The Old School Kung Fu Fest Reviews - Part 2

“18 Bronzemen” and “Return of the 18 Bronzemen”

by Joseph Perry

New York City’s The Old School Kung Fu Fest delivers the jumps and jolts this month with both online and in-person options (details below). Focusing this year on 1970s titles from Joseph Kuo and his Hong Hwa International Films production company, the festival features showdowns and throwdowns in nine exciting features. Following are capsule reviews of two films in the fest that have received great-looking new 2K restorations. 

18 Bronzemen

Holy cow, what a movie! This is one of my all-time favorite kung fu films, thanks in no small part to the initial group of the titular warriors, who look like a cross between lower-budget versions of the original Marvel Iron Man and robots from a black-and-white serial of the 1930s. To graduate from Shaolin Temple, where they have trained to be kung fu specialists since they were small children, Tang Siu-Lung (Peng Tien) and his no-nonsense friend Brother Wan (Carter Wong) must defeat the bronzemen without being killed and pass other grueling, life-or-death tests. Kuo’s 18 Bronzemen is filled with political and personal intrigue, as characters are out to avenge the death of family members and topple the evil Qing ruling body. And then there is Polly Ling-Feng Shang-Kuan as Miss Lu, a young woman skilled in kung fu herself, who every character initially thinks is a man, despite her never really looking or sounding like one. This one is played much straighter than some of Kuo’s other later films playing at the festival. A good time is guaranteed with 18 Bronzemen, which has a much more imaginative plot than many revenge-focused kung fu films and puts its protagonists through much different wringers than the usual bigger-boss-level fights.

18 Bronzemen

Directed by: Joseph Kuo

Written by: Joseph Kuo and Hsin-Yi Chang

Produced by: Karlot/Kuo Hwa Motion Pictures Co./Taiwan Li Cheng Film Company

Genre: Action/Drama/War

Starring: Polly Ling-Feng Shang-Kuan, Peng Tien, Carter Wong

Runtime: 95 minutes

Rated: unrated

Country of origin: Taiwan/Hong Kong

Release Date: 1976

➖➖➖➖➖➖ 

Return of the 18 Bronzemen

Despite its title, Return of the 18 Bronzemen is not a direct sequel to 18 Bronzemen, though, as usual in many Kuo films, actors from his other films including 18 Bronzemen return here — in this case Carter Wong, Peng Tien, and  Polly Ling-Feng Shang-Kuan — but they play different characters. This time, Carter Wong is either an all-out villain or a 1970s antihero, depending on your perspective, as Yong Zhen, an evil prince out to learn the secrets of the Shaolin temple, only so that he may topple it and its members. Return of the 18 Bronzemen is less concerned with drama and story than its predecessor, focusing more heavily on Yong Zhen’s training sequences and showdown and throwdowns with the titular golden gladiators. If you’re in the mood for straight-ahead action without the grandeur of 18 Bronzemen, this sequel is a good time.

Return of the 18 Bronzemen

Directed by: Joseph Kuo

Written by: Chien Chin

Produced by: Hong Hwa Motion Picture Company

Genre: Action/Adventure/War

Starring: Polly Ling-Feng Shang-Kuan, Peng Tien, Carter Wong

Runtime: 93 minutes

Rated: unrated

Country of origin: Taiwan

Release Date: 1976

18 Bronzemen and Return of the 18 Bronzemen screen as part of The Old School Kung Fu Fest, copresented by Museum of the Moving Image and Subway Cinema, with eight newly restored films and one fan favorite classic by filmmaker Joseph Kuo on glorious 35mm — four titles available exclusively online, December 6–13, 2021, and another five films for in-person big-screen viewing at MoMI, December 10–12. For more information, visit  http://www.movingimage.us/programs/2021/12/06/detail/old-school-kung-fu-fest-joseph-kuo/.

Joseph Perry is one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast (decadesofhorror.com/category/classicera/). He also writes for When It Was Cool (whenitwascool.com), the film websites Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com), Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), and Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom).