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Shao Lin mu ren xiang More at IMDbPro »
| Index | 9 reviews in total |
9 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Perhaps Jackie's Best Pre-80's film., 15 July 2003
Author:
hoserhound from Washington State, USA
Along with The Fearless Hyena, this is my favorite of Jackie Chan's
pre-80's
films before he realized his unique talents and what the audiences wanted
to
see. Sure the comedy is absent, but a young and talented Jackie Chan is
on
display in this relatively generic story.
A mute Jackie seeks to avenge his father's death by going undercover as a
Shaolin Monk where he takes training from two different masters, each of
whom swears the other is evil and should not be trusted. Jackie must find
out for himself who the honorable master is as well as fight the Shaolin
Wooden Men (as in the title) before he can eventually get
revenge.
Sure it's crazy. Sure it keeps Jackie from speaking for most of the film
(is that a bad thing?) Sure it has Jackie fighting men in lame "wooden
men"
costumes. But if you ask me, thats what sets this film apart and makes it
a
classic among his earlier works.
As other reviewers have said, this film is a must for Jackie Chan purists
and while it might not appeal to the MTV crowd that watches his films
today
like Rush Hour, it will certainly entertain any 70's martial arts fan for
an
hour and half.
8/10
10 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
A Very Good Film!!!!!!, 26 June 2001
Author:
Nick_Vorobyov from Toronto, Ontario
This film is really good. This film has Jackie talking mostly at the end. The film has Jackie training from two different teachers. And it pays off at the end. Where Jackie has to fight one of his teachers who turned bad. This film is great for people who liked "Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin" and "Dragon Fist" with Jackie. I find Jackie's old films have the best action packed endings ever seen on tv!!! This film was great to watch because "Wei Lo" like I sad before makes Jackie look good on screen by being the director or Producer of the movie. This film is great to buy or to see. I love to see the training sequence in any Jackie film. So go see it today.
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Beware of the Lion's Roar, 18 October 2005
Author:
Shawn McKenna (shawnmc@softcom.net) from Modesto, California
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Shaolin Wooden Men was the second film Jackie Chan did for Lo Wei
Productions and the first film he did under director Chen Chi-Hwa (who
also directed Jackie in Half a Loaf of Kung Fu) – though Lo would get
Supervising Director credit. Chan was lent out to this up-and-coming
director who would give him more room to experiment. Jackie gave more
effort on his martial art styles by mutating traditional forms like the
snake form (one of Jackie's favorites) giving more flowing and
flamboyant movement and being less classical in structure.
Unfortunately, he did not have much say in his character development
with a character that was still in Bruce Lee's shadow. Shaolin Wooden
Men was considered the second flop in a row for a Jackie Chan led film.
Jackie played a mute young man (called Dummy in the dubbed version)
whose father She Lan was killed by an unknown assailant. I've read a
couple of different rumors on why Chan was mute in this film: to make
it easier on him acting and the other rumor was that Lo did not have
confidence in his acting skill. Jackie's character has sworn revenge
and to increase his martial artist skills he becomes an earnest student
in a Shaolin monastery. He has trouble at first adjusting to monk life.
Such activities as using lead shoes to carry water up and pour in
barrels and chopping wood was difficult for the mute but he would note
be prevented from learning Shaolin martial arts. It would normally take
five years of this training before he could start on his fighting
training, but the mute was crafty. He learned balance techniques from a
drunken monk (Miu Tak San). He befriended a visiting female Buddhist
named Nun Woo Mei (Cheung Bing Yuk) who taught him "Ten Shadows Eight
Steps" to make him lighter on his feet. Several scenes of this
technique reminded me of several of Missy Elliot's videos.
In order to leave the Shaolin monastery Jackie would have to pass a
test of fighting. He would have to go through a gauntlet of mechanized
Wooden Men (strangely looking like a Monty Python gag) that many monks
with more advanced training that the mute have failed. The mute was
lucky in finding a Shaolin prisoner who befriended him and in exchange
for food and wine would train him. Fa Yu (Kam Kong) is a curmudgeon
character who says he is only captured until he learns "The Lion's
Roar" which will shatter the internals of his enemies (or at least
provide a cheesy sound effect.) He taught the mute several techniques
which would help him pass the gauntlet as well as improve his fighting
prowess.
The Shaolin Wooden Men only play a small part of this film. The mute
inevitably passes the test and burns the dragon and tiger insignias
into his forearms by lifting a searing hot cauldron that marks the
opening into freedom and the beginning of his travails. First he must
deliver a message from Fa Yu to a gimpy pharmacologist who owns the
Tsun Chung Pharmacy in the town of Ching Ho who is part of the Green
Dragon and White Tiger gangs. This pretty much establishes Fa Yu with
those gangs and the rest of the film deals with the (other) inevitable
aspects of his escape and why he was imprisoned by the Shaolin.
The martial arts are above standard, but not as good as the later
Jackie Chan films. Though the final fight sequence does last awhile and
is the highlight fight of the film. The plot is a martial art cliché
with a student enrolling in a Shaolin Academy to learn Kung Fu to
avenge the death of his father. There is also the ubiquitous training
manual "Justice against the Devil" given to Jackie by a blind monk.
However, the relationship between the mute and his teacher Fa Yu is an
interesting angle reminding me of the relationship of Yuen Biao and Lau
Kar Wing in Knockabout. Chan seems a little unsure of his acting
ability, even without voice, but he always looks professional with the
martial art choreography. I think most people will like the later
Jackie Chan films better, but if you find a decent copy of this film
they will think it is a decent film -- though not much better. Note:
look for an early small speaking role for Yuen Biao.
