Shaolin et les 18 hommes de bronze

The ever reliable Joseph Kuo gives us one of the most iconic and trend setting kung fu films in the shape of The 18 Bronzemen, the film that thrust star Carter Wong into leading man status and sits comfortably along side the likes of the 36th Chamber series as a Shaolin themed classic!

18 Bronzemen is one film I would love to see cleaned up and 4K restored in widescreen. I'm a huge fan of director Joseph Kuo. His film career spanned almost 60 films as a director, most of which where very well received and most of which were highly entertaining. 18 Bronzemen is definitely one of his best, and of course most famous - but its not just because of the shiny men in gold. The film is actually very well made.

From the acting to the cinematography, the sets to the nicely choreographed fight scenes, this little gem is a kung fu classic in every sense. In the same year Lo Wei had released 4 Jackie Chan movies, even competing against the Bronzemen with his own version - Shaolin Wooden Men. The mighty Shaw Studios were also dishing out hit after hit of course, so any film from a smaller more independent studio releasing films at this period, certainly had their work cut out for them!

While the awesome 36th Chamber trilogy carried a lot of comedy throughout, the Bronzemen trilogy is a must more serious matter. Running with a similar storyline of Manchurian villains and revenge, there is a fair amount of drama driving the film forward - along with great training and fight scenes of course. But it isn't done in a cheesy way unlike many other kung fu films from that era, it is in fact, very well acted.

Even the original English dub respects it enough not to throw in some stupid sounding voice-actors!

By the halfway point you feel you have already sat through a full film (in a positive way) having had so much happen, but it is at this mark our heroes ( Wong and Tien) get to leave Shaolin and their intensive training to continue their story. Around the hour mark, we get introduced to the fantastic Polly Shang Kwan who helps bring a little more energy to the last 30-40 minutes and at the same time adding to the story.

The film ends in a great climatic battle as Wong, Tien and Kwan put a stop to the bad guys and the film comes to an end with a montage of the friends time together. Classic cliché...

Overall: Well produced, full of emotion, kung fu and great cinematography, this is one of Kuo's finest moments!

After having made kung-fu films for nearly a decade, Joseph Kuo at last received international attention with the release of The Mystery of chess Boxing (made famous by the Wu Tang Clan, one of whom adopted the name of the film's villain, Ghost Face Killer). I've always thought this unfortunate, first because Chess Boxing is clearly derivative of the Jackiee Chan film Snake in Eagle's Shadow (which is much better paced), and secondly because Kuo was close to the closure of his Chop-socky period and only had one more great film in him, Shaolin Temple (AKA Shaolin Temple Strikes Back).

At any rate, 18 bronzemen is without question Kuo's real masterpiece. Well-produced, lovingly photographed in a manner to pay homage to the golden era of Shaw bros. studios of the 1960s; the MeiAh DVD appears to be a mint condition restoration of the original film - it is really beautiful to look at.

This is, indeed, one of those films that demands the audience think hard before dismissing any genre movie, just because it is a genre movie. (Another example from a different genre is John Ford's Stagecoach.) Yes, the story is of your "typical" historically-oriented kung-fu flick of the 1970s. But everyone connected to the film has dedicated enormous amounts of effort to bring together a vision of this martial-arts universe that makes it not only believable, but sensually pleasing and intellectually stimulating as well. Of course we're not talking about grand drama - but film is an art of motion, and a visually beautiful film doesn't necessarily need grand drama.

However, those dramatically inclined should be aware that the actors in this film are really giving us their best - This is certainly Carter Wong's finest performance, and it may be Tien Peng's as well. The reason for such commitment is clear - the film's story carries a theme of loyalty and courage which the Chinese value very highly.

The long training sequences at the beginning of the film (which are among the best on film) are actually reflective of this theme - Shaolin Temple has a very demanding martial arts program, demanding full commitment. Dedication to training is a loyalty as well, and the film is quite clear on that point.

I suppose those unwilling to give any genre film (or at least any kung-fu film) a viewing with an open mind should be warned away. Otherwisedon't hesitate to view this film given the opportunity. And if you do find the dubbed American release out on VHS during the 1980s, be aware that the Amereican dub version is badly panned-and-scanned, using a an old runny-color print for transfer, and that a good 10 minutes of the film were hacked off (to no purpose that I can tell), leaving the plotting difficult to follow at times. But even that version can leave a positive impression of the main line of the story, the acting, and the performance of the martial-arts.

One last word: The film utilizes two child-actors at the beginning of the film; these are among the very few child-actors that I can watch without disappointment or disgust. (My sense is that this is actually due to Kuo's direction.) Bottomline: Classic of its genre - and maybe a little more.

18 Bronze Men is a film of two halves. The first half is, to put it simply, spectacular. The second half is, to be frank, agonisingly dull. If the film had continued in the vein of the first half it would have been a top film. If the first half had been like the second half it would have been appalling. As it is, the two halves cancel each other out to make 18 Bronze Men a pretty much middling movie, worth watching for fans of the concept but not something to really go out of your way to see. Basically the plot involves an orphaned child who is sent to some kind of weird martial arts monastery. The only way people can leave this place is to become so highly skilled in the martial arts that they can pass a series of deadly tests before they can pass through the door. Said tests take up the entire first half of the movie.

