Shaolin

[Drunk Monk]

Shaolin just premiered in Asia for Chinese New Years. It's a major blockbuster and the first film to be officially blessed by the Abbot of Shaolin.

It's well written - a cut above the average kung fu flick for sure. It's character driven, which stands to reason with Andy Lau in the lead. Lau has the acting chops to give his role plenty of gravitas, but it detracts somewhat from the final fight, as Lau isn't known for his martial skills. Fortunately, there's lots of other fights in the film, but the choreography relies heavily on wire work and CGI. many of the wire work jumps look hokey. The wire work falls are good however. There are some really good falling stunts. Jackie Chan is very Jackie Chan. He interjects some much needed humor in what is a generally depressing film about war ravaged peasants and brutal warlords. Jackie's scenes really stick out. Yu Hai, Wu Jing and of course Yanneng (aka Xingyu) all turn in some decent fights, once you get past the wire work. Their acting performances outshine their choreography however. I should note that I know Xingyu - he was Coolie in Kung Fu Hustle and he was at Shaolin when I was there in '95 & '96. He's a real Shaolin monk. There's a lot of quick references to Songshan Shaolin qixingquan, a form that I practice, which makes it better for me.

The sets and costumes are spectacular. I love the look of the Shaolin Temple set, which was built to scale apparently. I also liked the costumes, which were opulent for the warlords and ragtag for the monks. I enjoyed the way the monks were depicted too - very compassionate - that's surely why the Abbot endorsed it. There were several scenes that I really liked - a bit over-romanticized views of Shaolin monks, but then I know too many of them personally, so I'm jaded in that regard. Xingyu/Yanneng is great. His character, well, it's just like I remember him. He really carries an authenticity for a Shaolin monk role.

This won't have the overwhelming impact of the 1982 film. How could it? That film changed everything. And I'm not sure how well it will play in America, if it ever gets here. It might do okay. It does have cartoonish Caucasian villains, but then, so does Ip Man 2. Ultimately, the filmmakers don't care. They are cleaning up in Asia with this so an American release would just be gravy.

It's not quite a DOOM flick despite being very good. It's just not outrageous in that DOOM way. I have other films I'd show you brothers before this now.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

So, I spent the day watching this flick. I only lapsed for about fifteen minutes.

But basically what DM said. It had a beat and you could dance to it. I liked Andy Lau. I liked Jackie playing Jackie. (I don't know martial arts. I am just a cook)

I really like their version of the temple. I figured they had just found another temple and used that for filming. It even had a much more picturesque location. Although I was going to call foul that they had ponds in the Stele yard. Everyone knows that isn't true.

I did see that Abbot Shi Xong Xin was given a producer's credit. And I think they did take a lot of breaks in the action to talk about good buddhism was. I didn't mind the bad russians. We all know they are bad.

The one thing that disturbs me in these pictures are the horse falls. they do a lot of them and it can't be good for the horse. And since I wasn't sure about the strictures invoked for animal protection in Chinese film production, I figured they were like old school Hollywood. Just trip the horses. If they break, we'll get knew ones. So, I wince whenever I see it happen in these films. Especially the on of the horse falling down the temple stairs. But there is a disclaimer at the end saying all the animals were treated well, so I felt marginally better.

[Drunk Monk]

I watched this again via netflix as I didn't see a subtitled version. As it happens, the subtitles didn't really add much. It just made me reflect on why this film fails. It's got sword fights, great sets, explosions and 4 of the top martial arts actors - Jackie, Yu Hai, Wu Jing & my ol' Shaolin friend, Shi Yanneng (who I wrote a cover story on centering on this flick.) Part of the issue is Corey Yuan's wire work, which is way too floaty. Another issue is the lighting, or rather, the overall look of the film, which doesn't showcase the fights well. There's some nice color schemes - the grey of the army contrasted by Lau's golden armor and silk clad family in the beginning, and by the blood and fire in the end, the warm glowing faces of the monks, the lush mountain scenery - but the fights are lit very poorly, so it's really hard to see the complexity of Corey's wacky choreography. But the biggest problem is the latest term I am coining - Mandarin melodrama. It's just too damn melodramatic, too much story. In a way, the film is like Ghost Protocol, tackling a myth that's always been there but not really addressed in film. In GP, it was the secretary disavowing any knowledge, the leader of every freakin episode. In Shaolin, it's the legend of warlords taking refuge. Great idea, but in both cases, the filmmakers over thought it. I think Mandarin melodrama is the 'beats' Greg is referring to - the tearful couple confessing regret, the mother crying over a dead child, the Chinapop ballad sung by the star (Lau in this case) with slo-mo flashback images, the villain being saved by the hero to deliver one last stab and then having a repentful epiphany, the pause for the spit-blood-&-die scene. It's the hubris of Chollywood filmmaking, this Mandarin melodrama, and it weighs down this 2+ hour epic. Trim this to an hour and a half and it would be a really tight film. Chollywood is split between the running times of Bollywood and the few 2+ hour Hollywood blockbusters, making the editing too soft.

Looking forward to Yanneng in Wrath of Vajra. WellGo drops that in March and I've already struck a deal with them for a sweepstakes, maybe more...

[Drunk Monk]

Rewatched this again on Hoopla. It’s aged well. Im long past the original attachment to the 82 Shaolin Temple film, which is how this film was promoted initially while in production. Even wiki still says this is a remake, but it’s not even in the same dynasty (the original was the start of the Tang (618 CE) and this one was the RoC warlord period (1920s)). It struck me as more Benny Chan (director) which hadn’t been mentioned previously, especially with his swooping in from bird’s eye shots which were almost overdone. Xingyu is quite good in this, especially his coup de Grace. 

This was research for next week.