Holy Robe of Shaolin
11/24/00
Review
Format: Subtitled VHS
Stars: Yu Rong Guang, many others

I got this vhs on ebay, along with The Kung Fu Master Miniseries, and they come to my house and I realize that I just bought a vhs copy of ANOTHER VHS that was the original Holy Robe of Shaolin. What I get out of this is a crap copy of the tape, and a bad temper. The story is about Yu Rong Guang, who is sent by his martial arts school to the Shaolin Temple to take it over. But in order for him to be able to fully take over the temple, he must be the owner of the Holy Robe, which some monks take away and run with. Ok.

Well, after the beginning which is a 15 minute long scene with a girl rounding up horses (undercranked too I think, the horses were trotting, but moving pretty fast), I was falling asleep.



Then some monks go train. But when Guang enters the temple, he has a fight with the old abbot that shattered my fears about this moving being a bore. He is so fast, with excellent Shaolin style moves, which turn into Wu Dang style, and tons of acrobatics too like doing a huge front flip among other things. And if you like how Guang moves, with his erect upper body and emphasis on shoulders, then you'll really like this cause he's fast. Immediately after that there is a large scene with Shaolin students beating up on some of the imperial guards outside the temple, which doesn't really stay still for long. A great scene. The fight with Guang is around 5 minutes long I'm sure. All of it is VERY convincing, and the abbot holds his own very well. Watching this was refreshing. It has a lot of Guang-isms like the constantly moving shoulders and even the wide eyes.



After that the monks attack Guang, who has monks attack those monks. Some good choreography, though it's not too long. Standard Shaolin stuff, with everyone in the background doing something. The following scenes are more masses-based, with an invasion outside which is very big, some particular monks getting attacked by guards, and one monk taking on Guang and about 10 other guys. It's very good, but can't possibly beat the first scene, probably because it's all weapons from here out.



The monk (whoever he is) goes to the desert (zzzz....) and gets in a fight there. There are 4 girls who have some talent here too, but it's weird cause one gets in a mantis stance or something after doing some typical Shaolin martial arts, and there's nothing really spectacular. The monk and Guang are both on horses, fighting eachother. Guang has a stick that he's waving at the monk and it's very corny, with some reused footage that is shot over and over. Complete BS and very undramatic, just like everything else, EXCEPT FOR THE FIRST SCENE (again).



Guang heads over to the Wu Dang temple where some monks are hiding, and gets in a fight with the Wu Dang students and then the master. It's actually pretty cool to see the Wu Dang style because it's much more flowery and pushy than the Shaolin style which relies more on strength and speed. A small scene, like a minute and a half or something. Then there's some training of the wu dang style. Still, nothing dramatic.



There's a part next where Guang fights a few prisoners through the wall that holds them in, which is well filmed and very unique to say the least. Guang does some acrobatics too like a big backflip off the wall and a few falls. Short though.



The end scene is practically all weapons. The monk and the girl (who gets to show her stuff at the end of it all) go to the Shaolin Temple where Guang is and fight off some guards (swords and spears, zzz...), and the monk goes and fights Guang with a sword in hand, and Guang gets ahold of a really long staff. Bleh. It's not great. The monk hits Guang once and they use atrocious wiring to send him across the room into the face of a cabinet. The girl comes in, though, and does a hand to hand match with Guang for 30 seconds, maybe, and looks really good. The monk does a little too. Overall a VERY disappointing ending despite the hand to hand combat that finishes it off, but Guang falls on a sword. The end.



As I said, I bought this expecting to be blown away. I wasn't at all. I pulled the tape out with a feeling in my stomach reminding me of a good appetizer but a bad dessert. If you like weapons you'll probably like this, but a lot of it is swords and crap like that, plus group fights with cuts thrown among different people. The ending is nothing to rant about either, and that's why I can't possibly give this a 5, and I don't even wanna give it a 4. So I won't. Ok basically they should have made the entire movie like the first fight. There.

3/5

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