| The 36th Chamber of Shaolin | |||||||||||
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 Theatrical release poster | |||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 少林三十六房 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 少林三十六房 | ||||||||||
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| Directed by | Lau Kar-leung | ||||||||||
| Written by | Ni Kuang | ||||||||||
| Produced by | |||||||||||
| Starring | |||||||||||
| Cinematography | Huang Yeh-tai | ||||||||||
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Chen Yung-Yu | ||||||||||
| Distributed by | Shaw Brothers Studio | ||||||||||
Release date |
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Running time | 115 minutes[1] | ||||||||||
| Country | Hong Kong | ||||||||||
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The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Chinese:少林三十六房, also released asThe Master Killer andShaolin Master Killer) is a 1978 Hong Kongmartial arts film produced byShaw Brothers Studio, directed byLau Kar-leung from a screenplay written byNi Kuang, starringGordon Liu andLo Lieh. The film follows a highly fictionalized version ofSan Te (Liu), a legendaryShaolin martial arts disciple, who lived in theQing dynasty during the 17th-century.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is widely considered to be one of the greatest kung fu films and a turning point in its director's and star's careers.[2][3][4] It was followed byReturn to the 36th Chamber (1980), which was more comedic in presentation and featured Gordon Liu as the new main character with another actor in the smaller role of San Te, andDisciples of the 36th Chamber (1985).
A young student named Liu Yu-de is drawn by his activist teacher into the local rebellion against theManchu government. The government officials, headed by the brutal General Tien Ta, however, quickly discover and suppress the uprising, liquidating the school and killing the students' friends and family members. Yu-de decides to seek vengeance and liberation for the people, and heads for theShaolin temple to learnkung fu.
Wounded by Manchu henchmen during an escape, Yu-de reaches the temple and seeks sanctuary. Initially themonks reject him, since he is an outsider, but the chiefabbot has mercy on the young man and lets him stay. One year later, Yu-de - now known asSan Te - begins his martial arts training in the temple's 35 chambers, in each of which the temple's novices are trained in one aspect of the kung fu fighting arts.
The chambers shown in San Te's training are as follows (names of the chambers, if given, are from the subtitles and in quotation marks):
San Te advances more rapidly than any previous student, reaching the rank of deputy overseer within the space of six years. Challenged by the monastery's Discipline Chief, who thinks him unfit for his role, San Te has several exhibition matches with him, only to be beaten each time. However, after inventing thethree section staff, San Te finally prevails and gains the chief abbot's permission to become overseer of one of the chambers.
When San Te professes that he wants to create a new chamber where he can train ordinary people in the basics of kung fu so they can defend themselves against their oppressors, the temple officially banishes him in a surreptitious way to allow him to carry out his mission. He returns to the outside world, namely to his hometown, and assists the people, gathering several young men who loyally follow him and become his first students. Before the political revolution where his aspirations reach completion, he is forced into conflict with Tien Ta. A fierce duel ensues, where San Te is victorious. Finally, he returns to the Shaolin temple, where he establishes the 36th chamber, a special martial arts class for laypeople to learn kung fu.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin received critical acclaim and is widely considered to be one of the greatestkung fu films ever made and a highly influential entry in the genre.[2][3][4]
According to theHarvard Film Archive, the film is an "exhilarating rendition of the legendary dissemination of the Shaolin martial arts" and an "absorbing account of [an] initiation into the vaunted Shaolin style, ... depicted here [as] an inner voyage of discovery".[1]
In 2014,Time Out polled several film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors to list their top action films;[5]The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was listed in 22nd place on this list.[6]
In 2021,Complex rankedThe 36th Chamber of Shaolin number 5 in a list of the "24 Best Kung Fu Movies of All Time".[7]
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was released onVHS as early as 1993, under the titleMaster Killer.[8] It was released onDVD in February 2000 by Crash Cinema Media asShaolin Master Killer.[9] In 2007, the film was released on DVD byThe Weinstein Company's Asian label, Dragon Dynasty, asThe 36th Chamber of Shaolin.[10] In March 2010, Dragon Dynasty andCelestial Pictures released the film onBlu-ray.
On 6 December 2022,Arrow Video releasedThe 36th Chamber of Shaolin on Blu-ray as part of theShawscope Volume Twoboxed set.[11][12]
TheWu-Tang Clan's debut albumEnter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) got the latter part of its name from the film. In addition, Wu-Tang Clan memberMasta Killa takes his name from one of the film's alternate titles.[13] Wu-Tang member and producerRZA also samples the film onOl' Dirty Bastard'sReturn to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version ("Intro") andMethod Man'sTical ("Meth vs. Chef", "I Get My Thang in Action", "Tical").
In 2008Kung Fu Panda, the Training Hall sequence was inspired byThe 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
A clip from the movie appears in a 2023 animated movieTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem in which thetitle characters were trained in martial arts by their father figureMaster Splinter by showing them various video clips containing martial arts, including from other classic Shaw Brothers films.
A bald and tautly muscled Lau Kar-fai (Gordon Liu Jiahui) headlines this exhilarating rendition of the legendary dissemination of the Shaolin martial arts. Lau plays a real-life figure long-since transmuted into myth, a Chinese commoner on the run from Manchu oppressors (including a glowering Luo Lie) who seeks refuge at the Shaolin Temple. The film is an absorbing account of his initiation into the vaunted Shaolin style, known for its emphasis on the external and the physical. But as depicted here the training process is very much an inner voyage of discovery; the novice must work his way through a series of torturous "chambers" before becoming the newly minted monk, San De.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin represents a directorial tour de force for Chia-Liang Liu. It is a sumptuous film to look at, a movie that takes its varying fight facets very seriously.