User reviews

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?

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.

Jacky Chan's father is killed by an evil Kung Fu master. Chan vows to remain silent until he can get his revenge. He goes to a Shao Lin temple, and gradually becomes a master of the arts. His instructors include Ping-Yu Chang, who teaches him to fight in a tray of grease, and Kang Chin, who is chained up in the basement.

Chan being silent allows the film to focus on the sheer physicality of the young man. The movie seems to be about four-fifths training sequence; the most striking in the final test, in which Chan must make his way past a gantlet of giant wooden dolls controlled by chains. Of course we know it will all come down to a final fight between Chan and the Big Bad. There's no sign of the comic Jacky here, but the variety of fights, as well as a couple of plot twists that seem obvious once they've happened keep this one interesting.

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!

Pure A jackie film with a subplot wrapped into a subplot putting this revenge story with fantastic kungfu sequences on display. Kung fu classic.

I recently watched Shaolin Wooden Men (1976) on Prime. The story follows a young man who witnesses the brutal death of his father. Traumatized, he escapes to the mountains and discovers a Shaolin temple, where he undergoes rigorous and unique martial arts training-ultimately gaining the skills he needs to seek revenge.

The film is directed by Chi-Hwa Chen (The 36 Crazy Fists) and stars Jackie Chan (Who Am I?), Kang Chin (Master of the Flying Guillotine), Ping-Yu Chang (A Touch of Zen), and Yuen Biao (The Prodigal Son).

The opening credits sequence-featuring Jackie Chan versus Shaolin monks-is an incredible way to kick off this hidden gem. While the storyline is fairly straightforward, the training scenes are the real highlight. The wooden dummies are creative and fun, and the scenes with metal shoes are wild. The choreography throughout is top-notch, with standout fight scenes, including a thrilling restaurant brawl and a fantastic final showdown. It has all the elements you'd want from a classic martial arts film.

In conclusion, Shaolin Wooden Men is a solid entry in the genre, featuring elite training sequences and strong action. I'd give it a 7/10 and strongly recommend it to martial arts fans.

The opening fight sequences and the final gauntlet of wooden men. The rest of the film is rather mediocre and not very interesting IMHO.

5 Wooden Men out of 10.

Vowed to remain silent until his father was avenged, Dubbed "dummy" by the other students, he proved himself more than capable as a fighter.

I bought this video some years back and I recall it had the title "Shao Lin Temple of Doom". I remember the plot very well as it was one of my favourite Jackie Chan movies. The wooden men reference made me wonder if it was the same film and the synopsis from others here assured me it was. It may possibly have been that the company doing the packaging for the DVD I bought didn't translate the tile at all, they probably tried to use the cover picture to figure out the translation and got it totally wrong.

As usual, Jackie Chan is a master at injecting a little comedy into an otherwise, serious story. He also does all of his own stunts and often there is an out takes section at the end of his film showing, not only forgotten lines and such, but some ways his stunts have gone terribly wrong. He often pushes the limit of human capability with his stunts and pays for it with injuries. However, the final result makes you wonder if he used camera tricks to do it but no, he doesn't do camera tricks to make himself look almost superhuman, it comes naturally.

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.)

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.

Jackie (or Jacky) has far more spark in this film than in most of his Lo Wei productions. No, he's not completely unleashed into the full fledged Jackie yet, but you can definitely tell that he gave this 110%.

It's just a perfect little Shaolin Temple revenge story with a simple enough plot that anyone should be able to get behind. Unfortunately it appears the reviews here don't reflect this. I'm sure Jackie's later successes altering audience expectations have much to do with this. But if that's the case then you'd be approaching it all wrong.

In any case, this should be seen in the proper 2.35:1 aspect ratio (like every Kung fu film from this era) in order to appreciate it for what it truly is... a minor early masterpiece of the worlds most recognized film star.

Suffering from the same flaws as Jackie's Dragon Fist, Shaolin Wooden Men only succeeds in wasting the viewer's time. All the fight scenes were terrible except for the fight against the titular puppets. I give this one star more than Dragon Fist due to the mystery aspect. Jackie is my favorite actor but this movie sucks.

I suppose that the 1976 martial arts movie titled "Shaolin Wooden Men" (aka Shao Lin mu ren xiang") was a great movie back in the day when it was newly released. But sitting down to watch it for the first time in 2021, I have to say that the movie wasn't all that great.

Of course I sat down to watch the 1976 movie because I am a fan of Jackie Chan and never had the chance to watch "Shaolin Wooden Men" before now in 2021.

Sure, "Shaolin Wooden Men" was watchable, but it was held back by a lack of proper storyline. It was essentially just a movie that consisted of 90% fighting and very little effort put into constructing a wholehearted storyline.

And for a Jackie Chan movie then it wasn't outstanding. Sure, he was new and up and coming back then, but this was not among his best of performances, neither in terms of martial arts, stunts or acting performances.

Some of the scenes in the movie were interesting and nicely executed, don't get me wrong. But the movie was just suffering from an interior storyline which proved to be rather thin and weak.

It should be said that most of the fight scenes throughout the course of "Shaolin Wooden Men" weren't really all that nicely performed. They were just too obviously staged and delivered in a manner that screamed 1-2-3, moves set up to be formed in a specific order. The fight scenes just didn't have that usual natural flow to them that Jackie Chan is known for. The scene with the wooden men, though, was actually quite impressive - stupid and silly, but impressive.

"Shaolin Wooden Men" is a movie for the diehard fans of Jackie Chan. If you sit down to watch it because it is a martial arts movie, then chances are you will be left sorely disappointed.

My rating of writer Hsin Chin and director Chi-Hwa Chen's 1976 movie lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

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!!)

Worth watching for the fight scenes. No one expects Shakespere from a martial arts movie. You just go along for the ride. Eat tgevpop corn. Slurp he beer. Here we see a young Jacky Chan coming from his experience in Chinese opera transitioning to physical genius. Watching Chan is like watching the best of modern dance. In the first seven minutes of the film you get modern dance in the Shan Lin form. Amazing choreography. Also surprisingly well filmed. Get rid of most of the film and you get a short form indie production. The total movie would rate a six. However, the Chan fight scenes need ten.