Shao Lin Si shi ba tong ren

Plot synopsis:
The much-reviled Qing government decide to eradicate any opposition to their rulership by attacking pro-Ming families in the kingdom. One such attack sees an influential official killed, though his wife and son manage to escape thanks to the intervention of a close ally. While on the run, the son, Shaolung, is aided by his father's close friend (Jack Long) who teaches the young boy the basics of kung-fu. As time passes, the renegades must once again move on and evade capture by the Qing army. However, it is decided that the safest place for Shaolung to hide would be in the Ming-friendly Shaolin Temple where he could also further his knowledge of kung-fu. Once there, the boy finds the severe, disciplined lifestyle hard to cope with and, despite his best efforts, he lags behind his fellow pupils. Over time he does make a couple of close friends and it is their encouragement that drives him to reach his goals. Now a young man, Shaolung (Tien Peng) gradually develops into a formidable fighter and concentrates his sights on leaving Shaolin to avenge his father's death. However, to 'graduate' from Shaolin means to defeat the Shaolin bronzemen and a series of similarly fiendish tests. The first attempt to conquer these trials is unsuccessful, but Shaolung is spurred on by his straight-talking friend (Wong) and finally leaves through Shaolin's hallowed gates after a final tremendous effort. Once through the dreaded chambers, the Shaolin disciples will have the Shaolin crest of the dragon and tiger burnt into their forearms by lifting a huge bronze pot. Outside, our heroes meet up with more patriots. Shao Lung meets his uncle who tells him the true story of his past and gives him half of a royal seal, the other half belonging to his (unknown) future wife. Once on his journey again his constantly stalked by a young "man" (actually a woman in disguise), Miss Lu. After defending him from an assassination attempt, Miss Lu constantly claims how Shao Lung owes her his life, though he is still under the impression she is still a man (a typical recurring plot device in some martial arts films though it is obvious it is a woman). After another failed attempt at Shao Lung, he manages to come across Miss Lu’s half of the royal seal thus revealing she is a woman and also his wife-to-be. Shao Lung and Miss Lu meet up with Brother Wan, and in turn they meet with Brother Ta-Chi who managed to beat the Bronzemen and leave Shaolin. Ta-Chi is a mole who was placed in Shaolin by the Qings to learn kung fu and eventually kill Shao Lung. Shao Lung and Brother Wan manage to kill their former brother in self-defense,and with Miss Lu, move on to kill the Manchu general.

