On DVD: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

Directed by Liu Chia-Liang

Starring Gordon Liu, Lo Lieh

Here's another release in The Shaw Brothers Classic Collection from Dragon Dynasty, The 36^th Chamber of Shaolin, also know as Master Killer. It's a classic from director Liu Chia-Liang, the director of other Kung Fu classics like My Young Auntie, Mad Monkey, Return to the 36^th Chamber, Drunken Master II, and I don't know if it's a classic,  but I love the title, Drunken Monkey.

The Movie

San Te, played by Gordon Liu, is a young student who finds his patriotism fired up by the zeal of his teacher. He ends up getting mixed up with the rebellion against the oppressive Manchus. The Manchus find out the school is a hotbed of rebellion so they crack down on the school and many of the local businesses they suspect of supporting the rebellion. During the crackdown the Manchus end up wiping out San Te's family along with most of his classmates. He and a surviving classmate escape town, only to be caught by a group of Manchus. San Te's classmate sacrifices himself so that San Te can escape and hopefully find refuge at the Shaolin Temple where they had both planned to become powerful enough in Kung Fu to return to their hometown and make their revenge. San Te, wounded during his escape, barely makes it to the Temple where he has to be nursed back to help by the monks.

While the monks are suspicious of San Te's motives and ambition he is ultimately allowed to stay at the Temple. After months of sweeping and other menial tasks he has not seen one trace of the Kung Fu training that the temple is famous for. Frustrated he asks another monk about beginning training. Kind of like the Masons it turns out that all he had to do was ask.

Asked at what level he wishes to begin his training the ambitious San Te replies that he would like to start at the most advanced level. After being humiliated San Te is told that all students must begin at the most basic level. The training starts with San Te having to go to breakfast. To get to the dining hall all the students must get across a water trap about twenty foot long by leaping onto floating logs. Of course the first thing San Te tries to do is climb the wall and circumvent the water trap. Obviously San Te is not the first monk to try this and is redirected around to the other entrance. San Te eventually figures out this obstacle and advances to the next chamber. San Te advances rapidly through the training and eventually is offered his pick of positions at the temple.

A training sequence of some sort is common enough in movies, of course this one is about half the movie. It's far from the run of the mill training montage that you find in nearly every action movie anymore.  Liu Chia-Liang takes his time and shows you the wheels turning in San Te's mind as he figures out each obstacle and shows his spiritual growth along with the advancement of his Kung Fu technique.

This film is famous for the training sequence and it does take up about an hour of the film, but Liu Chai-Liang takes his time introducing the characters and setting up the story.  And of course the training has to be used somehow. Without the beginning and the ending the movie would not be the classic that it is.

The movie starts out with a masterful display of Kung Fu by Gordon Liu. It doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of the movie but it's almost worth the price of the DVD by itself. It's easy to see just from the opening sequence how this movie made Gordon Liu a star. His Kung Fu is great of course but he has a charisma that really leaps off the screen. The Shaw Brothers had a lot of actors under contract so you'll likely see a lot of familiar faces in any Shaw Brothers films and this one is no exception. Be sure to watch the commentary, RZA will point out what other movies a bunch of the actors you see were in.

9/10

The  Video

The transfer is beautiful. It's presented in Shaw-Scope so you get to see it in it's original widescreen format. If your used to getting your Kung Fu from cheap multi packs or from watching cut up versions on TV, treat yourself to this DVD and see a Kung Fu movie the way it should be seen.

9/10

The Audio:

The audio is all mono but you can choose between Cantonese, Mandarin and English. There are English and Spanish subtitles. The English dub is not your average “wanna fight, fight me” dub. It's actually very good and often makes more sense than the subtitles. There is really nothing wrong with the audio but it hard to give anything with a mono soundtrack more than an eight out of ten.

8/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features

This DVD has pretty good extras for a contemporary movie. Considering this film was made in 1978 in Hong Kong, the level of extras you get is amazing. There is an excellent commentary track by Andy Klein and RZA of the Wu Tang Clan. There are also interviews with Gordon Liu and a short documentary about Shaolin Kung Fu. The artwork is great and the case has the nice locking tabs.

9/10

This really is a great DVD. It should be on the shelf of any Kung Fu fan. It is also a great representative of the genre. If you only have a couple of Kung Fu movies in your collection this should be one of them (everybody's got at least a couple of Kung Fu DVDs don't they).

Overall (Not an Average) 9/10

The Review

The Movie 9/10

The Video 9/10

The Audio 8/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 9/10

Overall (Not an Average) 9/10

-Mike Young