The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is a 1978 Hong Kong kung fu film directed by Lau Kar-leung and produced by Shaw Brothers, starring Gordon Liu. The film follows a highly fictionalized version of San Te, a legendary Shaolin martial arts disciple who trained under the general Chi Shan. 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. It was followed by Return 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, and Disciples of the 36th Chamber (1985).

Plot

A young student named Liu Yude is drawn by his activist teacher into the local rebellion against the Manchu 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. Yude decides to seek vengeance and liberation for the people, and heads for the Shaolin temple to learn kung fu. Wounded by Manchu henchmen during an escape, Yude reaches the temple and seeks sanctuary. Initially the monks reject him, since he is an outsider, but the chief abbot has mercy on the young man and lets him stay. One year later, Yude - now known as San 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 the three 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.

Cast

Critical reception

36th Chamber of Shaolin received critical acclaim and is widely considered to be one of the greatest kung fu films ever made and a highly influential entry in the genre. According to the Harvard 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". In 2014, Time Out polled several film critics, directors, actors and stunt actors to list their top action films; The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was listed in 22nd place on this list. In 2021, Complex ranked The 36th Chamber of Shaolin number 5 in a list of the "24 Best Kung Fu Movies of All Time".

Home media

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin was released on VHS as early as 1993, under the title Master Killer. It was released on DVD in February 2000 by Crash Cinema Media as Shaolin Master Killer. In 2007, the film was released on DVD by The Weinstein Company's Asian label, Dragon Dynasty, as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. In March 2010, Dragon Dynasty and Celestial Pictures released the film on Blu-ray. On 6 December 2022, Arrow Video released The 36th Chamber of Shaolin on Blu-ray as part of the Shawscope Volume Two boxed set.

In popular culture

The Wu-Tang Clan's debut album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) got the latter part of its name from the film. In addition, Wu-Tang Clan member Masta Killa takes his name from one of the film's alternate titles. Wu-Tang member and producer RZA also samples the film on Ol' Dirty Bastard's Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version ("Intro") and Method Man's Tical ("Meth vs. Chef", "I Get My Thang in Action", "Tical"). A clip from the movie appears in a 2023 animated movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem in which the title characters were trained in martial arts by their father figure Master Splinter by showing them various video clips containing martial arts, including from other classic Shaw Brothers films.