Customer Reviews

Shaolin Wooden Men [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shaolin Wooden Men is my most favorite of Jackie Chan's early films. However, in my opinion the new Columbia/Tristar DVD version is such a terrible print of the film that I regret buying it. The entire upper 60% of the screen has a horrible pea green cast to it, making everyone look seasick. The contrast has been increased, presumably to 'remove' scratches, but this has darkened so much of the film that you can no longer see any detail in the woodwork of buildings, the shadows of trees, people's hair and faces, etc.

The worst part is this print is missing over 9 and a half minutes of opening footage that showed Jackie demonstrating the five Kung Fu disciplines used in the movie, as well as his first encounter with the wooden men, the opening overture and introductory scenes of Shaolin life.

The one redeeming thing about the Columbia/Tristar DVD version is that it is indeed true letterbox. As such you can truly see the full layout of the film as originally intended. The sound quality is also quite good, considering the age of the film. But despite, this is still the only instance where I've ever preferred a Beverly Wilshire/Telefilms DVD version of a Jackie Chan film (fullscreen, scratches, video artifacts and all) to a remastered Columbia/Tristar DVD version. I am disappointed.

This movie, in my opinion, is Jackie's greatest. He plays "Little Mute", a boy training in kung fu at the shaolin monastery who is tormented by the witnessing of his father's death. Jackie is given a hard time by his fellow students and is ocassionally punished by his teacher for slacking off. Soon after his punishment, Jackie meets the Drunken Monk who teaches him a few drunken kung fu techniques. He then meets a prisoner who agrees to teach him the 'Lion's Roar" technique if he brings him food each day. After nearly mastering the prisoners kung fu he is taught by a nun who practices the "Gliding Snake" kung fu. In result of all his hard work, Jackie is sent on a mission to fight the famous "Wooden Men" and deliver a message. Little does he know that the prisoner has returned to his life of crime and is the true murderer of Little Mute's father
This is without a doubt,Jackie Chan's greatest kung fu movie. If you are used to his kung fu comedies, then most likely you would not enjoy it. There is hardly any comedy at all and is filled with nonstop fighting and training sequences. It offers a typical avenging death plot with plenty of action that would sure to please any serious old fashioned kung fu movie fan.

P.S.-Don't buy the Columbia/Tristar version of the film which cuts out the first 10 minutes of the film. It contains a nonstop fighting demonstration and the opening credits.

For the true Kung Fu fan, nothing makes a movie like great fight scenes, a secret fighting style, and cheesy dubbed dialogue. This movie has it all. With lines like: "..your kung fu is poor. You better go back and practice some more.", you can't go wrong.

Jackie Chan is great, as always. But the villian, Phat U: Master of the Lion's Roar Technique, makes the whole movie.

Do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

I agree with the other reviewers who said the Columbia-Tristar veriosn cuts out so many good moments (what WERE they thinking!?!?!)! I have the English dubbed version, and it's pretty good - I'd recommend it to all kung-fu movie-philes (and especially Chan-o-philes!). The athletics are superb, although the film quality is not top-notch (it is, however, orders of magnitutde better than the "pea-green" situation with the Columbia release!!!!!!). it IS one to enjoy!

Jackie plays a young man who has vowed not to speak until he avenges the death of his father. In order to learn kung fu he goes to the Shaolin Temple where he finds work as a handyman. After some time the master takes pity on Jackie and starts to him on martial arts. But for a student to leave he must pass the ultimate test of the Wooden Men.

Shaolin Wooden Men is one of Jackie's best movies ever. Second only to Drunken Master 1 & 2, Snake in the eagle's shadow and snake and crane. This movie has some great pue kung-fu. And has all the makings of a great old school kung-fu movie. Also has one of the best lines in kung-fu history "Your kung-fu is poor, you should go back there and practice some more" CLASSIC!

The story line is simple but good and the final fight scene is brilliant. This one is out of print and hard to find on dvd, but if you come across it don't hesitate to pick it up. Pure genious.
4 1/2 stars!!!

You'll poke your own eyes out when the secrets of this kung fu adventure are revealed. Snakesteps! The Lion's roar! and the Wooden Men of Shaolin! Our hero Jackie Chan will master Shaolin kung fu but the real danger lies outside the walls of the temple!

Devilmonk

I was very surprised at how much I liked this movie! (But then I am a Jackie fanatic) This is one of those old period Kung-Fu films, and it takes place in a lovely Shaolin monastary--the scenery is really beautiful. Jackie plays a likable mute who has flashbacks of his father's murder, and is studying martial arts in order to avenge his death (isn't this the plot of ALL these old king-fu movies?) This movie wavers between a pretty good story and some really hilariously BAD movie making (the villain always announces his entrance with a maniacal HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!! from somewhere off-camera, and those "Wooden Men" are people in dumb-looking wooden robot costumes). But there are some good fight scenes, and Jackie is charismatic, as always. Compared to his other 70's movies, this one is pretty enjoyable.

SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN (a/k/a SHAOLIN WOODEN DUMMIES, original title SHAOLIN MU REN XIANG, 1976) was probably Jackie Chan's first film - I can't recall, just trust me that this is a fine 'old school' Chinese dramedy. Along with SPIRITUAL KUNG FU (vid. my review) this is the beginning of Jackie Chan's still-powerful career.

Jackie plays "the mute kid", a mute young man studying at Shao Lin to avenge the murder of his father. He is NOT interested in becoming a priest at this point, as many reviewers wrongly state. The kindly abbot takes an interest in him, though the others say "he's hopeless".

One day, after some training from the stereotypical alcoholic priest, Jackie's attention is caught by Sister Wu Mei, an old Shao Lin nun. She has seen him working very hard and decides she will train him in her personal, most powerful art, "The Ten Fists Eight Shadows". Kung fu, she tells him, is for health and strength. Lethal and maiming strikes are totally taboo.

Jackie decides to secretly care for a prisoner being held in the famous Shao Lin "Dungeon Caves" (former priest Fa Yu, played by the great Sihung Lung of PUSHING HANDS fame), who is being held by the abbot due to his dangerous fighting skill and evil crimes. This prisoner takes such a shine to "mute boy" that he promises to train him - he despises the priests for not really teaching their students. He despises the wooden dummy test even more. Of course unbeknownst to anyone, this prisoner Fa Yu is the man who killed Jackie's father.

When the nun sees Jackie practicing the lethal training, she calls him back to finally teach him what kung fu is really meant to be. Later when he attempts to (unconsciously) strike her with a lethal strike, she kicks his butt. She stops him and says, "No killing strikes!" She is the conscience of this film and I just love this character. The only other time I've ever seen a nun was in the film WING CHUN, and that was really a sort of joke of a cameo appearance. in SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN, Sister Wu Mei is based on the real nun who created Wing Chun.

Jackie passes the wooden dummy test, saves the monastery from the now-escaped Fa Yu, and becomes a true Shao Lin priest - you will be so thrilled just to watch this if you've never seen it. If you have seen it, I'll bet it's been at least a decade.

As with SPIRITUAL KUNG FU, this is an excellent family film. The lesson here is that it is not good to fight, seek revenge or hurt others, and it is all carried off beautifully by the understated performances.

It is also a direct communication about the corruption occurring in real life at Shao Lin. You will not be aware of this, but when the film was released, the remaining Shao Lin priests were in prison - serving what would be a 19-year imprisonment that only ended in 1984 with their release. As in the film, even while in prison, there was a functioning abbot of Shao Lin and a second-in-command. Upon their release in 1984, the old white-bearded elder, Shi Xing Zheng, became abbot. After his untimely death in 1985, his "number two", Shi Su Xi, became abbot.

SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN somehow presages this real-life fiasco, and understands the characters of the real priests who at the time were still in prison. I have a feeling the producers knew all about it, wanted the film to be a cry for help. Sadly, that was a cry that would go unheeded until the release of Jet Li's SHAOLIN TEMPLE (vid. my review).

Get this and keep it proudly in your DVD library. SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN was the beginning of a major new genre, and even though the quality of this print is atrocious, you'll see how this particular Chinese film started the 'new' martial arts film trend. Not only does it introduce us to Jackie Chan: you'll then see how this film was the first in a series of attempts to revive Shao Lin Monastery and get Buddhism back into people's lives.

In other words, it represents the birth of Chinese democracy. That and the Shao Lin storyline is why you must own this film. It is a wonderful reminder of a bygone era and a few bygone stars - but the True Spirit lives!

We are great watchers of Kung Fu films at our house, and for the longest time my husband raved about Shaolin Wooden Men but couldn't find a decent copy of it on DVD. So, when I saw a new, unopened version of it here, I snagged it. And I'm glad I did.

The version that I purchased was distributed by the Bonzai Media Corporation out of Taipei, rather than an American studio, and was completely uncut. It has the opening demonstration footage of the different Kung Fu styles and it does NOT have the funky green colorcast that some of the other reviews mention. In fact, when we finished watching it, my husband commented on how good the picture quality was.

Then, there's the movie. This is the Kung Fu film at its finest. I think a lot of people discredit Jackie Chan's abilities because he's in so many family friendly comedies. Those people need to watch this film to truly see what a martial arts genius he is. Beyond that, the story line is compelling and fits the classic Kung Fu mode (you killed my father/master). It avoids a lot of the visual tricks and sound effects used in other Kung Fu films at the time, and there's no insipid love story to get in the way of Jackie's mission. And the fight scene with the wooden men is just awesome.

The thing about this movie is that so many other films--martial arts and otherwise--make reference to it. After watching it, so many other movies I've seen simply made so much more sense! It would be untrue to say this is the "original" kung fu film, since so many came before it...but I don't think it would be a stretch to say that it is absolutely still one of the best.