Films from Fa Sheng’s Temple: Master of Zen

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.

When it comes to films shot on location at Shaolin Temple, Master of Zen is by far the quirkiest. Also known by the title Bodhidharma, this Hong Kong production is a Kung Fu take on the life of Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism and Shaolin Kung Fu. There’s a lot to unpack here for the uninitiated.

Bodhidharma was the Indian monk in the direct transmission lineage of the Buddha, who travelled to China to spread the dharma during the 6th century. In Chinese, he is known by the phonetic translation Putitamo, or Tamo for short. As a significant historical and religious figure, there are many tales about him. One of the most notable is that he faced a faced a stone wall in a cave on Shaoshih peak above Shaolin Temple for nine years in meditation. According to legend, he fell asleep once during this period and became so upset with himself that he cut off his eyelids. His eyelids fell to the ground and sprouted the first tea plants to aid monks in prolonged meditation. He faced the stone wall for so long that a rock from that wall bears his image. When he emerged from the cave, he brought Zen Buddhism to the world, or Chan as it was originally called in Chinese. What’s more, he developed a series of qigong exercises, Yijinjing (muscle tendon sutra) and Xisuijing (marrow washing sutra), which became the foundation of Shaolin Kung Fu. 

While most scholars find Tamo’s connection to Kung Fu apocryphal, the cave still exists and is open to tourists who wish to make the climb up Shaoshih peak. And the image stone is now kept within Shaolin Temple as a holy relic. As fanciful as it may be, Tamo is the legendary source point of Kung Fu. A Kung Fu take on Tamo is a natural for the Kung Fu wuxia genre. And it surely amuses pious Zen practitioners for its absurdity.

Master of Zen (1994)

Master of Zen stars Derek Yee in the titular role. He plays Tamo in Indian brown-face, complete with a bald cap and a semi-TNG-Klingon forehead, made up to look like he’s concentrating hard all the time. Some Hong Kong films of the nineties were absurdly racist and sexist. Under all the makeup, Yee looks more Filipino than Indian. The early part of the film is set in India, so the cast is mostly comprised of Chinese actors playing Indians by adding big mustaches and turbans. Somewhat redeeming is that the locations where this was shot are spectacular.

Yee’s Tamo got serious Kung Fu chops and busts out in some major fights throughout the film. Then there's a lot of reenactments of famous Tamo moments, like crossing the Yangtze on a bamboo reed. That's done with crazy somersaulting wirework, not at all as any classical artist imagined it. There are also several funny demonstrations of Tamo's divine power: catching arrows with his fingertips, ejecting needles piercing his body, holding back horses with his bare hand – all good fun. Yee is a veteran actor with well over fifty films to his credit, ranging from action to drama. He now sits in the director’s chair with twenty films to his credit; his most recent In Search of Lost Time came out in 2022. His characterization of Tamo is as a Kung Fu superhero. 

Master of Zen follows Tamo’s journey from his life as an Indian prince, all the way to Shaolin Temple. It's shot there and in the surrounding area. There's a spectacular swordfight at the base of the big Guanyin at Longmen Grottoes. The Longmen Grottoes have some of the finest Buddhist carvings and statues in the world, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Master of Zen catches Shaolin Temple a year before the 1500th Anniversary, when it was just starting to open to the global community. Back then, Shaolin Temple was a little wilder and a lot less polished. 

What’s more, Tamo’s first disciple, Huike, is played by Louis Fan Siu-Wong. Fan also played Riki Oh. If you don’t know Riki Oh: Story of Ricky, (1991) that is most sanguineous movie for Kung Fu gore fans – a cult classic but not for the faint of heart.  

However, above all that, this movie drops some major Zen, or Chan as it is called in Mandarin. Respect. Passages from The Transmissions of the Lamp and some koans (gungan in Mandarin) are recited as part of the reenactments. It hits a lot of mythic points, such as Tamo talking about his robe being passed to the 6th Patriarch. The 6th Patriarch was Huineng, and his Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch is a highly influential text in Chan.

Master of Zen should not be confused with Shaolin Monk, which is also a Kung Fu take on Bodhidharma made eighteen years earlier in 1976. Shaolin Monk is also known as Fighting of Shaolin Monks or my favorite, Killer Priest. Starring as Tamo is Sing Chen, a Thai martial arts action star who began in with a supporting role in Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969) and has over 140 films to his credit. 

Shaolin Monk was not shot at Shaolin Temple. There is a beautiful waterfall which doubles for the Yangtze where Tamo does his crossing the river on a bamboo reed thing, although more conventionally in this film. Tamo propounds his 18 Styles (another myth states that on top of the two qigong forms, Bodhidharma also created the 18 basic movements of Kung Fu) but Chen underdelivers. He was a practitioner of Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karate and served as a Royal Hong Kong Prison Cop in real life. But in this film, Tamo’s 18 Styles looks like a woefully weak version of Hung Gar Tiger Crane. This is the kind of film where a villainous mantis master is painted green. 

In our next installment of Films from Fa Sheng’s Temple, we’ll examine more recent film about Shaolin Temple that involved our founder, creator, and CEO, Payhuan Shiao. Until then, tune in, turn on, and support our Fa Sheng: Origins #3 Kickstarter! 

By Gene Ching

Immortal Squad, Martial Arts Editor & Action Choreographer