Watch The 18 Bronzemen For Free

To me, this movie is perfection.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Being a Kung Fu practitioner and cameraman I naturally watch a lot of old Kung Fu flicks. But until recently I've never even heard of "The 18 Bronzemen". I stumbled across it due to a reference in the game "Sleeping Dogs" and found the title and imagery very intriguing so I figured I'd give it a try. Unfortunately I could only get my hands on the cropped 4:3 release which really ruins the composition of every shot and makes the fight scenes nearly incomprehensible. Nevertheless the first half was just what I imagined and highly entertaining. Which is why I kept on watching despite the horrible cropping. Those bronze warriors are an amazing Idea and also pretty well executed. Combined with the mostly gray scenery this produces a very unique and aesthetic visual appeal. Sure, the costumes could've been more detailed but still, it works. The fights against Bronzemen are like the final exam for our protagonist and are intercut with training sequences. I was always looking forward for the next scene with the Bronzemen. I mean, this is basically the title of the whole movie so there have to be more scenes with them, right? Right?!After what felt like 10mins. with the Bronzemen the protagonist leaves the temple behind and the whole ordeal is never mentioned again. What we get now is a standard revenge plot and sub par choreographies. This drags on for the rest of the film....Why would you do that? Why would you throw away such a great idea that worked so well? They obviously knew the value of what they had - they named the movie after it!Personally I would recut it. Focus on the training in the temple and the quest of beating the Bronzemen. And after the Protagonist and his friend have mastered this challenge the abbot sends them on their way to serve their country and the people. They wander off down the mountain while the credits roll. MUCH better movie just like that. Instead we get this....

18 Bronze Men is a film of two halves. The first half is, to put it simply, spectacular. The second half is, to be frank, agonisingly dull. If the film had continued in the vein of the first half it would have been a top film. If the first half had been like the second half it would have been appalling. As it is, the two halves cancel each other out to make 18 Bronze Men a pretty much middling movie, worth watching for fans of the concept but not something to really go out of your way to see. Basically the plot involves an orphaned child who is sent to some kind of weird martial arts monastery. The only way people can leave this place is to become so highly skilled in the martial arts that they can pass a series of deadly tests before they can pass through the door. Said tests take up the entire first half of the movie.As the title would suggest, during these tests the boy (now a young man played by Tien Pens, accompanied by pal Carter Wong) must battle with a series of colourful and crazy Bronze Men. Some of the men are just naked guys covered in gold paint, others go the whole hog and have really bizarre, almost robotic-like looking gold plated armour complete with faces that make them look like Buddha. As well as these tough dudes, the passages and chambers of the temple in which the action takes place are full of spikes that fly out of statues, heavy doors that must be lifted, flaming "dragon" pots and more booby traps than Indiana Jones could ever hope to handle. The kung-fu action as the two heroes attempt to pass the Bronze Men makes for a truly unique viewing experience (at least until the sequels and rip-offs followed) which is a lot of fun.Unfortunately, as soon as these guys do manage to escape, the film goes downhill. It turns into a run-of-the-mill revenge drama with a serious lack of decent action, at least until the breathtaking three-on-one fight in an old quarry at the end which comes as too little, too late. A woman appears who disguises herself as a man by hiding her long hair, thus deceiving all and sundry although her voice is still high-pitched and her face is unmistakably female! Those gullible Chinese folk, I don't know. Meanwhile the subtitles on the version I saw were often misspelt or simply wrong, which is kind of amusing but not really.Tien Pens isn't to fault as the hero, creating a quite likable persona and proving himself in the action stakes without being really spectacular like some of his counterparts. Meanwhile the shaven-headed Carter Wong is probably the hardest-looking and toughest guy in the film, although sadly his is but a supporting role. The bad guys (sometimes dressed as ninjas) are a clichéd bunch and not very interesting either. 18 BRONZE MEN proved to be quite a disappointment in my mind, as aside from the fighting with the Bronze Men (for which it gets that extra star alone) it doesn't really offer much apart from a very old, tired plot and some routine action. However, the film proved to be so popular that a sequel was hastily cobbled together and released in the same year!

