Shaolin Vs The Incredible

We decided to go far a "two-fer", and not by choice with Rarescope' re-release of Shaolin Vs Ninja and Shaolin Vs Tai-Chi.

Now, before we go any further, I feel the need to provide a small disclosure to your "spidey senses" that goes off right before you see a questionable movie. It's a Kung-Fu flick that you must watch with a grain of salt to enjoy, and while it's not the best Chinese cinema has to offer outside Shaw Brothers Studios in terms of production and story telling quality, if it's nothing else at least it's entertaining.

...Vs Ninja
The story of Vs Ninja isn't bad in its concept, just in its telling. Without revealing to much of the plot, it's as the name implies Shaolin Monks verse Japanese Ninja, a duel of conflicting religious concepts (and clothing) and a contest of kung fu between two ideals in order to find out if the Buddhist Monks are responsible for stealing money from the Shinto temple...or at least that what the dubbing implied. Despite the movie quality itself, it wasn't a bad movie, but one must think how much the dubbing destroys any attempt at sequential story telling. The dubbing is funny and borderline offensive which is only entertaining if you're between the ages of 5-14 or if you're running high off ether and goof balls.

Vs. Tai Chi
This movie is the polar opposite of Vs Ninja. The story was compelling and captivating and is much more in the vein of modern day Chinese opera movies such as Crouching Tiger and The Curse of the Golden Flower. The quality of the film is a little grainy, but not distracting, the villain and unfolding of events is great and there's even a display of Drunken Kung Fu not done by Jackie Chan. The best thing about this movie that sets it apart from Vs Ninja is that Vs Tai Chi is subtitled, and not new subtitles, but the original subtitles so that you get the full blown epic storyline.