Shaolin

The Shaolin temple has long been a place of refuge and respite and the famed monks the people's protectors and servants. This movie finds the monks attempting to be pacifists in the face of a ruthless warlord moving through town and making pacts with western governments that will increase both their and his power within China's verdant valleys. The warlord is wounded, though, and where once he laid siege to the Shaolin monastery he now finds himself the beneficiary of the monk's care. As time is taken for his body and spirit to heal the devious plots of the other power brokers play out until duplicity strips many of their lives and the monks are decimated in a bloodbath that they are forced to fight in in order to protect the people.You would think that this type of movie would employ more west versus east fighting with the warlords relying more heavily than they do on western weaponry rather than their hand-to-hand prowess but you'd be wrong. There certainly is the explicit evil of the advanced western machinery of destruction, but the soldiers are no slouches to employing their fists and feet in the service of subjugation. Thus we get an ample amount of fighting, some of it rueful and bitterly violent, and some of it delightful and laughable (as when the monastery boys fight in a child's inimitably small style and Jackie Chan, here portrayed as a kindhearted but mentally limited strongman, uses his wok to rock heads). This is a decent Hong Kong actioner and worth the time for those who eat this stuff up. But as has been said before, fans of Chan (who is featured prominently on the cover) need to look elsewhere to watch him in a starring role as this movie has him in but a small supporting role.Ultimately the bad guys are generally unsympathetic and rueful characters except for warlord Hou Jie (played by veteran Andy Lau) who goes through a painful redemption. The Shaolin monks are a bit more nuanced as they show more emotional hostility and distrust and less intuitiveness than normal. For those looking only for slam bang kung fu action they will get some but may overall be disappointed by more story than they're expecting.

Good Asian movie liked all the training in it and was very fun to watch

10/10

Better-than-average action film with the usual choreographed martial arts battles. But I was hoping for more, thinking that the Shaolin angle would have provided a little more sophistication of the story than it did. In fact, the monks were used for comic relief as much as anything else, which was a little disappointing. Not that I didn't chuckle a bit, but the Shaolin angle seemed it should have been better utilized. While there was a little "insight into human nature" that I was hoping for in the final resolution, I had hoped for more, or something a little more profound. It was all pretty formulaic, really. You could do worse, but they could do better. The story was the weak point I would say, including the overdependence on the standard choreographed and unrealistic action. Good guys and bad guys. Otherwise the effects and camerawork were quite good.Such action movies appear to be the equivalent of the Westerns of the '40s and '50s with modern production values. Eventually, westerns started to expand outside the box, push the boundaries, and discard the old standard formulas. Films like the the original 3:10 to Yuma, the Hired Hand, the spaghetti westerns and others of that opened up the field and didn't need to rely on unrealistic stereotypical gunfights to keep them interesting. Who was a good guy and who was a bad guy was blurred, struggles with moral ambiguities, etc., more like real life. Though there are some transitions in Shaolin, it's still pretty black and white when the all bad guy suddenly turns all good guy. Hopefully better plots are on their way and we'll see some of that sophistication happen with the martial arts movies (or happen again, as I figure many of the classic samurai films qualify). Or maybe it has been happening, and I simply mistook Shaolin for one of them. As great movies go, Shaolin is certainly no High Noon. Patience is touted as one of the Buddhist virtues here, but little patience can be seen in the plot.

Not just martial arts, but a good story about the human spirit and finding redemption after massive transgressions. The forms the monks go through are beautiful. And of course, Jackie Chan plays his usual lovable, goofy yet bad-ass role. Definitely not as cringy as some of the others. I enjoyed this.

Confezione scarna, sobria, com'e' consuetudine aspettarsi dalla Minerva, ma il prodotto dal punto di vista del doppiaggio e' ben fatto e il film, seppur inedito, merita la visione. Peccato per la totale mancanza di extra (a parte il trailer).Non ho attrezzature particolari per valutare la qualita' tecnica del DVD, a me pare che si veda bene, e tanto mi basta!

Sensacional todo .. !. Jjo./68.

Il pacco è arrivato rotto, riparato con nastro da poste italiane, comunque il contenuto era integro. Il film è un po' pesante, più indicato per amanti del genere e delle arti marziali.

desideravo

Punti positivi: + gli attori sono eccellenti + la storia è drammatica e ben realizzata + splendidi ambientiPunti Negativi: - Il buon Jackie Chan compare solo per pochi minuti, il che è una sicura delusione... - mi aspettavo un wuxia, invece si tratta di un film storico/drammaticoConclusione: non è il mio genere, ma sono stato comunque contento di poterlo vedere