This film seems to be universally hated by most Western Hong Kong film fans.
And for good reasons. Two of them. Sik Siu-lung and Hao Shao-wen. Two fairly
annoying children who dominate this film. I tend to dislike children in any
film unless they are hanging from the window of a moving car so they probably
irritated me more than most. For a brief period of time in the mid-1990s
these Shaolin Popey films that starred kids from the Shaolin Temple were
popular and a bunch of them were made. I had avoided them like poison ivy
until now. I got trapped. Other than those two it also has Yuen Biao, Kara
Hui Ying-hung, Vivian Hsu and Elvis Tsui and that was enough to entice me
in like a tout at a Gentleman's club.
And yes it has some parts that are worse than putting your hand into boiling
soup but if I take the stick out of my rectum I have to admit there was some
dumb fun within and some decent action. Sik Siu-lung was actually trained
at the Shaolin Temple and he is pretty damn good. Not a lot of charm but
he has some moves to spare. The choreography was from Stephen Tung-wai and
you don't get much better than that (A Better Tomorrow, Pom Pom and Hot Hot,
Fox Hunter, Reign of Assassins). There is a fight breaking out constantly
usually with the kids but the final set piece on top of and inside a moving
train was fairly impressive. Yuen and Kara get their kicks in though not
nearly as much as we would like - and two baddie Gwielos do as well. Yuen
Biao was always my favorite of the Seven Fortunes (Sammo, Jackie etc)
- incredible gymnastic moves - but injuries to his legs were slowing him
down and his best films were behind him - but he looks good here.
The head of Shaolin Temple decides that it is a good idea to send out one
of his most promising students into the real world. This is Siu-lone, about
6 years old. Going along with him are two monks - one being Law Kar-ying
who sees this as an opportunity to visit karaoke bars and eat meat. Siu-lone
chases after a pickpocket and gets separated from the other two but makes
friends with Little Emperor, a street wise thief of about the same age but
much more girth. Yuen Biao shows up to bid on a Buddha's head and outbids
his brother played by Elvis. This does not set well and Elvis and his girlfriend,
a silver haired sleek and sexy Kara and they along with minions try and steal
it back.
So does Vivian. Who is cuter than a puppy in daffodils. She falls for Yuen.
I can't think of any film in which a woman fell for Yuen Biao. So it felt
sweet. Good for Yuen. The big finale ends up on a train in which punches
and kicks go back and forth as often as does the Buddha head. At one point
as Yuen is hanging out the window Vivian appears on a horse and saves him.
They must have really slow trains in China as she had been left way behind.
There also turns out to be a magical plane on top of the train. Where that
came from will be a secret known only to the scriptwriter - if there was
one. There were two particularly cringeworthy moments - one in which Yuen
has a drinking contest with Little Emperor in which their table in a bar
is full of drinks and no staff person says a thing - and then later the two
boys put on a martial arts show to earn some money and when the donations
are smaller than hoped for Little Emperor pulls a Hanzo the Razor move and
puts weights on as he calls it his "dickie". The amazing thing is that both
of the kids are still acting in movies today.
