The 18 Bronzemen (1976)
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Despite the national resistance, the Manchurians have taken over China, but the Ching Emperor fears that the Shaolin Temple disciples would overthrow the dynasty. So he disguises himself as a disciple, in order to become a kung fu master and control the Shaolin monks. But according to custom, he must pass the test of the legendary 18 Bronzemen before he can leave the Temple.
Chang Cheh directs this old school Shaw Brother produced kung fu yarn. The film opens with members of the Ten Tigers group getting attacked by a pair of mysterious assailants. The film then flashes back several years previous to focus on Ming partisan Chu (Ku Feng) who is on the run from Manchu forces. Local merchant and kung fu enthusiast Li Chen-chau (Ti Lung) gives the fugitive shelter in his pawnshop and quietly recruits some of his fellow martial master associates to help protect the lad. When Li's professional rival rats him out, Manchu official Liang (Johnny Wang Lung-wei) not only orchestras his army but fools a couple other kung fu masters including Beggar Su (Phillip Kwok Tsui) into helping his cause. After a heated battle, Li manages to convince Su to joining his cause, thus forming the Ten Tigers. The film then snaps back to the original storyline, where the identities of the mystery assailants are revealed.
Jackie Chan stars as the young warrior Hsu Yiu Fong. Hsu has been entrusted with the book of the "Art of the Snake and Crane," after the mysterious disappearance of the eight Shaolin Masters who had written it. He must fight off numerous clans who are all attempting to steal the book from him, to find out the true reason for the disappearance of the Shaolin Masters.
Two princes are seperated by birth. One is raised by the Prime Minister. The other is raised by three mad Shaolin Monks. They both learn kung-fu. When they are 23, they meet and combine there forces to defeat the evil 9th Prince.
Hu Te et al. escape the burning Shaolin temple after the Qing soldiers destroyed it in Shaolin Temple. The group of 5 decide to develop secret codes to identify fellow patriots, enlist those patriots and eventually meet up again to escape to the south away from the Qings, and also identify the traitor who sold out Shaolin temple. Ma Fu Yi (the traitor, played by Wang Lung Wei), joins the Qing top fighters to eliminate the rebels but is exposed by Ma Chao-Tsing who gets captured by Ma Fu Yi. Hu meets up with a group of Shaolin men secretly posing as bandits to rescue Ma as their leader is killed in the process, thus the bandits join the rest of the Shaolin patriots.
Three North Shaolin teachers (Lu Feng, Chang Sheng, and Sun Chien) are called on by the Manchus to teach their soldiers and are urged to challenge the current South Shaolin teachers. They defeat the South Shaolin teachers and, that night, the head general (Wang Lung Wei) kills the South Shaolin teachers and blames their death on the North Shaolin teachers. The South Shaolin master sends more of his pupils, who are killed accidentally by the North Shaolin teachers. He finally sends two more (Wei Pai and Lo Meng) of his students to train with old masters and trains one student (Kuo Chui) himself with the goal of finally defeating the North Shaolin experts.
While international favorite David Chiang was best known for his roles as a grinning, streetwise, fighter in many Chang Cheh-directed classics, he rarely played a noble warrior monk. But here he portrays the great Chih Shim, the monk who saved the Southern Shaolin Temple. Making this production all the more notable is Lo Lieh, Shaws' first international star, who returns to a role he also made famous - that of Shaolin renegade Pai Mei. This, and even more, makes for a true martial arts epic of the first order.
Shaolin warrior Tung Chien-chen is injured in battle against the hated Wu Tang clan, and nursed back to health by a knife-throwing master. As he recovers, Tung learns this deadly art, and also falls in love with his teacher's daughter. But when a Wu Tang attack disrupts the young lovers' wedding, Tung must put his new skill to use as he seeks revenge.
A young martial artist seeks revenge on the ninja who kills his martial arts brothers and teacher.
A couple unite - she is fluent in the crane style of kung fu, he in tiger style. They have a son, but the boy's father is killed by the evil eunuch Pai Mei. Disguised as a girl, his mom trains him in crane style while he secretly learns tiger style from his father's training manual.
