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Shaolin Temple
1982; directed by Cheung Sing-Yim

Most great movie stars have fairly humble beginnings, and Jet Li is no exception. He broke into the Chinese film industry with the 1982 release Shaolin Temple, a movie that is a decent showcase for his legendary martial arts skills, but is hampered by a somewhat plodding storytelling style that depends far too heavily on well-worn cliches of the genre.

Shaolin Temple

The film was the first Chinese/Hong Kong co-production and became a massive hometown hit, leading to some to equate this to "the Star Wars of China" in how it dominated the box office and influenced a slew of future movies. In particular, Mainland audiences ate up the production. After years of bland Communist propaganda pieces, Shaolin Temple came in like a breath of fresh air. Similar to how Bruce Lee's films inspired people to put on yellow jumpsuits and wildly wave nunchakus about, Shaolin Temple created kung fu madness in the Mainland.

Shaolin Temple

More modern audiences (especially western ones) will probably find less to like here. Certainly seeing a young 19 year old, non-wire enhanced, Jet Li perform kung fu is a treat, and there are several other talented martial artists in the cast as well, most of them being champions of their forms off the screen. But the story is generic at best and comes off as clumsy and ham-handed at times, especially when dealing with the portrayal of religion -- I don't think most Buddhist monks are okay with killing frogs or eating dogs, both of which are shown (along with the killing of goats) in fairly graphic detail.

Shaolin Temple

The causal manner in which animals are dispatched is combined with some very clumsy comedy, so that when it comes time to take the story seriously, it's a bit hard to, since the film-makers seem to meander around too much before directing the focus where it really should be -- showing great martial artists doing what they do best. To its credit, the last half hour or so concentrates almost solely on combat, and it's here where Shaolin Temple finds its footing, making the film into something more than just a cinematic curiosity.

RATING: 6

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