I can't really give an accurate synopsis of this movie due to the fact the subtitles were cut off. It's a long story. What? You want to hear it? Okay, here goes.
I originally got the Martial Arts of Shaolin VCD from Sensasian.com. It was Cantonese/Mandarin language with Chinese and English subtitles. When I got it I put it in the computer to double check the English subtitles and they were there all right. The next I watch it on my DVD player, but for some reason the DVD player cut off the English subtitles, but not the Chinese ones. So I couldn't read what people were saying except for a few lines every now and then. Wal-Mart had Martial Arts of Shaolin as one of it's many cheapo DVDs, so I picked it up. The box listed it as widescreen with English subtitles. When I watched this I liked it because it was widescreen and the subs weren't cut off. Unfortunately, that only about a minute until the movie switched from widescreen to full screen. As soon as it did that, the English subs were gone. Foiled again!
Okay back to the review. From I could make out Jet Li plays Ding Ling, I think. There are way too many jokes there. He is part of the pole section at the north Shaolin temple. For some reason he ends up in a dragon dance for some festival for this bad guy. Some rebels are there trying to kill the guy, but fail and Jet ends up helping them escape. Jet helps a girl and a guy who is from south Shaolin. In the end the bad guy kidnaps the girl and Jet and the guy take off to rescue her. The three take on the bad guy as north and south Shaolin disciples back them up. The bad guy takes off and runs right into Jet's sifu. After some fighting the bad guy loses his head. There is a sub-plot about Jet and the girl having identical ankle bracelets, but the south Shaolin guy likes the girl. Jet gives him his ankle bracelet. I'm guessing the bracelets mean they are meant to be married or something.
So what if I couldn't understand what they were saying? I just fast forwarded the talking bits and got straight to the action. The movie starts off a bit slow with a few scuffles and some training sequences. Then the big fights start. And it's not one vs one or one vs two, it's more like one vs twenty. There is empty hands and weapons fighting with swords, staffs, spears, and more. The fights are pretty fast with Jet doing lots of cool moves. The best fight is the last, which runs about 11 minutes long. Jet and his sifu take on the bad guy using what looks like mantis style. A cool movie with wicked fast martial arts and some nice scenery.
"Review" by Keith