RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER sees Gordon Liu returning to the film series that he's most famous for, playing a different role in a very different story which nonetheless features the Shaolin Temple. This one's a very good Shaw film, directed with his exemplary professionalism by the esteemed Lau Kar-Leung who injects finesse and quality into the film's many fight and training sequences.
Some viewers may be put off by the way that RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER is more of an out-and-out comedy than the original film but I enjoyed the change of pace and style. Everything is done a bit differently here so nothing is repetitive. Liu plays a small-time actor who gets beaten up at the hands of Manchu thugs (including my top guys Johnny Wang Lung Wei and Chiang Tao), so he decides to break into the Shaolin Temple and spy on the monks training. It's pretty funny stuff, with Liu on top physical form and convincing both as the novice weakling and as the kung fu expert.
The Shaolin Temple scenes are fun and entertaining with all of the bizarre training we enjoy watching. I loved the way that Liu learns amid scaffolding here which gives him an addiction to bamboo which plays a big part in the fights at the film's climax, which are lighter than usual but no less gruesome. As with almost all Shaw Brothers movies, this is well shot, well paced, and looks absolutely brilliant in high definition; a great mix of comedy, drama, and action.
Some viewers may be put off by the way that RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER is more of an out-and-out comedy than the original film but I enjoyed the change of pace and style. Everything is done a bit differently here so nothing is repetitive. Liu plays a small-time actor who gets beaten up at the hands of Manchu thugs (including my top guys Johnny Wang Lung Wei and Chiang Tao), so he decides to break into the Shaolin Temple and spy on the monks training. It's pretty funny stuff, with Liu on top physical form and convincing both as the novice weakling and as the kung fu expert.
The Shaolin Temple scenes are fun and entertaining with all of the bizarre training we enjoy watching. I loved the way that Liu learns amid scaffolding here which gives him an addiction to bamboo which plays a big part in the fights at the film's climax, which are lighter than usual but no less gruesome. As with almost all Shaw Brothers movies, this is well shot, well paced, and looks absolutely brilliant in high definition; a great mix of comedy, drama, and action.