Shaolin Wooden Men (1976)

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN is an early Jackie Chan film that marked only his second starring role after 1976's NEW FIST OF FURY. SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN sees Jackie labouring under the control of producer Lo Wei while the film offers a plot of revenge and retribution that was done to death in '70s kung fu films. The movie kicks off with a fight scene – always good for a martial arts flick. It sees Jackie battling various monks who have been trained as animal masters. Jackie is dressed in a white suit, while the background is totally black, and there are a few candles dotted around. The fights go on for a good while, and are well choreographed – in fact they're the best fights in the film. It soon becomes clear why this scene – which has nothing to do with the rest of the movie – was added at the film's beginning; it's because there's no human fighting for the next hour.We're soon into the cheesy titles and then a dream sequence in which we get to see the wooden men of the title. As the wooden men sequence only occupies a very small amount of screen time in the film itself, I guess the film-makers decided to put them in at the beginning as well to try and justify the title. The story finally begins for real at the Shaolin Temple, as Jackie, playing a raw recruit, starts his work as a handyman for the monks – carrying water, chopping wood. I'm afraid these scenes are as uninteresting as they sound, and seem to go on interminably before any sign of a plot shows up. A bald drunk appears for the purposes of comic relief, but he fails to make much of an impact.One day, Jackie follows two of the monks into a cave and comes upon a prisoner who has been chained in the depths of a cave for a decade. Jackie befriends the man, bringing him food and wine, and in repayment the prisoner trains him in the martial arts – the story going that Jackie isn't actually allowed to learn Shaolin techniques from the monks for another three years. There's also a weird old woman who teaches Jackie the 'snake step' technique, which involves him climbing into an oil pit and skidding all over the place. Finally Jackie is ready to fight the wooden men for real, and the result is an action scene that can only be described as cheesy: the wooden men are cumbersome, and it's not clear how they work – the chains that are supposed to move them are useless, and it's obvious that real men are inside the wooden costumes. This scene is clearly ripped off from an earlier kung fu film called 18 BRONZEMEN, although nowhere near as effectively.This film sees Jackie saddled in a Bruce Lee-type role – he's even got the same haircut as the late kung fu master. He's forced into doing some Bruce Lee style emoting at the film's climax, but for the rest of the film he's mute, a strong silent fighter in the Lee tradition. It's clear that Jackie was uncomfortable acting in Bruce's shadow, and his character is a bit foolish – I never did figure out why he took the ten-year vow of silence after his father was murdered. His character's habit of frantically bowing to everybody he meets is the funniest thing in the film. It's a shame SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN is so devoid of action, because a martial arts film without fighting is like butter without bread – there's no point to it. Director Chen Chi-Hwa experiments a little by skipping frames in places and overdoing the zoom technique in one scene, but it's clear throughout that Lo Wei, as producer, was calling the shots on this production, and that he was determined to produce a film in virtually the same style as a Bruce Lee movie, with Jackie standing in as a replacement for the late star.

Okay early Chan starring vehicles; very heavy handed, with little humor; a lot of training sequences, more than usual for the genre at this time - these are more realistic than similar training episodes of the period, but they lack of any inherent interest, perhaps for that very reason. The fight scenes are well-choreographed, largely because Chan is clearly choreographing himself. The actual 'wooden men' sequence is unconvincing; this particular legend was best presented by Joseph Kuo in "The 18 Bronzemen," where Kuo presents the Bronzemen as men in bronze paint, rather than the robots or spirit-possessed statues of other films. Here they are rather ungainly robots, and not very threatening, to be honest.The big plus of the film is the relationship between Chan and his teacher, who is also the lead villain - that double identity gives the film its real weight, and the resolution of this relationship in the final fight is almost carried off - enough so to leave the fan of such films of its era satisfied.

Under-rated film featuring a mute Jacky Chan who begins training at a Shaolin monastery. This films best draw-card is it's plot. This is your regular Kung Fu vengeance story but written much more cunningly and cleverly. The typical plot mechanisms are used, but they didn't bother me, and the story held my attention better than most modern movies I see.Jackie's fighting is great, and I particularly enjoyed the training he receives from the Nun(?). Not to mention the inventive and really quite absurd training he gets from the imprisoned man.As like other films of this period, I think that only Kung Fu genre die-hards will really sit through this and feel rewarded. The Wooden Men themselves never seemed as dangerous as the real men in the film - is this some kind of comment on human nature in a Kung Fu film?

