#The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

[kungfuwushuworld]

[ourlittlesister2015]

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin [少林三十六房] (1978), dir. Lau Kar-leung

[omercifulheaves]

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)

[hannibal-or-maybe-just-rex]

1978: the 36th chamber of Shaolin. IMDb 7.6

[891movies]

462 to go

Louisiana Story (1948, dir. Robert Flaherty): The setting is lovely and beautifully shot but man did this one bore me.

The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short (1966, dir. André Delvaux): The protagonist is such a wet tissue of a human being but that just makes this story of devastating, all-encompassing obsession work all the better.

Pierrot le Fou (1965, dir. Jean-Luc Godard): This project has fully Stockholm Syndromed me into enjoying Godard.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978, dir. Lau Kar-leung): Not really my cup of tea but it's very well made and surprisingly funny.

Shoot the Piano Player (1960, dir. François Truffaut): Truffaut has always been a bit too esoteric for me but that wasn't the case here - I actually loved this movie! What can I say, I can't resist a pathetic male lead or witty, foul-mouthed waitresses, not to mention how beautiful the film looks - Paris in the 1960s is ever charming.

Bigger Than Life (1956, dir. Nicholas Ray): A beautifully crafted, nightmarish melodrama. Obviously the science is 100% bullshit but the anxiety and fear are very real. It also kind of shocked me how openly critical it is of at those at the time sacred concepts of the American Dream, the noble patriarch and the nuclear family.

Body Heat (1981, dir. Lawrence Kasdan): A very fun little piece of 80s sleaze. Kathleen Turner is mesmerizing, a modern day (at the time) Lauren Bacall. And people really aren't sweaty enough in modern day cinema.

The Five Venoms (1978, dir. Chang Cheh): Actually, I think I'm starting to get this genre. The structure felt strange to me but the plot was gripping and the characters fun, if not particularly complex (Toad was my favorite). The amount of awful wigs - and fake beards! - delighted me to no end.

[latenightcinephile]

Film #903: 'The 36th Chamber of Shaolin'/'Shaolin Master Killer', dir. Lau Kar-leung, 1978.

A bit of a shorter write-up this time, because there's not too much to dig into here - it's just a really fun film. If you are expecting something emotive and meaningful from this write-up, you're in the wrong cinema. There's nothing particularly deep about the plot of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (included in the book as Shaolin Master Killer). This film is certainly a crowd-pleaser rather than a philosophical treatise. What its inclusion here indicates is how a particularly devoted director can forward the narrative structures of a genre single-handedly.

Lau Kar-leung started his career as a fight choreographer for the Shaw Brothers studio, working closely with the director Chang Cheh (who later directed Five Deadly Venoms, also 1978) before taking the directorial role once the genre exploded in the early 1970s. Most of the martial arts films a Western audience would encounter during this boom would have had Lau's involvement in some form. His adeptness with fight choreography makes his films singularly identifiable - each fight scene in a Lau film moves the narrative forward, rather than merely being a spectacular set-piece. In particular, his films codified the 'training montage' trope, and The 36th Chamber has some of the most streamlined training montages of any classic martial arts film. Let's start with the actual plot of the film, though, because it acts as a framework (even though it's quite a rudimentary one) for the martial arts action. China is ruled over by the oppressive Manchurian government, and several students are embroiled in a local uprising. This cabal is quickly squashed, but a survivor, Liu Yude (Gordon Liu), swears revenge on the local Manchurian general for the deaths of his friends and family. Liu sees learning kung fu at the famed Shaolin temple as his only course of action, even though the temple famously refuses to teach the art to laypeople. The second section of the film, and its largest, follows Liu's training as the monk San Te. The temple is divided into 35 'chambers' where students perfect specific techniques. One chamber requires the acolytes to carry water uphill with knives strapped to their upper arms - weakness in the arms is rewarded with a sharp jab in the ribs. Another has dozens of heavy bags strung at head height, where Liu must repeatedly headbutt the bags on his way to burn incense at an altar (the teacher in this chamber has thick calluses on his head from his decades of experience). Having mastered the skills without losing his desire for revenge, Liu asks the masters if he might institute a 36th chamber, where the teaching of kung fu can be made available to anyone. The masters refuse, instead sending him out to collect donations in the city. This refusal is a calculated ploy by the temple to allow Liu to achieve his aims to aid the populace. He gathers his first students and succeeds in both defeating the local Manchurian regime and bringing the first secular students to the temple.

