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This afternoon I saw the movie Shaolin at UA Cinemas, Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. One of the movies from my Must See Movies list.
A very intriguing movie that is exciting right off at the start. It stars 3 of Hong Kong’s most famous male stars: Andy Lau, Jackie Chan and Nicholas Tse. Although it is an action film Jackie Chan is not the main characters in this movie. Instead Lau and Tse who play martial arts (kung foo) experts took the roles. Of course most of their action sequences were done by stunt men, but were still fairly believable.
The movie is set in China’s ancient period where warlords are fighting each others to gain controls of each other’s territories.
The historic Shaolin temple fell into the middle of this internal fightings, assisting and saving refugees as a result of these fightings. Although they stayed neutral and stuck to their believes of assisting anyone who are in need, they were forced to take side between two warlord brothers (Lau and Tse).
Most of the movie was set in the historic Shaolin temple and its compound. The movie maker even spent the efforts to create a replica of the temple structures for them to blow during one of the battle scene.
Of course any movie about Shaolin cannot be without several demonstrations of the amazing acrobatic feats (martial arts) of the Shaolin monks.
Benny Chan is not a stranger to action films particularly ones with Jackie Chan. Although Chan is not the main character in this movie, there were several scenes for him to demonstrate his martial arts skills.
Lau played a very convincing and conniving warlord who found Buddha teaching and recognized the wrong he had done, which the latter caused the life of his young daughter.
Overall this is an entertaining and beautifully filmed movie. Enjoyable and worth watching from a theatre big screen or a HDTV at home.
| Rating Legend: | |
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Not to be missed |
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Wait for the DVD |
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Buy from iTunes Store |
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Rent it on iTunes |
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Waste your time elsewhere |