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Yet he wasn’t always a Shaolin master. The story of an innocent bystander drawn into intrigue is a staple of martial arts cinema, and that’s the hook for 36th Chamber’s rather straightforward plot. Before he was a monk San Te was called Liu, and he was an innocent schoolboy in China’s Manchu province. The government is corrupt, and the people are in rebellion. When the local Magistrate retaliates by executing a group of rebels in the square, Liu and his friends are witnesses.

Because boys are curious, they return to their teacher with questions. He’s apparently the “cool” instructor on campus because he’s also totally part of the rebellion. He encourages the boys to help by carrying messages for the Cause.

Because boys are also stupid, they are promptly caught.

They at least die bravely though, as does most everyone when government troops rampage through town and destroy everything connected to the school. Having lost everything he knows, Liu attempts to reach the Shaolin temple before the troops can find him. Liu achieves this by sneaking into the temple grounds, but nearly dies in the attempt. The monks take pity on him, nursing him to health and allowing him to stay. They aren’t happy when he tells them he wants to learn kung fu in order to raise an army of vengeance against his enemies. The Shaolin do not train outsiders,

But then they just kind of shrug and say “awww, what the hell”. The monk now known as San Te is free to begin his training.

As you can imagine, most of the film is devoted to San Te’s journey through the Chambers. Each represents one of the many disciplines the monks must master in order to do all the kickass things Shaolin monks can do. The Chambers themselves are not so much the point of the film (although there’s a really neat twist to that) as is the fact that they are also used to represent San Te’s growth from eager boy to well-tempered adult. They are meant to instill in students the temperament necessary to properly wield great power, and to understand that the greatest demonstration of that power is in NOT using it.

That flies in the face San Te’s mission, and it is implied the monks knew this when they allowed him to train. His intention is to use his knowledge to train others to resist the government, and perhaps the monks see him as a way to covertly exert influence over the situation.

Who can say. What can be said is that 36th Chamber is an outstanding shell of face-pounding action with an uplifting arc of individual growth at its nougaty center. But Gordon Liu’s amazing physical gifts and Liu Chia-Liang’s gift for filming them are only part of the story. San Te’s odyssey through the mystical backdrop of Shaolin is engaging as much in the visual sense as the visceral. And by the time San Te inevitably returns to his village, his actions carry the weight of our investment in him as viewers. It’s the same Chinese Hero’s Journey as most similar films, but 36th Chamber is an example of formula being done well enough that you almost forget the formula.

Almost. As a child, I just wanted to get to the part where the guy wails on the dudes who killed his family back at the beginning of the story. I never knew then how much I enjoyed this movie for the actual narrative as I did the sensational stunts. San Te is a guy you can get behind, and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin makes me feel even more like a kid again now that I understand it well enough to appreciate WHY I love it.

And now, hopefully you do too.

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