MARTIAL ARTS OF SHAOLIN (SHAOLIN TEMPLE 3) isn't the best of the lot, but it's got celebrated director Liu Chia Liang (a.k.a. Lau Kar-Leung) helming the thing, and a young Jet Li in front of the camera, so you can't exactly snub it. This film is a collaboration between the legendary Shaw Brothers studio - which in 1986 had run its course - and Mainland China's dynamic filmmaking sensibilities. Liu Chia Liang gets another crack at promoting the Shaolin monks, and he ably integrates his expertise of southern Shaolin kung fu with the prowess of Mainland China's foremost martial artists. I think it's worth eyeballing.
Why does young Zhi Ming (Jet Li), a pupil of a northern Shaolin temple, train so hard? Is it dedication to his craft? Yes, partly. But Zhi Ming also fosters a hidden agenda which comes to light when he learns of an impending event celebrating the vile governor Lord He Suo's birthday. It's always a trip watching these hotheaded protagonists in these Shaolin temple flicks studiously soak in the Buddha's peaceful philosophies only to see these lessons rapidly abandoned once a chance for a vengeful fighty fight surfaces. Years ago Lord He Suo murdered Zhi Ming's family. Now Zhi Ming sneaks out of the Shaolin monastery, his mind afire with grim thoughts of a reckoning. If nothing else, Lord He Suo deserves a painful and wretched death for his lame villain laugh alone.
During the festivities, our guy runs into Zhao Wei and Si Ma Yan, two martial artists but from a southern Shaolin temple and they happen to be likeminded would-be assassins of the depraved lord. But things go sour, the assassination attempt fails dismally, and Zhi Ming, Zhao Wei, and Si Ma Yan become fugitives. The rest of the film is essentially one long chase and fight sequence. To offset the action, there is a sub-plot concerning matching foot bells, the two bearers of whom are destined to be locked in an arranged marriage. When you consider that Zhi Ming wears one of these foot bells and that his Shaolin standing forbids marriage, well, it adds a measure of dramatic conflict.
MARTIAL ARTS OF SHAOLIN, released in 1986, features a Jet Li that was yet young enough and vibrant enough to pull off those mischievous roles. Even though his character intends to exact unfettered vengeance, there's still a playful side to him which allows for tomfoolery like covertly cooking snake meat and sneaking it into his monastery homies or inadvertently forfeiting a kung fu match against rival students. There's even a sequence in which Jet masquerades as a shepherdess to slip past soldiers at a check point, even as his fellow conspirators dress up as sheep in his flock. And, in case you're struck skeptical at a girl in this picture unconvincingly posing as a man, with everyone onscreen buying the deception, just roll with it. It happens to be a common trope in these films.
The film devotes the opening twenty minutes to establishing Jet Li's scamp persona, after which it proceeds to roll out the frequent fighty fights. As ever, Liu Chia Liang shows off his knack for choreographing crowded fight scenes, and the intricately-staged melee on the river has to be regarded as a career highlight. Jet Li unveils an attack comprised of a full body range of motion, and nowadays when do you see him treat an audience with Beijing acrobatics? And there's an awesome moment near the end in which Yue Hoi, who plays Jet's Shaolin master, uncoils his Mantis technique. It's probably my favorite moment in the movie.
All in all, a rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars for this one; it's a solid recommendation. MARTIAL ARTS OF SHAOLIN is pretty dang good. However. I can't quite put a finger on it, but there's something missing in this film, an absent element which keeps it from being an absolute classic. I do know my eyes were rolling at the tired rivalry between Zhi Ming and Zhao Wei. I wasn't down with the leisurely film score; I think it sabotaged the dramatic push of the story. And while I realize that lion and dragon dancing is a staple of the genre, the sequence here went on and on, much to the rapture of the evil Lord He Suo. It's another reason he deserves a painful and wretched death.
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Les Arts Martiaux de Shaolin
Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on August 15, 2009
