By the end of this film, it had some how
captured my juvenile fancy. It surfs the territory between being for adults
and being for children and isn't really successful with either. One second
you are having a Sound of Music moment as they sing in the countryside, the
next you are having an action scene where people are beating the crap out
of one another. And many of them urchins. I have never seen a film where
so many children were smacked around, blown up, kicked yards and it is all
in fun because no one seems to die. If you are allergic to children in films
(or in general) you might enjoy that aspect of it but the cute scenes of
which there are many might make you break out in hives. I was halfway to
hives before I was thinking - these kids are not the Bad News Bears but are
incredibly talented. And cute. Where they found them I don't know. 18 of
them. Back in the 90's there was an outbreak of these children shaolin action
films which I had stayed clear of until I was trapped by this one because
I wanted to see some more of Yu- Rong-guang.
It begins in America where a Chinese-American
named Rocky (Willie Chi, who only made a few films but has martial arts talent
and an early Jackie Chan geniality) sticks up for an Asian waitress being
harassed by some tough red necks. He kicks them out of the restaurant but
then about 30 more show up. This is not a kind film to Gweilos! His Sifu
sends him on a mission back to the homeland to deliver a key to the abbot
of the Shaolin temple. He does so and asks to stay for a few days but in
order to do so he has to pass a few tests - kind of making fun of all those
films like 36th Chambers of Shaolin because all these tests are crazy deadly
booby traps. The last being the 18 Shaolin Golden Boys beating the crap out
of him and then pissing on him. Not exactly guest friendly and never likely
to be an Airbnb. There is a lot of wire work in the film but it is still
pretty obvious these kids have some training in martial arts and are terrific
acrobats - and when I say kids I am talking about 6-10 years old.
Later Rocky saves a nun, Sister Marie from
some hooligans led by Mr Pao (Yu Rong-guang) who she witnessed killing some
people. She hides up in the Temple and the film then defaults to comedy of
the goofiest kind, singing, training, playing tricks on one another and so
on. This goes on for a while much to my consternation. But when the action
comes back as Mr. Pao is trying to steal a treasure in the temple it goes
full throttle. Besides YRG there is also Billy Chow banging heads and some
female I can't identify who is a viper. When this is going on you can't help
but think, this is for children? The action choreographer is the terrific
Fung Hak-on who was an actor in over 200 films and helped the choreography
on a few classics - Magnificent Warriors, Iron Fisted Monk, Warriors II -
one of Sammo's guys. There is way too much wire-fu here that is ridiculously
exaggerated but on purpose I think - but the choreography and the formations
he creates for the kids is pretty impressive.
Also showing up is William Ho as the corrupt
monk, Shing Fui-on in a cameo as a gang leader and the nun is Cherie Chan,
who has a bit of the short-haired Anita Yuen look about her. I almost gave
up on this when the kids peed on poor Rocky but glad I persevered!
