This movie has the feel of a 1950's Disney film, from the light-hearted atmosphere to the sudden breaks into cheerful tunes to the beautiful landscapes. The plot also has that "warm and fuzzy" feel to it. Jet Li is the elder child of one family and Polly Shang Kwan the elder of another. The two families have been feuding with each other for years, but the realization by Jet that his pops needs to get hitched -- and quick -- makes him want to bury the hatchet. However, a local governor wants both families' land, so he keeps tricking them into fighting each other. Eventually, as you might guess, the two families team up (and wouldn't you know it? There's a perfect match for every person in both families once they come together) to protect their land.

Overall, this movie was too slow-moving and much, much too happy for me to really enjoy it. I swear if I was diabetic, I would have gone into sugar shock about halfway through it. The only part I really liked was the ending fight, which is pretty good stuff, though the spurting blood may turn off those who were looking for more of a family-friendly picture. Kids from Shaolin is worth a look, especially if you are interested in getting a look at a very young Jet Li in action, but don't expect anything on the level of his later work like Fist of Legend or Once Upon a Time in China.

A review of the DVD for this movie can be found here

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