Dragon from Shaolin is a light-hearted action adventure, meant to showcase the talents of the young martial artist Sik Liu Lung and provide a solid supporting role for Yuen Biao. Liu Lung plays Siu-lone, a young shaolin monk whose master decides he must go out and see the real world, hopefully enabling him to find Buddha’s path along his journey. The master sends along two other monks to protect him, but they are lost almost immediately after arriving in the city. Lost and scared, Siu-lone befriends a young, street-savy urchin nicknamed Little Bully (Kok Siu Man) and eventually they run into a man named Shan (Yuen Biao in an Indiana Jones type role). Siu-lone becomes convinced that he is his guide to find Buddha (predominantly because Shan is returning a golden Buddha head to a statue in Northern China) and convinces him to let them follow him on his trip. Along the way the three are joined by Siu-suen (Vivian Hsu), a pickpocket who has taken refuge in Shan’s jeep to escape her pimp. As they are returning the Buddha head, Shan is chased by a group of shady international art dealers (seemingly led by Shan’s brother) who want to add the head to their private collection. Fists fly as Shan and Siu-lone battle the dealers in order to return the head to its rightful place.

Although this movie seems to be geared towards families, there are some odd scenes that really don’t fit in for that type of film. One that really stands out is when Siu-lone and Little Bully put on a street show in order to raise money. After Siu-lone’s martial arts exhibition, Little Bully breaks out what he calls the “Invincible Little Dicky”, in which he attaches a brick to his penis and swings it around. Not quite what you’d expect, especially when they actually show the 10-year old’s penis attached to the brick!?!?!? The movie itself is a complete mess, with a shabby plot and poor acting. Yuen Biao is decent, but he honestly has nothing to work with while Kok Siu Man (Little Bully) is funny for about 2 minutes and then becomes completely tiresome. You can tell he gets easily distracted, as he constantly waddles around during his scenes and over-exaggerates his lines. Granted he is young, but Sik Siu Lung (the other young actor/martial artist) is quite good in his role and shows that a decent acting job can be had. The martial arts are average, with many of Siu Lung’s scenes speeded up to compensate for his less than lightning quick moves, and not enough Yuen Biao scenes. It would be best to avoid this movie, as it doesn’t bring anything new or interesting to the table.
3/10