DVD Info: Choosing the right copy is also important. I own two
different copies of the film both with their own problems. The Columbia
copy reigns in about 96 minutes though it misses 10 minutes of the
beginning. These ten minutes are very fun to watch. It includes the
"showcase" beginning with Jackie fighting four monks each with a
different animal style. It then includes his character having a
nightmare dealing with the Shaolin Python Wooden Men and then a
sequence showing normal life at the Shaolin temple. The Columbia
version is also cropped to a 1.78 aspect. The line on the DVD about
preserving the original aspect is hooey. The benefit of this DVD is
that it has the Mandarin soundtrack and good subtitles. The second
version I own is the Telefilms Internation DVD (also R1 and also hooey
about being the Original Uncut Version) which has the original aspect,
a more clear screen and the beginning that is missing in the Columbia
version. This version is missing ten minutes that are in the Columbia
version though it cost me only two dollars. It is missing any extras
like subtitles or other languages. So the best thing to do is look for
a copy that has 106 minutes or over, is not cropped and is not R1.
8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Sal, 22 February 1999
Author:
Sal Murakami from Japan
If you like Jackie Chan and have never seen this film, you sould hurry to the video shop in your neiborhood right now. This is definitely the BEST in his early 70's.It was made with very cheap budget the same as his other 70's films made by Lo-Wei,so "Wodden Men" robots looks so shabby, even kids will find out that.But Jackie did his best in both acting and action on this. This film was shown in Japanese movie theatre soon after he became popular in Japan with "Drunken Master", and this movie is still popular in Japanese fans (so they said in many Japanese websites!!)
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Kung Fu film "branches" out..., 11 July 2007
Author:
Guardia from Brisbane, Australia.
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?
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
heavy handed but not unwatchable, 31 October 2009
Author:
(winner55) from United States
Okay early Chan starring vehicles; very heavy handed, with little
humor; a lot of training sequences, more than usual for the genre at
this time - these are more realistic than similar training episodes of
the period, but they lack of any inherent interest, perhaps for that
very reason. The fight scenes are well-choreographed, largely because
Chan is clearly choreographing himself. The actual 'wooden men'
sequence is unconvincing; this particular legend was best presented by
Joseph Kuo in "The 18 Bronzemen," where Kuo presents the Bronzemen as
men in bronze paint, rather than the robots or spirit-possessed statues
of other films. Here they are rather ungainly robots, and not very
threatening, to be honest.
The big plus of the film is the relationship between Chan and his
teacher, who is also the lead villain - that double identity gives the
film its real weight, and the resolution of this relationship in the
final fight is almost carried off - enough so to leave the fan of such
films of its era satisfied.
Good old school Jackie Chan movie, 11 November 2011
Author:
ebiros2 from United States
Jackie Chan stars in one of his early career movie. Lowe Wei who
directed Fist of Fury, and the New Fist of Fury directs this movie as
well.
Jackie Chan is a new student of kung fu at the Shaolin Temple. They
have all sorts of torturous equipments to build the skills of the
students. He has a bad memory from childhood. Witnessing his father
getting murdered, by a masked kung fu artist.
He then meets series of three teachers who are willing to teach him
covertly. One is a drunken monk, the other is a nun, and finally a
prisoner in a dungeon. These three teach Jackie Chan techniques of kung
fu.
The graduation at Shaolin temple consists of passing the corridor lined
with wooden men that will kick and punch at anyone who tries to pass.
Jackie Chan with his knowledge, succeeds in passing the corridor.
On the outside of the temple, things aren't exactly peaceful. There's
strife everywhere. The man in the dungeon escapes and threatens to
destroy Shaolin temple. In order to save the temple, old master teaches
Jackie Chan the secret technique of Shaolin temple. The man that's
threatening the temple is revealed to be Jackie Chan's father's killer
also. Jackie challenges him to a duel.
The movie is old school, but compared to other old school kung fu
movies where quality usually was very poor, ones that stars Jackie Chan
seems to consistently have high qualities. This movie's quality is
several notches above the average movies of this type. This was before
he got his role as the student in "The Drunken Master" and his comical
side has not yet emerged.
The story has all the old school kung fu movie elements. Shaolin
temple, revenge, student coming of age, and a secret technique. It's
not a masterpiece by any means, but is a good movie to watch.
1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Early Jackie Chan, 29 December 2007
Author:
wataru-7 from The Netherlands
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This is a very interesting Jackie Chan film. It has the usual revenge
cliché's but already you can see several elements that would become
common place in his later movies.
Two scenes stand out in this movie: the opening scene with the fighting
monks and the final fight scene where 'Dummy' confronts the killer of
his father.
The scenes with the Buddhist non are for some reason quite touching.
This film is a must for die-hard Jackie Chan fans but if you are an
occasional Jackie Chan viewer you might be put-off because this early
movie is much darker in tone than his later movies (e.g. Project A) and
thus has none of the humor that characterizes his later movies so much.
0 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Wood is in this season!, 3 March 2006
Author:
The Lazy Southerner from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Jackie Chan stars in a role that could have been taken by...hmmm...lets
say...anyone. This coming of age tale detailing the life of a
mute-struck kungfu student and his eccentric teachers, is not as bad
but just as weird and predictable as any other kungfu tale.
Your basic unlikely hero emerges from his shell to rise to the
occasion, type of thing.
You're better off with sci-fi on this one folks. Either find a Hong
Kong comedy or a nice piece of camp-like "Vixen!"
I hope this helps,
The Lazy Southerner
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