Jet Li has enjoyed a long and storied career as a martial arts movie star, with the bulk of his filmography stemming from his work in the Hong Kong movie industry. But despite that background, the actor only made one film that can be fairly described as an old-school kung fu movie – and that was Martial Arts of Shaolin.
Released in 1986 when his career was only just beginning to take off, Martial Arts of Shaolin was Jet Li’s third lead role. Directed by the legendary Lau Kar-leung, the film finished out an unofficial martial arts trilogy that included his theatrical debut, Shaolin Temple, and its in- sequel, Kids from Shaolin.
What Makes Martial Arts of Shaolin Such An Important Movie For Jet Li
Unfortunately, Martial Arts of Shaolin represented a dying era in the martial arts genre. 1970s and 1980s films today thought of as old-school kung fu movies are remembered for their period settings, heavy emphasis on Chinese martial arts, training sequences, revenge plotlines, and carefully choreographed fight sequences that relied heavily on over-the-top action and long takes.
Obviously, Hong Kong has never stopped making movies with martial arts, but that specific formula hasn’t been in place in years. It was fading in the mid-1980s. The shutting down of the film division of Shaw Brothers – the biggest studio associated with that side of the genre – was somewhat of a death knell for the old-school kung fu movie.
In its final year of making movies, Shaw Brothers produced Martial Arts of Shaolin, which starred Jet Li. In keeping with the traditional style of a Shaw Brothers style, Martial Arts of Shaolin told a story about a young man who joins the Shaolin Temple as a way of getting the training needed to get his revenge.
With Martial Arts of Shaolin arriving just ahead of the end of Shaw Brothers’ historic run of kung fu movies, it marked the first and last time Jet Li would make a movie of its kind. Instead, Jet Li became a fixture of the next major trends in the genre, which was historical martial arts epics and wuxia films, from Hero to Once Upon a Time in China.
The days of Hong Kong studios making movies where fight scenes took weeks or even months or even films to film had become a bygone era. The fact that there was never another Martial Arts of Shaolin for Jet Li makes it all the more easy to appreciate, with the first-and-last team-up of Lau Kar-leung and Jet Li producing some truly great fight sequences.