Shao Lin mu ren xiang (1976)

Jackie witnesses his father's death by the skilled hands of a martial arts master with an unknown killing technique. Jackie vows to become a Shaolin monk and avenge his death (not very ... See full summary »

Director:

Chi-Hwa Chen

Stars:

Yuen Biao, Jackie Chan, Kam Chiang

Cast

Credited cast:
Yuen Biao
Jackie Chan
Kam Chiang
Jang Lee Hwang	...	Monk in opening sequence / Extra
Kong Kim
Yuen Lung
Tien Miao
Wei Ho Tu	...	(as Her Du Wei)

Storyline

Jackie witnesses his father's death by the skilled hands of a martial arts master with an unknown killing technique. Jackie vows to become a Shaolin monk and avenge his death (not very Buddhist of him...), but soon finds that he's the chump of the class. After befriending a variety of shaolin masters, each of whom teach Jackie a particular style of kung fu (drunken, killing, slippery snake, etc.), Jackie suddenly finds himself good enough to go give the beats to the 100 "wooden men" whom all shaolin (in this flick anyways) have to beat to get the funky haircut. Jackie then proceeds to go around laying the beats on everyone, but shows his humility and compassion at the end.

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Plot Keywords:

shaolin | shaolin monk | buddhist | martial arts | kung fu | 

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Genres:

Action

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Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Release Date:

10 November 1976 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

36 Wooden Men

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original film footage is lost - only a video copy survived.

User Reviews

Kung Fu film "branches" out...

Under-rated film featuring a mute Jacky Chan who begins training at a Shaolin monastery. This films best draw-card is it's plot. This is your regular Kung Fu vengeance story but written much more cunningly and cleverly. The typical plot mechanisms are used, but they didn't bother me, and the story held my attention better than most modern movies I see.

Jackie's fighting is great, and I particularly enjoyed the training he receives from the Nun(?). Not to mention the inventive and really quite absurd training he gets from the imprisoned man.

As like other films of this period, I think that only Kung Fu genre die-hards will really sit through this and feel rewarded. The Wooden Men themselves never seemed as dangerous as the real men in the film - is this some kind of comment on human nature in a Kung Fu film?