36ª camera dello Shaolin

If you want to see some of the coolest Shaolin training sequences ever, check this one out. Gordon Liu always plays the best young Shaolin fighting monks (he's done it ALOT) and this is his great directing debut. This movie actually has a story to it. Although the hero wants to learn shaolin kung fu for direct revenge at first, his training causes him to seek a different path. During this path, he goes through alot of crazy funky training sequences. If you're a kung-fu fan who loves to see insane tests of skill, this is your movie. Plus, if you love this one, see "Shaolin and Wutang" with Gordon Liu and Adam Cheng.

This is THE Hong Kong martial arts movie every fan of the genre MUST see. After watching this you'll be in no doubt why Tarantino picked the star, Chia Hui Liu, for two parts in his Kill Bill double.

The Shaw brothers demonstrate their mastery of the martial arts movie in this 1978 classic. Following the fortunes of a young rebel as he escapes from the tyranny of the government to a Shaolin temple where he hopes to learn superior kung fu techniques, we see his development from an inexperienced boy to an unrivalled master.

It is wonderful to see the rigours of training in each 'chamber'. The water crossing scenes are a delight. And some of the pain these students go through to perfect their bodies and art is impressive indeed.

I cannot recommend this enough. Indeed everyone should attempt to snap up any Shaw Brothers movie from around that period. "The 36th Chamber" stands head and shoulders above the rest, and is what all Martial Arts directors should aspire to.

Thanks Shaw's and Chia Hui Liu for a truly great experience EVERY time.

Wow, I had no idea. Turns out "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" is one of the best movies I've ever seen.

A simple man, his friends and his father are victimized by a brutal Manchu dictator and he is run out of town. Injured, he makes his way to the Shaolin Temple where he is determined to learn kung-fu. He starts at the top and works his way down, encountering insane training exercises and rigorous obstacles along the way. He proves to be a worthy candidate and then some in what turns into one of the coolest revenge plots in a movie ever.

Amazing choreography, stunts, violence, fight scenes and much more highlight this wicked cool flick. I recommend seeing it for sure.

9 out of 10, kids.

Anyone familiar with the hip-hop super-group the Wu-Tang Clan knows that "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" (a.k.a. "Shaolin Master Killer"), directed in 1978 by Liu Chia-Liang, is essential viewing for any martial arts movie fan. This movie started the whole "good-guy-gets-his-butt-kicked-and-undergoes-martial arts-training-to-exact-vengeance" storyline that's been used so many times in the martial arts movies since (i.e., the American "Karate Kid" movies). In it, anti-Manchu patriot San Te (Gordon Liu) is a humble country boy who is cast out of his village when Manchu soldiers (led by the villainous Lo Lieh) slaughter his parents, orphaning him. He manages to make it to the famous Shaolin Temple, where he is nursed back to health by the monks living there, and soon undergoes a rigorous and dangerous regiment of training to master the 35 "chambers" (styles) of kung-fu. In seven years, he completes his training, mastering all 35 styles, invents a brand-new weapon (the three-section staff), and suggests creating a 36th chamber - to spread kung-fu beyond the Shaolin Temple's walls and bring it to the masses. The whole story is pretty formulaic (what martial arts movie from the '70s doesn't have a formulaic plot?), but what gets this movie going is its rousing training sequences. These are not the run-of-the-mill stuff we're used to seeing in these movies. San Te's quest to become a martial arts warrior is a tortuous journey of self-actualization, a kind of virtue commonly lacking in the genre; San Te actually becomes a better person as a result of his experiences at the Shaolin Temple. Most grind-house cinema aficionados love this movie (Wu-Tang Clan co-founder the RZA in "The Wu-Tang Manual" does an entire section on the martial arts movies that influenced his development of the Wu-Tang Clan and much of their underlying philosophy). Finally, I'm glad to see an old-school martial arts movie that has its heart and brain in the right places.

10/10

for some eight years, Liu Chia Liang worked as martial arts choreographer at shaw bros., especially with legendary director Chang Cheh, from whom Liu clearly learned mise-en-scene, as the french call it - a director's skill in using camera, editing and theme to move from one dramatic episode to another. in turn, Liu tried to show Chang Che the possibilities inherent in traditional kung fu, but to little avail - Chang Che really always thought himself a maker of action-adventure films, not primarily a martial arts director. so Liu began making his own films at shaw bros., and demonstrated what he learned from Chang Che, while developing his own themes concerning the the traditional arts we've come to call kung fu.

one decided difference between Liu and Chang - indeed, between Liu and most of the other shaw bros. directors of the period - is that Liu believed that if the fundamental message of kung-fu - which is really about good health and spiritual growth - is to be carried over to the audience, the arts involved would need to be presented in as realistic a fashion as possible - no wire works, no unnecessary leaping over walls, no mythical 'iron fist' technique of jamming one's hand through someone's chest. and once that decision was made, clearly it would also be necessary to develop plots and characters as equally realistic, or the effort would be for nothing.

Liu's movies are thus 'about' kung fu in the purest sense; they are not about fighting, but about discipline. they are not about revenge, they are about using one's training to get beyond revenge.

although the heavy tone of this film obscures it a little, the fact remains that the characters in this film are all very believably human in a way that Chang Che's characters never were. and they don't learn their skills all that quickly - the time frame of the shaolin episode is at least three years - but by doing the same excersizes over and over again until they are perfectly comfortable with them. at which point, of course, they can perform with almost no show of effort.

by the way, there are documentary films of real performances of real shaolin monks demonstrating real martial arts - Liu is pretty close to the real thing, here.

Liu, by the way, appears to be the son of someone who trained with lam sai wing - aka 'butcher' wing, but in no way the country bumpkin he's sometimes made out to be, as in yuen woo ping's 'magnificent butcher'. lam sai wing studied with the legendary Wong Fei Hong, who was taught not only by his classically trained father, but by a well-known former shaolin monk - in short, the Liu credentials are rock solid.

Gordon Liu, star of the film, is Chia Leung's adoptive brother. he is probably the finest performer of traditional kung fu ever filmed, bar none, and utterly fascinating to watch. he also does a solid piece of acting in this film, as well.

shaw bros. quality, Liu bros. skill - don't ask, just see it.