'The 36th Chamber of Shaolin' review by MartialHorror

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THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN(1978)
(directed by Chia-Liang Yu)

"A Monk that doesn't mind killing is a monk from my own heart"- Signed by MartialHorror.

Plot: A rebel loses all of his family and friends to a corrupt government and ends up joining the Shaolin Temple. He becomes a master of martial arts, and sets out to get revenge. Also known as “Master Killer”.

Review:

“The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” is often regarded as a kung fu classic. Wow, fans sure tend to use this term liberally. Much like the Jimmy Wang Yu vehicle “The One-Armed Swordsman”, it’s more important than it is good. That’s not to say that “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” isn’t a good genre piece, but I’m never going to take anyone who calls this a classic very seriously. But then again, sometimes I don't even take myself very seriously. In fact, if you strongly disagree with me, just remember that I enjoy Uwe Boll films. Clearly I have issues.

“The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” begins with training scene, and ends with a training scene. The story starts off a bunch of people who I can’t really tell apart joining a rebellion against the Qing Dynasty. They are discovered and get their asses handed to them, and only one man escapes. That man is San Te(Liu). He escapes to the Shaolin Temple to learn martial arts. The problem is that while skilled, the temple monks do not believe in involving themselves in worldly affairs. Sucks for San Te. Nevertheless, he is determined to learn kung fu so he can get revenge against the Qings. So he must enter the 35 Chambers of Shaolin and conquer each one. Each Chamber is a different way of honing his strength and skills.

This is where things become complicated because this takes up most of the movie. In fact, “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” is mostly one big training montage. I’d even say that it probably has the longest montage in montage history, and I’ve seen “Rocky 4”. If you’ve seen “Master of the Flying Guillotine”, think about how long the tournament(that has nothing to do with the story) takes, but replace that with a montage and you have this movie. It is fascinating, but not exactly riveting.

After he masters all 35 Chambers, he requests to make a 36th Chamber, which would be more secular, training youths to involve themselves in world affairs. He’s practically kicked out, and decides to go off on his own. He recruits some potential pupils, although I’m not entirely sure why as they don’t really do anything. Finally, San Te gets his big chance for revenge.

“The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” has a unique irony about it that sadly, is never really covered in the actual film. The abbot seems to admire and approve of San Te, while a ‘big brother’ acts as his foil. We presume that this monk is an antagonist, but they never go that far. But what makes this amusing is that the monk is actually correct about San Te. San Te has no interest in keeping his promise to avoid worldly affairs. The abbot seems to ignore this, and when he realizes that San Te was that kind of guy, is furious. The dilemma that monks must face in choosing between the world and the spiritual realm is brought up, but never explored. Instead, we just get a chop socky kung fu film…..Wait, why am I complaining? I LOVE THE CHOP SOCKY KUNG FU FILM!

When it comes to its fight scenes, the film does not disappoint. There are many fight scenes, some with fists, others with weapons(of various sorts). They’re all pretty cool, boosted by the decent production values. Yup, you get plenty of extras, elaborate sets, costumes and lots of time put into the battles. It’s not to see effort in these kinds of films.

“The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” is one big training segment, and has some structure flaws, but fans usually don’t care about that. We just want the fight scenes, and the film delivers in that regard. But classic? That might be a stretch. It is good within its genre, but I’ve seen much better.

Violence: Rated PG-13. There is some. Maybe it’s R worthy.

Nudity: None.

Overall: If you’re a fan of the genre, check out “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin”. Especially if you’re into old school kung fu.

3/4 STARS


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