“Shaolin” Chinese Theatrical Poster
Director: Benny Chan
Cast: Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse, Fan Bing Bing, Wu Jing, Xing Yu, Yu Shao Qun, Hung Yan Yan
Running Time: 131 min.
By HKFanatic
Andy Lau. Nicholas Tse. Jacky Wu. Jackie Chan. You can’t really ask for a bigger cast from a Hong Kong flick these days. With Benny Chan (“New Police Story”) behind the camera and handling production duties, “Shaolin” seemed prime to be a modern classic. And yet…I felt strangely underwhelmed by this film. I wanted to love it but, in the end, it was just “pretty good.” Pretty good is certainly not bad but you expect more from the talent involved.
“Shaolin” is set during the early 1900’s. China is slowly unifying but warlords engage in bitter conflicts for control of the various territories. Meanwhile, foreigners are seeking to carve up China by taking control of railroads and plundering its buried treasure. In the midst of all this chaos, the people suffer. Starving peasants and refugees have no government to turn to; instead, they seek shelter outside the Shaolin Temple where peaceful but kung-fu trained Buddhist monks do their best to clothe, shelter, and feed the masses.
Andy Lau plays one of the warlords who, along with his underling Nicholas Tse, seems to get a thrill from the violence. In his thirst for conquest he shows no qualms about putting innocent civilians in danger or disgracing the Shaolin Temple. As you can probably guess, his lust for blood eventually catches up with him and he’s forced to have a change of heart before he loses everything he holds dear.
The problem with “Shaolin” is that the screenplay is extremely superficial. The Chinese bad guys are mustache-twirlingly evil, nearly to the point of parody, and they’re not even as over-the-top as the gweilo villains. The movie is supposed to be about Andy Lau’s transformation into a peace-loving monk but his turn practically occurs over night. Too much screentime is eaten up during the first act with Andy as a warlord so that there’s not enough room for his later development. The other monks like Jacky Wu go from treating him with disdain in one scene to embracing him as a brother in the next. Cue the big, explosive finale and then the film is over.
“Shaolin” doesn’t sit still long enough to let the characters develop or the story breathe. Though he seeks to praise the Shaolin philosophy, Benny Chan could display a lot more monk-like patience as a director. The film’s Buddhist beliefs are glossed over and delivered in your typical fortune cookie-style quotes. Don’t expect lengthy training sequences or an in-depth look at what goes on behind the Shaolin Temple gate. “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin,” this is not.
The production values are slick – almost too slick. Benny Chan has so many crane shots in this movie I was nearly getting dizzy. Of course, Andy Lau and Nicholas Tse are not martial artists so expect a blend of wires, doubles, and clever camera angles during their fight scenes. It’s not terribly noticeable but it does make a difference when someone who can really fight shows up onscreen, like Jacky Wu or Xing Yu. You may recognize Xing Yu as the guy Donnie Yen suplexed in “Flashpoint” – he actually spent ten years training in martial arts at a real Shaolin Temple. Unfortunately, these two guys don’t get nearly as much screentime as Nicholas Tse.
Jackie Chan has a supporting role and I genuinely loved him in it. He plays a down to earth cook who’s grown to resent the Temple but feels hesitant to leave its doors since he’s never seen the outside world. He provides a lot of humor and humanity to the story. Yes, Jackie does get one fight scene, which is cool, but in his older age he is definitely leaning more on props and wires to do the fighting for him. Can’t stay I blame the guy, his body has been to hell and back over the last few decades. It’s just great to see him in a Chinese language film again and not some Hollywood drivel like “The Spy Next Door.”
“Shaolin” is a prime example of style over substance. As a protagonist, Andy Lau follows a similar character arc as Jet Li in “Fearless” but unlike that film “Shaolin” never slows down to truly illuminate Lau’s quest for inner peace. Benny Chan engages in a lot of over-the-top symbolism involving a Buddha statue and relies a bit too much on wirework to make his Shaolin monks appear supernatural in strength. The ending features as many explosions as a Hollywood blockbuster but it just doesn’t pack the emotional punch you want it to. Instead you might be checking your watch as events unfold in a predictable manner and the filmmakers get one last swipe at making us gweilos appear as evil as possible.
It’s not the epic masterpiece it could have been, but “Shaolin” is at least entertaining for its entire duration and it does feature an excellent performance from Andy Lau. Even if we’ve seen this kind of character before, Lau is an actor who can communicate a lot without a single line of dialogue. If you’re enticed by the cast then be sure to watch “Shaolin” at some point. Just keep expectations in check.
HKFanatic’s Rating: 7/10
The Chinese epic franchise is starting to wear a little thin; too many of them out there now. But this film is solid all around. Always nice to watch the very talented Andy Lau go to work. 7/10.