Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I've been watching classic martial arts films for about 10 years now, ranging from serious drama to absurd comedy. You can find all sort of things in this genre, although they tend to have great fighting scenes regardless. This film is not an exception. The kung-fu is brilliant, and you can enjoy the use of several weapons as well as excellent unarmed combat. The styles are fluid and well executed. However, I find the movie boring and very disrespectful towards Buddhism and Shaolin. Perhaps the fact that I had to watch it dubbed also took its toll and I ended up disinterested and bored. If you are fond of Shaolin, I'd recommend any film by Shaw Brothers instead.

No camera tricks. No high production value (even compared to the Hong Kong Kung Fu movies at that time). No stunt men/women. No wire. It is just pure Kung Fu. The location is real and so are the fighting. It belongs to the classic that we miss in today's Kung Fu movies. If you practice Kung Fu, you have to watch it repeatedly to learn a lot from the real masters. It is quite good for the first Kung Fu movie made in China (about 20 years ago).

If you want to see a non-stop action Kung Fu flic, this movie will be a good choice. More fighting than talking, and good fighting at that. The actors were taken from the chinese national wushu team, and these guys coordinated the fighting scenes themselves without a stunt coordinator. Many styles and weapons are used, such as drunken staff, mantis boxing, and such. The shaolin monks in the film don't seem to take their rules very seriously... they eat meat(dog meat!), drink wine and kill people...The movie was shot on location at the shaolin temple. Shaolin Temple was such a huge hit in Asia, that it made hundreds of chinese children go to the temple in hope of learning shaolin Kung Fu. Also Jet Li's first movie.

Jet Li's first movie, and it set the stage for his future success. Really good kung fu, really good action, and not too many slow points. Pretty typical storyline; evil warlord kills boys father, boy escapes to Shaolin temple, improves his skill and fights a lot of people. But for a movie this old, the fighting is really done well. I'm sure that this is a pretty hard movie to come across, but if you ever get the opportunity to see it, by all means take advantage of it.