Martial Arts of Shaolin (1985)

Going against his master’s wishes, a young Northern Shaolin pupil (Jet Li) joins two students of Southern Shaolin in attempting to assassinate a corrupt governor as revenge for their parents’ deaths.

Where do I begin? Honestly, I’m at a loss as to how best to convey the unbound thrill of seeing Jet Li leading a cast of Mainland China’s greatest martial arts stars in an epic martial arts actioner directed by the greatest kung fu moviemaker in the world. It’s a marriage made in heaven for any genre fan who appreciates the visceral excitement of Hong Kong action, the earthy and artistic aesthetic of mainland productions, and the passion that both sides bring to the table.

Lau Kar-leung once again proved to be at the very forefront of martial arts filmmaking when he took his mastery of Southern Shaolin kung fu and filmmaking and combined it with the very best that Mainland China’s wushu masters had to offer. Although not without a few flaws, Martial Arts of Shaolin is in most respects a masterpiece of kung fu moviemaking that heralded the birth of a new breed of kung fu action that would dominate Hong Kong movies for the next decade and spread throughout the world.

To truly appreciate Martial Arts of Shaolin, one must understand the formidable forces that shaped it. It begins with Lau Kar-leung, third-martial descendent of Hung Gar master and Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung, who was largely responsible for the success and development of kung fu cinema from his stunt man days on the black and white Wong Fei Hung serials through the ’70s kung fu boom as a leading film director at Shaw Brothers.

By 1985, the kung fu movie genre in Hong Kong was on a fast burn to extinction with the collapse of Shaw Brothers’ moviemaking unit, an over-saturation of cheap B-movies that recycled the same motifs endlessly, and changing audiences tastes. But one ray of hope had appeared on the horizon when growing interest in the real Shaolin Temple, in large part due to Lau Kar-leung’s movies, led Beijing to marshal their country’s best and brightest wushu practitioners for what would become their first kung fu movie, Shaolin Temple (1982). Starring in this successful film was a young martial arts prodigy named Jet Li, who along with an equally talented supporting cast, delivered to movie screens a fresh take on martial arts movie action. It was dominated by elaborate and extremely dynamic, full-body movements of acrobatic and balletic brilliance impossible to duplicate without the years of intense training that went into their creation.

Before Jet Li became a Hong Kong movie superstar, he went on to star in several more Mainland Chinese productions. Although directed by Lau Kar-leung and co-produced by Shaw Brothers, Martial Arts of Shaolin squarely falls into the category of a Mainland Chinese kung fu movie. The differences are clear. Instead of Shaw Brothers’ faked indoor sets and overused back lot, picturesque locations including the Great Wall of China are used. The action is dominated by dynamic wushu and Beijing acrobatics rather than exaggerated Peking opera stereotypes and compact and direct Southern Shaolin kung fu techniques inspired by Wing Chun and Hung Gar movements. The soundtrack also differs in that music is actually composed for the movie, unlike most Shaw Brothers movies that relied on music libraries. However, the theme is overused and the music in general is not particularly mixed well.

The cast is mostly made up of Mainland stars from Shaolin Temple and Kids from Shaolin. This includes Li as a Shaolin pupil burning with a desire to avenge his father’s death and Wong Chau-yin as Sima Yin, the kung fu-trained niece of a Shaolin monk with a similar desire, who is also searching for a man she is destined to marry. (Wong was on Li’s wushu team and the two were married for several years.) Yue Sing-wai, who delivered a magnificent performance in Yellow River Fighter is a real-life sword champion who ably plays the villainous Lord He Suo. Woo Gin-keung is another wushu champion who plays Sima’s companion, a lay representative of Southern Shaolin, who also hides his affection for her. There is also the very talented Yue Hoi as Li’s Shaolin master who shows off his real-life Mantis skills in the film’s climatic end fight. The bald-headed Gai Chun-wa, who distinguished himself in Fong Sai Yuk II also makes an appearance as Yue Sing-wai’s right-hand man.

Its an understatement to say that the cast is talented. These actors are all superb martial artists with skills that look extremely good onscreen. Jet Li is in his physical prime and proves it on countless occasions where he rips through opponents in many of Lau’s complicated fight scenes with seeming ease. There are numerous rewind moments during the action that beg to be seen repeatedly. Imagine watching Sugar Ray Leonard and Mohammad Ali in a boxing movie and you start to get an idea of the kind of high-class talent seen in their natural element.

The movie is not wall-to-wall intense fighting, but instead offers a variety of physical exhibition including acrobatic displays and a friendly competition that requires teams to fight over a giant brush in order to write “Buddha” first. Lau revisits earlier themes as seen in the competition and in bits of silly comedy such as when Li poses as a bitchy shepherdess, while his accomplices dress up as sheep. He also delves into the theme of youthful idealism as seen in Li’s search for justice that wins over his elders’ reluctance to involve themselves in worldly affairs.

Most importantly, the film affords Lau another opportunity to glorify Shaolin kung fu. One of his aims was always to use authentic kung fu and display their distinctive styles. With a cast of this caliber, he’s able to do so in a whole new way by allowing them to unleash their performance skills with a dazzling flair rarely seen in previous Hong Kong action movies. On the down side, it can be seen at times that the movements are more flowery than functional, as when Woo Gin-keung delivers a blistering series of impressive-looking high and low kicks that fall far short of hitting their intended marks. This is hardly worth complaining about considering the overall complexity of the sparring and group combat. It reaches its zenith when Li and Woo fashion a bamboo barrier to entrap Yue Sing-wai’s river boat and storm aboard for what becomes one of Lau’s finest screen fights of all-time. Rarely has such a memorable location been used to such good effect as bodies fly into the water and monks race over narrow strips of bamboo to lock horns with a boat full of spear-wielding fighters.

Martial Arts of Shaolin really is an incredible martial arts movie that stands firmly at the crossroads of the genre. It’s the best of both Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese styles and Old School and New Wave. It’s also the only opportunity to see Jet Li directed by Lau Kar-leung, while Lau was still at the top of his game and Li was just stepping into his. It’s truly a shame that Hong Kong filmmakers had not been able to collaborate with Mainland talent more often up to this point. Yet now that Hong Kong stars like Andy Lau and Maggie Cheung are appearing in Mainland Chinese martial arts movies like Hero and House of Flying Daggers and filmmakers Lau Kar-leung and Tsui Hark are working with mainland casts and crews in Seven Swords, it appears that this early collaboration not only presaged the future of kung fu cinema, but likely had a lasting and positive effect on its creative development that will no doubt continue so long as the arts of kung fu and moviemaking exist.