Monday, April 11, 2016

The 36th Chamber

I've just finished watching The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, and it was rather good.  I would recommend it.  Though the ending was bizarrely abrupt - I assumed there was some footage missing, but I can't find any corroboration to that on the interwubs. 

There were some excellent fight scenes (some very good weapon ones, particularly), but I rather liked the fact that the majority of it was about the hero's training at the Shaolin temple.  It gave it a calm, meditative quality that most martial arts movies lack, as well as some delightfully distinctive visual set-pieces.  The candle chamber was undoubtedly my highlight.

You can see why the famously kung fu-loving Wu-Tang Clan named their first album in its honour.  I initially wrote that as "fist album".  That works too.  But it does remind me of The Man with the Iron Fists, which I managed to stick about twenty minutes of before giving up.  Good lord, RZA,  Good lord.