Lo Lieh, the man you love to hate in kung fu movies, takes out a rebel general in hand-to-hand combat (because he CAN), and displays the body in a public square. When San Te (Gordon Liu) sees the dead body and laments the death of the "patriot," he immediately goes to the top of Lord Tang's **** list. His family members are killed and he's a hunted man. Wounded, he nonetheless makes it to a Shaolin Temple (by hiding in a basket of vegetables). As soon as he comes out of his coma, he becomes a student- a devout student, who eventually (but not at first) excels at kung fu. Practice makes perfect; or, as Ray Bradbury put it: "From quantity comes quality." Before long, he's walking on water. THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN is understandably hailed as a classic- due in no small measure to the performance by Gordon Liu: as he would demonstrate in the sequel (and elsewhere), he was a very gifted actor.
Review of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
