Shaolin (2011)

I only saw this movie last week and I missed it back upon it’s release. Bunched in with other films I did see like Musa the warrior, the Warlords and so on War of the Arrows deserves a mention too. I feel like I cheated myself out of this film and glad I finally discoveted it, if only very late.

Being from the UK this is cut for Horse falls and Animal Cruelty you know the nation that holds the cruelest horse race ever known as the Grand National Broadcast and re-run on telly.

Anyway those cut’s are annoying and are disruptive but furthermore it seems the extra’s were overall better on the UK release but other regions got the deleted scened… 43 minutes of them.

That says to me there was certainly a longer cut planned for the 3 hour mark and noted some alternate dialogue in UK extra’s especially upon Any Lau killing his Military Rival over the children arrange marridge proposal at dinner. It’s not the greatest plot written but this film does have a heart aswell as some really good Martial arts.

I have no idea about the 43 minutes of deleted material or what they contain overall but there was a good training scene fight in there at the temple I have seen on youtube. Requires sound editing and VFX wire removal. The director Benny Chan has now passed away so a Directors cut is not possible. But from the gist of a review most deleted material relates to the monks and character building and fleshing out sub plots.

I really quite enjoyed Jackie Chan in this film too sometimes I find him a bit too whacky but he was much more grounded here but it all fit quite well as the legendary Cook who saves the temple.

I reckon this 2 hour movie needed a bit longer to flesh out the story and an extended cut would be a good thing for it. It’s rare you get a decent kung fu flick with a decent drama and for that reason alone I think it would be a good idea. The fight scenes are also really well done but not overdone. The balance is good on this one.

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