The workers of a dye factory have their pay cut by 20% when the factory owner brings in some Manchu thugs to try and increase production. Desperate to reclaim their full wages, the workers hire an actor to impersonate a priest and kung-fu expert from the temple of Shaolin. The factory owner proves the actor a fraud, and punishes all those involved. The young actor feels he has let the workers down, and promises to atone. He sets out for Shaolin, determined to be accepted as a kung-fu pupil at the elite temple.
Director Chang Cheh begins his Shaolin Cycle with this solid kung fu actioner about a band of fighting Ming Dynasty loyalists branded as enemies of the state and driven underground following the burning of the Shaolin Temple by Qing Dynasty officials. Due to a misunderstanding, Shaolin kung fu prodigy Fong Sai-yuk (Alexander Fu Sheng) is duped into helping Qing agents to capture leading Shaolin rebel Hung Hei-gun (Chen Kuan-tai). Upon discovering his mistake, Sai-yuk teams up with the remaining rebels to free Hei-gun before his planned execution. Plotting to stop them is General Che Kang (Zhu Mu), a formidable Tibetan kung fu master who commands an army of fighters including four deadly Tibetan llamas.
Fong Sai Yuk's uninhibited arrogance toward a Manchu lord forces him to seek refuge in a Shaolin temple. Although abundantly trained in the martial arts, he is no match for Master San Te, the creator of the 36th Chamber of Shaolin, who constantly overpowers his younger, more agile disciples in matters of both body and mind. Exhausted by his frequent defeats, Fong seeks to escape his prison and crosses paths with a governor, who rewards him with a yellow robe granting immunity from any Manchu. But what are the governor's true intentions? Will Fong feed his foolish ego and betray the Shaolin Temple?
Two friends who long to be heroes join the fight against a Ching warlord and his students. They get help from a Kung Fu student and a rebel. They also save Hung Si Quan's life.
When a martial arts teacher is murdered by his students, his son and heir, Lao Chung (Gordon Liu), escapes but vows to exact vengeance for his father's death. After learning drunken kung fu from an old master, Chung sets out to punish the perpetrators. Eagle Han also stars in this rousing Hong Kong actioner featuring scores of spectacular fight scenes, all choreographed by the legendary Lau brothers.
On a routine courier mission, the prestigious Chin Hu chief was murdered by four mysterious monks. When all evidence points to Ching Hua (Liu Yu-Po), his friend Lei Hsin (Derek Yee) is determined to clear his name by barging in the Shaolin Temple thrice, and gets intwined in an intricate web of deception!
A young father and his infant son are beset by forces of evil and corruption. They wander China, upholding their sense of honor and protecting the weak. When they are forced into combat, spectacular and hilarious fast-motion kung fu sequences follow. In the end, they must call on all of their abilities in a battle royale, to attempt to vanquish a supernatural man-monster or die trying.
Two men, one a businessman skilled in Kung Fu, the other a kickboxer discover they are brothers, and together, both in and out of the ring, they must face a crime syndicate. One of the first films to use the martial art of Muay Thai.
Iron Fisted Monk, heavyweight HK superstar Sammo Hung's directorial debut, is a powerful old school kung fu movie which sees the portly one at his physical peak on screen as well as calling the shots behind the camera. Husker (Sammo) is a student of the Shaolin monks, learning kung fu so that he can avenge his uncle, who was murdered by the nasty Manchus who control the province. He leaves his training early, desperate to teach the killers a lesson and teams up with a martial artist monk (Chan Sing) who is teaching a group of factory workers how to defend themselves. When the Manchus attack the factory and kill everyone there, Husker and his Buddhist pal decide it's time to even the score.
The plot is a standard revenge tale told in a concise manner that involves a boy witnessing his parents' murder at the hands of corrupt officials and growing up to achieve vengeance. The boy goes to Shaolin Temple to learn kung fu in a superb training sequence that ranks with some of the better-known Shaolin Temple scenes in kung fu cinema. By the time the boy has completed his training, he has grown up to be Carter Wong and soon sets out on his mission. He meets Polly Shang Kwan along the way and, after some initial antagonism, the two become allies and confront the villains. The bad guys employ a particularly clever maneuver involving dozens of imperial guardsmen performing a variety of formations on cue (including standing on each other's shoulders, three men high) as Sammo Hung bangs out different drumbeats. Sammo and Carter engage in a particularly exciting bout against the backdrop of a mountainous landscape midway through the film.
