Disciples of the 36th Chamber (1985)

Move over Jet Li… yes, you read that right. Although Li’s starring role in Fong Sai Yuk (1993) and its sequel are the most famous filmed exploits of Shaolin’s number one bad boy, Lau Kar-leung protégé Hsiao Ho beat him to it by eight years with a flawless performance. Unfortunately, Disciples of the 36th Chamber was the last true, old school style kung fu film for director and choreographer Lau. But he capped an outstanding ten-year run with an equally outstanding kung fu comedy.

Disciples falls in between Fong Sai Yuk and Ringo Lam’s dark Burning Paradise on the timeline of Sai-yuk’s famous exploits. A poor student, constantly in trouble due to his mischievous nature and intense pride and confidence in his exceptional kung fu abilities, Sai-yuk brazenly picks a fight with Manchu officials. Their leader (Lau Kar-leung) threatens to close down a school run by Sai-yuk’s father. Sai-yuk’s capable mother (Lily Li) sends her son off to seek refuge in Shaolin Temple to train under legendary monk San Te, master of the 36th Chamber which is a training hall for non-monks. The only problem is that Sai-yuk is already a talented kung fu master, having been trained by his mother since early childhood. His pride and disrespect for authority sets him at odds with his new master and he eventually plays into the hands of a Manchu governor (Jason Pai Piao) who is determined to wipe out Shaolin’s 36th chamber pupils.

Lau Kar-leung is no dummy and smartly stuck to a winning formula that had propelled him to the forefront of kung fu movie directors after the huge success of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978). There’s more excellent shaolin training scenes and Gordon Liu reprises his role as San Te, but takes a back seat to Hsiao Ho’s wild antics. As a regular assistant action director and co-star who worked on most of Lau’s self-directed films, Hsiao Ho was well suited to step into the lead role again after starring in classics like Mad Monkey Kung and Legendary Weapons of China. This movie stands as his finest work and for good reason. Fong Sai-yuk is one of the genre’s most enduring and colorful characters and Hsiao nails him down perfectly with a bold blend of playfulness, confidence, and kung fu skills. Even Jet Li, who did very well in the role, doesn’t match Hsiao’s more fiery temperament or adherence to Shaolin kung fu.

By this point, Lau’s direction and choreography has matured to the point where his execution of each elaborately staged and jaw-dropping action sequence is seamlessly imbedded into the story, always dynamic, and superior to most anything that has followed. He’s at his very best here, which means that there are no equals, period. Extensive wire harness use looks natural and the fights are elaborately staged. Best of all, Lau pushes his actors to perform increasingly wild stunts and complex sparring. The entire film is one big highlight. Every fight or training session is spectacular. Top duels include Lily Li’s chair-busting brilliance, her challenge to Lau to break her horse stance, Gordon Liu versus Hsiao Ho, and the final pitched battle where Gordon whips out a three-section staff while all of his students break into coordinated and ridiculously elaborate attacks against dozens of brightly-colored baddies. The tea bench duel between Liu and Hsiao ranks as one of the best prop-driven fights ever filmed and easily gives any similar Jackie Chan fight a run for its money. The training sequences greatly expand on scenes from The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, particularly the running across the floating log trick that gets wonderfully out of control. The wall-climbing tricks are pretty awesome as well.

Humor plays a part in Disciples, but it’s complementary. Many other kung fu classics from the era are undone by gags that halt the action or turn fights into complete nonsense. As example of Lau’s measured handling of humor, a lantern festival scene has Hsiao Ho crash the party in spectacular fashion when he vaults his way through a parade of performers and onto the head of a lion dancing team where he perches himself to address Jason Pai Piao. Hsiao’s penchant for spitting food or blood into people’s mouths is an odd and rather gross phenomenon that happens twice, but can be mostly overlooked in light of the the rest of the film’s assets. There’s also no killing which is something refreshing that Lau was able to pull off in a number of his kung fu comedies.

Disciples of the 36th Chamber is kung fu action at its finest. The cast are all in top form with Hsiao Ho smoking the competition and Gordon Liu showing that he still had plenty of precision moves to dole out. Usual Shaw production standards give everything a rich, almost comic book look that only enhances the experience. While Lau directed a few decent kung fu films afterwards, Disciples remains his last great production.