The 36th
Chamber of Shaolin (1978)
Aka: Master Killer; Shaolin Master Killer
Chinese Title: 少林卅六房
Translation: Shaolin 36th Room
Starring: Gordon Liu Chia-Hui, Lo Lieh, John Cheung
Ng-Long, Wilson Tong Wai-Shing, Wa Lun, Hon Kwok-Choi, Lau Kar-Wing, Wai Wang,
Wong Ching-Ho, Woo Wang-Daat, Lee Hoi-Sang, Henry Yu Yang, Norman Tsui
Siu-Keung, Wong Yu, Simon Yuen Siu-Tin
Director: Lau Kar-Leung
Action Director: Lau Kar-Leung, Wilson Tong
Lau Kar-Leung’s follow-up to his seminal film The Executioners of Shaolin can be in some ways considered a prequel to the same. The latter followed the exploits of Chinese folk hero Hong Xiguan, the (possibly legendary) founder of the hung gar style of kung fu, presumably after he had already studied kung fu at the Shaolin Temple. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is set a decade or so before, revolving around San Te, the monk who convinced Shaolin to start accepting laymen disciples, including Hong. Both films fit more or less into Chang Cheh’s “Shaolin Cycle” of films, although the stories themselves are deal more with the history and philosophy of martial arts instead using Shaolin history as a vehicle for blood-soaked tales of brotherhood.
Lau Kar-Leung’s “little brother” Gordon Liu stars as Liu Yu-De, a student and son of a seafood seller in 18th Century China. When he discovers that his teacher (Wai Wang, who played Hong Xiguan in The Shaolin Temple) is actually a rebel trying to plan an uprising against the reigning Manchus[1]. Wishing to become part of something bigger than themselves, Liu and some of his classmates use his dad’s business a way to transport messages under the nose of General Tien Ta (Lo Lieh). The conspiracy is eventually uncovered by one of the General’s Men, Lord Tang (Wilson Tong), who kills Liu’s classmates and murders his father. Liu, now a fugitive, flees to Shaolin to study kung fu.
After a year of cleaning duty, Liu, now dubbed San Te by his fellow monks, begins his training in the 35 chambers. Each chamber represents a section of the temple reserved for training a particular part of the body, or a given martial arts style. Through his unwavering dedication and force of sheer will, San Te is able to complete 34 of the 35 chambers—the film is unclear as to whether he ventures into the first chamber, which concerns the memorization of ancient sutras and the ability to project one’s qi, or inner energy, long distances. The Abbot (Wu Wang-Daat, who also played an abbot in the Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre films and the period drama The Last Judgement) recognizes his ability and offers to let him take charge of one of the chambers. San Te expresses his desire to create a 36th chamber, in which laymen would be allowed to learn Shaolin kung fu. But the abbot refuses and ultimately expels San Te from the temple.
The major flaw in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is the truncated final act. This portion follows San Te as he starts recruiting potential students to learn kung fu while avenging the wrongs committed against his family and fellow countrymen. It takes up only 25 minutes in a film running nearly two hours. A lot of famous names are dropped in this sequence, including Hong Xiguan (From China With Death’s Henry Yu), Luk Ah-Choy (The Bastard Swordsman’s Norman Tsui Siu-Keung), and strongman Tong Qian-Jin[2], although we never learn much about their motivations for wanting to learn kung fu. We never find out why Hong Xiguan is already involved in anti-Qing activities when he meets up with San Te; much like Chang Cheh’s films, a familiarity with the legends is assumed to a certain extent. Nonetheless, this movie gets points for focusing on San Te instead of Fang Shiyu and Hu Huiqian, whose stories had already been done to death by Chang Cheh. The final fight between San Te and the General that climaxes film also feels like an afterthought, since the story moves so fast at this point that Lau Kar-Leung doesn’t bother ratcheting up the tension between the two characters.
Nonetheless, the anti-Qing set-up for the story is not director Lau Kar-Leung’s true focus. Instead, he focuses on the martial and emotional development of the character of San Te, an important figure in the history of Shaolin martial arts. Unlike a lot of revenge-driven heroes who study kung fu at Shaolin (eg. Jet Li’s character in The Shaolin Temple and Gordon Liu’s character in 8 Diagram Pole Fighter), San Te actually starts to absorb Buddhist philosophies as much as he learns martial arts. Thus, when he leaves the temple, he doesn’t do so as a hate-filled killing machine (see Angela Mao’s character in Broken Oath for an example of that), but as a force of righteousness and a patriot. It’s clear that he realizes that lives will be taken on both sides as a result of the forthcoming conflict between the Han Chinese and the Qing rulers—watch him not stop one of the protagonists from killing a Qing official after he disarms the latter in a fight. But he does not relish the idea of killing himself; he merely means to help his Shaolin compatriots understand that keeping their kung fu to themselves while their countrymen are routinely oppressed is not the right thing to do.
