Set during the tumultuous Warlord era of the early 20th Century, Andy Lau plays Hao Jie, a ruthless warlord, whose overwhelming victories and amassed personal wealth and success have come at the expense of the country's vast, struggling population. The countryside is ravaged by rival armies jostling for control of a deeply divided nation, more often than not leaving it to pure hearted souls such as the Shaolin monks to clean up the devastation left in their wake.

However, when Hao is betrayed by his own ambitious apprentice Cao Man (Nicolas Tse), sees his wife (Fan Bing Bing) abandon him and his young daughter killed, he is forced to flee for his life. Ultimately Hao seeks refuge at a Shaolin temple and though reluctant at first to help a man whose villainy they have witnessed first hand, the monks welcome him in. Hao disguises himself as a monk and slowly but surely the innate goodness of the monks help repair his shattered soul.  No sooner has he found his new path, however, than Hao and the other occupants of the Shaolin temple are sucked into a bloody feud, with Cao right at its centre.

The message that “what you need is more important than what you want” is writ large throughout SHAOLIN and the film is not one for nuance and subtlety. The characters are broadly drawn and their character arcs rarely complex, but the film is consistently engaging throughout thanks to a number of complimentary factors. SHAOLIN is far and away Benny Chan's most beautifully shot and richly designed film to date. The exotic rural locations exude an ethereal serenity, while the numerous action sequences are incendiary and kinetic. Hao's escape is realized as a frantic horse and carriage chase that careens through the city, before tearing up a crumbling mountain pass. The explosive finale, which sees British artillery lay siege to the temple, sees FX co-ordinator Li Chung Chi employ enough pyrotechnics to make Michael Bay blush, but most importantly for a film that features more than 50 real Shaolin monks, is the kung fu.