The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)

Tagline: Widely considered to be the greatest kung fu flick of all time.

Curiosity: Just look at the tagline. Also it heavily influenced Wu-Tang Clan. So, there’s that.

Plot: Spurred by his teacher, San Te (Gordon Liu) joins a group of insurgents looking to overthrow Qing rule. He’s quickly found out, though, and his father sacrifices himself to allow San Te to escape. Eventually, he ends up studying martial arts at a Shaolin temple. Over the course of a year-plus, he studies the 35 chambers of Shaolin in the hopes of liberating his town.

Thoughts: 36th Chamber has a reputation for being a gory, but artistically impressive, kung fu flick. It almost earns that reputation in 2011. It is indeed surprisingly bloody for a ’70s flick. While it’s certainly not on the torture porn side of things, the use of blood gives the film a certain amount of grit lacking in a genre that emphasizes showmanship over realism.

Not that it doesn’t have its flash. 36th Chamber packs plenty of fight scenes. While it goes through a considerable dry spell in its second hour, the action is solid throughout. The battles get brutal, but tastefully so. They’re not the best I’ve ever seen, but they certainly held my attention. But these things are to be expected. What sets 36th Chamber apart is its training section.

Generally speaking, training scenes in kung fu movies are filler. That’s why you don’t see them in Bruce Lee movies. They murder the pacing, both in terms of plot and visuals. But they do pad out the running time. If you want to know why kung fu movies run two hours when Western B-movie actioners run 90 minutes, there’s your answer right there. 36th Chamber, however, is actually at its strongest during this section. We see San Te achieve a peace who couldn’t find as a rebellious youth, and the exercises he practices actually kind of make sense. Other kung fu flicks pull shit out of their asses when their protagonists learn some devastating new move; 36th Chamber actually emphasizes practical tests.

After this portion, though, the film kind of stalls. San Te returns to his hometown and gets his revenge, but the movie keeps going towards a fourth act that feels superfluous. Still, I get why this film is so lauded.

Reflection: The subtitles on my DVD call the main character “San Ta.” Just one of many mistranslations.