Shaolin Wooden Men was the second film Jackie Chan did for Lo Wei Productions and the first film he did under director Chen Chi-Hwa (who also directed Jackie in Half a Loaf of Kung Fu) – though Lo would get Supervising Director credit. Chan was lent out to this up-and-coming director who would give him more room to experiment. Jackie gave more effort on his martial art styles by mutating traditional forms like the snake form (one of Jackie's favorites) giving more flowing and flamboyant movement and being less classical in structure. Unfortunately, he did not have much say in his character development with a character that was still in Bruce Lee's shadow. Shaolin Wooden Men was considered the second flop in a row for a Jackie Chan led film.Jackie played a mute young man (called Dummy in the dubbed version) whose father She Lan was killed by an unknown assailant. I've read a couple of different rumors on why Chan was mute in this film: to make it easier on him acting and the other rumor was that Lo did not have confidence in his acting skill. Jackie's character has sworn revenge and to increase his martial artist skills he becomes an earnest student in a Shaolin monastery. He has trouble at first adjusting to monk life. Such activities as using lead shoes to carry water up and pour in barrels and chopping wood was difficult for the mute but he would note be prevented from learning Shaolin martial arts. It would normally take five years of this training before he could start on his fighting training, but the mute was crafty. He learned balance techniques from a drunken monk (Miu Tak San). He befriended a visiting female Buddhist named Nun Woo Mei (Cheung Bing Yuk) who taught him "Ten Shadows Eight Steps" to make him lighter on his feet. Several scenes of this technique reminded me of several of Missy Elliot's videos.In order to leave the Shaolin monastery Jackie would have to pass a test of fighting. He would have to go through a gauntlet of mechanized Wooden Men (strangely looking like a Monty Python gag) that many monks with more advanced training that the mute have failed. The mute was lucky in finding a Shaolin prisoner who befriended him and in exchange for food and wine would train him. Fa Yu (Kam Kong) is a curmudgeon character who says he is only captured until he learns "The Lion's Roar" which will shatter the internals of his enemies (or at least provide a cheesy sound effect.) He taught the mute several techniques which would help him pass the gauntlet as well as improve his fighting prowess.The Shaolin Wooden Men only play a small part of this film. The mute inevitably passes the test and burns the dragon and tiger insignias into his forearms by lifting a searing hot cauldron that marks the opening into freedom and the beginning of his travails. First he must deliver a message from Fa Yu to a gimpy pharmacologist who owns the Tsun Chung Pharmacy in the town of Ching Ho who is part of the Green Dragon and White Tiger gangs. This pretty much establishes Fa Yu with those gangs and the rest of the film deals with the (other) inevitable aspects of his escape and why he was imprisoned by the Shaolin.The martial arts are above standard, but not as good as the later Jackie Chan films. Though the final fight sequence does last awhile and is the highlight fight of the film. The plot is a martial art cliché with a student enrolling in a Shaolin Academy to learn Kung Fu to avenge the death of his father. There is also the ubiquitous training manual "Justice against the Devil" given to Jackie by a blind monk. However, the relationship between the mute and his teacher Fa Yu is an interesting angle reminding me of the relationship of Yuen Biao and Lau Kar Wing in Knockabout. Chan seems a little unsure of his acting ability, even without voice, but he always looks professional with the martial art choreography. I think most people will like the later Jackie Chan films better, but if you find a decent copy of this film they will think it is a decent film -- though not much better. Note: look for an early small speaking role for Yuen Biao.DVD Info: Choosing the right copy is also important. I own two different copies of the film both with their own problems. The Columbia copy reigns in about 96 minutes though it misses 10 minutes of the beginning. These ten minutes are very fun to watch. It includes the "showcase" beginning with Jackie fighting four monks each with a different animal style. It then includes his character having a nightmare dealing with the Shaolin Python Wooden Men and then a sequence showing normal life at the Shaolin temple. The Columbia version is also cropped to a 1.78 aspect. The line on the DVD about preserving the original aspect is hooey. The benefit of this DVD is that it has the Mandarin soundtrack and good subtitles. The second version I own is the Telefilms Internation DVD (also R1 and also hooey about being the Original Uncut Version) which has the original aspect, a more clear screen and the beginning that is missing in the Columbia version. This version is missing ten minutes that are in the Columbia version though it cost me only two dollars. It is missing any extras like subtitles or other languages. So the best thing to do is look for a copy that has 106 minutes or over, is not cropped and is not R1.