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#674 - Return to the 36th Chamber
Lau Kar-leung, 1980
When a group of ruthless Manchurians interfere with the operating of a Chinese dyeing mill, a small-time conman is brought in to ameliorate the situation in one way or another.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is probably one of my favourite martial-arts films thanks to the lavish production values provided by the Shaw Brothers studios and the physically talented performers that take centre-stage in the tale of Gordon Liu's young Chinese student who opts to fight back against the province's Manchurian overlords by mastering kung-fu at the local Shaolin temple. Two sequels were made to the film - this film and Disciples of the 36th Chamber, the latter of which I already reviewed. I was ultimately unimpressed with Disciples of the 36th Chamber because it decided to play the original film's training-centric narrative for disappointingly broad comedy using an extremely foolish lead who had to be bailed out of trouble by Liu's strict Shaolin monk; even the action-packed finale did little to redeem the film as a whole. As a result, I was hoping that the original film's other sequel would at least prove to be a bit more palatable thanks to the fact that Liu apparently played the actual lead in this one. Unfortunately, it seems that The 36th Chamber of Shaolin really wasn't intended to yield sequels as Return to the 36th Chamber proves underwhelming despite my relatively heightened expectations.
The main problem comes from the fact that Gordon Liu does not play student-turned-warrior-monk San Te, who he played in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Disciples of the 36th Chamber. Instead, he plays a lowly con artist named Chu, who is willing to impersonate Shaolin master San Te if it gets him some money. This impresses some naive Chinese dye-mill workers who want to use him in order to fool some vindictive Manchurians who have taken over their workplace. Of course, this causes no end of trouble as Chu is ultimately made to serve the temple, who understandably treat him as a nuisance. This leads to Liu having to go through another extended training montage that attempts to milk some comedy out of his irresponsible novice being made to endure some punishing training (most memorably involving his being made to wash up at a well without using a bucket). While The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was able to make its hero undergoing various trials fairly compelling due to their inventive nature and serious approach to the material, here the attempt to make Liu's character into a foolish Jackie Chan type fails pretty miserably and makes the bulk of the film a bit of a chore to watch. Having it so that there is an experienced Shaolin monk named San Te in the film (even though he is being played by a different actor) only serves to make things a bit more illogical and confusing. At first I thought that Liu was originally going to be revealed to be San Te disguising himself as a beggar but the truth is actually more disappointing for a variety of reasons.
As poor as Return to the 36th Chamber is, it isn't totally terrible as it not only has the eye-catching Shaw Brothers aesthetic going on but also manages to provide an appropriately exciting climax during its final fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, to get there you do have to sit through a rather dry eighty minutes where the bare-bones plot rehashes that of the original film in a way that initially seems confusing and feels longer despite being shorter. The decision to add a comical bent to the proceedings fails because Liu is much better at being serious than clowning around like Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung. I guess I should be grateful that the humour isn't quite as exaggerated as that of Disciples of the 36th Chamber, which was definitely undone as a result of that decision. The innovation that made the original film's training sequences so memorable is absent here, neutering this film's main draw considerably. Your appreciation of this film may depend on how much you like old-school martial-arts films, but outside of its ending there's very little to make Return to the 36th Chamber stand out on its own terms.
Lau Kar-leung, 1980
When a group of ruthless Manchurians interfere with the operating of a Chinese dyeing mill, a small-time conman is brought in to ameliorate the situation in one way or another.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is probably one of my favourite martial-arts films thanks to the lavish production values provided by the Shaw Brothers studios and the physically talented performers that take centre-stage in the tale of Gordon Liu's young Chinese student who opts to fight back against the province's Manchurian overlords by mastering kung-fu at the local Shaolin temple. Two sequels were made to the film - this film and Disciples of the 36th Chamber, the latter of which I already reviewed. I was ultimately unimpressed with Disciples of the 36th Chamber because it decided to play the original film's training-centric narrative for disappointingly broad comedy using an extremely foolish lead who had to be bailed out of trouble by Liu's strict Shaolin monk; even the action-packed finale did little to redeem the film as a whole. As a result, I was hoping that the original film's other sequel would at least prove to be a bit more palatable thanks to the fact that Liu apparently played the actual lead in this one. Unfortunately, it seems that The 36th Chamber of Shaolin really wasn't intended to yield sequels as Return to the 36th Chamber proves underwhelming despite my relatively heightened expectations.
The main problem comes from the fact that Gordon Liu does not play student-turned-warrior-monk San Te, who he played in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Disciples of the 36th Chamber. Instead, he plays a lowly con artist named Chu, who is willing to impersonate Shaolin master San Te if it gets him some money. This impresses some naive Chinese dye-mill workers who want to use him in order to fool some vindictive Manchurians who have taken over their workplace. Of course, this causes no end of trouble as Chu is ultimately made to serve the temple, who understandably treat him as a nuisance. This leads to Liu having to go through another extended training montage that attempts to milk some comedy out of his irresponsible novice being made to endure some punishing training (most memorably involving his being made to wash up at a well without using a bucket). While The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was able to make its hero undergoing various trials fairly compelling due to their inventive nature and serious approach to the material, here the attempt to make Liu's character into a foolish Jackie Chan type fails pretty miserably and makes the bulk of the film a bit of a chore to watch. Having it so that there is an experienced Shaolin monk named San Te in the film (even though he is being played by a different actor) only serves to make things a bit more illogical and confusing. At first I thought that Liu was originally going to be revealed to be San Te disguising himself as a beggar but the truth is actually more disappointing for a variety of reasons.
As poor as Return to the 36th Chamber is, it isn't totally terrible as it not only has the eye-catching Shaw Brothers aesthetic going on but also manages to provide an appropriately exciting climax during its final fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, to get there you do have to sit through a rather dry eighty minutes where the bare-bones plot rehashes that of the original film in a way that initially seems confusing and feels longer despite being shorter. The decision to add a comical bent to the proceedings fails because Liu is much better at being serious than clowning around like Jackie Chan or Sammo Hung. I guess I should be grateful that the humour isn't quite as exaggerated as that of Disciples of the 36th Chamber, which was definitely undone as a result of that decision. The innovation that made the original film's training sequences so memorable is absent here, neutering this film's main draw considerably. Your appreciation of this film may depend on how much you like old-school martial-arts films, but outside of its ending there's very little to make Return to the 36th Chamber stand out on its own terms.