Why Jet Li and Wong Jing’s 1994 martial arts movie The New Legend of Shaolin is underrated

Hong Kong producer-writer-director Wong Jing churned out so many films in the 1990s that some were bound to succeed. The underrated gem The New Legend of Shaolin, starring Jet Li Lianjie, stands out as a highlight, marrying lighthearted comedy and above-average action to good effect.\nThe storyline, while simple, is logical and tightly structured, with highs and lows hitting the right beats. Moreover, Wong’s signature penchant for lowbrow comedy is deployed with restraint. When the cheesy jokes do occur, they fit neatly into the plot and actually land.\n“As far as films by Wong Jing go, The New Legend of Shaolin rates far above average,” noted Paul Fonoroff in his Post review.\n“Hong Kong’s most prolific writer-director, Wong has a knack for reducing every genre to its most common elements. The results may be derivative, short of originality and just plain vulgar, but Wong knows his audience.”\n\n\nThe New Legend of Shaolin performed well at the box office, even though audiences had become tired of the period martial arts films that had saturated local screens since 1990.\nLi and Wong’s previous film, Kung Fu Cult Master, a convoluted retelling of wuxia giant Louis Cha Leung-yung’s The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre – better filmed by Chor Yuen in 1978 – was slapdash and flopped at the box office.\nWong had reportedly filmed enough footage for part two – the film ends on a cliffhanger – but had abandoned the project because of its poor reception.\nLi knew he needed a change, but was not ready for the leap into modern-day action. So Wong created a remarkably different period character for him.\n\nSporting stern slanted eyebrows, Li plays a taciturn warrior who strives to uphold Confucian values, even when faced with deceit. He is sullen throughout and has none of the charismatic warmth of his Wong Fei-hung role in Once Upon a Time in China, for instance.\nLi’s character, Hong Xiguan, is rooted in history and myth. According to folklore, Hong was one of the monks who fled the Southern Shaolin Temple when it was burned down by the ruling Manchus.\nHong went on, with his Shaolin brothers, to instigate a Han revolt against the Manchu dynasty, founding the popular Southern martial arts style Hung Ga along the way.\nWong uses this tale and the burning of the Shaolin Temple as the basis for his own spirited narrative. Unlike Chan Koon-tai’s portrayal in Chang Cheh’s Heroes Two, which also told the story of Hong, Li uses his wushu kung fu in The New Legend of Shaolin, rather than authentic Hung Ga.\n\nWong reasoned that local audiences would already know the story of Hong, and would enjoy the way The New Legend of Shaolin riffed on it.\nThe filmmaker’s main innovation was to have Li perform with a troupe of child martial artists. That was not a new concept, as Li had done so in 1984’s mainland-produced Kids From Shaolin, an unexpectedly cute and child-friendly follow-up to his star-making debut Shaolin Temple.\nThe breakout performer here is 10-year-old Xie Miao, a youth wushu champion, who plays Li’s son. Xie had a small role in 1993’s A Warrior’s Tragedy and was spotted by Wong, who quickly elevated him to co-lead status in The New Legend of Shaolin.\nXie was a remarkably skilful martial artist and a good actor, and he mirrors his screen father’s moods and movements with aplomb.\n\nChoreographed by veteran Corey Yuen Kwai, the two form a formidable duo. Xie fights brilliantly on his own and beside Li, without stealing the show from Li – who remains the focal point – but certainly claiming his share of the action.\nThe story is an earthy play on the Shaolin legend, with the Imperial Qing troops destroying the Southern Shaolin Temple in search of Shaolin gold, a haul invented by Wong.\nTo safeguard the loot, the abbot had buried it and tattooed a treasure map on the backs of five young Shaolin disciples. All the kids need to be together for the map to make sense.\nThe quintet seek the protection of Li and Xie from Ji Chunhua’s monstrously deformed villain, who is working to find the gold for the cruel Manchu eunuchs. Adding the postmodern touch that was common to 1990s martial arts films, he drives a silver, Batmobile-esque vehicle.\n\nOne plot line was never enough for Wong, who throws in a subplot about Deanie Ip Tak-han and Chingmy Yau Suk-ching as a mother-daughter duo of con artists who milk sympathy – and cash – from onlookers when the former pretends to be a corpse.\nThe duo gradually becomes involved with looking after the Shaolin kids, in a narrative strand that develops in an unexpectedly careful fashion.\nExcept for Stanley Kwan Kam-pang’s art-house Hold You Tight, Yau was rarely given a central role in her films. But here, she is integral to the plot, effortlessly transitioning from martial artist to seductress to caring mother figure.\nIp, the most experienced of the acting leads, proves great value as a wisecracking mum who claims to one and all she was once a kung fu master like Hong – and then steps up when needed by single-handedly saving the children with her dart-throwing prowess.\n\nAfter The New Legend of Shaolin, Li finally made the leap to modern-day settings with The Bodyguard from Beijing, a loose riff on Hollywood’s The Bodyguard that successfully melded gunplay, kung fu and teary melodrama.\nLi and Xie worked together again as a father-and-son kung fu team in the smooth contemporary thriller My Father Is a Hero in 1995.\nIn this regular feature series on the best of Hong Kong cinema, we examine the legacy of classic films, re-evaluate the careers of its greatest stars and revisit some of the lesser-known aspects of the beloved industry.\nWant more articles like this? 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