Shaolin (新少林寺) is an 2011 film out of Hong Kong. The movies stars Andy Lau and Nicholas Tse. The supporting cast includes Fan Bing-Bing and Jacky Wu. For some reason, they list Jackie Chan as an cameo. Jackie Chan's role is much more than an cameo. The abbot of Shaolin appeared in the first Shaolin temple movie of 1982 alongside Jet Li.
After the Qing Dynasty, there was this Warlord Era in Zhong Guo. During that time, warlords fought for territory amongst each other. Andy Lau plays one of these warlords and is shown to do anything to retain his power, even take the life of his shown brother. Nicholas Tse plays Andy's right hand man. Fan Bing Bing plays Andy's wife. On a night when Andy was to rid himself of his shown brother, he is betrayed by Nicholas. Whom takes the power of both warlords in one night. Andy's chased down by men trying to eliminate him and escapes to Shaolin with his injured daughter. However, the mortal wounds are too much and the daughter dies. Andy is than taken in by Jackie's character, a cook at the foot of Shaolin Mountain. It is there that Andy comes to grips with the consequences of his power struggle and joins the monk-hood of Shaolin. However, when Nicholas is found to be an evil general causing innocents to die, Andy steps out to make a difference.
The movie was well made and well paced. But I had very little emotional attachment to Andy's character. Through the reform, I didn't care. Which made for a long 2 hour watch. Long 2 hour watch. I am saying it again, 2 plus hours! Wow, they could have done this movie in one and a half hours. Because there was so little character development, many extra exercises were forced on the audience to see the just how bad or good one of the characters are.
As an high profile movie that was even shown in the theaters in the US, this movie was well made and had extremely good looking actors. However, the entertainment value could have used some help and the length trimmed. In all, I can't recommend this movie due to its excessive length in light of the story told.
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