18 Bronzemen is something of a paradox in that it typifies so many of the weaknesses of the Hong Kong chop-socky genre of the 70s, and yet stands head and shoulders above most of its contemporaries. While there is more than enough kung-fu action to keep the most avid fan happy, there is also an entertaining story (in the first half, anyway) and an attempt at some character development beyond the usual boy-becomes-a-man-by-facing-adversity-and-beating-up-lots-of-people variety.Ting Peng plays Shao Lung (which sounds like an ad for a table-tennis match), the son of a high-ranking Ming official brought to a Shaolin temple by his granny after his father has been murdered by the wicked General Kwan (Chang Li). As he grows into a young man, Shao Lung undergoes the rigorous training of the shaolin monks (who seem to be holding some kind of eyebrow-growing competition) in preparation for his confrontation with the eponymous bronzemen that he must undertake if he is to earn his stripes and leave the temple. Having successfully passed the tests, Shao Lung and his friend, Brother Wan (Carter Wong), head off into the wide world to avenge the deaths of Shao Lun's mother and father.18 Bronzemen is really two different movies in one; the first, in which Shao Lung overcomes his apparent limitations to hold his own against the bronzemen, is hugely entertaining, but the second, during which the two friends hook up with Miss Lu (Polly Shang Kuan), drags very badly until the climactic fight which, while undeniably entertaining, is rather sloppily mounted. One of the near-constant aspects of this movie genre is the unintentional comedic elements that, while initially amusing, quickly become an irritation; 18 Bronzemen contains them all – extremely dodgy translation and dubbing, amateurish acting (both voice and action); laughable sound effects (each fighter's movement is accompanied by a sound effect that resembles a heavy chest of drawers being dragged across a concrete floor) – but the quality of its fight scenes, together with a reasonable storyline, allow the viewer to overlook its more common failings. And the fight scenes – especially those featuring the human bronzemen (some of them are sort of crude animated robots that resemble that little one in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century – but about thirty years older and eighteen stone heavier) – are pretty damn cool, even if a lot of the bronzemen do look like the Tango man painted gold instead of orange. At least in this movie we don't have to put up with half-a dozen villainous henchman surrounding the hero as they patiently await their turn to step forward and be savagely beaten – here they all pile in at the same time.Unfortunately the pace begins to flag the moment the two boys leave the temple and run into Miss Lu. Upon meeting her, Shao Lung and Wan are supposedly fooled by Miss Lu's 'disguise' into believing she is a man – which must have something to do with their monastic upbringing because a blind man with no hands would make her as a woman in an instant: mascara, rouge, plucked eyebrows, high-pitched voice, lumpy chest – they're all a bit of a giveaway. Kuan's character adds nothing at all to the plot of the story, slowing it to a crawl as she proceeds to annoy both the heroes and the audience – and even her romance with Shao Lung, which is presumably the reason for her inclusion, is barely touched upon. Nevertheless, things pick up for the film's climax, and it's always refreshing to find a movie that refuses to take itself seriously but which still manages to establish its own character and, for the most part, entertain you into the bargain.

THE 18 BRONZEMEN is a celebrated 1976 kung fu film from the prolific hand of producer/director Joseph Kuo who operated in Taiwan in the 1970s. It stars Carter Wong, Tien Peng, and Polly Shang Kwan in a tale of Shaolin training, lifelong friendship, and a mission of revenge during the early days of the Qing Dynasty. The uneven plot structure suffers from the lack of a suitable payoff at the end after the powerful setup of the film's stunning first half. Also, the presence of three strong heroes is not matched by any villain formidable enough to provide a satisfying final battle.The first section follows two dedicated Shaolin students through rigorous training, leading up to a sequence of challenges posed by the Bronze Men of the title whose function is to test the combat skills of the students in order to graduate them from Shaolin. This sequence is a fanciful addition to Shaolin cinematic lore and would be repeated in different variations in Kuo's later Shaolin films. (The Bronze Men include men in head-to-toe robotic outfits, more gold than bronze, and men whose skin is painted gold who fight with swords, sticks and kung fu.)During their travels, the two friends, Carter Wong and Tien Peng, are joined by a female fighter who was betrothed to Tien Peng as a child and is played by Polly Shang Kwan. The scenes which introduce her are clever and funny and feature her dressed as a man who deliberately pesters Tien until the opportune time to reveal her identity. Eventually, after various attempts on Tien's life and the revelation of his family background, the stage is set for a final confrontation with Hei Chu Ying, the traitor who had Tien's father killed.The fight choreography is less robust than it should be and, of the three leads, only Carter comes off as a powerful fighter. Polly is energetic and offers a strong, engaging presence, but her kung fu relies as much on superhuman (trampoline-assisted) leaps as it does on kicks. Tien Peng is a polished male lead and a good actor but he's not the fighter Carter is. The actor who plays the chief villain is never seen in combat until the very end, so is never presented as much of a fighting threat to the heroes.The photography and production design are visually impressive and well above average for this kind of film. There is an original Chinese music score, even in the U.S. English-dubbed version. I watched both the English dub and the Hong Kong import DVD for this review. The HK version is completely reedited and includes footage from EIGHT MASTERS (aka 18 BRONZEMEN 3) and another, unrelated Kuo film, UNBEATEN 28. It also shortens scenes showcasing Polly Shang Kwan and Tien Peng and plays up Carter Wong's role. I actually found the English dub, despite being available only on full-frame VHS, the more effective version.This film was followed by various follow-ups that were not exactly sequels, but more like variations on a theme. These included RETURN OF THE EIGHTEEN BRONZEMEN (aka 18 BRONZEMEN 2), BLAZING TEMPLE, and, arguably the best of the group, EIGHT MASTERS, all of which are also reviewed on this site.