Shaolin contra os 12 Homens de Aço

The narrative of "Shaolin Wooden Men" is divided into two neat halves: the first delineates the struggles of Jackie Chan's character (a mute orphan) at Shaolin Temple, ending with his successful navigation of the gauntlet of titular wooden men; the second follows him into the world outside the monastery, as he tests his combat skills and discovers that people cannot always be taken at face value. The film never rises entirely above the conventions of its genre, but in depicting the friendship between Chan and Kam Kang (who plays a prisoner at the monastery), director Chen Chi-hwa effects some nice touches...and there are well-choreographed fights aplenty. Six and a half stars.

(By the way, there's no historical evidence that those fearsome wooden fighting dummies ever existed at Shaolin. It's a great cinematic device, though.)

A Jackie Chan movie is like pizza, even when it's bad it's still pretty good. First the good, it's a standard revenge plot. There's nothing wrong with seeing that for the millionth time. We're here for the martial arts not the story and the martial art does deliver. Even the hokey part fighting the wooden men (which easily could have failed) was done surprisingly well. The movie never dragged and the funny parts were reasonably funny. There was the expected build up to the big fight at the end and the fight finale could have been better but again, that pizza analogy.

The bad part was making Jackie a mute until the last fight. Whoever's idea that was (did I hear someone mumble Lo Wei?) totally blew it. Really, not that I love to hear his voice or anything and it would have been dubbed by some British guy anyway, but the hero has to say a few syllables. I really think that keeping Jackie silent made the difference between this movie being a miss instead of a hit on it's initial movie theater run. Think of how history would have changed if Jackie came to stardom in 1976 instead of a few years later! The world would be a different place and we all might have our flying cars if Jackie had only spoken up sooner.

Back in July of 2012, I posted the above review here. Today I watched the movie again. I decided to edit my review to compare the two views. I stand by everything written in my original post. Today I would change nothing in the original post and would add as below.

I had a problem with the final fight. Jackie fights Kang Chin first and that is all wrong. Kang Chin's henchmen would certainly intercept Jackie before he could get to their big boss. The fight against Kang Chin must be absolute last.

Also in the Jackie versus Kang Chin fight sequence it looks like Kang Chin is attacking and Jackie defending. Jackie should appear aggressive, attacking with full power and low accuracy. He could even act angry. Instead it looks like Kang chin is leading with his dance moves and Jackie is following.

Despite that I still consider the movie above average for the year and genre. I also recommend this movie to all fans of martial arts movies of the golden age from 1967 to 1984.

Can you imagine Jackie Chan as the worst student in a martial arts school? I know, it's crazy, but that's the premise of Shaolin Wooden Men. He plays Brother Mute, with a self-explanatory name. He also doesn't smile, so if you find yourself wondering if the sweet, comical fellow from the '90s is actually the same young kid in the mid-'70s, don't feel bad. This is also the last movie he made before getting plastic surgery on his eyes, in case you can't put a finger on exactly what looks so different. Although I completely support self-improvement and self-confidence, it makes me so sad that Jackie felt he wasn't handsome enough and needed "American" eyes. Back in 1976, he was a very good-looking young man, except for the haircut - and everyone had that haircut in the 1970s! There was absolutely nothing wrong with his face.

I'll get off my soapbox. If it made him happy, I'm happy for him. I just hope he didn't have inner pain that plagued him. Back to the actual movie: In Shaolin Wooden Men, Jackie is ridiculed by the other monks-in-training because he's uncoordinated and weak. When he ventures into a forbidden cave, he meets an old prisoner who used to be a great kung fu master; studying from him may be forbidden, but it's the only real chance Jackie has. I love seeing the old-fashioned training sequences ("wax on, wax off") that show intense inner discipline. In one exercise, Jackie transitions from a plank position (on top of wooden posts) to a handstand and does upside down, vertical push-ups. In another, sweat drips off his brow as he balances an enormous boulder on his back while doing (regular, thank goodness) push-ups.

I know old movies from the 1970s aren't everyone's cup of tea. Even if you love Jackie Chan, you might think watching the Police Story series takes you back far enough. But just give one of the oldies a try, either this one or Drunken Master. He's very young and has a completely different style on camera than at the cusp of the millennium. In this movie, you'll get to see the immense treat of watching Jackie battle it out with a dozen wooden men (hence the title) in training. The automatons have weapons and unpredictable flailing limbs, but sticks it out and gives the camera a great show!

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.

As far as martial arts movies go, Shaolin Wooden Men is pretty standard stuff, but I think it's still fun enough in bursts to make it worthwhile for fans of the genre and/or Jackie Chan. He plays a character here who doesn't speak, so I think that helps it stand out a little among all the other early Jackie Chan movies out there (I do feel like he really came into his own and made his best stuff during the 80s and 90s, though).

The plot here is one you've probably seen a bunch of times if you've even watched a decent number of martial arts flicks, but the action is solid (not great, but still mostly fun), and I guess that's the main thing. I don't know if I quite feel like it's a hugely underrated gem or anything, but it's a decent watch and a fairly good time.