Shaolin Vs. Tai Chi: Viewer Comments

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Shaolin Vs. Tai Chi
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    by ol skee




This movie was a letdown. Classify this into the "if it's an indie/rare it has to be good" overhyped category. Although minor, the music score sucked. Now let's get into the plot/direction. I couldn't make sense of what was going on until halfway into the movie. Basically, you have a friendly fight between the Shaolin monks and the Taoist clan. They reach a stalemate in their fight, so they decide to train students who will carry on their fight (this kind of story has been done before in other movies). The Shaolin monks pick up the "chief" of the beggars as their disciple while the Taoist clan pick up what appears to be a lord's son. Most of the movie shows the Shaolin disciple preparing for the upcoming match with the Taoist disciple. In between, you see the bad guy plotting to steal Shaolin's gold seal or something. Long story short, you get to see some betrayal action and the Shaolin disciple and Taoist disciple play a key role in between. Is there lots of action? Yes, there is. Is the story/plot/direction engaging? No, it's utter crap. This is what plagues a lot of "indie" films in my opinion, because the low budget/lack of direction really shows. The action couldn't save this at all for me. I will say the redeeming factor is that they do try to portray Buddah's teachings throughout the movie and especially in the end. If you like rares and indies for the sake of being on that bandwagon, have a look at this.
AGREE?READER COMMENTSAUTHOR
YI agree, this one bored me to tears.lifejuice
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    by WM17345




I'd read a few reviews for this film saying it was okay or not great, so I kind of hesitated in buying it--and plus it was made by Vengeance Video who are okay, but a lot of the films they release are not the greatest. I finally bought it and I have to say this movie is a sleeper hit: the fights are fast-paced and exciting and all the actors are good. I have to say the film is a bit all over the place with characters suddenly turning up or in the end fight from fighting in a garden to fighting in the woods. The film's main character is played by a wushu guy called Yu Tong who is in "War Of The Shaolin Temple" with Alan Hsu and Ricky Cheng. Also there is another wushu guy called Shao Shan who is in "South Shaolin Master". The bad guy is played by Han Ying ("Incredible Shaolin Thunderkick", "Shaolin Guards Vs. Ninja")--this guy can really kick. The fights are frequent and the end fight is amazing, there is mantis, wushu swordplay and drunken pole all going on. Other faces in the film are Ma Chin Ku who is in countless films with Lee Yi Min and a Robert Tai stuntman and one of the guys with a spear Jackie Chan fights in Fearless Hyena. This film will not disappoint. Go and buy it!
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    by John Firth
    www.myspace.com/johnafirth




I've been waiting for this to turn up at hkflix.com, just so I can review it.

This is in Mandarin with imbedded subtitles, despite the box saying it's the English version. The bonus fight's very silly, and seems to star the Shaolin hero from this film.

To be honest, this film really isn't very good. The film seems very disjointed, like someone cut chunks out at random. Our bald hero seems to become a great kung fu expert despite the training consisting of swinging on some ropes and doing a few flips. If that's all it takes, I'm off to become one as well.

Characters seem to disappear then reappear with mention, and the end fight has the three combatants jump into a hallway, then mysteriously cuts to them, in the woods, with the villain up a tree!

A very silly part of the end fight is the obligatory drunken monk bizarrely being allowed to give the Shaolin hero alcohol to allow him to use his drunken pole fighting. WTF? What self-repecting villain would stand there and allow this? He could have at least have been knocked down and struggling to get back up.

Going back to the drunken pole fighting, this is actually rather good. Quite possibly the only reason to watch the film. The rest of the choreography's good, but nothing special.

I never have been able to discover who Jacky Lee is, or why he's mentioned on the casing as cameoing. I presume he's the random stranger that turns up at the temple looking for a fight, leading to a fight with our Shaolin hero. Never heard of him outside of this film.

AGREE?READER COMMENTSAUTHOR
YI agree. Some very illogical sequences in this movie. The jump cut/edits didn't help either. ol skee
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