RETURN OF THE 18 BRONZEMEN is in some ways more interesting because one has to figure out what the producers were aiming at. The focal character, instead of being a sympathetic champion of good, is a rotter named Ai Sung-Chueh (Carter Wong). He's a prince in the hierarchy of the Ching empire, and when the old Emperor is about to succumb to illness, Ai somehow forges the ruler's will and makes himself emperor following the old guy's death. Even speaking as someone who knows nothing about Chinese royal customs, I find this gambit hard to countenance. However, the film doesn't spend too much time with palace intrigue.
Instead, Ai takes a vacation from rulership and goes out among his people incognito. He rescues a young woman from some thugs and escorts her to her husband, apparently with no selfish motives in mind. But when he sees the husband (Tien Peng) practicing Shaolin kung fu, Ai decides to challenge the guy. When Ai loses the "friendly" match, he becomes obsessed with obtaining the same superlative skills. Again keeping his identity secret, Ai becomes a Shaolin monk. When he's become proficient, he's subjected to the ultimate test: vanquishing the eighteen Bronze Men-- some of whom even wear armor-- and escaping various automatic traps.
However, in an odd twist, just before Ai passes the last test, the monks are informed of his princely identity, and they dismiss him, claiming that they're not able to take risks with royalty. (It may be that they're also refusing him because of their earlier established hostility to the Ching.) The aggrieved emperor returns to his court, which seems to have got along quite well without him. However, some separate scenes introduce a female martial artist (Shang Kuan) who has some trouble with some rowdies on her way to meet the emperor. She invades Ai's court and tries to kill him with some odd weapons-- notably, a sword that can shoot other sword-blades. Ai defends himself ably with his Shaolin skills, refusing to let his courtiers intervene. After a blistering fight-scene between the principals-- probably one of the more realistic male/female battles in kung-fu cinema-- the lady assassin runs away, and though Ai sends soldiers after her, her fate is left up in the air. As a finale, one of Ai's flunkies brings him the news that the Shaolin monastery has mounted an offensive against the Chings, and informs Ai that the generals plan to decimate the monks with a great new weapon. The film ends with a close-up on Ai's obsessed face, meditating on the coming destruction of the monks who denied him his wishes.
RETURN is, to be sure, much more slapdash than the earlier film. Yet it deserves minor kudos for trying something different. Ai is an unmitigated villain, admirable only for his gutsiness in fighting his own battles. Still, there's not much psychological heft behind his actions, so it may be that the change-up resulted from someone, be it Carter Wong or some harried screenwriter, simply getting tired of the same old heroics.
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