The original 36th Chamber is known as one of the best Kung Fu movies of all time and I personally echo that sentiment, putting it right up there with The Master of the Flying Guillotine, Seven Grandmasters and The Invincible Armour. I was therefore worried that this movie has been tagged as sequel, knowing that it was unlikely to live up to its predecessor. It turned out to be one of the best movies I have seen in the Kung Fu/Wuxia genre.
The story began in a not unfamiliar fashion, where a group of laborers are exploited by their employer who hires some Manchus to essentially frighten them into working harder for less money. They try to fight back and to go on strike but are badly beaten by the Manchus. The workers then get there friend Chao Jen-Cheh (Gordon Lu), an actor, to pretend to be a dangerous Shaolin priest so he can intimidate the Manchus and the boss into treating them fairly but he is eventually found out as a fraud and he too is beaten terribly. After this, Chao vows to go to Shaolin and learn Kung Fu for real and to return to set things straight. For the next while the movie takes a comedic turn as Chao tries many tricks to emerge himself in Shaolin's 36th Chamber (a Kung Fu training zone) and the Abbot takes pity on him, allowing him to stay at Shaolin to put together Scaffolding and fix the temple roofs. Chao does this happily as it allows him to observe the 36th Chamber and he presumes he will be taken on as a student when the roof has been mended. However, 3 years later when the work is complete, he is distraught to find that he is asked to leave the temple without have received any Kung Fu training. He goes back to the village and explains to his worker friends that he has learned nothing. They are angry at him for having learned nothing the entire time he was away and attack him, only to find that Chao has in fact picked up quite a bit simply from having observed the Shaolin students and having incorporated what he has seen into his scaffolding work. Having discovered him strength, Chao challenges the Manchu and the boss who he is now able to defeat with considerable style.
The oblivious "training" sequences in this film are great and again they justify the use of the label "36th Chamber" as the original movie is well known for it fantastic training act. All great Kung Fu movies have an amazing training act and this one is no exception.
Another thing which I loved about this movie was the unique "scaffolding Kung Fu" style which Chao learns. His time as a scaffolder means that his fighting style is one which largely consists of tying his opponents up. This is unique, amusing, entertaining, impressive and also it brought the whole story together. This is because the laborers at the start are using "colour sticks" to mix sheets of cloth into dye. When the Manchus are introduces, they bare their bamboo batons and declare facetiously "these are our colour sticks". These in the final fight scenes are reminiscent of the bamboo poles that Chao uses in scaffolding the temple and as he takes the Manchus on, he ties each of them and the batons together like scaffolding. It's brilliant the way this all ties together...
The criticisms I have are only twofold and very, very minor. Firstly I found it hard to believe when Chao returns to the village completely unaware that his skills have improved...then again this is a Kung Fu movie and anything can happen. Secondly, one of the lead characters, a worker who provides some early comic relief, has enormous false teeth. This was supposed to be funny but is actually a big and unwelcome distraction.
The story began in a not unfamiliar fashion, where a group of laborers are exploited by their employer who hires some Manchus to essentially frighten them into working harder for less money. They try to fight back and to go on strike but are badly beaten by the Manchus. The workers then get there friend Chao Jen-Cheh (Gordon Lu), an actor, to pretend to be a dangerous Shaolin priest so he can intimidate the Manchus and the boss into treating them fairly but he is eventually found out as a fraud and he too is beaten terribly. After this, Chao vows to go to Shaolin and learn Kung Fu for real and to return to set things straight. For the next while the movie takes a comedic turn as Chao tries many tricks to emerge himself in Shaolin's 36th Chamber (a Kung Fu training zone) and the Abbot takes pity on him, allowing him to stay at Shaolin to put together Scaffolding and fix the temple roofs. Chao does this happily as it allows him to observe the 36th Chamber and he presumes he will be taken on as a student when the roof has been mended. However, 3 years later when the work is complete, he is distraught to find that he is asked to leave the temple without have received any Kung Fu training. He goes back to the village and explains to his worker friends that he has learned nothing. They are angry at him for having learned nothing the entire time he was away and attack him, only to find that Chao has in fact picked up quite a bit simply from having observed the Shaolin students and having incorporated what he has seen into his scaffolding work. Having discovered him strength, Chao challenges the Manchu and the boss who he is now able to defeat with considerable style.
The oblivious "training" sequences in this film are great and again they justify the use of the label "36th Chamber" as the original movie is well known for it fantastic training act. All great Kung Fu movies have an amazing training act and this one is no exception.
Another thing which I loved about this movie was the unique "scaffolding Kung Fu" style which Chao learns. His time as a scaffolder means that his fighting style is one which largely consists of tying his opponents up. This is unique, amusing, entertaining, impressive and also it brought the whole story together. This is because the laborers at the start are using "colour sticks" to mix sheets of cloth into dye. When the Manchus are introduces, they bare their bamboo batons and declare facetiously "these are our colour sticks". These in the final fight scenes are reminiscent of the bamboo poles that Chao uses in scaffolding the temple and as he takes the Manchus on, he ties each of them and the batons together like scaffolding. It's brilliant the way this all ties together...
The criticisms I have are only twofold and very, very minor. Firstly I found it hard to believe when Chao returns to the village completely unaware that his skills have improved...then again this is a Kung Fu movie and anything can happen. Secondly, one of the lead characters, a worker who provides some early comic relief, has enormous false teeth. This was supposed to be funny but is actually a big and unwelcome distraction.