Disciples of the 36th Chamber

Disciples Of The 36th Chamber

The Hong Kong film poster
Directed by Lau Kar-leung
Produced by Mona Fong
Run Run Shaw
Written by Lau Kar-leung
Starring Hsiao Ho
Gordon Liu
Lau Kar-leung
Distributed by Shaw Brothers Studio
Release date
  • 1985 (1985) (Hong Kong)
Running time
 89 minutes
Country Hong Kong
Language Cantonese

Disciples Of The 36th Chamber (霹靂十傑, Pi li shi jie, Disciples of the Master Killer or Master Killer III) is a 1985 Shaw Brothers Studio Hong Kong martial arts film comedy written, directed and choreographed Lau Kar-leung. It is the third in a loose trilogy of films that began with The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) and was followed by Return to the 36th Chamber (1980). In Disciples, the action is focused on Hsiao Ho, who portrays legendary martial artist Fong Sai-Yuk. Gordon Liu, a constant in the 36th Chamber series, reprises his role from The 36th Chamber of Shaolin as the monk San Te.

Plot

Teen-aged Fong Sai-Yuk is a gifted Martial Artist but he is a poor student at school and is a constant troublemaker, despite the fact that the school is run by his father. Powerful Manchu officials in Guangdong are achieving hegemony over the native Han Chinese population and threaten to shut the school down.

Sai-Yuk exacerbates matters when he picks a fight with the leader of the Manchus. In order to save her family's honor and keep the school open, Sai-Yuk's mother makes a bargain with the Shaolin monk San Te for her incorrigible son to be given refuge in the temple's 36th Chamber, which is a training hall for non-monks. However, Sai-Yuk is too full of pride and lacks respect for authority, so he continues his trouble-making ways.

Sai-Yuk constantly go out of the Shaoln Temple during night while other fellow students asleep. He regularly visit the town, governed by Manchu officials, and then boasts about his adventures to his fellow pupils. During one of these night excursions, Sai-Yuk finds himself in the town where some festive celebrations are going on. Intrigued, Sai-Yuk climbed a wall to see the festivities and dance. This is being seen and reprimanded by one of the Manchu officials who ordered him to climb down. When Sai-Yuk ignored him, he ordered few of the Manchu fighters to teach him a lesson.

Sai-Yuk, out of his pride and with this Kung-Fu skills attained at Shaolin, over-powered all the Manchu fighters with ease. Seeing this, the head Manchu decides to get information about the Shaolin Temple by befriending Sai-Yuk for the time being, promising his fellow Manchus that he will kill Sai-Yuk once he has taken all the information and Kung-Fu knowledge out of him.

Sai-Yuk, in his innocence, fell into the trap and inadvertently started sharing Shaolin secrets to Manchu on a regular basis. Sai-Yuk started visiting the hostile town daily, where he is being repeatedly honored to make him believe that Manchu are actually very nice and gentle. But every time Sai-Yuk visited the town, the Manchus try to dig out something new out of him - be it life within Shaolin Temple, number of students and teachers inside Temple or their Kung-Fu techniques and skills in general.

Sai-Yuk is impressed by Manchu hospitality and keeps on giving details about Shaolin. Finally, on the Manchu leader's request and impressed by his shrewd fake friendship, Sai-Yuk persuaded all his fellow pupils to the Manchu town for celebration of his daughter's​ marriage. The Manchu leader had a devious motive behind this as he had planned to poison all the pupils to remove the threat of Shaolin temple's monks once and for all .

San-Te, the abbot and teacher of the 36th chamber and instructor of Sai-Yuk, becomes suspicious and tries to stop Sai-Yuk. When he fails, he decides to go to the marriage in order to save his pupils and show the true colors of Manchus to all. A fierce fight between Shaolin students and the Manchus erupted upon realizing that the Manchu actually wanted to poison all the Shaolin students.

The movie ends when Sai-Yuk spits his poisoned blood in the Manchu leader's mouth making him swallow the poison instead. San-Te brings back all his pupils, including Sai-Yuk, back to Shaolin safely and their training continued. Sai-Yuk learned his lesson and mended his ways to become more humble and less chaotic.

Cast

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