Director: Chia-Liang Liu
Writer: Kuang Ni
Cast: Chia-Hui Liu, Lieh Lo, Chia Yung Liu, Norman Chu
Runtime: 116 mins.
1978
The 36 Chambers of Praise for The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
1. WORLDBUILDING
The film is about San Te (Chia-Hui Liu), the son of a fishmonger who becomes embroiled in underground political action against the oppressive Manchu government, and barely escapes his village with his life. He searches for power that will allow him and his community to better resist. This journey takes him to the Shaolin temple where he begins the long, diligent, methodical process of learning kung fu.
I didn't expect a movie focused on cool kung fu training chambers to spend so much time setting up the broad strokes of its sociopolitical backdrop, but the context is crucial. Not only that, but it makes the peculiar and particular culture of the Shaolin monks pop in exciting ways.
2. MYSTICISM
The vast majority of 36th involves training, body strengthening, and discipline that is either possible or within the realm of plausibility. This is ruptured by a select few moments of outright mysticism. The most ostentatious of these is a monk force pushing San Te out of the most advanced chamber because he is not ready yet; this mystical moment is underplayed by everyone and never referred to again. I'm so tired of tawdry realism-- this film's magic is a gift.
3. ENSEMBLE
36th is packed with a gargantuan number of extras and one-off characters. It's hugely ambitious to portray an entire community in this way. The ensemble elevates the worldbuilding, gives us a real sense of place, and situates our protagonist within his community through visual dynamics.
4. SIDEKICKS
Towards the end of the movie, when San Te begins collecting allies for his final attack, I became wary. I wasn't looking forward to a spunky band of comic relief companions who pick up way too fast on the lessons San Te has been learning for five plus years. Thankfully, the movie shows its signature restraint by giving them each a showcase scene and then relegating them to a surprisingly minor supporting role in the finale.
5. VILLAINS
Much like the sidekicks, this story is not about the villains. They are given just enough screentime to establish their skills and their malice; beyond that, not a single ancillary machination or redundant malicious monologue. One of San Te's great victories seems to be that he does not let his enemies define him.
6. WOMEN
If memory serves, there is only one woman in this entire movie, and about 100,000 men. Normally this would be cause for indictment, but this story is limited to a traditionalistic culture of men, so the lack feels appropriate. Typically martial arts films, and genre films in general, treat women with utter contempt. If they aren't being fridged or kidnapped, they are being mocked for their appearance, stupidity, sexuality. I was relieved to see that the one woman with a speaking role in 36th acted with dignity, was treated with respect, and played a crucial role in the early survival of the hero.
7. TEACHERS
This is a movie about teachers and students above all else. Beginning with the schoolteacher who introduces San Te to revolutionary ideas, every moment of his experience is shaped by a teacher. One of the great joys of the film is seeing each teacher in each chamber give guidance, and then seeing their expressions when San Te masters their subject. We don't know these teacher's names, we know nothing about them other than what we can discern from their bodies, but in these insert reaction shots we can glean exactly who they are.
8. CINEMATOGRAPHY
I won't belabor this point. The cinematography by Yeh-tai Huang and Arthur Wong is gorgeous, and the first element to clue me in that I was watching a masterpiece. They frame every shot to deliver not only a vision of the situation, but to convey San Te's everchanging orientation towards his environment.
9. COLOR
Director Chia-Liang Liu is a visual genius. This manifests in every facet of the production, but the color must be singled out as a remarkable structuring aesthetic. The monks are brightly garbed in red and yellow, giving them an almost floral presence in the mise-en-scène and distinguishing them from the villagers and soldiers of the rest of the film.
10. GRIP
Although San Te also has a very impressive grip, I'm talking about the camera operator here. I can't find who to credit for this, maybe director Chia-Liang Liu did it himself, but I cannot understate this: I have never been more impressed by the precise mechanics of camera movement. Every action beat, every gesture, every lightning fast movement is framed perfectly by the camera for maximum clarity and impact. This takes the form of a lot of precise shifts that are virtually invisible to us because we are so engrossed in the action-- the opposite of contemporary action's muddy shakycam technique. In the words of Jackie Chan, "Those actors don't know how to fight."
Liu uses whip zooms aggressively. This is when a shot change is not accomplished by editing, but by rapidly zooming in or out to create an entirely different composition. We don't see this often because when done adequately, or even well, it still comes off as cheesy and artificially distracting. The way Liu weaves it in here is so artful that we barely even notice beyond a subjective experience of intensity.
