Jet Li's Shaolin Temple Movies Ranked From Worst To Best
How does Jet Li's celebrated Shaolin Temple movie series rank from worst to best? Already a bonafide action star in Hong Kong before breaking into English language Hollywood movies, Jet Li began his martial arts training aged eight as a student of modern Wushu. The Beijing-born Li would go on to represent China in Wushu competitions around the world, even performing a demonstration for American President Richard Nixon on the White House lawn.
Li’s vast skills in Wushu attracted the film industry's attention, with 1982’s The Shaolin Temple marking Li’s feature film debut. Not only was The Shaolin Temple a huge hit in China, but it also had a very tangible real-world impact. The movie’s success spawned a resurgence in interest in China’s legendary Shaolin Monastery, known as the epicenter of Bruce Lee's kung fu. The Shaolin Temple itself would become the basis for countless martial arts films and grow into one of China’s biggest landmarks — all thanks to The Shaolin Temple's influence.
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Off the back of The Shaolin Temple's success, Li returned for two sequels, Shaolin Temple 2: Kids From Shaolin in 1984 and Martial Arts of Shaolin in 1986. While he’s gone on to become a martial arts movie legend with later hits like Fist of Legend and the Once Upon A Time In China series, Li’s work on the Shaolin Temple movies kickstarted his career and remain important entries in his filmography. Here’s the ranking of Jet Li’s Shaolin Temple movies from worst to best.
The second film in the Shaolin Temple trilogy is certainly the most lackluster, in part for its much more tangential relationship to the actual Shaolin Monastery. Martial arts master Jet Li plays Sanlong,
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