Films from Fa Sheng’s Temple: Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple

In honor of the Kickstarter for Fa Sheng: Origins #3, Gene Ching is writing a short series of reviews for Immortal Studios on films shot on location at the original Shaolin Temple of China.

Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple  (1985)

Squeezed in between the last two installments of the previously mentioned Shaolin Trilogy was another film shot on location at Shaolin Temple. Shaolin Temple 2: Kids from Shaolin came out in 1984 followed by Shaolin Temple 3: Martial Arts of Shaolin in 1986. Nestled neatly in between was Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple in 1985, another attempt to capitalize on the success of the original Shaolin Temple film in 1982.

Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple was shot at Shaolin Temple AND at the temples of Wudang. It starred another cast of top Wushu champions, and an opera-trained star who went on to become one of Asia’s leading action stars. The main villain was played Yu Rongguang. Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple was his first film. Yu is the son of Peking Opera performer Yu Ming Kui. Like Bruce Lee, whose parents were Chinese opera stars, and Jackie Chan, who was trained in classical opera skills from childhood, Yu’s foundation is in opera-style Kung Fu. It’s perfect training for action films because it’s so theatrical. 

Since Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple, Yu, who sometimes goes by Ringo, has starred in over a hundred films. He is most remembered for playing Dr. Yang in Iron Monkey (1993), a wild wuxia film from action director virtuoso Yuen Woo-Ping. Also starring Donnie Yen as Wong Kei-Ting, the father of Wong Fei Hung. In this film, Wong Fei Hung is a child, so he was played by Tsang Sze-Man (or Angie Tsang) back when she was a child Wushu champion. After making the film, she continued to win international Wushu championships. She joined the Hong Kong Police Force in 2003 and retired from competing in 2006. To this day, she still works for the Hong Kong Police. 

But back to Ringo Yu, he is also remembered as the Imperial Guard chasing Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon (2000) or more recently, the Kreese Sensei role of Master Li in the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid with Chan and Jaden Smith. Yu is still very active in filmmaking. The most recent of his films that got international distribution was Ride On (2023), again with Chan. He released two more films in China, the last one was last year, and he’s got three more films on the way for 2025, two of which are in the can. 

In Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple, Yu plays the villainous Qi Tianyuan, betrayer of Shaolin Temple who attacks its abbot attempting to seize abbacy. He demands the holy robe, the cassock of the founder of Shaolin Temple’s Zen sect, Bodhidharma, or Tamo in Chinese.

In Buddhism, the transition of the previous abbot’s robe symbolizes lineage transmission. The current abbot of the real Shaolin Temple, Shi Yongxin, says he has the robe of his predecessor, Shi Xingzheng, who passed away in 1987. But back to the movie, the Shaolin monks set out to hide the holy robe from Qi, so he cannot be ordained as the new abbot of Shaolin Temple. 

The monk leader of this renegade Shaolin squad is Hui Neng (Xu Xiangdong). Hui Neng (638-713 CE) is known as the Sixth Patriarch of Chan, in the lineage of direct transmission recipients from the First Patriarch, Bodhidharma (Chan is the original Chinese word for what the Japanese call Zen). Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch preserves Hui Neng’s teachings and stories, and is a significant Buddhist sutra from his period to this day. 

Hui Neng is played by Xu Xiangdong. Xu was the main force of the Hebei Wushu team and known for his mastery of Yingzhaoquan (Eagle Claw fist). He continues to serve the Wushu community as a judge and made over two dozen films since Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple. His most recent movie came out this year. He had a role as Elder Liang in Tsui Hark’s 2025 Lunar New Year blockbuster Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants. 

Accompanying Xu in Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple was the fellow Wushu champion, Wu Qiuhua playing Second Sister Lin Yi. After racking up some major championships in the National Games of the PRC, she immigrated to California and took the name Xena. Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple was her only film.  The fight choreography of Holy Robe of Shaolin Temple is top notch. There are plenty of long complex acrobatic scenes, the sort of which both opera Kung Fu and wushu excel in filming. It’s very derivative of the original Shaolin Temple. There’s a scene at the beginning that echoes the iconic training scene in Shaolin Temple; it’s a clip with some fine wushu demonstrations, but it’s a scene we’ve seen before.

There’s also a scene that makes absolutely no sense. SPOILER ALERT Hui Neng is on the run, accompanied by a Shaolin brother and some Shaolin kid novices (a.k.a. Shami). After being chased through the streets by the Royal Guard, and they get pinned between their pursuers and some archers. The archers release a volley of arrows, only sticking the eldest monk. Then suddenly, the kids are watching him die by the riverside, far from where they were, with no pursuers in sight. It’s a jarring, confusing cut, as if the filmmakers just bailed and went to the next scene without rhyme or reason. I wondered if there was a scene in between that was omitted but I can’t imagine anything that could resolve the plot flaw. END SPOILER

Beyond the historic locations, the marvelous martial arts fights, and the martial twist on one of Chan’s earliest legendary monks, there’s some outstanding horsemanship demonstrated in this film. And stealing the spotlight is an absolutely death-defying fire stunt that will literally burn into the back of your retinas forever. Back in 1985, there weren’t any kind of special effects like we have today, so the horsemanship showcased, and that intense fire stunt, have so much more impact for being 100% real. 

It's ironic to see a founding monk like Hui Neng depicted as a Kung Fu hero, but that’s just the way Chinese pop culture goes sometimes. While it appears irreverent, paradoxically, it is respectful in its own peculiar way. And when it comes to quirky Kung Fu movies about Buddhist founders, you ain’t seen nothing yet. In our next installment of Films from Fa Sheng’s Temple, we’ll examine another film shot at Shaolin Temple about Bodhidharma – Tamo himself as a Kung Fu master. Until then, tune in, turn on, and support our Fa Sheng: Origins #3 Kickstarter! 

By Gene Ching

Immortal Squad, Martial Arts Editor & Action Choreographer