Shaolin Wooden Men

By the time I got round to watching and reviewing this movie, I had watched more Jackie Chan films than I dreamed of owning. It seems a little odd that the final one on my list was easily one of my favourites. That being the very early release, Shaolin Wooden Men.Shaolin Wooden Men was originally released in 1976, making it one of Jackie Chan's earlier films. It was directed by Chen Chi-Hwa and was produced by Lo Wei. In this film, Chan plays the character Little Mute. As suggested by his name, he doesn't talk through out the film. He's a part of a Shaolin community, taking part in training and struggling to keep up with the other students. At night, he is haunted by the memory of his father being murdered at the hands of an unknown killer. After sneaking into a forbidden area, he discovers the monks have a man locked up in chains. This man trains Little Mute in a deadly form of kung fu, in order to defeat the dreaded wooden man and earn his freedom. But all is not what it seems and all hell breaks loose.Being an early Jackie Chan film, I was expecting it to be one of the usual cliché kung fu films. Good guy gets beaten up by bad guy, good guy trains to defeat bad guy, the end. But this was not the case and to say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. The story is simple but well structured. The characters are all well written and played perfectly by the chosen actors. You actually care for the characters and want them to succeed, earn their freedom and catch the big bad guy. It was a rather easy watch too, a nice rarity for a near two hour movie. Usually these films drag in the middle but this one was not the case.Those who have grown use to seeing Jackie Chan in his more comedic roles might be a little surprised here. Shaolin Wooden Men has a few moments of humour but it doesn't really feature the slapstick Buster Keaton style that showed up not long after this film. This is a mostly straight faced film with a few killer action sequences sprinkled in for good measure. It's definitely a surprise and a pleasant one at that.The transfer of this movie by 88 Films is near enough flawless. It's got a good clear sharp image with lots of film grain, colour and contrast. There are a couple of scenes that have a flaw or two. It's the usual discolouration and a bit of softness. But it's barely noticeable in this movie, making it a great watch on the large 4k television in my room. The sound is also quite good, with the options of Mandarin, Cantonese as well as an English dub. The movie features all the usual whooshing, booming and metallic clangs that you'd expect in this sort of film and it sounds good, for the most part.I've bought many Jackie Chan films in the last year and a half. Shaolin Wooden Men has easily became one of the my favourites and what a surprise that was. It's a very young Jackie Chan and without a lot of his trademark humour. He makes up for it by being incredible athletic and performing some magnificent action scenes. This is easily up there with the Drunken Master movies as far as I'm concerned and well worth the purchase.

The immortal line above is uttered by Kam Kong in probably his best role as villainous Fut Yu, a name that makes you double-take when you hear it later in the film. I remember rewinding the VHS and saying 'Did I just hear...?'.Once again 88 Films have done themselves proud. Those with memories of the VHS will recall the opening scene that took place in a black environment, complete with lots of print scratches and smears. These are completely gone and the print looks remarkable - the dark scenes are tremendous on an OLED. As ever there a multitude of great extras including postcards, reversible sleeve, trailers, tv spots and commentaries - Jackie Chan fans are really spoilt by these superlative releases. Special mention goes to the short documentary by Steve Lawson on the original VHS releases of early Jackie films. Not only is it a tidal wave of nostalgia, but Lawson's interest in the subject really shines through and he is a real asset when used on the 88films collection.The film itself is best described as a martial arts films inspired by the excellent Western 'The Spikes Gang'. Chan plays a mute who befriends a prisoner in Shaolin, little realising that the man teaching him kung-fu is a fearsome villain. Fate brings the two together again and this is handled very well.Some scenes in 'Shaolin Wooden Men' really could have done with a bit of editing; the opening fight and the wooden alley test drag on unnecessarily. That said, this is a very good 'serious' Jackie film and shows his strength as an actor. Also, considering the film came out in 1976, the choreography is outstanding and is a sign of things to come from Chan.Another essential purchase - now on to New Fist of Fury which I think is in need of a bit of a re-appraisal.

Yet another amazing release by 88 Films great picture quality the only way this film and the other releases like this should be watched. Destroy your old DVD's with poor transfers. Keep the Jackie Chan releases coming hoping for Half a Loaf of Kung Fu!

Great early Jackie Chan Film with fun training scenes and fight choreography .The transfer is very good and is a massive improvement from the DVD and cropped 4:3 versions , watching these movies again re-mastered has really given them a new lease of life.The Title Menus on the blu ray is not the best as i found that the Font was hard to read and far too small .Extras were very good inc postcards , poster and booklet , this realise is a welcomed edition to my collection .

Another stunner from 88 Films....stunning print....my favourite of the early Jackie’s....nice package of cards and poster too....reversible sleeve...nice extras with audio commentary and trailers. Fantastic work from 88 films again.

Enjoyed this as it's one I have never seen before great fights bit later on in the film after learning to fight great early Jackie Chan film

Great movie terrible subs

Jackie chan classic movie brilliant