Skilled martial arts director Lau Ka Leung offers you another Kung Fu treat! this Asian classic introduces viewers to the Shaolin Mantis way of fighting! The tale takes you back to the Qing dynasty & Wei Feng, the son of a Qing official who tries to unveil facts about a revolt. The grand daughter of the farmer community where his investigation takes him, sacrifices her life to save him in the end. Managing to escape unscathed, he promises to hunt down the girl's killer and therefore creates the effective technique of Shaolin Mantis. Â
Phillip Kwok plays the orphaned son of a general disgraced and executed by his political enemies... which has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Raised to be a righteous martial artist, Yuan kicks off the story proper by finding a cave containing a skeleton, a treasure map, and a manual teaching him the Golden Snake style. Obeying a request hidden in the manual to give a portion of the treasure to the Golden Snake's old girlfriend, Yuan begins to seek the woman out - on the way solving the riddle of the Golden Snake, and how he came to his end.
The Wu Tang hire a formidable leg fighter Kao to fight the Saholin Loyalist Hu Hui Chien
The High Abbot of Shaolin Temple sends the Ten Brothers, newly finished with their Shaolin training, as escorts to one Master Chu. Master Chu has been living in the Temple for two years waiting for the right time to leave and renew his fight against the Mings. The road to victory is filled with danger--can the Ten Brothers guide Master Chu through?
Set during the Sung Dynasty, patriotic monks of the Shaolin Temple fight against foreign invasion.
Lei Ming, a noble young martial arts student who doesn't know the meaning of giving up. He faces a treacherous, blood-thirsty Japanese karate expert, which leads to many memorable battles as well as several unforgettable training sequences.
Have you ever done a handstand... on the tips of your index fingers? How about snapping iron bars over your head as if they were bread-sticks? You'll witness these amazing feats and much more in this astonishing London performance of China's legendary Shaolin monks. In perfecting their martial arts prowess, these devoted Buddhists have honed their physical and mental disciplines to such an uncommon degree that their movements seem almost supernaturally powerful. From the athletic contortions of a young acolyte to an older monk being hoisted aloft on the points of sharpened spears, these men and boys have conquered and crossed boundaries of control that would strike most outsiders as impossible if it weren't for their living proof. In demonstrating these and other kung fu skills, the Shaolin also enact their history as an enduring order, providing a theatrical narrative that's literally breathtaking.
Shaolin firebrands Fang Shih-yu, Hung His-kuan, and Hu Huei-chien are as famous in Asia as the Three Musketeers are in America and Europe. So when the âgodfather of the kung-fu film,â Chang Cheh decided to tell their stories with Alexander Fu Sheng, Chen Kuan-tai, and Chi Kuan-chi in the roles, it was cause for celebration. The resulting film is one of the most lauded and beloved in the directorâs filmography, and remains a highlight in all the starsâ careers.
A youthful Shaolin initiate inadvertenly separated from the rest of gang joins forces with dashing adventurer (Biao) on a request to protect a priceless artifact from his greedy brother.
Martial arts purists -- not to mention fans of miniskirt-clad, high-kicking karate girls -- will welcome the tightly choreographed fight scenes and slow-motion scuffles in this film about a teenage karate phenom eager to take down her older peers. High schooler Kei Tsuchiya joins The Destroyers when she decides that her longtime karate master is holding her back. She realizes her mistake but it's too late.
An exotic, legendary battle between the forces of good and evil comes to life as the celebrated disciples of the Shaolin Temple -- monks who practice a lethal and spiritual form of martial arts -- fight the evil followers of China's Manchu rulers.
Teddy Yu is a former secret agent turned chiropractor who thought he left his past behind. He teaches martial arts to his two kids. However, his past catches up to him as a rogue agent demands to know the whereabouts of an agent known as Dragon. Now, father and children must team up to stop the rogue agent and his goons.
Two agile Hong Kong martial arts kids join up with a pair of bungling Chinese-immigrant beach bums on the sunny shores of Hawaii, where they divide their time between sophomoric kung-fu kid hijinks and their designated mission--tracking down a missing book whose secrets have fallen into the hands of a power-hungry villain.
