The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter

The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (Wu Lang Ba Gua Gun) (1984)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Lau Kar-Leung

Starring: Gordon Liu Chia-Hui, Alexander Fu Sheng, Kara Hui Ying-Hung, Lily Li, Phillip Ko

From: Shaw Brothers

The dharma wheel does indeed perpetually turn.

My schedule for the rest of 2023 is up in the air; what I am referring to is that if I don’t post any reviews for a few days, it will be because I decide to revisit certain movies without mentioning them in public. But there’s a chance that won’t happen at all, or there will just be a day without a review… in any case, it’s been awhile since I’d seen any period film from Shaw Brothers, so I went with one deemed one of their best.

It is one I and many think is at least very good even with the tragedy that one of the film’s main actors (Alexander Fu Sheng) died in a car accident before filming completed, necessitating changes to the script. In short, an entire family of brother save two are slaughtered in a beach attack done by “Barbarians”-i.e. Mongols-after someone turns on the entire country. One (Fu Sheng) goes bonkers where Gordon Liu is the other survivor and flees to a Buddhist temple.

Even late into the reign of Shaw Brothers period action films and even after all the ones I’ve seen through the years, those still manage to feel fresh with their action and stories without coming across as rehashes. The movie had the expected quality-and colorful-sets… even the one representing the beach at least possessed a unique look. It was quite the enjoyable journey--albeit a journey where Fu Sheng vanishes and Gordon’s sister Kara Hui is the one who goes on a quest to find him.

Those circumstances don’t ruin the film. After all, Liu uses a great style (also, gruesome) in his monk phase involving a pole w/o a spear and his carrying of a tied-up Hui in the finale was one of many memorable bits in an incredible finale. It was quite the melodrama with several unforgettable scenes; the tone was also a rather dark revenge tale, not to mention complex. For what is probably the last great Shaw Brothers period film, it seemed like a fitting denouement for all their revenge tales through the years.