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.
Review of The Shaolin Temple
