Film Descriptions
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
Hong Kong (1978), 35mm, 115 minutes, Mandarin with English subtitles
Director: Lau Kar-leung
Cast: Lau Kar-fai, Luo Lie, Yu Yang, Wang Yu, Lau Kar-wing
Producers: Run Run Shaw, Mona Fong
Showtime: 4/19 at 3pm at the Metro State Auditorium
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is the most popular screen version of one of the key foundation myths of the kung fu subgenre: the story of the dissemination of the top-secret combat techniques developed at the Shaolin Temple to the populace at large. An ebullient Lau Kar-fai (Gordon Liu Jiahui) plays a real-life figure long-since transmuted into legend, a Han Chinese commoner on the run from the Qing Dynasty's Manchu oppressors who seeks refuge at Shaolin. The Shaolin style is 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," designed to build strength and self-discipline, before winning permission to acquire actual fighting skills.
-David Chute, UCLA Film and Television Archive
Lau Kar-fai (Gordon Liu Jiahui)
This one-time stuntman and martial arts instructor segued successfully to the front of the camera in Shaolin Martial Arts (1974). Headliner status followed two years later in Lau Kar-leung's Challenge of the Masters, but it was the actor's portrayal of the monk San De in The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), again under the direction of his adopted brother, that rocketed him to fame. Dirty Ho (1979) and Return to the 36th Chamber (1980) are other notable collaborations between the two Laus. More recently Lau has branched into television drama. He is scheduled to appear in Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Kill Bill.
|
|
|
