Chu Yen-Ping managed to find a fairly long lasting, commercial element in this flick. Or rather two. Or rather two kids. Yes, little Kok Siu-Man and Sik Siu-Lung formed a kung fu-comedy team of wacky and stern/buttkicking respectively. They were later put to use in the semi-sequel as well as in China Dragon and Super Mischieves. Under Chu's very commercial direction, it's mainly Kok's show along with Taiwanese heartthrob and ten times less talented Aaron Kwok wannabee of the era Jimmy Lin that take center stage in what definitely is kid's entertainment but a movie that corresponds ever so slightly to director Chu's old habit of caring for absurd, illogical details.

Basically patented after the dopey high school American comedy formula, the beginning is an unwarranted MV for the great lead Jimmy Lin, showing how great Jimmy Lin is. Even signs of being Taiwan's Tom Cruise of Cocktail fame are evident but when the actual story starts, director Chu's structure is very clear. Lin's Spinach character wants Vivian Hsu's Annie. Annie dates the school bully. Pearl (Hilary Tsui) helps Spinach who will come to realize during the last scene who he loves. Starting over at least twice with the high school comedy structure that begins with pranks at home and ends with family dinner, Chu is resting comfortably. Although he goes daring places for the designed entertainment that it is by creating a locker room sequence for the voluptuous Vivian Hsu (who began making Category III pictures the year after), the marginal delight Shaolin Popey is represented by a few key tangents. One is a variant of the Street Fighter scene in City Hunter and later our main characters take refuge in the Shaolin Temple. The seemingly real world is now part of the Wuxia universe, comedy is punctuated by cartoon sounds and the flick briefly turns into Home Alone by the end. It's easily digestible, thoroughly silly and a far cry from well-honed in the wirework department. But considering, Chu Yen-Ping doesn't embarrass himself as such. Compare with his army training flicks such as Forever Friends, starring an even more annoying Jimmy Lin, and you'll see the gigantic difference. Kingdom Yuen, Michael Lee and Paul Chun also appear.

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For the at most mildly related sequel, there's no build-up towards the Shaolin in Shaolin Popey. The kids Kok Siu-Man and Sik Siu-Lung are already there in the Shaolin temple, under the guidance of Michael Lee's abbott but mostly they're taken on various shenanigans with Ng Man-Tat's Senior. Feeling very Hong Kong, Taiwan's Chu Yen-Ping knows he doesn't have to show any interest in structure and wit. Alongside the mild story of The Evil Sect assassin Yellow Lemmon (Dicky Cheung in truly horrid super-villain gear) failing at most of his attempts, the trio of Kok, Sik and Ng mostly wander to and from one silly skit to the next. See them for instance learn the fart stance and do heavy duty stunt work in all manner of films films for support of their eating habits. All for an almost unbearable amount of reels. Thankfully Chu gets other ideas and remembers cartoonish craziness of his past.

Starting with Adam Cheng in a cameo as himself and various parodies of the martial arts genre such as torturous stances from Drunken Master and an appearance by another group of Amazon fighters from Armour of God, Chu is clearly allowed to show his care for absurd detail. Difference this time, most of what we see are parodies and not shameless theft. Now that IS a shame, despite we getting glimpses into Chu's manic mind. The 18 Bronzemen stops by, climactic techniques from Butterfly & Sword pop up but topping it off and taking Shaolin Popey II - Messy Temple into sporadically likeable territory is the sight of Sik Siu-Lung being fed breast milk by Kingdom Yuen in order to utilize his kid drunken boxing! Michelle Yeoh has a very minor cameo while Yuen Wah and Mark Houghton also stop by.

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Also known as Chivalrous Inn (poster title: Chivalious Inn), it's a movie that further proves martial arts cinema imitated the greats badly. In this case trying to echo the likes of King Hu's Dragon Inn or The Fate Of Lee Khan, on display is a bunch of indistinct characters and motivations. Which is a shame because the opening is promising where the fighters (including Carter Wong) are given rooms at the inn baaed on their fighting skills. Things fall apart quickly though and despite being interrupted by competent action, I've personally seen a ton more coherence from the worst of IFD's incoherent products. Chang Yim, Chia Ling and Lung Fei also appear.

Part of Chang Cheh's Shaolin themed films and one of the most grand, we follow a large cast of characters through rigorous training at the Shaolin temple while the government is closing in on the ground and therefore violence in and the burning of Shaolin is looming. While easily followed, there's no true investment in characters or drama here which can make Shaolin Temple a bit distant. On the plus side, it's gorgeously shot and designed and the manual labour disguised as training methods is clever and entertaining. All culminating in an impressively staged ending with a ferocious pace and complexity across the multiple, simultaneous fight scenes. With such a polish and a large cast (including Alexander Fu Sheng, Chi Kuan-Chun, David Chiang, Ti Lung, Lee I-Min, Phillip Kwok, Ku Feng) it's easy to praise Shaolin Temple but not for any emotional impact. Through technical execution, that is how Chang Cheh and co-director Wu Ma hooks us however.

