08-29-2011, 05:48 PM
This is a little indie flick starring another actual Shaolin Monk, Zhang Lipeng, who is a personal friend. It's weird seeing flicks starring friends, as Lipeng isn't really an actor and just plays himself. The film waffles between a Shaolin monk tried to integrate into Jersey/NYC and a typical martial arts flick where a reluctant fighter gets extorted to fight in some wacky secret death matches. Lipeng is actually almost charming, as he's just like he is in real life, with an awkward accent, very stilted, and a genuine love of NYC.
The culture clash portion plays out like a quiet low-budget indie, with every scene fading to black and a lot of dangling dialog. If the culture clash portion had been pulled out more, and it feels like that's what the filmmakers who weren't Lipeng (as it's all him really, director/writer/actor/choreographer) were aiming for.
The kung fu portion is decent, but so stereotypical. - Lipeng is an excellent master and showcases Shaolin tactics with some well-timed stop attacks, but you have to be fairly quick of eye to see it. For anyone not familiar with Shaolin, it just plays out like typical fight scenes - well timed, some good continuous choreography, a tad heavy on the wire work when being bounced away from a blow.
Is it good? Well, no, not really. Not DOOM worthy by any means. It's a tad better than the typical indie kung fu flick, but only just. Maybe I'm just biased because it stars my friend. Probably that's it.
The culture clash portion plays out like a quiet low-budget indie, with every scene fading to black and a lot of dangling dialog. If the culture clash portion had been pulled out more, and it feels like that's what the filmmakers who weren't Lipeng (as it's all him really, director/writer/actor/choreographer) were aiming for.
The kung fu portion is decent, but so stereotypical. - Lipeng is an excellent master and showcases Shaolin tactics with some well-timed stop attacks, but you have to be fairly quick of eye to see it. For anyone not familiar with Shaolin, it just plays out like typical fight scenes - well timed, some good continuous choreography, a tad heavy on the wire work when being bounced away from a blow.
Is it good? Well, no, not really. Not DOOM worthy by any means. It's a tad better than the typical indie kung fu flick, but only just. Maybe I'm just biased because it stars my friend. Probably that's it.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse