Shi ba yu luo han

Yet another numbered kung-fu film, following such numbered epics such as the classic "Five Deadly Venoms", or even "Five Fingers Of Death". This leads me to believe that Eighteen Jade Arhats was named as such only to capitalize on the fact above. These arhats (there's eighteen of them...) are jade figures that give some special powers pertaining to kung-fu techniques. The only mention of them is in the last third of the film! Maybe something is lost in the translation. But we can also look at the fact that instead of using these eighteen arhats to an advantage plot-wise (i.e. having eighteen different people possess a single arhat and one man fighting to get them all), the movie splits them down the middle, one person has nine, and another has nine. Could have called it the TWO Jade Arhats as far as I'm concerned.

The lack of Arhat involvement is my only complaint. It's yer basic kung-fu flick. An elder is killed, and one man has to track down the killer, along the way he meets a woman and they both use kung-fu to kick the hell out of everyone who they think did the killing. Same old, but I don't think any other way in kung-fu movies would work, now would it? If "Five Deadly Venoms" is gone, and Bruce Lee is on a vacation from your video store shelf, you can give this one a shot. Not the best...but follows the perfected techniques.