11. ARCHITECTURE
The set design of 36th is like a playground. Environment after environment, each crafted for ascetic educational efficiency. This is the most elegant obstacle course you'll ever see.
12. DIALOGUE
Dialogue has never been a hallmark of martial arts cinema but 36th finds this great sweet spot of minimal, platitude-laden dialogue that speaks to grand truths rather than common cliches.
13. SOUND
Whap! Slap! Clang! The classic kung fu soundscape of flesh smacking flesh and metal ringing against metal is so satisfying.
14. VFX
Often accompanying the moments of mysticism, the special effects shots in this film are assuredly cheesy, but are shot in such a fun way that they breed excitement rather than ire.
15. BLOOD
This is some bright red blood! I'm talking Kool-Aid red.
16. MAKE-UP
The blood may look fake, but the make-up is punishing. One of the highlights of each training room is noticing the physical toll, or rather the built up resilience, that each monk displays on their body in the form of cuts, bruises, scars. There is also an early sequence where San Te almost dies of thirst and exposure, and he looks positively haggard by the end of it.
17. PACING
It takes so long to reach even the lowest of the 35 chambers of Shaolin that I began to wonder how the movie would pack it all in. Through some magical conjuring power of narrative efficiency, the movie manages to make each of its parts feel full and essential while somehow not being four hours long.
18. EDITING
The secret to good pacing is in the writing, but the skeleton key to good pacing is in the editing. Great editing is almost impossible to notice because it just feels like propulsion. The work by Chi Leong Cheang and Yen Hai Li here gives us the gift of perpetual enjoyment.
19. MOMENTUM
One particular directing / cinematography / editing tool that I want to single out here is match cuts. Cheang and Li will often edit to follow a kinetic motion that carries us instantly into a similar motion in the next scene. This is another tool that can seem corny, like when a cubicle man is getting lectured by the boss at work and it cuts to him with the same expression getting lectured by the wife at home. But here it unlocks some truth about gestural language carried through time. For example, a character dumping water from a bucket to punctuate a scene with menial labor might cut to the sloshing water of a training chamber mechanism. Everything builds into everything.
20. ESCALATION
From chamber to chamber, even beyond the chambers, each challenge San Te faces is an escalation. Yet it is not always the progression you would expect.
21. WRISTS
There's a chamber dedicated to wrists. I find wristwork to be underrepresented in action movies. This guy's thicc wrists are one of his more impressive physical training attributes.
22. EYEBALLS
In the vision acuity training chamber, the movie does this thing where it portrays martial artists seeing really good by doing a brain blast type light radiating in their eyeballs, accompanied by an over the top sound effect. I love it so much.
23. HEADBUTTS
In one chamber people ram their heads into incredibly hard punching bags. If you don't do this fast enough the teacher hits you with a hand attached to the end of a really long stick. San Te successfully trains the toughness of his head. Or maybe it is his resilience to pain? Resistance to fainting? The trajectory and follow through of headbutting thrust? In any case, he uses this hilarious skill to selective but potent effect in future combat.
24. PROFICIENCY
Rather than continuing to list things that this guy becomes amazing at, I want to generally compliment the physical skill of both character and performer. To have enough control over your body to portray both ignorance and mastery, as well as the beats between them, all the while including character-focused combat moments... it's an unreal level of performance discipline that never undropped my jaw.
25. LIKABILITY
This is easy to overlook because of the flashy physical training, but Liu is just so likable in the lead role. It's not like he's written to be super charismatic or endearing or anything. He just has unparalleled focus on growth. But Liu takes this empty slate of walking willpower and invites us into his internal world with his vulnerability. Most actors in action movies struggle with this baseline likability; it's the mark of a movie star.
26. MONTAGE
This is another overused cinematic technique. It covers a lot of ground easily, which feels like cheating. Gratifying the sense of progress without achieving the steps. By that criteria, 36th features a sort of anti-montage. You could argue that the entire middle sequence of the film functions as one extended montage, but it communicates each beat with such precision and such clear linkage that we feel we are growing alongside San Te rather than being excluded from his growth.
27. LESSONS
36th is not just a movie about a character learning something. The above-mentioned inclusive montage technique and the pinprick insights we receive throughout mean that we are also learning. We are learning the culture, the spirit, and most importantly for our enjoyment, we are learning every individual moveset that makes up a coherent kung fu fighting technique.
