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Films from Fa Sheng's Temple: The Shaolin Temple Trilogy (Part 2 & 3)
- Gene Ching
- 9 hours ago
- 6 min read
In honor of the upcoming Kickstarter for Fa Sheng: Origins #3, I’m writing a short series of reviews for Immortal Studios on films shot on location at the original Shaolin Temple of China.
Shaolin Temple was truly groundbreaking film on every level so not surprisingly, many emulators followed in its wake. Two subsequent films have been included with the original Shaolin Temple film in what is dubbed ‘The Shaolin Temple Trilogy,’ even though the successive two films were completely new storylines that had nothing to do with the original and the third was from a different production company altogether. Aside from reuniting the powerful cast of martial artists, the only aspect that all three films share is that Jet Li cross dresses in every installment. Nevertheless, in hopes of coat tailing on singular success of Shaolin Temple, these films were marketed as Shaolin Temple 2 and Shaolin Temple 3.
Shaolin Temple 2: Kids from Shaolin (1984)
Shaolin Temple 2: Kids from Shaolin is from the same production company as Shaolin Temple, Chung Yuen Motion Picture, with the same director, Chang Hsin-Yen. It reunites the cast, but they are playing entirely different roles in a story completely unrelated to the original. And contrary to the theme of this special Films from Fa Sheng’s Temple series, it was not filmed at Shaolin Temple. Instead, Shaolin Temple 2: Kids from Shaolin was shot in the gorgeous mountains and lakes of Guilin.
It’s a story about two Shaolin disciples, Tin Lung (Yu Hai) and Yee Lung (Hu Jianqiang), who rescue and raise a group of boys orphaned by bandits, the eldest of which is San Lung (Jet Li). Across the river is Pao Sheng Fung (Yu Chenghui), a Wudang master, who much to his dismay, has only sired girls. Ji Chunhua and Sun Jiankui also return from the original film, both playing villains. The story capitalizes on the age-old rivalry between Shaolin and Wudang, with a battle of the sexes added in for good measure.
Shaolin Temple only had one female character, the daughter of Sifu (Yu Hai), Bai Wu Xia (Ding Lan). To fortify the Wudang women, Shaolin Temple 2 added Huang Quiyan as San Feng, San Lung’s love interest. In real life, Huang was also a Wushu champion and trained alongside Li from childhood. The two married and had two daughters, however they divorced after only three years. Li broke up with Huang by phone, but they have allegedly remained friends.
The story focuses on kids, some rather annoying kids at that. The Shaolin boys are constantly teasing the Wudang girls, and despite their extraordinary Kung Fu skills, a lot of the humor falls flat today. There’s a running joke about split trousers and a lot of gratuitous shots of the naked butts of the young boys. Like the first film, there’s a musical interlude, but here, Jet Li sings (it’s dubbed – unlike Jackie Chan who is a trained traditional Chinese opera singer and has several pop music albums, Jet can’t sing). SPOILER ALERT The most challenging scene is when Master Pao finally fathers a son, he plays with the infant’s penis and even kisses it. This scene is edited out of most on the internationally distributed versions. END SPOILER.
Throughout the film, there are some fine choreographed fights, par for the cast of Wushu champions. The kids are good too and deliver some deft displays of Wushu skills. There is also a traditional Northern style lion dance segment that stands as an excellent exhibition of the art – no wire work, just pure talent. Lion dancing is rooted in Kung Fu. What appears to be a charming Chinese version of a pantomime horse is built upon extreme Kung Fu skills.
Ultimately, Shaolin Temple 2 redeems its shortcomings with the final fight, which is an all-out battle between a gang of villainous bandits and the united Shaolin and Wudang families. The bandits are armed with some weird weapons, most notably Ji Chunhua as the one-eyed bandit leader. Ji bears the nickname ‘Bald Eagle’ because in real life, he suffers from alopecia, so he has no hair or eyebrows. Consequently, his entire career has been playing villains. Nevertheless, his martial arts mastery is profound. Here, he is armed with a crazy bladed shield and a short pole with an eagle talon top. Ji’s battle with Yu Hai is fantastic, as is a thrilling sword fight between Yu Chenghui versus Sun Jiankui. To top it off, Li has an incredible 3-section staff battle with two opponents also wielding 3-section staffs. It’s an awesome finale, worth suffering through the rest of the film. Or you can just fast forward to the fight scenes.
