sow' with cause and effect, Hou saw the fall of his power and death of loved ones by betrayal, which he gets it from his belief of the dog eat dog world.

Another perspective of Buddhism that can be seen in Shaolin is 'evil begins with the greed and obsession for power'. This is shown by the portrayal of the sufferings from the civilians during the civil war, with warlords fighting for power and wealth. The perspective has become the main theme of the movie, where not only we have seen how Tsao wanted to control the territory, but also the Western powers who aims to take over China using gun power. This has somehow reflect on what has happened in today's society, on how stronger bodies are getting rid the culture, values and history using destructive powers.

Lau's role of Hou Chieh is different from Li's leading role in Shaolin Temple, in terms of characters and the incidents they have been through. Both shared similarities in their fate and enlightenment, to how they find a way to save the majority of the people around them. Chan's cameo appearances as the cook provides some comic relief for the audience after having a long intense and pressure from Tse's evil character. The comic relief did not last very long, since the fate of Shaolin Temple is the main concern of the film.

Overall, Shaolin makes a very good start for Hong Kong's film industry in the beginning of 2011, where it not only shows how Hong Kong film industry are making a turn from various disappointments in 2010, but also pins hope for better productions in the coming months.

The Shaolin movie I know, was one in the 80s that launched the film career of Li Lianjie, who somewhat faded away until his portrayal of Wong Fei Hong in Once Upon a Time in China that launched him to superstardom. Superstars aren't lacking in this update of Shaolin Temple which promises spectacular action sequences, but what's surprisingly excellent here isn't the action, but the spirit of Buddhism and themes that come along with it.

It isn't a remake per se of the old Shaolin Temple movie given a fresh set of characters and a premise that's remotely similar, set after the fall of the Qing dynasty with warlords battling it out for supremacy and territory in China. In what I thought was quite a stark message in warning of any future infighting amongst the Chinese if they do not stand united, that foreign powers are more than willing to wait for an opportunity to exploit. Economic advantages offered should also be scrutinized beyond immediate gains, where corruption of the few in power would mean severe losses on a national scale.

That aside, this film centers itself squarely on the central character of the ruthless and cunning warlord Hao Jie (Andy Lau), who has no qualms in constantly gaining upper hands amongst enemies and allies even. In a wrongly calculated move to take on his sworn brother in an ambush, his protégé Cao Man (Nicholas Tse) probably had understood his mentor's philosophy that no man is indispensable to quash his insatiable appetite for power and glory, and through the countless of indoctrination in the Hao-Jie-School-of-Thought, it is no wonder that Cao Man ultimately decides to betray his master. Think of it as striking when the iron is hot to become top dog and making decisions, rather than taking them.

In a tale about retribution and karma, Shaolin doesn't deviate very far from those themes, of how evil intentions can lead one astray and suffer inconsolable consequences, only for religion to point one back to the path of righteousness and all things good. In some ways this resembled the story of Huo Yuanjia in Fearless, where pride comes before the fall of man, stripping him of everything and down to his core, then comes the rebuild of character, and ultimately walking the talk and redemption. Hao Jie's story follows this trajectory and there's no qualms about Andy Lau being cast in this dramatic role despite his lack of real martial arts skills as compared to his other counterparts in the film, opposite the likes of co-stars Nicholas Tse, Wu Jing, Xing Yu, Xiong Xin Xin and Jackie Chan who serves as comic relief as a Shaolin monk-cook.

But most of the co-stars were severely under-utilized, as the story, with responsibility coming from no less than five writers, didn't pay the others too much attention. Nicholas Tse probably had the meatier role as the chief villain who schemes and sneers, while the rest are in to showcase more of Shaolin martial arts in one film, except for Xiong Xin Xin being the villainous sidekick to Cao Man, with no dialogue. Wu Jing, Xing Yu and Ye Shaoqun all starred as the requisite monks caught up in the firefight as the latter two become part of a group who steals from the army to feed the villagers. Fan Bing Bing was a complete waste as the token female amongst the cast, and although she had a scene or two in a big action sequence in an ambush, little can be said once she appears on and off as the damsel always in distress.

Action direction came from Cory Yuen, with choreography courtesy of Yuen Tak