Iron is the son of a rebel leader, but prefers to spend his days gambling and getting into fights. When his father's group is arrested and executed, Iron is forced to flee and hide in the woods as a beggar and thief. After being taken in by a Shaolin monastery and trained in the art of Monkey-Style Kung Fu, Iron vows to hunt down his father's killer and avenge his death. Written by Jean-Marc Rocher
One of the last of the Old School Hong Kong martial arts flicks, this one deals with a legendary competition in swordplay and fighting that ends up being fought between two great warriors, a Chinese man and a Japanese man, who, over the course of the film, have become friends.
The young Chor Lau-heung learns martial arts from Tuk-ku Kau-pai and has attained a high level of skill. His teacher sends him to Shaolin Monastery to attend a contest that is held once every ten years. On the journey, Chor meets Wu Tit-fa and Chung-yuen Yat-dim-hung. When Chor arrives at Shaolin, he fights with a Shaolin student called Mo-fa but neither of them is able to defeat each other. They decide to have a match again on another day. One night, Chor meets Mo-fa and strike up a conversation with her. Both of them decide to enter the palace in search of adventure. They disturb the prince on his wedding night but are accidentally caught in a trap and only manage to escape with the help of Chor's friends.
A violent gang is abducting and killing women around Thailand. Sanim and his friends, having had loved ones abducted, have joined together to break the gang of kidnappers. In a botched kidnap attempt, Deu is saved by Sanim's crew. After learning their unique martial arts style, Deu helps lure the gang into an epic battle to save the women across Thailand.
Young men, angered by the repressive and corrupt Ching government, come to the Shaolin Temple to study. Fearing that the Shaolin Temple is a harbor for rebels wanting to overthrow the government, the Ching Emperor Yungzheng kills the monks wherever he can find them. After the Emperor orders the destruction of the Shaolin Temple, his name becomes the most feared and hated in China. After years of struggling, the surviving Shaolin disciples, led by Carter Wong, move to assassinate the Emperor. This epic tale of Manchu China has all the scope and action you'd expect from Hong Kong master Joseph Kuo.
A Japanese Prince proposes to the Shaolin abbot that a contest between Ching and Japanese martials arts should be held at the Shaolin Temple. However this is just a front for a more villainous plot to overthrow Shaolin and then China herself. Without doubt some of the best choreography to come out of the Orient and crack up as Japanese Bushido experts take on the very best of Shaolin kung fu
A corrupt Shaolin assassin, a master in Iron Claws, is hired to threaten members of the Ching Dynasty into resigning a secret letter for the restoration of the monarchy. The plot is unravelled when a police chief captures one of the assailants. The Shaolin Iron Master must be destroyed...
Legendary Weapons of China is a martial arts fantasy film taking place during the late Qing Dynasty when Empress Dowager Cixi dispatches her agents to various factions of the Boxer Rebellion in order find supernatural martial artists that are invulnerable to western bullets. When one of the leaders of these groups disbands his forces, assassins from the remaining factions are sent out to kill him.
During the Ming dynasty, Yuen Biao is a royal guard charged to capture a dangerous criminal. The battle which opposes them will make them fall into ice. Three centuries later, nowdays, the archaeologists give them again the life. Only a black jade Buddha and a temporal wheel would be able to make them return in their time. The battle would start again.
The forces of good and evil clash in this martial-arts picture, as personified by warriors and overlords from the Orient's past.
It's back to the Shaolin Monastery for one of the most unusual action-paced tales to invade its hallowed halls. Lo Lieh is the ringleader of the Snake Sect, intent on reviving a deadly faction known as the "Five Poison Web." In order to do so, he has an affair with the sexy ringleader of the Scorpion Sect, Angela Yu Chien. However, there is also the Centipede Sect to contend with, as well as other assorted martial artists, among them played by Shaw Brothers talents Yueh Hua, Ching Li, and Lily Li.
Kung fu master Ling Chu-Fei (John Liu) must perfect and employ his devastating "Seven Immovable Limbs" technique if he is to defeat a renegade monk who has begun using Shaolin skills for evil. The threat becomes frighteningly personal when the ex-monk focuses his fury upon Master Ling's young orphan disciple, Small Mud Fish. Feet fly, blood spills and bones shatter all the way up to a gripping climactic duel in this 1978 action explosion.
Carter Wong stars in this Hong Kong classic as a powerful martial artist who must protect an old man and his daughter from a snake god who possesses deadly kung fu skills.
