Ru lai ba gua gun

It starts with the father ordering his sons into battle. Bruce fights like a whirlwind, sends his younger brother away, somehow loses his armor and retreats. He is wounded and helped by monks. The enemy commander looks for him at the temple. The abbot uses magic kung fu defense. Bruce tries to leave the monastery as soon as he can walk, but he has much more to learn.

Bruce Leung was the son of an action director. His father was classical Chinese opera trained. Oddly, Bruce's first martial arts style was Goju ryu karate. He began movie work as an extra and action director. 1974 was his break out year when he starred in "Call Me Dragon", then "Kidnap in Rome", "Little Godfather from Hong Kong", and "Little Superman". Despite some success as a lead he returned to extra roles. In the late 1970s he again starred in a few movies as a Bruce Lee clone. In 1988 he retired from movies but returned in 2004. Stephen Chow brought him back as the villain in "Kung Fu Hustle", in my opinion his greatest role. I must also mention his role in 2010's "Gallants" because I rate that movie 9/10.

The opening battle sequence is done well using a minimum of actors. This movie came out at about the end of the golden age of martial arts movies. Audiences had seen everything done to death and the genre was dying if not for the creative geniuses like Jackie Chan and the Yuen clan. There is an attempt to do something creative here in the "magical" special effects but they just seem cartoonish and I would preferred more straight forward fighting.

Also known as "Eight Diagram Fighter," this movie came out two years after Liu Chia Liang's enormously popular "Eight Diagram Pole Fighter," and unfortunately suffers by comparison. Still, "Eight Diagram Cudgel" is quite satisfying and is worth renting or even purchasing as one of the Black Belt Theatre's Double Feature DVDs (along with "Magnificent Natural Fist").

"Eight Diagram Cudgel" covers most of the same narrative and philosophical territory as "Eight Diagram Fighter," having to do with the Yiang family's betrayal by the government and the fifth son's retreat to the Shaolin temple. Like Liu Chia Liang's entrant, "Cudgel" is almost purely a drama with little or no inappropriate humor.

It's not hard to see why "Cudgel" has passed out of the public's consciousness. There are few recognizable stars, the main character lacks charisma, there are probably too few kung fu scenes by most fan's standards, and the overall quality of the kung fu doesn't compare to "Eight Diagram Pole Fighter." However, "Cudgel" has the following points in its favor:

• as a drama it is more effective than "Eight Diagram Pole Fighter," not being marred by Alexander Fu Sheng's over-the-top performance and the general incoherence of LCL's version (caused largely in part by Fu Sheng's untimely death during filming)

• the kung fu is still more than adequate. There are quite a few worthy pole fighters in this movie, and the choreography, editing and camera-work/lighting are more than competent

• while not being as over-the-top as, say, ZU or Hero, "Cudgel" does drift over into the world of "magic kung fu", and I would say effectively so. There are a few moments of balletic wire fu that really are quite sublime, and many of the other "magic kung fu" special-effects are simplistic but charming.

Kung fu fans would be well-served to check out this alternate interpretation of the Yiang family story. Overall I would rate it somewhere around 6.5 or 7 stars out of 10.

Happy viewing!