After the success of the classic 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN, Shaw Brothers took the sequel in an interesting direction. Gordon Liu doesn’t play San Te, as he did in the first movie, but instead plays a young conman who pretends to be San Te, and in doing so has a similar adventure, working his way through the Shaolin training, before returning to his home to right wrongs.

RETURN TO THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN also happens to be the best movie about Scaffolding ever. Probably the only movie about scaffolding ever, the film takes contemporary Hong Kong’s unique use of bamboo scaffolding on its sky scrapers as inspiration for the story. Our hero is allowed to stay at the Shaolin temple, and is instructed to scaffold the monastery, which takes him over a year. During this time, he watches the monks below practise, and he builds his own versions of their training devices from bamboo. 

The first movie was all about the training regimes, and its sequel is no different. All manner of inventive and punishing devices are used to teach the monks how to defend themselves. This emphasis on training leads to a strange phenomena – this is a kung fu film with only one fight! This should make for dull viewing, but it doesn’t. The characters are so likeable, the story so engaging and the whole thing is just so much fun that it doesn’t matter. When the final confrontation happens, it is a rewarding, expertly choreographed and executed battle which converts the hero’s years of working with bamboo into fluid and creative staff fighting, incorporating the use of benches and raised scaffold platforms.

Much like the first film, it hangs upon the performance of Gordon Liu, who as usual, is fantastic. Given a chance to flex his comedic and physical muscles, he obviously has a screen presence and ability on a par with the likes of Jet Li, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, and frankly, it still baffles as to why he has not gained such recognition amongst mainstream Western audiences. Maybe it’s just a matter of luck.

There is, however, a monumental stupidity within the plot. Years of Shaolin training amounts to no spiritual enlightenment for the hero, and no inner peace or vengeance of a dead master. In fact, Chieh is thrown out of the monastery, rather than rewarded for his ingenuity. Our hero merely beats the crap out of his former boss, and guarantees a pay rise for his former workmates. I would love to have the guy working as my union representative, but it seems a lot of effort to go to. Casting this matter aside, it boils down to one thing – is this a good film? The answer is ‘yes’.