Skip to content

Rikomatic

Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff

Menu
  • Follow Me on Instagram
  • My Professional Site RangerRik.com
  • Yehoodi.com Archive
  • Every Roller Rink in California (Map)
Menu

“Soul of Shaolin”: cheesy plot mars stellar martial arts and acrobatics

Posted on January 13, 2009 by

Shaolin

Tonight I got to see the "Soul of Shaolin" show at the Marquis Theater on Broadway.  It's an amazing spectacle of shaolin-style kung fu and acrobatics, with twenty-some martial artists displaying near superhuman feats.  It's inspiring just seeing what the human body is capable of with discipline and years of training.  I particularly enjoyed the segment involving a trio of youngsters pretending to be various animals from a monkey to a lion to a frog.  And the one-armed martial artist was particularly inspiring and talented.

That said, there was a certain sameness that came over the show after the first few acts, with no significant tonal difference between the fighting and choreography in the opening piece and the ones that followed.  Everything was very stylized and beautiful, but needed more variety in my mind.  It didn't help that all of the performers, with one exception, were bald Chinese men, almost all in identical outfits.  Even the Playbill gives you no information about who these performers are, strangely enough.

The plot was extremely cheesy and maudlin by Western standards, with heavy-handed voiceovers hitting you over the head with THE MESSAGE.  Since the performers don't speak, there's a lot of dramatic gesturing that reminded me of silent pictures… and not in a good way.  In true Chinese form, the canned music was orchestral and sweeping, which sounded melodramatic and distracting to me. 

"Soul of Shaolin" is a great family show, since it has a very simple plot, non-stop action, and a moral at the end.  If you are a martial artist, you will appreciate the athleticism and artistry of the performers.  But if you are looking for more depth and artistry in your theater experience, you might want to think twice about "Soul of Shaolin."

2 thoughts on ““Soul of Shaolin”: cheesy plot mars stellar martial arts and acrobatics”

  1. Martial art schools says:
    February 11, 2009 at 5:12 am

    Hey!”Soul of Shaolin” is a great family show, since it has a very simple plot, non-stop action, and a moral at the end. I think that show would be Rocks.

    Reply
  2. wholesale cage fighter says:
    February 3, 2010 at 11:23 pm

    This is something interesting. I love martial arts.
    -mikee

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

A History of the Jazz Split

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlfLr9YmMJU

Recent Posts

  • Thoughts on Learning and Skating
  • The Voice (poem)
  • Toy Train in a Tin
  • Bucket List Complete: Visiting All the Disney Theme Parks!
  • Highlights from 2025 Tokyo Trip

Categories

  • Books
  • Cats
  • Civil Society
  • Creative Writing
  • Dancing / Music
  • Education
  • Family
  • Film
  • Food and Drink
  • General
  • Health
  • Information Society
  • Machinima
  • Media Reform
  • Music
  • New York
  • Politics
  • quotation
  • Real World Places in SL
  • Science
  • SF Bay Area
  • Television
  • The Spirit
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • United Nations
  • Virtual Worlds
  • Web/Tech

Tags

b-boy (76) breakdance (51) breaking (26) brooklyn (36) charleston (11) competition (11) dance (17) dancing (30) documentary (15) education (21) festival (12) frankie95 (16) frankie manning (52) frim fram (10) fundraiser (10) global kids (70) hip-hop (31) human rights (11) inaug09 (11) jazz (12) ken swift (10) lindy hop (144) lindyhop (23) lowcarb (18) lxd (11) macarthur foundation (12) machinima (22) memorial (14) mermaidparade (22) mtv (13) performance (16) poetry (11) popping (11) quaker (27) recipe (38) rockclimbing (16) second life (81) shim sham (15) skating (70) soul music (14) swing (52) swing dance (45) virtual world (19) virtual worlds (29) yehoodi (46)
© 2025 Rikomatic | Powered by Superbs Personal Blog theme