Desafio Final - Shaolin vs. Ninja

I'll be completely honest here straight away.....although there is a plot of sorts present within this film, it really only serves as a superficial excuse for a showcase of one and a half hours worth of some truly awesome martial arts displays.

This is first and foremost a fighting movie, and as such I believe it most equitable to judge it predominantly upon those merits as opposed to acting, character development etc.

As such, and upon the proposed criteria, I must say that the film in question does come out as a top class act indeed.

There is some truly astonishing martial arts choreography in this, especially the weapons displays during the tournament between the Japanese stylists and the Shaolin Monks.

If there is one criticism I would launch against this film however - and it is a factor which does deduct from the overall entertainment value, it would have to be the rather tiresome stereotypical portrayal of the Japanese protagonists as villainous barbarians with inferior martial arts and moral values, an all too common and sad trend in many kung fu films.

Still, overlooking this factor, for those seeking to witness the veritable beauty of some of the orients fighting arts and the skills and dedication of the practitioners of them, this movie is definitely well worth a look.

Alexander Lo outdoes his earlier movie "Mafia vs Ninja" in this one.

"Praise be to Buddha."

I watched an English language version, which had some of the worst dubbing I've seen--there are many lines where the characters continue to speak for two seconds after the voice is finished.

"Praise be to Buddha."

The choreography you have to see for yourself (but then again, there's not much reason to watch these dumb kung fu flicks except for some good laughs).

"Praise be to Buddha."

One of the biggest weaknesses of "Shaolin vs Ninja" is that there is not really one main character to follow (theoretically Alexander Lo, but he is absent for a lot of the movie).

"Praise be to Buddha."

Oh, yeah, and how could I forget? If you like drinking games, why don't you try having a beer everytime the senior monk says, "Praise be to Buddha."? If your brain hasn't atrophied by the end of the movie, you will surely have died of alcohol poisoning.

"Praise be to Buddha."

Rating: 2/10, but only because there's actually worse

"Praise be to Buddha."

In a plot to rob a Chinese Shaolin Temple of its great wealth, Shaolin monks find themselves framed for the murder of the Japanese Emperor's head monk, apparently the doings of a secret ninja force, and now must find a means to prove their innocence before bloodshed erupts between their Japanese Shaolin counterparts and themselves.

Where this delivers is in terms of its fighting. There's an impressive tournament challenge at one point conducted between the Chinese Shaolin and their Japanese counterparts that proves very exciting and showcases tremendous martial arts fighting skills both with and without weapons. Whenever fighting is on screen, this one tends to deliver the goods and then some. Where it falters is in terms of its story as there's really no sympathetic heroic lead and the many plot twists and turns tend to get a little confusing. Still if you're a fan of good Martial Arts fighting, you should find much to enjoy here.

Great fights throughout, any viewer looking for excellent choreography, this is a must see.

The movie itself is not very good. The problem with this movie is that we don't have a main character to follow. There's too much look alike monks and it's kind of hard to know who is who. The ninjas are a little bit boring in this film , but watch out for the shaolin monks...they rule. I watched it in french and the "Praise be to buddha" thing was incomprehensible. Maybe this expression has not been translate in french...You may give this movie a 4(out of 10), like me, if you watch it for the fights.