While I have not seen every Shaw Brothers movie, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (1984) might be my favourite movie of the studio, so far. Directed by the legendary choreographer Lau Kar-leung who made the 36th Chamber Of Shaolin, and plenty of other Shaw Brothers classics currently available to stream on Mubi.
Set in feudal China, seven brothers led by their father general Yeung Yip act as a warrior army for the Loyalists. They are betrayed be deceitful general Pun Mei, the father and his brothers are ambushed and massacred, despite their skill with bladed poles. Two brothers survive. One returns home, traumatised and suffering a mental breakdown. The other, Fifth Brother played by Gordon Liu, seeks to join a monastery. Wanting to become a Buddhist monk, Fifth Brother tries to train and follow the Abbot’s rules, even though anger in his heart for revenge against Sun Mei seethes through him.
Sharply edited. Aside from a few scenes shot on location, most scenes play out on big sets. Beautiful costumes and set design. Most dialogue scenes are declarative sentences shot from one character at one another. At a 90 minute run time, it snaps through the plot, and yet makes space for the emotional journey of Gordon Liu’s character, and his further training through the pole fighting technique. “Eight diagram”? Never actually explained, but it sounds cool. Great fighting sequences throughout that reaches a transcendent pitch within its showdown climax, as Liu faces off against enemies standing on a stacked tower of coffins inside a bar hotel. Fantastic wooden wolf-shaped contraption that the monks practice their pole fighting on. An intriguing thematic tension displayed between the Buddhists view of “breaking the teeth of wolves” rather than killing them, and Fifth Brother arguing that leaving a “wolf” toothless doesn’t negate its capacity for violence. The metaphor around teeth becomes grotesquely literalised in the final fighting sequence.
Available to stream on Mubi. This is the good stuff. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 