Sadly Over-hyped

Absolutely Fantastic

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Now, a lot can be said about "Shaolin Girl" (aka "Shôrin shôjo"), but comparing it to "Shaolin Soccer" is hardly appropriate, because they are two very different movies. And yes Stephen Chow did produce this movie, but this is not a sequel.The story is about Rin, a Japanese woman who has studied the art of Shaolin Kung Fu in China and now has returned to Japan to honor her grandfather, but Things are very changed from before when she went to China."Shaolin Girl" is a fairly average movie, which never really managed to strike a lasting impression. The movie just lacked finesse, an interesting storyline, characters to captivate the audience and any outstanding acting performances. So it was a very mediocre movie experience.Several times throughout the movie did I find my focus and concentration to drift away from the movie. There just wasn't anything to thrill or excite me enough to keep me entertained.It was the production level that kept the movie afloat. But a production level can only go so far. A movie is supposed to be entertaining, and that is where "Shaolin Girl" failed.There were surprisingly little Kung Fu in this movie, and it was mostly just about lacrosse and drama. So the movie was somewhat misleading in terms of what you would expect from it given its title and synopsis.If you enjoy Asian movies, then there are far better, much, much better movies available. I can't really come up with a valid reason to recommend "Shaolin Girl" to others.

The start of this movie was very promising - girl get sent to the shaolin temple as a child to learn the shaolin style and to control her inner power which "if she cannot control can lead her down the dark path". She returns to Japan all grown up to see the family dojo abandoned and decrepit. The sensei working as a chef and is unwilling to do Shorin Ju (shaolin style). A bad guy who seems to be in control of a corporation that is developing the strongest and the best. Add a team of cute girls from the lacrosse team. Sounds like we have a winner here.Unfortunately after that intro...probably first 15mins of the film it goes downhill. There is no character development. I mean totally NONE. As to her inner power, don't see any of it nor any inclination she may be turned to the dark side. In fact she is all earnestness and sweetness throughout.The bad guys sole purpose is to fight her to see how good she is and to challenge himself. Thats it, no other purpose other then an ego boost. The fight scenes are not bad but some clever camera angles and editing made them passable. A lot of use of CG, some very bad. The last bit was horrible. The bad guy kept telling her to turn/give in to the dark side...when did he *bleeping* become Darth *bleeping* Vader plus at no point did she show any inclination of darkness or inner conflict. And the ending.... all I can say is what the *bleeping* *bleep* is that *bleep* This movie had a certain B movie feel to it, lol I kept expecting for the locker room/shower scene with the girls from the team. Unfortunately it never happened. lol.In summary this is a Kids movie. They will find it exciting. Not horribly bad but far from good.

Overall this was a pretty good movie, though Japanese actors tend to over-act their parts too much making me want to punch the character Minmin on many occasions!The title of my review pretty much sums up what this movie is about and how I took it. There was some fun action scenes that really keep you involved, but they are more over-the-top than the much better movie "Shaolin Soccer." A lot isn't explained in this film; i.e., they'll show you something, leave it alone for a long time (sometimes never addressing what it was all about) or just show you some arbitrary scene just to fill time.I liked the film and think that anyone who wants to see a fun film in the similar vein of Shaolin Soccer or The Last Dragon should check it out. Don't expect anything too serious and try to ignore the cheesy acting you get from some characters. Oh yeah, a more apt name would have been "Shaolin Lacrosse" instead of Shaolin Girl, because that's pretty much what it is, like mentioned in the trivia facts on this site.

The current comment on the front page for shaolin girl is, I think, overly negative and sceptical. Granted I haven't seen Shaolin Soccer so maybe it seems a lot more original to me - but nevertheless this is a really good movie; the slapstick comedy is great, if you take it in the spirit it's presented (laugh at the cheapness of the jokes, not the jokes themselves). I loved the unnecessary references to Star Wars, The Matrix, Bruce Lee and probably some others i missed - as well as the usual trademark stuff from Stephen Chow (nobody stepped on an eagle though, which would have been epic).Basically the film's got comedy, cute Japanese girls (with lesbian overtones) and martial arts. How is it not rated higher?