Shaolin contra os 12 Homens de Aço

The narrative of "Shaolin Wooden Men" is divided into two neat halves: the first delineates the struggles of Jackie Chan's character (a mute orphan) at Shaolin Temple, ending with his successful navigation of the gauntlet of titular wooden men; the second follows him into the world outside the monastery, as he tests his combat skills and discovers that people cannot always be taken at face value. The film never rises entirely above the conventions of its genre, but in depicting the friendship between Chan and Kam Kang (who plays a prisoner at the monastery), director Chen Chi-hwa effects some nice touches...and there are well-choreographed fights aplenty. Six and a half stars.

(By the way, there's no historical evidence that those fearsome wooden fighting dummies ever existed at Shaolin. It's a great cinematic device, though.)

As far as martial arts movies go, Shaolin Wooden Men is pretty standard stuff, but I think it's still fun enough in bursts to make it worthwhile for fans of the genre and/or Jackie Chan. He plays a character here who doesn't speak, so I think that helps it stand out a little among all the other early Jackie Chan movies out there (I do feel like he really came into his own and made his best stuff during the 80s and 90s, though).

The plot here is one you've probably seen a bunch of times if you've even watched a decent number of martial arts flicks, but the action is solid (not great, but still mostly fun), and I guess that's the main thing. I don't know if I quite feel like it's a hugely underrated gem or anything, but it's a decent watch and a fairly good time.

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!!)

Pure A jackie film with a subplot wrapped into a subplot putting this revenge story with fantastic kungfu sequences on display. Kung fu classic.

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. They have all sorts of torturous equipments to build the skills of the students. He has a bad memory from childhood. Witnessing his father getting murdered, by a masked kung fu artist.

He then meets series of three teachers who are willing to teach him covertly. 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.

On the outside of the temple, things aren't exactly peaceful. There's strife everywhere. 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 movie's quality is several notches above the average movies of this type. 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.