Tags: revenge, violence

Review:
Carter Wong and the Shaolin Monks fight THE 18 BRONZEMEN.
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.
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.
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.
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.
With the help of a good friend, an orphan becomes a Shaolin master after many years of training.
The most interesting bit is the training, though, when he needs to stand against 18 bronze men!
The villain needs to be mentioned; he has several bodyguards dressing just like him to confuse his enemies.The difference in running time between the German version (77 minutes) and the Hong Kong version (93 minutes) is mostly due to a different beginning of the movie.
The rather cruel early years of the boy's training were added to the Hong Kong version, although that footage was shot for "The 8 Masters" by the same director..
18 Bronze Men is a film of two halves.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
18 Bronzemen is something of a paradox in that it typifies so many of the weaknesses of the Hong Kong chop-socky genre of the 70s, and yet stands head and shoulders above most of its contemporaries.
While there is more than enough kung-fu action to keep the most avid fan happy, there is also an entertaining story (in the first half, anyway) and an attempt at some character development beyond the usual boy-becomes-a-man-by-facing-adversity-and-beating-up-lots-of-people variety.Ting Peng plays Shao Lung (which sounds like an ad for a table-tennis match), the son of a high-ranking Ming official brought to a Shaolin temple by his granny after his father has been murdered by the wicked General Kwan (Chang Li).
As he grows into a young man, Shao Lung undergoes the rigorous training of the shaolin monks (who seem to be holding some kind of eyebrow-growing competition) in preparation for his confrontation with the eponymous bronzemen that he must undertake if he is to earn his stripes and leave the temple.
Having successfully passed the tests, Shao Lung and his friend, Brother Wan (Carter Wong), head off into the wide world to avenge the deaths of Shao Lun's mother and father.18 Bronzemen is really two different movies in one; the first, in which Shao Lung overcomes his apparent limitations to hold his own against the bronzemen, is hugely entertaining, but the second, during which the two friends hook up with Miss Lu (Polly Shang Kuan), drags very badly until the climactic fight which, while undeniably entertaining, is rather sloppily mounted.
One of the near-constant aspects of this movie genre is the unintentional comedic elements that, while initially amusing, quickly become an irritation; 18 Bronzemen contains them all  extremely dodgy translation and dubbing, amateurish acting (both voice and action); laughable sound effects (each fighter's movement is accompanied by a sound effect that resembles a heavy chest of drawers being dragged across a concrete floor)  but the quality of its fight scenes, together with a reasonable storyline, allow the viewer to overlook its more common failings.
And the fight scenes  especially those featuring the human bronzemen (some of them are sort of crude animated robots that resemble that little one in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century  but about thirty years older and eighteen stone heavier)  are pretty damn cool, even if a lot of the bronzemen do look like the Tango man painted gold instead of orange.
At least in this movie we don't have to put up with half-a dozen villainous henchman surrounding the hero as they patiently await their turn to step forward and be savagely beaten  here they all pile in at the same time.Unfortunately the pace begins to flag the moment the two boys leave the temple and run into Miss Lu. Upon meeting her, Shao Lung and Wan are supposedly fooled by Miss Lu's 'disguise' into believing she is a man  which must have something to do with their monastic upbringing because a blind man with no hands would make her as a woman in an instant: mascara, rouge, plucked eyebrows, high-pitched voice, lumpy chest  they're all a bit of a giveaway.
Kuan's character adds nothing at all to the plot of the story, slowing it to a crawl as she proceeds to annoy both the heroes and the audience  and even her romance with Shao Lung, which is presumably the reason for her inclusion, is barely touched upon.
Nevertheless, things pick up for the film's climax, and it's always refreshing to find a movie that refuses to take itself seriously but which still manages to establish its own character and, for the most part, entertain you into the bargain..
Unfortunately I could only get my hands on the cropped 4:3 release which really ruins the composition of every shot and makes the fight scenes nearly incomprehensible.
The fights against Bronzemen are like the final exam for our protagonist and are intercut with training sequences.
I was always looking forward for the next scene with the Bronzemen.
I mean, this is basically the title of the whole movie so there have to be more scenes with them, right?
with the Bronzemen the protagonist leaves the temple behind and the whole ordeal is never mentioned again.
Focus on the training in the temple and the quest of beating the Bronzemen.
MUCH better movie just like that.
Carter Wong and co take on the multi-chambered labyrinth of the 18 bronze men.
As a young orphan, Shao Lung was raised in a Shaolin Temple after his grandmother abandons him there, fearing that an evil General will kill him after killing Lung's father.Lung spends countless years perfecting his kung fu in order to gain revenge against the cruel General.
As he reaches adulthood, Shao Lung decides he must leave the temple to discover the truth about his past and get revenge.But in order to do this he must he must pass the Shaolin monks most sternest test; the 18 Bronzemen.The 18 bronze men is a collection of fighters, some of them wearing super thick armour which make them look like robots, others painted in Bronze/Gold paint and fight in different styles within a multi-chambered labyrinth filled with a mixture of deadly traps and deadly fighters.Once Shao Lung passes the tests (with Carter Wong in exceptional form), the film becomes less entertaining and incredibly boring.Whilst Tin Peng (Shao Lung) is cast as the leading man, it's clear that Carter Wong is the main man and out-acts, outperforms and outfights Tin Peng at every turn.
Indeed, Wong is enjoyable as the star pupil of the Shaolin monastery, barking insults and pushing students to their limit and beyond.After Shao Lung and Tai Chung are out in the real world there's no more bronze action  instead we have the discovery that Shao Lung is in fact the son of a Ming general who was slaughtered by Fei-Lung's evil Ching General (realised in a blistering swordplay flashback).There's also a poorly developed love interest in the pretty form of Polly Shang Kwan.
Polly gets to do some kung fu, and seems to be blessed with an amazing leaping ability.In addition to this, there is a good sub-plot of a mole within the Shaolin monastery; who feeds the Evil Ching general with information - especially the styles of kung fu that the 18 bronze men use as well a super secret kung fu found by Shao Lung in a book.When the mole is uncovered to be Lung's childhood best friend, he is aghast and demands to know why his best friend betrayed him -- then comes the most convoluted twist of the movie; the best friend explains that he is the child of a high-ranking Ching soldier and gave an oath to his father, and presumably the Ching empire, that he would kill the child who showed the most zeal for destroying the Ching empire (ie: Lung).Adding to the twist, Carter Wong explains that he was raised by a bodyguard who saved Lung's father and Wong, like the mole, gave an oath to protect Lung until he got revenge.This plot twist I found to be confusing, it seemed like Lung's destiny was to remove the General from power; sorta like Luke Skywalker.
Maybe the scriptwriters wanted to portray Lung as a Prodigal Son -- it didn't really work out.The end has an excellent, climatic four-way showdown with the Evil Ching General (and, for some reason, his many clones); who has learnt the skills of the Shaolin monks and constantly changes his style until Carter sacrifices himself, leaving the General open to be killed.The 18 Bronzemen has impressive production values and looks pretty expensive in places, and although the outcome is never in much doubt, the climatic four-way showdown is well-staged by Kuo.My issue with this movie is that that 18 bronze men do not offer any real threat to the heroes in this movie.
They should have been the personal bodyguards of the Ching General, or at least try to kill the heroes; too many times you hear a voice boom "PASS!" as the Bronzemen stop fighting and let the heroes move to the next room.Although a reasonable fun film, this 70's kung fu movie lacks real danger and wasn't the classic all-out kung fu movie I was lead to believe.Overall: 4/10.
Underrated Gem From Kuo. While not perfect I find this to be a highly entertaining film with excellent performances by the four main characters.
Some complained of bad acting(Uh yeah and Jackie Chan can act?),bad dubs(watch the subbed version) and poor effects.
The subbed version I watched I got a while back and watching it for the second time my only critique is the Shaolin set (model lol)and the ending was little kooky(Doubles of the Villain everywhere ha.) it still delivered however at the very end.
The story of three friends in Shaolin all sent there by their fathers for different reasons is one of the best I can remember in any Martial Arts flick.a young Carter Wong is fantastic as the serious Big brother.All I can say is I wish more Martial Arts movies were as well made as this one.