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The Shao Lin Temple (1979)

© Jonathan L. Bowen

Jet Li plays Chieh Yuan, who is a prisoner at the start of the movie, which takes place during the Sui and T'ang Dynasty. His father is murdered and Yuan is wounded, but he escapes and the Shao Lin temple takes care of him, helping to heal his wounds. After recovering from his injuries, he asks to become a monk so that he may learn kung fu and seek revenge against his father's killer. The temple accepts him into their order, but he finds it difficult to obey their rules and is frustrated by the slow progress that he is making in martial arts because of the restrained teaching style. He soon sets out to seek vengeance, but quickly returns to the monks, realizing that he cannot take on the entire army alone.

The monks do not want to become involved in any battles because they believe in using martial arts only for self-defense, never for attack or killing. Nevertheless, necessity reluctantly forces the monks to aid Yuan in his struggle for revenge. The temple elder understands the importance of upholding justice, just as Yuan feels passionate about avenging his father's death. The monks eventually are forced to defend the temple and their lives in a large final battle that tests the martial arts skill of the Buddhist warriors.

The Shao Lin Temple uses a classic plot structure that hardly allows for much innovation or originality, but talented filmmakers can craft great movies from seemingly straight-forward plots. The Shao Lin Temple is not a great movie, but it is a good early film for Jet Li. Its primary strength is the action sequences, which are scattered abundantly throughout the movie. There are few great action scenes, but all of the action is high quality and enjoyable. The pace is good and keeps viewers interested and entertained.

Fans of Hong Kong action movies that especially appreciate armed combat will really enjoy The Shao Lin Temple. There are numerous stick and sword fights throughout the movie, but standard unarmed combat is rare. Some of the stick fights will remind viewers of The Tai-Chi Master (1993), but others rely on the concept of drunken fighting made popular by Drunken Master (1979) and its revered sequel, Drunken Master II (1994). The specific style in The Shao Lin Temple is known as Drunken Stick, which is a similar form of confusing the opponent by giving the appearance of being drunk and thus less dangerous.