It should be noted that The 36th Chamber is not particularly concerned with exploring the ethical or philosophical implications of its plot. The film could find itself having to tread a fine line between Buddhism's famous non-violence and advocacy of violence as a tool to fight oppressive regimes. Instead, Lau completely ignores this question. The temple accepts that its martial arts might be a useful weapon for the greater good, and no time at all is given to discussion of this. And why should it be? This is a martial arts film, and it would be a foolish decision to make the film fret over the ethics. Lau is far more interested in encouraging the viewer to build a vocabulary of martial arts techniques that can then be recognised later on. The fact that only monks can learn kung fu has an interesting implication: right from the beginning we see martial arts combat, but because these characters can't have learned martial arts they must be doing the graceful equivalent of messy brawling. And yes, when we see the later fight sequences the other characters seem distracted and sloppy in comparison to San Te's techniques. More interesting, though, is how we make sense of the fights in the third act.

The third act has two types of fight: broader fights against groups of opponents, and the climactic battle against General Tien Ta (Lo Lieh). In the earlier combats, we're assisted in identifying how each of the chambers of the temple has provided parts of San Te's style. Here he is encouraging someone to use a hammer in a fight, just like in the gong chamber! Here he is balancing on reeds, like in his first lesson! When we see him fight, there are headbutts and sword techniques that are drawn directly from his earlier training with no amendments or ornamentation. In his individual fights, though, a progression occurs: a synthesis of these techniques where we might recognise, just vaguely, the same type of leg-crossing jump he uses in a particular lesson. In other words, Liu's character development is mostly charted through the smoothness of his fighting style. Like the viewer, Liu faces each chamber with initial confusion: how can this task possibly assist in developing martial arts? As he absorbs each new technique into his repertoire, though, his outlook changes as well. His indignant impatience with the Manchurian rulers is tempered by the time he spends training, and his anger turns into tactical planning. Only by mastering all the chambers of the Shaolin temple could he become adept enough to succeed in his quest, and by doing so, he also becomes the kind of person who deserves to succeed.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin becomes a much more fitting title for the film, then, than Shaolin Master Killer. Under the latter title, the audience is primed to watch this film looking for the action and violence. By referring to the 36th chamber, which we are told early in San Te's training doesn't yet exist, we're encouraged to look ahead to his eventual accomplishment, and the things he has to learn in order for that ambition to become a reality.

[thelastgoodcountry]

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, Lau Kar-leung, 1978

[cinemashocknet]

[boardsdonthitback]

Gordon Liu, Lee Hoi-Sang - The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)

[anamon-book]

少林寺三十六房 東映株式会社映像事業部 監督＝リュー・チアリァン（ラウ・カーリョン）／出演＝リュー・チアフィ（リュー・チャーフィー） ほか

[maggiecheungs]

help me decide which ones to prioritise before my mubi membership runs out! and please feel free to tell me why or recommend multiple films (or one i haven't mentioned)!

[kungfuwushuworld]

Lee Hoi-Sang and Gordon Liu in Lau Kar-leung movie  The 36th Chamber of Shaolin

[symbiotebadger]

This is the hammer Gordon Liu had to hit that big bell with in 36th Chamber of Shaolin.

El martillo de los Looney Tunes:

[intrinsicmotives]

Photo dump vol. 11 : 36th chamber of Shaolin

[thistledropkick]

(source)

Meniscus cleaning complete

Thank you, doctor

I didn't actually want to see it, but the doctor sent me a photo of the inside of my knee on LINE... The part that's supposed to be all smooth was like a broken pair of disposable chopsticks and the surface was rough.

Some tearing was also found, so I'll be joining the Painful Injection Association as well...

Nothing to be done about it.

Post op

I thought, nooo problem, and figured, I'll get out of my room and take a walk

But even with crutches, just walking to the convenience store in the hospital was sweaty and painful

Ahh

Just from that, I was sweating like crazy, I felt like I was about to barf, and my heart rate went up

The pressure bandages on my feet are like Adon or the 36th Chamber of Shaolin or something

When the time comes, what should the name of my return be?

Super Hyper Mode Desperado Ⅱ Returns Coming Home Second Season Great Revised Edition Perfect The Second FA-78-1 NEW

..... I guess it doesn't need a name.

[theactioneer]

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Chia-Liang Liu, 1978)