Eight Diagram Pole Fighter
Director: Lau Kar Leung
Starring: Gordon Liu
AMAZING! This movie reunited the director and star of the 36th Chamber of Shaolin for a triumphant success of a film.
The movie centers around the Yang, a family of spear fighters who are trying to prevent the Mongols from taking over china. All but two of the Yang brothers are killed in an ambush. One brother goes nuts and the other joins a monastery. When one of his sisters is kidnapped by mongols, the monk must return to save her. The goofy thing about this movie is that none of the brothers or sisters have names. Instead they all go by numbers (1st Yang, 3rd Yang, etc). That took some getting used to, but wasn't terribly distracting. The story is nothing compared to something like Five Deadly Venoms, but it works.
This movie had the most impressive fight choreography I have ever seen. The pole fighting in this movie is so fluid and energetic. There are intense one on one battles and giant melees with dozens of combatants. The way Gordon Liu whips that pole all around his body is incredible. You can feel the energy. The final fight scene is jaw dropping, the best I've yet seen in a Shaw Brothers movie (also one of the bloodiest).
I can't recommend this movie highly enough for people looking to get into these films. I can't even begin to describe how awesome these fights were. Today's action movies are all about special effects and whatnot. This movie has real martial arts masters doing their thing, and that's really as good as it gets.
Lesson learned: Monks make sloppy dentists.
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