As the title would suggest, during these tests the boy (now a young man played by Tien Pens, accompanied by pal Carter Wong) must battle with a series of colourful and crazy Bronze Men. Some of the men are just naked guys covered in gold paint, others go the whole hog and have really bizarre, almost robotic-like looking gold plated armour complete with faces that make them look like Buddha. As well as these tough dudes, the passages and chambers of the temple in which the action takes place are full of spikes that fly out of statues, heavy doors that must be lifted, flaming "dragon" pots and more booby traps than Indiana Jones could ever hope to handle. The kung-fu action as the two heroes attempt to pass the Bronze Men makes for a truly unique viewing experience (at least until the sequels and rip-offs followed) which is a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, as soon as these guys do manage to escape, the film goes downhill. It turns into a run-of-the-mill revenge drama with a serious lack of decent action, at least until the breathtaking three-on-one fight in an old quarry at the end which comes as too little, too late. A woman appears who disguises herself as a man by hiding her long hair, thus deceiving all and sundry although her voice is still high-pitched and her face is unmistakably female! Those gullible Chinese folk, I don't know. Meanwhile the subtitles on the version I saw were often misspelt or simply wrong, which is kind of amusing but not really.

Tien Pens isn't to fault as the hero, creating a quite likable persona and proving himself in the action stakes without being really spectacular like some of his counterparts. Meanwhile the shaven-headed Carter Wong is probably the hardest-looking and toughest guy in the film, although sadly his is but a supporting role. The bad guys (sometimes dressed as ninjas) are a clichéd bunch and not very interesting either. 18 BRONZE MEN proved to be quite a disappointment in my mind, as aside from the fighting with the Bronze Men (for which it gets that extra star alone) it doesn't really offer much apart from a very old, tired plot and some routine action. However, the film proved to be so popular that a sequel was hastily cobbled together and released in the same year!

THE 18 BRONZEMEN is a celebrated 1976 kung fu film from the prolific hand of producer/director Joseph Kuo who operated in Taiwan in the 1970s. It stars Carter Wong, Tien Peng, and Polly Shang Kwan in a tale of Shaolin training, lifelong friendship, and a mission of revenge during the early days of the Qing Dynasty. The uneven plot structure suffers from the lack of a suitable payoff at the end after the powerful setup of the film's stunning first half. Also, the presence of three strong heroes is not matched by any villain formidable enough to provide a satisfying final battle.

The first section follows two dedicated Shaolin students through rigorous training, leading up to a sequence of challenges posed by the Bronze Men of the title whose function is to test the combat skills of the students in order to graduate them from Shaolin. This sequence is a fanciful addition to Shaolin cinematic lore and would be repeated in different variations in Kuo's later Shaolin films. (The Bronze Men include men in head-to-toe robotic outfits, more gold than bronze, and men whose skin is painted gold who fight with swords, sticks and kung fu.)

During their travels, the two friends, Carter Wong and Tien Peng, are joined by a female fighter who was betrothed to Tien Peng as a child and is played by Polly Shang Kwan. The scenes which introduce her are clever and funny and feature her dressed as a man who deliberately pesters Tien until the opportune time to reveal her identity. Eventually, after various attempts on Tien's life and the revelation of his family background, the stage is set for a final confrontation with Hei Chu Ying, the traitor who had Tien's father killed.

The fight choreography is less robust than it should be and, of the three leads, only Carter comes off as a powerful fighter. Polly is energetic and offers a strong, engaging presence, but her kung fu relies as much on superhuman (trampoline-assisted) leaps as it does on kicks. Tien Peng is a polished male lead and a good actor but he's not the fighter Carter is. The actor who plays the chief villain is never seen in combat until the very end, so is never presented as much of a fighting threat to the heroes.

The photography and production design are visually impressive and well above average for this kind of film. There is an original Chinese music score, even in the U.S. English-dubbed version.

I watched both the English dub and the Hong Kong import DVD for this review. The HK version is completely reedited and includes footage from EIGHT MASTERS (aka 18 BRONZEMEN 3) and another, unrelated Kuo film, UNBEATEN 28. It also shortens scenes showcasing Polly Shang Kwan and Tien Peng and plays up Carter Wong's role. I actually found the English dub, despite being available only on full-frame VHS, the more effective version.

This film was followed by various follow-ups that were not exactly sequels, but more like variations on a theme. These included RETURN OF THE EIGHTEEN BRONZEMEN (aka 18 BRONZEMEN 2), BLAZING TEMPLE, and, arguably the best of the group, EIGHT MASTERS, all of which are also reviewed on this site.

Walking through my local DVD shop I wasn't intending to buy anything and definitely not something I had never heard of before but I saw this for real cheap so I picked it up. I just wanted something different to watch and review for my website. I don't regret purchasing and watching this film. Besides my mate that watched it with me I can safely say that out of everybody I know I am the only person who has seen this movie. So onto reviewing The 18 Bronzemen: Part 1.

The story in itself is quite confusing and most of it does not get explained until towards the end but I'll try my best. So there is a government known as the Ching government and they decide to kill anybody that supports this guy called Ming. A baby (later called Shao Lung) is rescued and brought to the Ming friendly Shaolin Temple where he is brought up in the art of kung fu to exact revenge upon his family. At the same time another child is taken to the Temple and the two grow extremely close. After many hardships they two enter the "line of 18 bronzemen" which is the final task to graduate from the Temple. Here they fight men literally made from bronze. If they fail they die. After failing the first time and helping each other to escape they try again and succeed. Shao Lung then decides to track down the evil tyrannical ruler to avenge his family.

The movie was directed by Joseph Kuo and starred Peng Tien as Shao Lung and Carter Wong as Brother Wan (the kid that was sent at the same time as Shao Lung). The movie even has a decent twist which took me by surprise. A complete laughable part however is when a woman is apparently disguised as a man and everybody thinks she is (but it is clearly obvious it is a woman).

So despite its flaws, most likely because of being something that is completely different to me, I found this to be an enjoyable movie. This is a hard movie to recommend as it would have a fine niche market but hey, if you find yourself bored, why not? I look forward to watching part two.

originally posted on my blog www.comikkazee.com