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CRAZY
SHAOLIN DISCIPLES
AKA:
Crazy Shaolin Disciple ||
Enter The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin ||
Enter The 36th Chamber
Year:
1985 Reviewer: Scott
Napier
At the time, it can only be assumed that Shaw Brothers couldn't survive with all the other fresh (and often more polished/superior) competition like Golden Harvest (I know I seem very biased towards the latter) and they rightly backed out of the industry and reverted to TVB - probably other reasons too. It was likely just facing the day and age where their productions were no longer accepted by a more contemporary-grown audience. They had their time in the industry and quite frankly, I wasn't able to put up with much more of some cheap rubbish they kept churning out (some of which I sadly wasted my money on).
The Shaws made some great films without a doubt (we all know that) - but they did have some very inferior features too, which are often overrated on Kung Fu forums (fans milking one positive attribute to rate it so highly without serious consideration overall) compared to the likes of (again) 'Golden Harvest' (who were not without flaws themselves of course). It didn't help either that the Kung Fu genre was no longer the film-trend at the time so very little productions maintained it and it became more prominent in mainland China (like 'South Shaolin Master 2') whilst a little less-known. Anyway, I won't escalate a debate on the real reasons to why Shaws officially stopped in '85
etc but in the meantime: a review for one of their final works (which could indeed be THE final feature).
For starters, no-one in this film is referred to as 'main' star (except Celestial's promotional artwork which suggests Gordon Liu is) as they all have their parts. It's trailer; for instance follows the typical 'Fan Ching Fook Ming' (Rebel Ching - Restore Ming) struggle in Southern China with known folk-heroes like 'Tong Ching Gun', the Fong and Hung families, 'Hu Wei Gan' and perhaps more famously; 'Wong Fei Hung' - all fighting against the tyrannical Manchus. It all sounds exciting but what follows is constant kiddy-giggling and too many 'not-too-easy-to-follow' subplots (no thanks to fast-talking dialogue) which become really incoherent - it's a shame as Yau seems to rely on this to string together what could have been a remembered 'classic' in the Shaw library. If you can take this and a few other irritating antics, you've actually got a pretty entertaining actioner (courtesy of the magical 'under-cranking' button Shaws fell in love with during the
'80s).
With
'His Royal Highness' stamping down on any anti-Ching
movements, he orders the top chief and imperial guard Chik Len
Ja (Lo Lieh); a highly excelled Kung Fu expert to head after
the Hung school (founded of course by Hung Hei Koon - played
by Lo Meng). Prior to arrival, two
upstarts (Fong Sai Yuk and Hu Wei Gan - Wong Yu and Chin Siu
Ho) encounter this cunning man by accident and get involved in
the latter's vendetta - they also witness the murders of
all the senior members of the school except Hung who escapes;
without a valuable medallion - property of the school.
Soon
realising that the medallion was most likely in the hands of
the two sneaky young men, Hung quickly pays a visit to the
Fong residence and demands his treasure be returned. Knowing
that the two will inevitably enter the wrath of Chief Chik, he
and Sai Yuk's step-mother insist they both join Shaolin Temple
as secular disciples (simultaneously using it a cover-up for
their reclusion). But it's not before long the Masters know of
Hung's true intentions and debate whether he should leave or
remain living in the temple as a fellow Ming loyalist at the
price of risking involvement in Hung's affairs with the Chings.
Inevitably,
Chik finds out Hung's hiding place and Master Gai Hoi (Lee Hoi
San) of the Northern
section of the temple is wounded during
an attempt to prevent the chief entering. This embroils an
already-developed grudge between Hung and other students
(namely the disciple monks in the 'Northern' section of the
temple) even deeper. With their
constant fretting between them, they are naturally forced to
help each other when the Chief begins ambushing those residing
with the temple...
Whilst
it appears to be Yau's only Shaw film, he doesn't do too well
in the comedy section. He's not a director I'd favour highly
compared to Lau Kar Leung or Chang Cheh. Of
course, Wong Yu can't fight so to cover this up: one or two
shots are filmed per-take and he is thrown around (a
characteristic also found in 'Dragon
Lord' with JC) which gets very annoying and tediously
boring/frustrating, an
aging Lo Lieh is doubled whilst any other 'worthy' action (not
that Lo's useless) is left to a bulky Lo Meng, Shaw regular
Gordon Liu and (then) newcomer Chin Siu Ho. Aside from the
under-cranking, I have to admit that the action is very
well-done in it's dynamic choreography which delivers
entertaining and fairly impressive results. It's instantly
clear that at least one of the influences is 'Peking Opera'
(especially with acrobatics).
Whilst
it does have some merits, there is far better. A rent-worthy
title or for Kung Fu enthusiasts (who can take the typical
Shaw comedy) only. Hell, you'll probably end up getting it
anyway!
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