Welcome back to Kung Fu Theater Week: Double Feature Day and
we finish off the week with the first starring role of Jet Li (Born to Defense, The Master, Once Upon a Time in China, The Legend of
the Swordsman, Black Mask, Hero and The Expendables) from the director Hsin-yan Chang (Treasure Island, Hong ying dao,
Tong tian lin ji, Yellow River Fighter and Tai Chi II) brings a tale of
honor, love, loss and redemption.
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| Monks performing the poopy dance. |
Shaolin must uphold the
principles that all spoilers believe in.
We open in wide angle shots around the Temple seeing these
beautiful wall paintings, these gorgeous trees, well-maintained gardens,
shrines, immense gates and statues of Buddha and the Gods to be held.
All the monks have knelt before the Abbot of the Shaolin and
in the middle is a young shaven-headed man in a blue robe awaiting to be
accepted to the temple. The Abbot
explains he’s expected to adhere to a life of ceremony, self respect and
respect of others and a purification of body and soul. The Abbot asks him for his name to which he
says Jue Yuan and the Abbot tells him to be allowed into the temple he must
never commit murder. Can he obey this
and the film fades to a flashback of a warlord Wang Shichongkilling an old man
and tossing him off a high wall and down in the dregs of a muddy river and then
just whip his head back at the slaves to get back to work; these poor slaves
are literally being worked to death, toiling in the mud among corpses of their
fellow comrades while soldiers whip them.
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| The Dogs of War are very cross! |
China is divided into factions once again at the end of Siu
Dynasty and this wretched monster of a man calls himself Emperor Chang now and
he enslaved captured warriors to complete his defenses.
Jue pledges that one day he will end the life of this cruel
Emperor after he kills Jue’s father and thus free China from this reign of
terror and bring about a new age of prosperity and order. Thoroughly beaten by the Emperor, Jue still
manages to escape and is saved by the Shaolin Temple. Through this his teacher Sifu and his existing
Kung Fu training he proves to be an exceptional fighter but damn near kills a
sparring partner focusing his rage on a vision of the Emperor. With this he flees the temple and attempts to
kill the Emperor yet again. Forgiven of
his impulses of youth the temple allows him back and he spends the next year
honing his skills to become adept in the Northern Shaolin Kung Fu.
A refugee Li Shimin flees to the temple being chased by the
sadistic Emperor and his men and with the help of the feint the Abbot and
fellow monks Jue and Li attempt to escape the countryside only to be surrounded
by the Emperor’s vicious soldiers but Sifu and several of the monks aid Jue in
his time of need.
Similar to The 36th Chambers of Shaolin this
story covers depictions of honor against the unjust, a need for protectors to
become more than they were and a time when killing is a necessity. The fight
sequences are amazing and the training courses look grueling to say the least
but the story progresses beyond just the next fight and with a guanine tale of
triumph, tragedy and tempered discipline.
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| BOOT TO THE HEAD! |
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