Kids From Shaolin

Kids From Shaolin
Japanese poster
Traditional	少林小子
Simplified	少林小子
Mandarin	Shàolín Xiǎozǐ
Cantonese	Siu3 Lam4 Siu2 Zi2
Directed by	Chang Hsin-yen
Starring	Jet Li Huang Qiuyan Yu Chenghui Yu Hai Hu Jianqiang
Cinematography	Hu Jianqiang
Release dates	26 January 1984 (1984-01-26)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	Hong Kong China
Language	Mandarin
Box office	HK $22,287,595.00

Kids From Shaolin (Chinese: 少林小子; pinyin: Shàolín Xiǎozi, aka Shaolin Temple 2: Kids From Shaolin) is a 1984 Hong Kong/Chinese action-comedy kung fu film directed by Chang Hsin-yen.

It stars Jet Li, Yu Chenghui, Yu Hai and Ding Lan from the original 1982 Shaolin Temple film, which is also directed by Chang. However, the plot has no bearing with the first movie and hence Kids from Shaolin is a sequel to the original in name only.

The film also stars Jet Li's first wife, Huang Qiuyan (黃秋燕), as his rival and later love interest. Li first met Huang, also a martial artist, in martial school and they have two daughters. (The couple have since divorced and Li is married to Nina Li Chi, a former Hong Kong actress.)

Plot

In The late Ming Dynasty,A former Shaolin monk, Tian Long ("Heaven Chinese Dragon", played by Yu Hai), and his younger brother, Yi Long ("Earth Chinese Dragon", Hu Jianqiang), raise eight orphan boys whom they saved from murdering bandits ravaging their home village. The children refer to Tian Long as their father and Yi Long as their uncle and are taught Shaolin kungfu by the two. All have taken the last character name of Long (龙/龍). They settle at the mountainous area at Lijiang where they stay in a hut.

The Long boys are playful and often bicker and fight with the daughters of the Feng (凤/鳳, "Phoenix") family who live just across the river and practice the Wudangquan style of martial arts. The mischievous San Long ("Third Dragon", Jet Li), the oldest of the Long children, likes to tease the third sister of the Feng family, San Feng ("Third Phoenix", Huang Qiuyan) who is a tomboy in her late teens and who has a nasty temper.

The Feng patriarch Bao San Feng (Yu Chenghui) is trying for a boy heir, yet he has only nine daughters. Meanwhile, the Long family are saving up in order to pay the bride price - ten oxen - so that Tian Long can marry the eldest Feng girl, Tai Feng. The marriage plans are met with some resistance: the Feng matriarch likes Tian Long, but Bao San Feng believes he is out to steal his Wudang martial arts. Nonetheless, he agrees to marry off his eldest daughter if his wife gives birth to a son.

Meanwhile, the vicious bandits who orphaned the eight Long boys have been training in secret for ten years to revenge the Shaolin counter-attack which injured them when they looted the village. A cross-eyed member of the bandits (Jian-kui Sun) poses as a Taoist soothsayer to infiltrate the Fengs to learn their martial arts and abduct their daughters.

The Feng matriarch manages to conceive and bear a male son. The bogus priest now dupes Bao San Feng into believing the Long family is his nemesis. The Long family, he claims, has been throwing off the yin and yang balance for the Fengs, making it impossible for the wife to bear a male heir.

Bao San Feng changes his mind and refuses to accept the Long family's bride price. Yi Long is in love with Yi Feng (Ding Lan), the second daughter, and to fulfill the couple, San Long and San Feng help the two elope. For their disobedience against feudal rules, San Feng and San Long are sentenced to be drowned, but the two manage to escape underwater.

San Long hides San Feng in a cave. San Long is struck by San Feng's beauty in female clothes and San Feng is grateful to San Long for rescuing her. The two develop romantic feelings for each other.

The bogus priest informs Bao San Feng where his daughter is hiding and Bao San Feng pursues her, then fights San Feng in the cave, accusing the latter of abducting his daughter and stealing his swordplay style. Tian Long finds the two fighting, breaks them up and allows Bao San Feng to bring San Feng home.

Meanwhile, the Long boys are maligned by the bogus priest for abducting the Feng newborn. The Long family vow never to step into the Feng residence again.

Once their evil plot has become successful, the bandits burn down the Long's hut and show their true colors to Bao San Feng. They attempt to kidnap his daughters. The Feng family tries desperately to fight them until the Long family arrives. By combining their martial arts expertise, the two families roundly defeat and kill all remaining bandits.

The film ends with a dual marriage: Tian Long marries Tai Feng (the eldest daughter) while Yi Long marries Yi Feng. The families are reconciled. Bao San Feng readily admits his folly and San Long and San Feng have also become a couple.

Cast

External links

• Kids From Shaolin at Hong Kong Cinemagic
• Kids From Shaolin at the Internet Movie Database
• Kids From Shaolin at AllMovie