28. INSPIRATION
This is a quiet scene, but I think of it as the lynchpin of the entire film: Having just been trounced in combat by a cynical superior, San Te sets to training at night in a stone and verdure courtyard. Without a single word, or the observations of an outsider, or a cheesy inner monologue, we see San Te puzzling through his loss. The combat was so crisp that we also saw how his opponent was getting the best of him, and we also have no idea what to do about it. All we can tell is that it seems to be a question of leverage and flexibility. Lost in a trance of problem solving, San Te accidentally attacks and fractures a bamboo shoot in several places. Here we see a slow-kindled spark of inspiration. This is one of my favorite onscreen light bulb moments. Because we have been so included in his training, it feels like we are discovering along with him.
Next time San Te shows up to fight, he brings a weapon of his own creation: a tripartite staff that can hinge like nunchucks. The next fight goes differently.
29. CHOREOGRAPHY
The director also worked as the fight choreographer. Everything works so smoothly together. There is no way to share in words the elation, the pain, and the dynamics of watching these fights unfold.
30. BRAWL
One of my favorite action movie hallmarks is a skilled and tenacious protagonist taking on a whole mob of enemies singlehandedly. I was agog the first time little me saw Matrix Reloaded's 101 Smiths scene (which... time has not treated well). Unfortunately, these scenes unavoidably get simplified to small waves of bad guys waiting patiently to take their turn on the hero when they could easily overpower her if they worked together.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin contains the only 1 vs. many scene I can think of in which the opponents all genuinely seem to be trying their best. Everyone's movements are dictated by the flow of battle. Many combatants wield spears, but they must hold back so as not to accidentally stab their commander. When he steps back from one on one combat, they rush in, but often get their weapons crossed in beautiful calligraphic shapes whisking across the screen. Little details like red feathers attached to the spears and carefully color coordinated costumes keep movements from being lost in the clutter. The scene works because San Te is constantly in control, dictating through prowess and foresight how the bodies will flow around him.
31. ADVENTURE
I wish we got more adventure movies. It's hard to deliver such a sweeping experience in the runtime of a feature film; this movie manages it.
32. POSITIVITY
San Te's teachers can be dicks sometimes, but I found this to be an overwhelmingly positive movie. Even the meanest teachers genuinely want the best for their students, and are thrilled to see them succeed. Equipped with their tools, our hero manages to take down actual assholes. I don't consider a feel-good movie to be an inherently desirable quality, but it's great when it makes you work for it.
33. FOCUS
The movie plays a neat trick where we are thrown into a frustrating world at first, one that feels so much bigger than the protagonist. Then, even though the scope of his world narrows, his mind soul and body broaden. San Te achieves this with tremendous focus; the film too much display much narrative focus to build such a satisfying structure.
34. POLITICS
San Te is special, but unlike so many Western movies, the film argues that specialness isn't enough. He must also demonstrate enormous willpower and resilience to make it through the training regime. Most importantly of all, he must listen. Even when San Te is driven by individualistic desires like revenge, he must defer to the collective wisdom that his teachers are trying to impart in order to make any progress at all.
35. RULES
At the crux of its political commentary, its cultural commentary, and its portrayal of the learning process, 36th delves into a compelling exploration of the function of rules. The Shaolin Temple is a hyper-traditional community that must deal with a very non-traditional student. Authority figures deliberate about how much of a leash to give him and in what moments. He must prove himself to be allowed to continue. Rules are rules, and they must be continually reinterpreted, but sometimes they cannot be broken. In these moments, the function of the rules is to be bent and broken in a way that breaks ground for new experiences. I don't see this nuanced exploration of rules often-- in America cinema its all grizzled cops who don't play by the rules. We're seeing exactly where that wish fulfillment fantasy has gotten us these days...
36. DIRECTING
The director's role is to make the pieces work together as a whole in a way that amplifies the contributions of all the other pieces. Seeing Chia-Liang Liu's name littered through the rest of these Chambers of Praise should indicate how much he succeeds at just that.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is a movie about the pains and pleasures of the learning process. Liu invites us into that in a remarkable way, investing us deeply in a movie that would have been fun enough to watch for the fights alone. This is a masterwork from a master who recognizes how essential all 36 of these chambers are to the success of the whole.
5 / 5 BLOBS
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