← Back to Reviews
in
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, 1978
A young man named San Te (Chia-Hui Liu) sees many of his classmates taken out by the Manchu government. Injured, but able to escape, San Te manages to make it to a Shaolin temple where he begs the monks to train him in kung fu. While he is at first rejected and scorned by the men in the temple, San Te earns their respect as he shows proficiency in the various training exercises.
This film felt like it was about 85% San Te training at the temple and I was all about it. The series of different chambers (ie levels) are full of exercises that could have easily skewed campy (like when two knives are strapped to his arms and he must carry heavy buckets of water lest he stab himself in the abdomen), but the sequences look so good and Liu's physicality is so on point that is ends up being incredibly engaging instead.
The plot itself is incredibly minimal. I can't honestly say that there is a lot of character development. But also . . . who cares? The flow of the film is so solid and the progression through the different chambers is so much fun that you just go with it. You get to the end and you're like, "Oh yeah! There was a bad guy!".
This was a fun, light kung fu film with a great central performance and a dynamic structure. My only complaint is that I could only get hold of an English dub, and while most of the voices were fine, the one female character was SO BAD. I can only imagine the voice coach was like "Can you gasp between each word? Great. Also, more shrill. More. More. Perfect."
Highly recommended.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, 1978
A young man named San Te (Chia-Hui Liu) sees many of his classmates taken out by the Manchu government. Injured, but able to escape, San Te manages to make it to a Shaolin temple where he begs the monks to train him in kung fu. While he is at first rejected and scorned by the men in the temple, San Te earns their respect as he shows proficiency in the various training exercises.
This film felt like it was about 85% San Te training at the temple and I was all about it. The series of different chambers (ie levels) are full of exercises that could have easily skewed campy (like when two knives are strapped to his arms and he must carry heavy buckets of water lest he stab himself in the abdomen), but the sequences look so good and Liu's physicality is so on point that is ends up being incredibly engaging instead.
The plot itself is incredibly minimal. I can't honestly say that there is a lot of character development. But also . . . who cares? The flow of the film is so solid and the progression through the different chambers is so much fun that you just go with it. You get to the end and you're like, "Oh yeah! There was a bad guy!".
This was a fun, light kung fu film with a great central performance and a dynamic structure. My only complaint is that I could only get hold of an English dub, and while most of the voices were fine, the one female character was SO BAD. I can only imagine the voice coach was like "Can you gasp between each word? Great. Also, more shrill. More. More. Perfect."
Highly recommended.