Excellence. I don't mean the object of an often spoken, "excellent!" I am referring to true excellence. A true excellence comes from within, and is blind to style or school. It shines through the individual who seeks to better himself, continuously.

In the 1993 Movie (Rongguang Yu and Donnie Yen), the Robin Hood character, Iron Monkey, is excellent in the martial arts. The setting is 18th Century China where martial arts and the shaolin martial arts are the cream of the crop.

During the movie, however, you learn that the shaolin society has become corrupt, along with the government. Rather than seeking to right the wrongs in society, they aid a corrupt government and seek out to destroy the Iron Monkey. The Iron Monkey defeats two of the strongest shaolin warriors, simultaneously, without so much as breathing heavy.

Humiliating the warriors, mid-fight, with his skills, the Iron Monkey (Rongguang Yu) speaks to the shaolin. Artfully doging attacks and launching his own effective counters he says, "Pathetic." "This is what you call excellence?"

Here, a young, solitary master overcomes centuries of shaolin training. Why? Because he studies and practices and seeks to, continuously better himself. The shaolin warrior portrayed in this movie do not. "They are shaolin." If their name alone is not enough to instill order, their skills are.

No one watching the movie should say, the shaolin arts are totally worthless. But, in comparison to the excellence of Dr. Yang/Iron Monkey (Rongguan Yu) and Wong Fei-Hong (Donnie Yen), they are sub-par fighters, almost novices against the trained and honed skills, and excellence, of the movie's heroes.