Restrictions were lifted inside Mainland Communist China as the Cultural Revolution ended and political changes were taking place so Hong Kong based company Chung Yuen Motion Pictures successfully brought to the screen something rough but of genuine importance. Being a rare, even first glimpse of martial arts cinema by a Mainland Chinese audience (this kind of product was simply banned under prior rule) and of former Wu Shu Champion Li Lian-Jie, the youngster broke big time and was to become known by his English name Jet Li subsequently. Taking 3 years to complete, utilizing beautiful sights of the real Shaolin Temple and the Chinese landscape, wisely the Hong based company didn't inject anything difficult or groundbreaking genre-wise. So standard story of Li's character wanting revenge on the evil general (Yue Sing-Wai) while trying to adhere to Buddhism, within there's something genuinely deep as these ideas are never less than valid. It's patience vs burning desire while the monks themselves gets to re-examine the definition of their dedication to Buddha. This may mean... I mean of course it DOES mean that they take a defensive stance against the forces on the offence, prompting a wonderful display of Wu Shu acrobatics and fighting from not only our young lead. Best showcased when combining these skills with weapons, it's in hand to hand combat and at times overall in the piece where fluidity isn't as top notch as Hong Kong made genre pieces of the time. Much can be applied to the team action directing coming from the Wu Shu tradition and not screen directing. Certainly exciting and bearable though, the film manages to combine all this with its thematic strength (that may rank only slightly above average for the genre but above nonetheless). Plus lead Li Lian-Jie makes an imprint as a fast moving, agile performer but with hatred and naivety in his eyes.

Yue Hoi as his master becomes a fitting father figure with much warmth and since then familiar faces of Hong Kong and Mainland productions, Yue Sing-Wai (Yellow River Fighter) and bald Ji Chun-Hua (Red Sorghum, Tai Chi II) establishes early their memorable screen images. Director Cheung Yam-Yim previously made The Jade Bow (and subsequently Fist From Shaolin that added footage from Jet Li's debut here. Shameless behaviour from someone...) that featured the first dual collaboration of Lau Kar-Leung and Tong Gaai who were subsequently Chang Cheh's duo of choice in this regard at Shaw Brothers and were eventually to become filmmakers in their own right. Lau more frequently than Tong and the former even directed the third, unrelated installment of The Shaolin Temple series called Martial Arts Of Shaolin (again with Jet Li). For a very detailed and excellent breakdown of the importance of The Shaolin Temple, check out this piece (where some of the above info was obtained) by Yves Gendron of Hong Kong Cinema View From The Brooklyn Bridge.

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KENNETH'S REVIEW: Not to be confused with Lee Tso-Nam's Shaolin Vs. Lama, in this Taiwan kung-fu fest lead of that film Alexander Lo plays a prince that changes fraction and starts to side with Shaolin instead. Typical power domination-plot and even the inclusion of a lighthearted Beggar So type of character (as seen in Snake In The Eagle's Shadow), the proceedings are in need of more Taiwan madness. Despite, this straight faced stock plot is complemented by a huge array of fight scenes offering up kicks and acrobatics at breakneck speed. Speed being an element that kills some of the choreography but overall Shaolin Temple Against Lama delivers and we're quite thankful by the end that it lacked the foolery of the genre. Villain is played by Alan Chui and Wang Hsieh also appears.

While production company My Way have been at it for over 10 years, it's only fairly recently that their Hong Kong cinema tac has been picked up on by fans. Creating vehicles as a throwback to the golden age of the 80s and 90s, Shaolin Vs Evil Dead presents familiar ground. I.e. the ghostbusting priest/hopping vampire/kung fu-flick and it scores points early by designing itself to be that very film. Frequent My Way director Douglas Kung clearly sweats to work up the proceedings to 90 minutes though as evident by the up and down nature of the film in terms of momentum. While energy could've been cranked up a new notches, the opening set-piece at a zombie infested inn infuses the battle with today's CGI used to only average effect but the new millennium meets the old in quite a refreshing way after all. Plus you get coolness in the form of Gordon Lau as a lead who isn't echoing Lam Ching Ying's ability as a stoic AND comedic performer as skillfully but leads very well nonetheless. In comparison to the entire genre output, it's cheap, tired and not a little silly but the film does feature more memorable scenes such as a cute little romance between disciples Sun (Jacky Woo) and Moon (Shannon Yiu), a game of Evil Chess with children buddhist monks vs. children hopping vampires and an unconventional birth of a boy by a boy. It could've been tighter and more strongly paced but My Way has the heart in the right place. The film ends inconclusively, showing highlights from the sequel Shaolin Vs Evil Dead: Ultimate Power and the tightly edited show reel is promising. Co-starring as a rival Taoist priest to Lau's White, Fan Siu-Wong shows his skills on select occasions.

After making the rounds internationally on home video, My Way finally struck a distribution deal in Hong Kong as Kam & Ronson brought out the dvd of Shaolin Vs Evil Dead in 2007.

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After ending Shaolin Vs Evil Dead abruptly, Douglas Kung and company gambles and doesn't put us in the middle of the frey once Shaolin Vs Evil Dead - Ultimate Power opens. Instead they devote an extended time to the backstory of Fan Siu-Wong's character and how he ended up as the possessed villain of the first. Playing his own father, he's got poison in his body. As does his pregnant wife (Marsha Yuan, daughter of Cheng Pei-Pei) and their son (played as young by John Zhang) is growing up with an increasing level of evil and desire to dominate the world. This development is written in the stars though and fate dictates that trying to get the poison out will only be able to take place in an ultimate battle with brother Chau Yau (Gordon Lau)...

My Way is working with very little means again and are trying out something very serious with the backstory. While nothing affecting, it's surprising directors Kung and Yip manages to pace the fairly long movie well despite. Before giving way to the extensive spectacle of the finale, we're also treated to accomplished wire action and clearly filmed grounded fights finds its way into the picture too. Again, the purpose is to adhere to the feelings conjured up in 80s and 90s Hong Kong horror and the crew are on to something still with their energy. Even though it's basic and even ropey at best, the massive CGI spectacle of the final reels is infectious (and the hordes of hopping vampires doesn't hurt either) and manages to succeed on occasions in terms of the filmmaking manifest here. Imagery is updated somewhat, not a whole lot and I guess that's a key for Kung and company to stay nearer an era they clearly love.

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