The legend of the burning of the Shaolin
Temple is brought into the 20th century directed by Benny Chan and choreographed
by Corey Yuen. It takes place during the period of the Republic when warlords
ruled and fought each other for much of China. It is a big production with
two huge action set pieces that are very impressive. Hong Kong talent and
Mainland money. But the two action set pieces are really just book ends to
what the film seems to really want to be. An exploration of the concepts
of Buddhism - karma, forgiveness, mercy, prayer, redemption and enlightenment.
That is the real story arc, the action is just to get us in our seats. It
is not Buddhism for Dummies exactly but more a short cut to Buddhism. Much
of it is not really credible from the main character's acceptance of it to
the over the top evil of another character who comes face to face with it.
The question they both ask is a simple "why". The beginning of a long path
to knowledge.
The cast is a terrific mix of Hong Kong
actors with a sprinkling of Mainland talent. Andy Lau is terrific in his
metamorphosis from evil to good and he dominates the film. He plays General
Hou Jie, a ruthless warlord who we are introduced to when he barges into
the Shaolin Temple and before the horrified monks kills his enemy and then
adds to their sign that reads "The Birthplace of Martial Arts", "is no big
deal". He has only one soft spot for his wife (Fan Bing-bing) and his small
daughter. Among the monks are Jackie Wu and as the Abbott the great Yu Hai
who was so instrumental in Jet Li's first three Mainland films. Hou Jie's
right hand man is Cao Man (Nicholas Tse) who is clearly a Cassius in waiting.
Karma is heading for Hou Jie in the worst kind of way - betrayed, abandoned
by everyone, his daughter dead - a man destroyed. He falls into a boar hole
and lies there for days until the Shaolin cook finds him and revives him.
I am looking at this cook and thinking
he sure looks like Jackie Chan and thinking he isn't in this film is he?
Well he sure is and though credited as a Special Appearance, it is actually
a fairly large role - a man who became the cook because as he says I could
not learn kung-fu. Huh-huh. Hou Jie decides to join the temple against the
objections of many of the monks and after the Abbott accepts him he begins
on the journey to enlightenment. But no need to worry about this getting
dull - it is done with a light touch - and when he finds out that Cao Man
has gone down the same dark road he once had and is working with foreigners
to steal China's treasures for guns, he feels he needs to stop this and stop
the descent of his once righthand man into pure evil.
Underneath Cao is his main henchman played
by Xiong Xin-xin who is as always great. The choreography from Corey Yuen
is complicated - lots of moving pieces of monks and soldiers - I am always
in awe of how they keep it all together and have it cohesive. The monks are
great fighting with sticks against guns and then finally picking up swords.
Though it is a big film it never loses track of the small emotional moments
and hits a few on the head. . This runs 130 minutes - whatever happened to
90-minute HK films - but in this case I didn't mind a bit.
