Retour à la 36ème chambre

Return to the 36th Chamber is one of those classic Kung-Fu movies which Shaw produces back in the 70s and 80s, whose genre is equivalent to the spaghetti westerns of Hollywood, and the protagonist Gordon Liu, the counterpart to the western's Clint Eastwood. Digitally remastered and a new print made for the Fantastic Film Fest, this is "Presented in Shaw Scope", just like the good old days.

This film is a simple story of good versus evil, told in 3 acts, which more or less sums up the narrative of martial arts films in that era.

Act One sets up the premise. Workers in a dye-mill of a small village are unhappy with their lot, having their wages cut by 20% by incoming manchu gangsters. They can't do much about their exploitation because none of them are martial arts skilled to take on the gangsters, and their boss. At first they had a minor success in getting Liu to impersonate a highly skilled Shaolin monk (one of the best comedy sequences), but their rouse got exposed when they pushed the limit of credibility by impersonating one too many times.

Act Two shows the protagonist wanting to get back at the mob. However, without real martial arts, he embarks on a journey to Shaolin Temple, to try and infiltrate and learn martial arts on the sly. After some slapstick moments, he finally gets accepted by the abbot (whom he impersonated!) but is disappointed at the teaching methods - kinda like Mr Miyagi's style in Karate Kid, but instead of painting fences, he gets to erect scaffoldings all around the temple. Nothing can keep a good man down, and he unwittingly builds strength, endurance and learns kung-fu the unorthodox way.

Act Three is where the fight fest begins. With cheesy sound effects, each obvious non-contact on film is given the maximum impact treatment. But it is rather refreshing watching the fight scenes here, with its wide angled shots to highlight clarity and detail between the sparring partners, and the use of slow-motion only to showcase stunts in different angles. You may find the speed of fights a tad too slow, with some pause in between moves, but with Yuen Wo Ping and his style being used ad-nausem in Hollywood flicks, they sure don't make fight scenes like they used to! Return to the 36th chamber gets a repeat screening on Monday, so, if you're game for a nostalgic trip down memory lane, what are you waiting for?

This film is absolutely awesome. I saw it with my brother when we were kids, and we found it hilarious.

I'm not sure if it's supposed to be funny, but by god we were hurting by the end! Like the bit where he showing the bad guys what he's learned at the Shaolin temple, and he's working his way up from showing them a mere 50% of his new powers, to "the full 90%".... What happened to 100%?

And the bit where, in order to show his pals what he's learned, he beats them all up! He whacks his best mate in the stomach, and his mate (who has teeth that are literally about two inches long sticking out of his mouth), bends over and exclaims; "eeeeuuuuurgh, GREAT KUNG FUUUUUU". It's a classic movie moment!

If you have chance to see this film, do it. It's brilliant!

I agree with another user here and have to say that this is one of the best Kung Fu movies ever! I watched this as a kid and absolutely loved it! The scaffolding scenes are brilliant and you can really empathise with this guy because he is treated as an outcast. Nice humour and fantastic kung fu this movie rocks! If you like Kung Fu you would love this!!!

More comical than the first, full of ironies, and scenes worthy of slapstick, but the script, following the lines of the first, fearless young man seeking to learn Kung Fu at the Shaolim Temple, to free the people from tyranny, here an evil employer, the ever-present and incessant fights, like dancing in the air, adorable, followed by 36 cameras. Very good, a little bit of nothing, inferior to the first one.

I was wondering how they'd make a sequel when the main character of the first movie was basically an invincible warrior by the end. The solution is equal parts clever and baffling; it definitely wasn't what I was expecting.

It's far more comedic than the first 36th Chamber of Shaolin movie, and though it features Gordon Liu again, he's not exactly doing what you'd expect (I'll leave it at that; I feel like it's almost a twist, the way this movie subverts expectations when it comes to even its core premise).

It's amusing, but also a little unsatisfying as an action movie. Sometimes, when it recreates elements of the first one, it falls a little flat. It's a messy, odd sequel, but certainly a novel one that I can respect in an odd way.