Despite its shortcomings, Shaolin Temple 2 did well at the Chinese box office. It was China’s highest-grossing film title for 1984.
Shaolin Temple 3: Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986)
The third film was produced by the legendary Kung Fu grindhouse, Shaw Brothers Studio, the source point of countless classics of the genre. Lau Kar-leung, the unparalleled Kung Fu actor and fight choreography, took over the director’s chair. And it was filmed at Shaolin Temple, or at least parts of it were shot there.
The Chinese title of this film is Nanbei Shaolin (North South Shaolin) which refers to the southern Shaolin Temple in Putian. Lin Zhiming (Jet Li) and Shi Ren (Yu Hai) represent Shaolin monks from the original temple. Sima Yan (Huang Qiuyan) and Chao Wei (Hu Jianqiang) are from the Southern Putian Shaolin Temple. This gives Hu the opportunity to showcase his expertise in nanquan (southern fist), a form of Wushu that is based on southern Kung Fu methods. Also returning are Ji ‘Bald Eagle’ Chunhua, Sun Jiankui, and Yu Chenghui, once again as villains.
The film is another revenge tale, borrowing elements from the first two films. Along with the scenes shot at Shaolin Temple, there are scenes from Guilin, which doesn’t make much sense. There is no reason to pass through Guilin when going between the original Shaolin Temple at Songshan and Putian because Putian, Songshan Shaolin, and Guilin form a triangle. But it’s scenic, and this is far from the first film to distort geography for scenery. There’s another epic Northern style lion dance, but this one levels up with a mind boggling tightrope stunt. Like the original film, there’s more animal cruelty and Buddhists cheating their vegetarian vows as Lin Zhiming skins a snake and cooks it up (in Shaolin Temple’s sacred Pagoda Forest, same place he smuggled the dog head in the first film). He then covertly shares the meat with his monastic brothers in a scene meant to be comic relief. And once again, Jet Li disguises himself in drag to get past guards at a checkpoint.
The fight choreography is still excellent, but not quite up to the first two films. Lau Kar-leung is unquestionably one of the best fight choreographers ever, but he wasn’t as familiar with Wushu as he was with traditional southern Kung Fu and it shows. There is a contest between two teams of Shaolin monks competing to paint a large character for Buddha, which is very much in line with the imaginative Kung Fu contests seen in many other Shaw Brothers productions. The beats of this fight, along with the others, are akin to Shaw Brothers films of that era, which is excellent but somewhat restrictive for what Wushu can deliver. The fight scenes are still ridiculously precise, acrobatic, and complex, but Wushu doesn’t shine as much as it did in the first two films. The first two films were groundbreaking with their Wushu showcases, setting the bar so high that they are hard acts to follow, even to this day.
Nevertheless, there’s some fantastic fight choreography here, including one distinctive homage to Bruce Lee. When Jet Li tears some of Yu Chenghui’s beard away, and then blows it out of his hand, it’s a nod to Lee’s The Way of the Dragon (1972) fight. Lee does the same thing after ripping out a patch of Chuck Norris’ chest hair.
For anyone who has been to Shaolin Temple recently, the first and third installments of the Shaolin Trilogy are postcards of what the monastery looked like in the early eighties. The tourist invasion has yet to affect the temple’s restoration, so it appears simpler and a bit wilder. It’s a treasure to see that era of Shaolin Temple preserved in these films.
There was another film shot at Shaolin Temple in between Shaolin Temple 2 and Shaolin Temple 3. We’ll explore that in our next installment of Films from Fa Sheng’s Temple. Until then, tune in, turn on, and support our Fa Sheng: Origins #3 Kickstarter, launching soon!
By Gene Ching
Immortal Squad, Martial Arts Editor & Action Choreographer
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