As it stands, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is good candidate for best martial arts “training” movie. It’s far from the first: Lau Kar-Leung had already done the training bit for Chang Cheh’s Shaolin Martial Arts and, to a lesser extent, Five Shaolin Masters. Meanwhile, a large portion of The Shaolin Temple’s running time is devoted to training (in the same geographical/historical context), as is Marco Polo. Even early “bashers” like The Chinese Boxer, The One-Armed Boxer and Lady Whirlwind feature limited training sequences. And yet, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin stands as the “perfect” training movie, followed most likely by The Drunken Master in a distant second.
So what constitutes a “perfect” training film? I would argue that such a movie strikes the perfect balance in displaying exercises and activities that a) serve as general body conditioning, b) develop the body in a way more specific to the style(s) being taught, and c) show the characters learning a specific style. The earlier movies like The Chinese Boxer and Lady Whirlwind focus solely on item “b”, which erroneously suggests that sticking one’s hand in pans full of stones will teach someone taiqi quan. The Shaolin Temple also falls into that trap, mainly because it follows the progress of so many characters, so it ends up focusing on an individual activity for each character that would be preparatory to learning a specific style or weapon, but not necessarily conducive to learning the techniques themselves. Shaolin Martial Arts focuses on item ‘c’, but fails by trying to summarize the wing chun style as the one-inch punch and not much else.
San Te’s martial prowess is developed through the chambers, all of which boast an original form of training in order to develop one’s skills or strength in a given area. The first chamber involves controlling one’s weight transfer, speed, and balance by walking over a log floating in a pond to get to the other side. A later chamber involves strengthening the wrists by striking a bell with a long piece of bamboo with a heavy iron weight at the end. One chamber requires him to hit sand bags repeatedly with his head. Only after strengthening his body, developing his reflexes and refining his senses through the first chambers is he allowed to actually start learning kung fu and weapons forms, including the sabre and the pole.
Viewers coming into the movie expecting a “fight fest” will be disappointed. All of the kung fu action comes in the second half, most of which is San Te sparring with his superiors. The best action comes near the end of San Te’s initial stay in Shaolin, when he must defeat the Justice Monk (The Magnificent Butcher’s Lee Hoi-San). The Justice Monk fights with a pair of baht jam do, or butterfly swords. San Te first fights with this fists. Losing the fight, he trains with the yuet ngah chan, or Monk’s Spade and fights again. During his training, he accidentally slices through a bamboo stalk, which inspires him to found a new weapon: the infamous three-section staff. The fights between these two characters represent the best action in the movie.
The dynamism of the aforementioned fights, not to mention their importance in showing the viewer the evolution of San Te as a martial artist, has the unfortunate effect of making the later fights seem almost anemic in comparison. While more is at stake, namely San Te’s life, his character has progressed so much that his duels with Wilson Tong, John Cheung (of Bloodsport and Police Story 2) and finally Lo Lieh feel “too easy” in comparison. This is especially true for Lo Lieh, who, despite his training, was never the best martial artist in the industry. Saving him for the final fight against Gordon Liu at the height of his talent proves to be a slight misstep in that he never even seems like a credible threat to San Te. Lau Kar-Leung would have been better off using Johnny Wang Lung-Wei or Ku Feng in the lead villain role. Nonetheless, as a training movie, there are none better. As a demonstration of Southern Shaolin kung fu, only a few surpass it. As an all-around kung fu movie, it makes it 80% of the way before it falters, but still gives you enough quality action and story to make it a highly recommended experience.[1] - The subtitles in the
Netflix version of the film mistakenly refer to the Manchus (or Qings) as
“Tartars”, a term reserved for the Mongols. While there were some linguistic
and cultural similarities between the two groups, they are nevertheless
distinct ethnicities.
[2] - This character was played
by Hu Che in The Men from the Monastery
and Leung Yat-Ho in the 1994 TV series “Kung Fu Master.”
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