This film notably departs from the first film with a Lighter and Softer tone, with the tone being more kid-friendly and slapstick in nature. This time Jet Li plays San-Long, leader of a band of orphaned kids who lose their families in a bandit attack, and subsequently adopted by a martial artist and former Shaolin Monk, Tian-Long. San-Long and the other boys are trying to set their adoptive father up for a date with their neighboring family to settle a generations-long feud, but the date is rudely interrupted when the legion of bandits responsible for killing their families attacks again.
Kids From Shaolin includes the following tropes:
- Animated Credits Opening: The opening credits are in cartoon form, to emphasize how this sequel is lighter in tone compared to the previous movie.
- Big Damn Heroes: The Long family boys arriving in the climax to save their neighboring girls from the bandit invasion. And also to avenge their own family’s massacre ages ago. San-Long in particular gets to kill off the cross-eyed bandit leader.
- Brats with Slingshots: The younger Long family boys are frequently seen playing with slingshots. In the finale, these brats actually save the day by launching a shot into a bandit’s nethers, distracting the bandit long enough for one of the Feng family girls to drive a spear through his neck!
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Unlike the Big Bad of the previous movie, Emperor Wang Shichong who is royalty and commands an entire army, in the sequel the villains are two nameless leaders of a gang of bandits.
- The Dog Bites Back: The two bandit leaders, the Bald Bandit and Cross-eyed Bandit, leads their men to massacre a village in the backstory, with the village orphans - among them Jet Li's San-Long - eventually taken in and adopted by Tian-Long. In the final battle, San-Long gets to kill the Cross-Eyed Bandit himself, while the Bald Bandit is hilariously subdued by the same kids he orphaned years ago, shoved into a basket, and carried to a cliff by those very same kids who then drops him to his death. Karmic Deaths indeed...
- Epic Flail: Unlike the previous movie, this time its an Elite Mook who uses a rope dart to fight San-Long and San-Feng.
- Family Theme Naming: Tian- Long, Yi- Long and San-Long, and Tai-Feng, Yi-Feng and San-Feng. In the Chinese language, Long means "Dragon" while Feng means "Phoenix".
- Feuding Families: The Long and Feng families doesn’t see eye-to-eye and squabbles often, and its up to Long’s adopted children to convince them to get together by way of romance.
- Groin Attack: San-Long vs. the cross-eyed bandit. Both combatants did a flip through the air for a falling sword, but San-Long grabs it first and sliced the sword through his opponent’s nuts, and as he fell backwards there is an obvious streak of red between his legs starting from the crotch region.
- Irony: The patriarch and adoptive father of the neighboring girls, a kindly character, is played by Yu Chenghui, who previously portrays the Big Bad of the previous Shaolin Temple movie. Casting Gag?
- Lighter and Softer: Compared to the previous movie, in fact the second movie might easily pass as a kid’s film. Especially how the film begins with a cartoon!
- Minor Insult Meltdown: Inverted, with the insulter feeling the guilt. After being punished (via rigorous training and exercise) by Tien-Long, their adoptive father, the adopted boys (led by San-Long) decides to gather in the kitchen after completing their exercise to collectively insult Tian-Long ("Daddy. Is. An. Asshole!"). But later they realize their adoptive dad really do care for them by tucking them in their blankets as they sleep, at which point all the boys quickly got out of their beds and collectively apologizes.
- Must Make Amends: After the above scene, the boys decide that they can make up to their adoptive father by hooking him up with the eldest daughter of their neighboring family, therefore settling their silly long-time family feud forever. Naturally, Jet Li’s San-Long gets to be the mastermind for the hookup.
- No Name Given: The villains are only known as the Bandit gang, comprising of the cross-eyed bandit, the one-eyed bandit, and a legion of faceless mooks.
- Oddball in the Series: The kid-friendly tone and humor makes this entry stick out compared to the other two movies.
- Retired Badass: Tian-Long, the boys’ adoptive father, was a warrior in his younger days and a former Shaolin monk.
- Scenery Porn: Long, sweeping shots of the Chinese countryside… hey, the movie is filmed in scenic beautiful Lijiang
.- One scene takes place in the caves of Guilin.
- One scene takes place in the caves of Guilin
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: Arguably the one and only scene in this entire movie which qualifies as "dark", a flashback halfway depicting how the boys lost their families when bandits attack their village, where Tien-Long and Yi-Long comes to their rescue and evacuate them while they’re babies.
- Was Too Hard on Him: Tien-Long, after demanding his adopted boys to work out and train rigorously as punishment for quarrelling with the neighboring girls, suddenly feels that he’s being too harsh on them when seeing the children absolutely exhausted. He slowly walks up to them and cover them up with their blankets while stroking their foreheads, unbeknownst that they are still awake.
- Weddings for Everyone: The film ends with the dual marriage between Tian-Long and Tai-Feng (the eldest daughter), and Yi-Long and Yi-Feng, therefore allowing reconciliation of both families. Also, San-Long and San-Feng have also become a couple.
- World of Action Girls: Most of the girls in the neighboring Feng family are higly-capable fighters, even moreso than San-Long. They take plenty of names in the climax when the bandit clan makes a comeback.
- Zerg Rush: The one-eyed bandit is killed when the children adopted by Tianlong overpowers him, shoves him into a cage, and drops the cage off a cliff.
