The 18 Bronzemen

Original title: Shao Lin Si shi ba tong ren

1975
PG
1h 35m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

497

YOUR RATING

Martial Arts Action Drama War

During the Qing dynasty, the young son of a Ming dynasty general is sent to the Shaolin Temple to learn martial arts, so that he may seek revenge for his dead father. But he must endure the ... Read allDuring the Qing dynasty, the young son of a Ming dynasty general is sent to the Shaolin Temple to learn martial arts, so that he may seek revenge for his dead father. But he must endure the test of the temple's legendary 18 Bronzemen.During the Qing dynasty, the young son of a Ming dynasty general is sent to the Shaolin Temple to learn martial arts, so that he may seek revenge for his dead father. But he must endure the test of the temple's legendary 18 Bronzemen.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

497

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
There is a Japanese version and a restored Hong Kong version. The Japanese version has 20 minutes cut mainly in the beginning. The restored Hong Kong version switches between aspect ratio and quality throughout the whole movie.

Alternate versions
In 2008 it was release in Spain a DVD with 2 cuts of the film.
"The International Cut" (97 minutes) with English language and titles.
"The Original Cut" (94 minutes) with the original Mandarin titles.

Connections
Followed by Return of the 18 Bronzemen (1976)

User reviews13

Review

Featured review

6/10

Testing, testing

Not your patience, there are other movies out there that actually do that. One of which I will review a bit later. But the characters in this movie. We have more tests in this than other movies. Though I do not remember how many there were in the 36 chambers of Shaolin. Before you say duh, 36 obviously ... nope, apparently they did not do the whole chambers. Hey you have to give the guys (and viewers) a few breaks of course.

18 Bronzemen - I did not count how many in people we saw in this - covered in Gold or painted Gold rather than Bronze, but as you may have figured out yourself, Goldmen does not have the same ring to it. The movie itself has quite the strange story to it. It did not make it to the US cinemas - the sequel did. Being called part 1 when it did at first.

History of that aside, this also had different versions flying around. No pun intended. The two main ones (Japanese was the one that went international) are on a recent UK release. The real cut is being cut together from many sources so may not have the highest standards.

The Japanese cut is quite strange, integrating stuff from other movies from Kuo. If you are into the Kung Fu stuff, you could do far worse than this. Of course you could also do better. Still more than fine movie, even if you only watch the bit uncomprehensible international cut - with added/other kid actors at the beginning and other editing choices that may seem curious.