Fu Sheng and his real-life brother star as friends who are searching for a treasure that a Shaolin priest (Gordon Liu), a villainous traitor (Wang Lung Wei) and his sister (Yang Ching Ching) are also trying to find.
Zheng Zhou is the most feared warrior from the Shaolin Dynasty in China. His fighting and weapons skills are legendary. But when his parents are killed and sister kidnapped, he turns to a life of drugs and crime that will almost kill him. With the help of Hong Kong's notorious Dragon Triad syndicate, Colombia's biggest drugs cartel hatches an elaborate plan to traffic two tonnes of crack cocaine through the Port of Miami in America and ultimately into Australia and China. But when the partnership turns sour after the Cartel holds a Triad family member hostage, the Triads recruit Zhou to rescue the girl and kill the Colombians. What ensues is a bloodied street war across three countries. Zhou turns international Hitman with an arsenal of hi-tech surveillance devices, explosives, high powered weaponry and an array of fighting skills dating back fifteen hundred years. But just as Zhou rescues the hostage and takes control of the entire drugs shipment...
As the 18th descendant of an extremely insignificant philosopher and inventor from ancient China, McDull is fortunate that he does not have a lot to live up to. However, his mother has higher aspirations for him and decides to send him to a martial arts school in China. Overweight and slow on his feet, McDull is the last of his classmates to run away when the headmaster needs to choose someone to represent the school in an international children's martial arts competition.
A gang of innocent but feisty kids who lead carefree lives in Chandan Nagar colony take own the big bad world of politics when one of their friend's life is endangered.
The anti-Ching patriots, under the guidance of Ho Kuang-han, have secretly set up their base in Canton, disguised as school masters. During a brutal Manchu attack, Lui manages to escape, and devotes himself to learning the martial arts in order to seek revenge.
Falsely accused for cheating in a martial arts competition, two boyhood friends are banished from their Shaolin Temple and go their separate ways. As adults, they join opposing sides in a civil war. When one betrays the other, they settle their differences mano-a-mano.
A martial artist agrees to spy on a reclusive crime lord using his invitation to a tournament there as cover.
China is plunged into strife as feuding warlords try to expand their power by warring over neighboring lands. Fuelled by his success on the battlefield, young and arrogant Hao Jie sneers at Shaolin's masters when he beats one of them in a duel. But the pride comes before a fall. When his own family is wiped out by a rival warlord, Hao is forced to take refuge with the monks. As the civil unrest spreads and the people suffer, Hao and the Shaolin masters are forced to take a fiery stand against the evil warlords. They launch a daring plan or rescue and escape.
Master Liu and Master Law are rival masters of Shaolin style kung fu, and Wudang style sword fighting, running schools in the same city. Their top students, Chao Fung-wu, and Hung Jun-kit, are actually close friends. After observing the two students fighting at a brothel, the Lord determines that the two styles are dangerous, and he must learn both.
There is no place more hallowed in the martial art world than China's Shaolin Temple. This special place deserves a special epic, which is what the martial arts maestro delivers in this battle between a brave brand of Chinese boxers and literally thousands of Ching troops - complete with betrayals, intrigues, and such novel fighting machines as 108 wooden robots. The conflicts grow in complexity, intensity and even suspense as monks struggle to stay alive in the face of overwhelming odds.
Jackie Chan plays the part of the class clown in a shaolin temple whose deadliest secret is stolen. All is lost until Jackie's character discovers dancing blue ghosts with bright red hair who haunt the library.
Turmoil outside the walls of the temple lead Cliff Lok to go there and find the answers to save his country from the Manchus. Nothing could prepare him for the tests and trials he will face inside the walls of Shaolin: martial monks, hidden chambers, and the 18 Bronzemen.
A wild and rollicking martial arts fantasy extravaganza that features prized swords and swordsmen, a crazy monk attached to a rolling boulder, serious clan and cult rivalries, and lots of magic and flying.
After being humiliated in the ring by a dirty kickboxer who pulled down his shorts and then hit him, a martial arts master decides to travel to China and enter a monastery where he may learn the Shaolin form of fighting. The film then veers into "Karate Kid" territory where the novice humiliates himself at every turn, is tolerated as a foreigner, and still comes out a champion. The monastery teaches non-violence, but everyone knows that sooner or later the student will catch up with the bad guy.
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