Martial Arts of Shaolin is the third and last installment of The Shaolin Temple. The film notably had a Big Budget Beef-Up (from being co-produced by Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers Studios) with more intricate sets, bigger action scenes, more stunts and stuntmen, and a more epic feel overall. This time Jet Li plays Lin Zhi-ming, a Shaolin monk since birth, who opposes the tyranny of the powerful Lord He Suo despite the Shaolin monks' preference of peace and reluctance to partake in violence restricting him in taking action. Out of options, Lin Zhi-ming teams up with fellow rebel Chao-wei and action-girl rebel leader Sima-Yan to take on the tyrant while trying to get the resistance leaders and Shaolin monks to help them fight for a good cause.
Fun fact: After the third movie, Jet Li and Huang Qiuyan (who plays Sima-yan) would get married in real life, though their marriage ends with divorce in the mid-90s.
Martial Arts of Shaolin includes the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Sima-Yan, who leads the La Résistance.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Zhi-ming and Chao-wei in the final battle.
- Cacophony Cover Up: Attempted, the first assassination attempt on Lord He’s life occurs during his birthday banquet, where Zhi-ming (disguised as a lion dancer) would stab Lord He from up close in the middle of the commotion. It didn’t work.
- The Cavalry: When the three protagonists begins to get overwhelmed by loads and loads of enemy soldiers, suddenly the Shaolin monks and other members of the La Résistance arrives.
- Did Not Get the Girl: It seems like Zhi-ming and Sima-Yan are destined for each other if they survive the final battle, but as it turns out, being a Shaolin monk, Zhi-ming instead decides to give his engagement anklet to his friend Chao-wei and let Chao have her instead.
- Disguised in Drag: Zhi-ming and Chao-wei both gets to disguise themselves as shepherdess using feminine clothing to evade Lord He’s soldiers at different checkpoint.
- For a gender-inverted example, Sima-Yan gets to disguise herself as one of Lord He’s officers during the assassination.
- Elite Mook: In the final battle, Lord He have a small team of personal guards, all whom are clad in red, fights with Good Old Fisticuffs and actually poses a challenge to the three heroes.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Zhi-ming, Chao-wei, and Sima-Yan, the Two Guys and a Girl after barely surviving the botched assassination, even though they weren’t on the same side initially.
- Friend to All Living Things: Zhi-ming, who saves a nest of baby birds which had fallen from a tree. He even tried feeding the birds before replacing the nest by picking up an earthworm with a branch…
- The Great Wall: True to its Chinese setting, in this movie a lengthy fight scene takes place on the Great Wall where the three heroesfends off legions and legions of enemy soldiers.
- La Résistance: A legion of rebels opposes the tyranny of Lord He-sao, and Sima-Yan, being the daughter of their leader, is their best fighter.
- Off with His Head!: Lord He’s eventual fate, with Yan as the killer.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Sima-Yan wears a silver anklet around her leg, and is betrothed to whomever owns an identical silver anklet, which are two-of-a-kind in China. It turns out Zhi-ming owns the other anklet which is the second half.
- Prized Possession Giveaway: In the third movie, the hero (Zhi-Ming) carries with him a silver anklet ever since birth, one which is two-of-a-kind that his (long-deceased) parents said the girl who carries the other anklet will be destined to be Zhi-Ming's wife. As the film goes on Zhi-Ming becomes close friends with Chao-Wei the warrior and Sima-Yen the Action Girl, the latter who owns the other anklet. At the end of the film after working together to defeat the Big Bad, Zhi-Ming ultimately decides his heart lies with the Shaolin monks; so instead Zhi-Ming gives his anklet to Chao-Wei, wishing Chao-Wei and Sima-Yan a happy marriage as he bids his best friends farewell.
- Throwing the Distraction: After the first assassination goes wrong, Zhi-ming saves everyone by throwing fireworks into the crowd of guards allowing the La Résistance members a quick retreat.
- Two Guys and a Girl: Lin Zhi-ming The Hero, Chao Wei The Lancer, Sima-Yan The Heart. In a rare example, its The Lancer and The Heart who ultimately ends up together.
- Training Montage: Right at the beginning of the film, the opening credits are superimposed over Zhi-ming punching his way through a thick stack of paper bound to a tree.
- You Killed My Father: In slight change in storyline compared to the previous two movies, this time it’s Sima-Yan who seeks to avenge her father’s death in the hands of Lord He.
