Shao Lin mu ren xiang
Tags: revenge, violence

Plot synopsis:
Little Mute (Jackie Chan) is a new Shaolin student who is mute. He struggles to keep up with the other students and to complete the grueling tasks assigned to him by his instructor. He is haunted by the memory of his father's murder at the hands of a masked bandit who was skilled in martial arts.
One night, a drunken monk leads Little Mute to a secret cave behind a waterfall. A man is imprisoned there. Over time, Little Mute befriends the violent prisoner by bringing him food and wine that he steals from the monastery. He learns that the prisoner is a deadly martial artist who is developing a technique called the Lion’s Roar, which he will use to escape his captivity. Little Mute convinces the prisoner to train him. The prisoner's style aims to kill the opponent as fast as possible. A Shaolin nun sees Little Mute practicing these killing techniques. She tells him that martial arts are not for killing; rather, they are for self-development, with self-defense employed only when necessary and with minimal violence. She trains him in the Gliding Snake style, the ideals of which clash with those of the prisoner's killing style. Nevertheless, Little Mute continues to study both styles. Finally the prisoner judges that Little Mute is ready to attempt to pass the test of the Shaolin Wooden Men Alley, a narrow hallway containing thirty-six Shaolin Wooden Men, which are mechanical wooden dummies that attack anyone who enters the hallway. Little Mute successfully fights his way through the Wooden Men Alley.
Shortly after Little Mute's triumph, the prisoner perfects his Lion's Roar technique and uses it to escape. He resumes his former role as the leader of the infamous Green Dragon Gang, murdering the men who were responsible for his imprisonment. It is revealed that he was a Shaolin student who went renegade, and was then captured and imprisoned. The head abbot of Shaolin felt responsible for the student's misdeeds, so the abbot blinded himself and left the Shaolin Monastery to live as a hermit, appointing a new abbot in his place. However, he promised to help Shaolin in the future if it was needed.
Little Mute and the current head abbot of Shaolin seek out the hermit monk. The escaped prisoner has killed all those responsible for his imprisonment except the monks of Shaolin, and he is now on his way to destroy the monastery. The hermetic monk hands over a book containing the "ultimate" martial arts style, and Little Mute masters this style under the guidance of the current head abbot. When the escaped prisoner comes to destroy Shaolin, Little Mute stands ready to defend it against his former instructor. It is also revealed that the escaped prisoner was the murderer of Little Mute's father. Little Mute reveals that he is not mute, but he swore never to speak until he had found his father's killer.
Little Mute counters his opponent's killing techniques, since he knows all of them. He creates multiple openings, but fails to exploit them due to the Shaolin nun's teachings, which said never to kill his opponent. Despite this, he manages to win. He offers to spare his former instructor on the condition that he returns to Shaolin for the remainder of his life. The escaped prisoner says that he is beyond salvation, but that it makes him proud that his student has learned so well. However, he then makes a final attempt to kill Little Mute. He grabs Little Mute from behind and attempts to crush his throat, but Little Mute moves out of the way, and the villain's strike hits his own throat, causing him to kill himself. Deprived of its leader, the Green Dragon Gang flees.
Little Mute returns to the Shaolin monastery and is ordained as a monk.

Review: Kung Fu film "branches" out....
Under-rated film featuring a mute Jacky Chan who begins training at a Shaolin monastery.
This films best draw-card is it's plot.
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?.
Sal. 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!!).
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..
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.
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..
Good old school Jackie Chan movie.
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.
Witnessing his father getting murdered, by a masked kung fu artist.
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.
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 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..
This film is really good.
This film is really good.
This film has Jackie talking mostly at the end.
The film has Jackie training from two different teachers.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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 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.
So the best thing to do is look for a copy that has 106 minutes or over, is not cropped and is not R1..
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.
Even the hokey part fighting the wooden men (which easily could have failed) was done surprisingly well.
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.
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!
Early Jackie Chan.
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.
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..
Jackie Chan vehicle sorely devoid of action.
SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN is an early Jackie Chan film that marked only his second starring role after 1976's NEW FIST OF FURY.
SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN sees Jackie labouring under the control of producer Lo Wei while the film offers a plot of revenge and retribution that was done to death in '70s kung fu films.
The movie kicks off with a fight scene – always good for a martial arts flick.
It sees Jackie battling various monks who have been trained as animal masters.
The fights go on for a good while, and are well choreographed – in fact they're the best fights in the film.
It soon becomes clear why this scene – which has nothing to do with the rest of the movie – was added at the film's beginning; it's because there's no human fighting for the next hour.We're soon into the cheesy titles and then a dream sequence in which we get to see the wooden men of the title.
As the wooden men sequence only occupies a very small amount of screen time in the film itself, I guess the film-makers decided to put them in at the beginning as well to try and justify the title.
The story finally begins for real at the Shaolin Temple, as Jackie, playing a raw recruit, starts his work as a handyman for the monks – carrying water, chopping wood.
A bald drunk appears for the purposes of comic relief, but he fails to make much of an impact.One day, Jackie follows two of the monks into a cave and comes upon a prisoner who has been chained in the depths of a cave for a decade.
Jackie befriends the man, bringing him food and wine, and in repayment the prisoner trains him in the martial arts – the story going that Jackie isn't actually allowed to learn Shaolin techniques from the monks for another three years.
There's also a weird old woman who teaches Jackie the 'snake step' technique, which involves him climbing into an oil pit and skidding all over the place.
Finally Jackie is ready to fight the wooden men for real, and the result is an action scene that can only be described as cheesy: the wooden men are cumbersome, and it's not clear how they work – the chains that are supposed to move them are useless, and it's obvious that real men are inside the wooden costumes.
This scene is clearly ripped off from an earlier kung fu film called 18 BRONZEMEN, although nowhere near as effectively.This film sees Jackie saddled in a Bruce Lee-type role – he's even got the same haircut as the late kung fu master.
He's forced into doing some Bruce Lee style emoting at the film's climax, but for the rest of the film he's mute, a strong silent fighter in the Lee tradition.
It's clear that Jackie was uncomfortable acting in Bruce's shadow, and his character is a bit foolish – I never did figure out why he took the ten-year vow of silence after his father was murdered.
His character's habit of frantically bowing to everybody he meets is the funniest thing in the film.
It's a shame SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN is so devoid of action, because a martial arts film without fighting is like butter without bread – there's no point to it.
Director Chen Chi-Hwa experiments a little by skipping frames in places and overdoing the zoom technique in one scene, but it's clear throughout that Lo Wei, as producer, was calling the shots on this production, and that he was determined to produce a film in virtually the same style as a Bruce Lee movie, with Jackie standing in as a replacement for the late star..
Pretty nifty for one of Jackie's Kung-Fu cheapies, it has some pretty good fight scenes to keep you entertained.
(Partial credit to IMDb) Jackie witnesses the death of his father, at the hands of a merciless killer, who just happens to be a martial arts master.
Jackie vows to never speak again until he avenges the death of his Father, and become a Shaolin Monk.
They all teach him different aspects of Kung-Fu (Drunken, killing, slippery snake, and more) I wouldn't exactly call this movie great entertainment, but it does manage to entertain for the most part.
Right from the outset of the movie we are treated to rather lengthy fight sequences.
The Wooden Men thing is more than just a gimmick.
It acts as an insurmountable obstacle, no matter how great your Kung-Fu is.
I won't spoil it, but the one involving Jackie Chan & The Wooden Men is absolutely exhilarating!
I would consider it to be a fight sequence, essentially, and it's one of the greatest fight scenes I've ever witnessed in all my years of watching martial art films.
Jackie's ability to move out of the way of these things countless times, time and time again is incredible.
Jackie Chan has barely any dialog, as a matter of fact He doesn't speak until the very end of the film (!) He is a mute for most of the duration, to sell the death of his Father.
The big fight at the end is also very enthralling.
I wouldn't call this one of Jackie's best films, but its entertainment value is unequivocally high.
If you manage to find it, and you're a big Jackie Chan fan, I definitely recommend seeing this movie.
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.