Shi ba ban wu yi

There is a very old saying which goes something like: "Dont judge a book by it's cover." I suppose we could say, in the case of 18 Weapons, "Dont judge a movie by it's title."

Despite being titled 18 Weapons of Kung Fu, there is very little weaponry shown. which is pure GENIUS if you ask me. I mean, look at the movie 12 Monkeys. No surprise about the number of monkeys contained. But 18 Weapons goes and steers into the other direction, not into the realm of campy fighting movies, but into art. Thats what it is. Pure art.

And while some men may prefer to watch pornography with "American" girls, I get off on 18 Weapons, and that Asian chick with the armpit hair. I forget her name, but thats not important right now. What is important is the message. Those who complain about the choppy editing aren't understanding the SYMBOLIC meaning of 18 Weapons, which is that no good comes from fighting....Also not to socialize with women you meet while bathing in the river.

I'm done. THE END.

This is the ultimate Kung Fu movie! This is the only Kung Fu movie! This is the only Kung Fu movie I have ever seen! I am giving this movie way too much credit! My best guess for the reason for making this movie is that someone wanted to show off someone else's martial arts abilities, but realized that you can't just film a guy fighting another guy and have people watch it, so he put a story behind the fighting... and people still didn't watch it.

This movie's story line was onion skin thin. That acting was goofy and stereotypical of any Kung Fu movie. The dubbing was literally the worst I have ever heard. It seemed if you played a small role in this movie, like the fat guy or the two guys trying to catch the main character with a net, it didn't matter who over did your voice. It could have been a dyslexic with a slurred stutter and nobody would have said anything. But beside all of this, the movie makes up for itself with the somewhat awesome fight scenes.

The fight scenes were definitely what this movie was all about. But the instigations of the fights were totally absurd! On most all instances, a guy either pops out of the tall grass, or glances at the main character from a distance, and then attacks him. But once the fighting started, things sort of balanced out. There were only two things that really hampered the fighting, though. Those constant "wooshing" sound effects that were added to every swing of a fist or foot or sword, and the poor editing that made 25 percent of the fighting VERY jumpy and choppy. Someone would be in the middle of a back flip and then suddenly be on the ground being kicked, and then instantly be back on their feet blocking a punch. But while the cut and paste editing was more of a nuisance than anything else, it didn't really affect the overall movie.

In the end, this was not a great movie, but I wasn't expecting a great movie. A great movie is not something you should expect when you see a box cover like this movie's. All I saw this movie as was a way to pass an hour and a half of boredom. I rarely say that, but this was just one of those movies you have no practical use for, so you watch it whenever you have some free time. Enjoy the movie if you decide to watch it! Good day gentlemen.

-Scott-

I have a friend that works at blockbuster, and he gets 5 free movie rentals a week, so one day as we were scouring the aisles for something interesting, i stumbled across 18 Weapons of Kung Fu, and judging by the box alone, this movie seemed pretty wack, but nonetheless we gave into temptation and rented it -- afterall, it was free.....and thank god it was....this is by far THE WORST movie i have ever seen....the budget must have been a pickle and a piece of string...the plot was ridiculous, the only mention of the "18 weapons" is that there is some book that teaches the ways of the 18 weapons that some bad guy is after -- and thats it! there isnt even any weapon fighting in this movie...that and the action sequences are just flat-out BAD....9 times out of 10 the other guy's punches and kicks come about a foot away from landing on the other guy's, and there are MANY times when the the movie will skip frames (a result of ridiculously poor editing)....the dubbing is as well laughable, and it is hardly even understandable....and we wont even get into the acting...the ending will definitely leave you saying "wtf??", however to be fair i must mention that the fighting techniques used by the actors were somewhat decent, and the old guy is a mad chump....but thats about it...thankfully i didnt have to pay for this movie, but i guess at least now i know exactly how bad a movie can actually be....

one day my friends came up to me and said "we went to blockbuster and decided to rent the most terrible looking movie we could find" so they show me that they had rented 18 weapons of kung fu...i didnt really know what to say other than "POP DAT IN THA VCR AND ROLL THIS PIECE" and it was the most terrible thing ive ever seen ...but i loved every minute of it....the magic and joy that it filled me with was like no other...i don't think there was a story behind it really....the little boy who kept squealing "GRANDPA!!! GRANDPA!!!!" distracted me from everything...me and my friends have actually never laughed harder in our lives....the editing is terrible the audio dubbing is terrible the plot, character developement, and everything else you could want in a movie DID NOT EXIST in this movie....i think this movie was just 4 guys who knew kung fu decided to get together and make a movie with awesome kung fu fighting in it...i mean the fighting was cool but the fight scenes lasted 15 minutes each and there was like 12 of them even though it was only like an hour and a half movie...i dont really know how that works but they pulled it off and for that reason i give this movie a 10/10~as lizzie mcguire would say...."THIS IS WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF".... i love it!

Firstly this has nothing to do with the much better 18 weapons of Kung Fu starring Gordon Liu. I mention this as my Kung Fu Theater presents DVD has a totally misleading picture on the cover, the wrong plot on the back and goes on to mention (no idea why) The Young Hero starring Hwang Jang Lee. Apart from an introduction to the history of the 18 weapons style told by a monk to some children during the opening and the usual mysterious manual that everyone is after, the weapons never really appear again and the fights are all boxing style. The hero is Lee Shao Hwa who I have never heard of before or any of the other actors. The film mentions another director Wu Yuen Ling as well as the one IMDb lists. The other actors are Wang Fu Quen, Wang Wing San, Chen Fei Fei, Wang Ki San, Suen King Kai and Hwa Yue Suen who seem to have sunk without trace after this film. The fights are reasonable and frequent but not great and the 'star' doesn't have much charisma. The twist at the end is just stupid and the film seems to end abruptly as though they got bored with it. The scenery and the training sequences in the river are a little different from usual. Unfortunately the pretty sister gets drowned not the very irritating (though acrobatic) young boy.