This has to be my favorite of the Shaw Brothers films. A lot of times those are shot on sets, but not here. You really get a sense they built these different temples outside. They aren’t as big as what Kurosawa was accomplishing in Japan, but I bet that was due to their business model and smaller budgets. It’s some of the best fight choreography I’ve ever seen and directly influenced films such as THE MATRIX, KILL BILL, and probably every other Kung-Fu film that came after it. Gordon Liu is so good in this. His character, San Te, seems like the prototype for so many “one man versus many” characters such as Ip Man from the IP MAN films, Rama in THE RAID films, Neo in THE MATRIX films, John Wick in the John Wick films, and The Bride in KILL BILL. I loved so much here, especially his three-section staff. The editing is so fantastic and compliments the fight sequences. It also cuts in an almost French New Wave way complete with match cuts and random time jumps. I didn’t realize most of the film would be the training sequence and frankly I didn’t care because you could easily watch him go through all 35 chambers and not be bored at all. It makes me want to get back into martial arts.
