The Twelve Gold Medallions (1970) User Reviews (5)

Entertaining - all the classic elements of Shaw Bros

[wandering-star · 7/10 · 30 November 2011]

The tartars have invaded from the north, and a patriotic general is resisting with a force of 100,000 men. The traitor Chin Hui has sent out 12 medallions (decrees), to different clans to stop the resistance. Other clans (resistors) are attempting to intercept these medallions.

One such resistor is Miao Lung, from the Hua Shan clan "wavering sword style". We are introduced to him as an ordinary fried roll vendor, who becomes involved in the quest to stop the delivery of the medallions.

Lung must turn against his old master, Jin Yantang, who joins the traitors. Jin's daughter, Jin Suo, is the love interest who must choose between allegiance to her father or country.

The plot is paced well and you can't argue with such elements as sword fights atop pine trees, the five finger palm strike of death, poison darts, smoke bombs, and such characters as the "Mountain Slicing Squad" and a strange band of 5 purple clad kung fu women.

I would have scored it 8 but the fight choreography/intensity does not quite match up to the best of the genre. Some really good humour used throughout. Probably belongs in the top half of Shaw Bros films. If you're a fan of the genre, you'll likely enjoy it!

At sword's point

[unbrokenmetal · 7/10 · 26 March 2008]

The hero of this story (Yueh Hua) is trying to stop a message on 12 gold medallion's to be delivered by traitors, because he is loyal to the emperor. However, his girlfriend's father became leader of the enemies which is causing a lot of personal trouble in between battles.

Directed by Cheng Kang, who is mostly known in the west for "The 14 Amazons" (aka "Die Rache der gelben Tiger"), this is a fluently narrated movie that does not extend the fight scenes for too long each, but knows how to make them exciting, something special and to the point. A good example is right at the beginning, sword vs whip, also later when the old masters meet and one of them uses only a bamboo stick. Despite some comic relief, quite a lot of killing going on. Good quality work which was fortunately rediscovered for a great quality DVD release in the 2000s.

The Medallion.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 18 July 2018]

In the final days of the IMDb Horror board (RIP) an IMDber did a thread about Shaw Brothers flicks they had recently seen,and mentioned an SB title that has only come out in Germany with Eng Subs. Making a note of this ages ago,I decided after picking up SB's magical The Love Eterne (1963) that I'd double-bill it by picking up a medallion.

View on the film:

Taking a traditional episodic outline of the hero travelling/fighting across towns to get hold of each medallion, the screenplay by co-writer/(with Di-Yi Chen) director Kang Cheng finds a distinctive edge by dipping into the supernatural, via Miao Lung crossing swords with leaders who have rapid healing ability and unbreakable swords. Hilarious slapping a written-coda on the ending for what would have been expensive scenes to film, (Run Run lets no one run the budget over!) the writers slice the action episodes with a (unintended?) comedic side, highlighted in Miao Lung's attempt to get Chin Suo to agree to help her not die from poison.

Sending Lung and all the other warriors leaping in the air, director Kang Cheng whips up a classic SB stylisation with incredibly fluid,scatter-gun panning shots,edited with a nail gun that gives each of Lung's fights a frantic atmosphere, with the clashing of swords keeping him and the rival fighter on edge. Following the supernatural swipe of the script, Cheng gives the fight scenes a horror glaze of red candle wax blood being dabbed across the screen from each finishing move Lung delivers to collect the next of the twelve medallions.

Starts off strong

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 6 December 2021]

THE TWELVE GOLDEN MEDALLIONS is another 'martial world' story from the director of THE 14 AMAZONS. Yueh Hua essays the role of the upstanding hero, tasked with destroying the titular objects which are being used to spread sedition against the emperor by a renegade general. A huge cast of traitors, love interests and bad guys are ranged against him, and the film offers a multitude of fluid fight scenes to engage any viewer. It starts off particularly strongly, with an excellent street set-piece reminiscent of a spaghetti western duel, but it loses a little steam along the way and gets bogged down with Chin Ping's hotheadedness in the middle part before picking up for a decent climax. Fan Mei Sheng, Wang Chung, Ku Feng and Wang Hsieng all make welcome appearances.

A BLISTTERING CLASSIC OF ENTERTAINMENT

[rossmcdee1 · 10/10 · 10 May 2023]

Films, music and food are all a matter of personal taste , yet also have distinctive qualities than be quantified and compared.

Technical brilliance means little if in the service of creative redundancy.

Creative brilliance can be negated by technical ineptitude.

This film is breathtaking.

When its over most viewers familiar with the MartialArts Genre would be breathless, it really delivers the goods and could hold its own with any other classic of the genre due to its ceaseless creativity and technical skill , craft and ingenuity.

If been watching MartialArts films for about 35 years and seen 1,000's (I used to sell & distribute them ,& managing a video store), and this film is still highly entertaining & impressive now, even though made over 50 years ago.

Don't bother reading a story synopsis about this film- its an action film and its the action that matters (though it does have a good storyline as well) , just watch this brilliant film with no preconceptions and enjoy the ride.