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Just what I expected

Boring

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

I wanted to rate this film higher for it's Kung-Fu fighting action. The story is good, except (as other reviewers may have noted) that the subplots and supporting characters get confusing and/or forgotten. A character early in the film gets introduced, and then never reappears despite becoming a plot focus of several other characters. A lot of time in this movie is spent on the training, which is good. But, often, this is at the sacrifice of telling the story. I struggled to keep in mind that this is a film from the 1970s, and so storytelling was different. I would have preferred that the training be condensed down in a montage in order to save time on film for the more important storytelling. This is the primary reason that I rated it a six-star film rather then rating it higher.

As did the pilot for the American teleseries KUNG FU, SHAOLIN TEMPLE gives us aspiring acolytes whose mettle is tested by secluded priests. Realizing that the Manchus are intent on destroying the temple and everyone inside it, the elder priest decides it's time to invite in some who might not otherwise be admitted. Among them are six soldiers, including Cai (Ti Lung), Hu (David Chiang), and Ma Fu Yi (Lung Wang). When upstart pupil Fang (Alexander Fu Sheng) laughs at Ma, he is pummeled- repeatedly- until he is discreetly taught Tiger and Crane kung fu by a masked master whose moves he copies at night after everyone else is asleep. Fang eventually exacts his revenge on Ma- whereupon the treacherous Heixien, one of the higher-ups in the temple, takes Ma under his wing and enlists his aid in bringing down the temple. Throughout the movie, we see some of the training methods used to toughen up the disciples, a la THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN, and Che's sure-handed direction is seemingly effortless. The action is, of course, topnotch and the death of Kuo Chui during the flaming finale caught me by surprise.

The Only Kung Fu Epic worth watching. The best training ever. The main character spending a hundred day's on his knees outside the shaolin temple show how desperate he is to learn kung fu to fight the manchu dogs who have taken over china.

An entertaining kung fu film, with acting, plot and fight scenes a cut above the average chop socky. All of the cast are likeable characters and skilled martial artists. Alexander Fu-Sheng's proto-Jackie Chan comedy antics are fun to watch, and his austere companion shows particularly impressive skills. For me, the film's only glaring flaw is the size of the cast -- at times, things get a little confused as the film chops and changes between various subplots, and some of the characters are not as fully fleshed-out as one might wish.But a kung fu film should be judged first and foremost on the quality of the action, and Shaolin Temple definitely delivers on that count. The film climaxes with a high-bodycount battle that allows each character to show off his skills against a worthy opponent.Overall, Shaolin Temple is an enjoyable low-budget kung fu movie. Not up to the quality of a good Jet Li film, but definitely worth a look for fans of the genre. My rating: 8/10.Misc notes: The 1987 Warner Home Video release I saw was (predictably) poorly dubbed, and lacked full cast & crew credits.