American Shaolin

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American Shaolin
Image:American Shaolin DVD Cover.jpg‎ American Shaolin DVD Cover
Directed by	Lucas Lowe
Produced by	Keith W. Strandberg
Written by	Keith W. Strandberg
Starring	Reese Madigan, Trent Bushey
Music by	Richard Yuen
Cinematography	Viking Chiu, Luis Cubilles
Editing by	Allan Poon
Running time	106 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
IMDb profile

American Shaolin was a 1991 martial arts film, starring (among others) Kim Chan and Daniel Dae Kim. It was directed by Lucas Lowe.

[edit] Plot

During a martial arts tournament, the American finalist Drew Carson (Reese Madigan) is humiliated by his opponent, kickboxer Trevor Gottitall (Trent Bushey). To add to the insult, his teacher confesses that he is not - as he had claimed - a Shaolin monk, and therefore he had not passed on the actual knowledge of Shaolin Kung Fu to Drew. Determined to learn the actual art to prevent another such situation, Drew departs for China and arrives at the Shaolin temple. At first, the monks do not let him enter, but with the help of a pretty tea shop waitress, Ashena (Alice Zhang Hung), and an old monk (Kim Chan) who gives him a decisive advise, he manages to be admitted. The old monk also turns out to be the abbot of the temple, Master Kwan, and he and his stern taskmaster train Drew and a number of other young apprentices in the ways of the Shaolin.

At first he causes much trouble as his American teenage temperament clashes with the tranquility within the temple and with his fellow student, Gao (Daniel Dae Kim), but under the rigorous physical and mental training he both improves his fighting skills and learns the meaning of discipline, humility, and patience. He makes friends with Gao and also manages to pass the two final tests: the Test of Spirituality, and the Test of the Chamber. Accepted as a full-fledged member of the Shaolin monastery, he accompanies - along with Ashena - a delegation of his fellow students and the abbot to a martial arts tournament in Bejing.

But unexpectantly, Drew meets Trevor on the tournament, who challenges him to a fight. Drew, under the Shaolin philosophy of non-violence, refuses, but Trevor severely wounds Gao and challenges him again. With the encouragement of Master Kwan, Drew enters the ring and after a hard fight manages to defeat Trevor, erasing the blot on his honor and earning himself the name "American Shaolin".

[edit] Trivia

The Test of the Chamber involves walking through a dark labyrinth and fighting off the attacks of spring-activated wooden dummies; at the end of that, the contestant must carry a 300-pound cauldron full of hot coals for some distance. Two seals on the cauldron - a tiger and a dragon - would be burned into his arms whilst he carries the vessel, thus marking him forever as a Shaolin. The cauldron-carrying was left out in the movie, but the rest of the Test otherwise is quite authentic (unlike the tests shown in the Hong Kong movie Shao Lin San Shi Liu Fang ("The 36th Chamber of Shaolin", 1978).

During the only day of filming within the walls of The Forbidden City, the entire film cast and crew were inexplicably ordered to leave by the government, despite having been granted permission to shoot there. The principal photography on American Shaolin took place from May through late August of 1991, two years after the Tienanmen Square massacre and the filming, paritcularly within Beijing itself was under heavy governmental scrutiny.