Wu Lang ba gua gun (1984)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Chia-Liang Liu

Writers:

Chia-Liang Liu (writer)
Kuang Ni (writer)

Release Date:

17 February 1984 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Martial Arts | Buddhist Monk | Training | Kung Fu Classic | Revenge

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Chia Hui Liu	...	Yang No. 5
Sheng Fu	...	Yang No. 6
Lily Li	...	Yang Matriarch
Kara Hui	...	Yang No. 8 (as Ying Hung Wai)
Ching-Ching Yeung	...	Yang No. 9
Lung Wei Wang	...	Yeh Li-Lin
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chan-Peng Chang	...	Yang No. 7
Yung-cheng Chang
Tiet Wo Chu	...	Ying Kuei
Hou Hsiao	...	Yang No. 4
Te Hu Hsiao
Ho Chiu Kei
Phillip Ko	...	Abbot
Ming Ku	...	Pan Mei
King Chu Lee	...	Abbot
Hao-ming Liao
Ke Ming Lin
Chia-Liang Liu	...	Hunter
Chia Yung Liu	...	Yang No. 2
Chun Liu
Hsueh-hua Liu
Han-yuan Ma
Te-Lo Mai	...	Yang No. 3
Wei-chang Mai
Yung-sheng Pan
Gong Shih
Shing-kuang Tseng
Yue Wong	...	Yang No. 1
Chieh Kuang Wu
Hsi-guan Yang
Leng-kuang Yin
Tak Yuen	...	Servant

Also Known As:

Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (Hong Kong: English title)
Invincible Pole Fighter (USA)
Magnificent Pole Fighters
Ng Leung bat gwa gwun (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company:

Shaw Brothers

Trivia:

When Sheng Fu was killed in car crash during filming script was rewritten to make Yang No. 5 the hero.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the Jinsha battle scene, just before the Yang patriarch faces the Tartars' army of archers, the golden blade of his staff is (inadvertently) hacked off by one of the Tartar soldiers. In the next shot of Yang, the blade is still attached to his staff.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)

amazing

First of all, to the people that think that martial arts movies need a spectacular plot that doesn't quite add up, and spectacular visuals like omg the entire scene is RED or no wait now it's GREEN, that's a huge misconception. In a martial arts movie its essential to have amazing fights between characters.

Anyway, this movie is originally called 7 brothers in china, and if you remember Pai Mei, or "really good fighter of the crazy 88" from "Kill Bill" that, is Gordan Liu. The plot is actually pretty good for a action movie, he's ambushed and how to defeat his family is given away before they begin to fight, so his martial arts are now worthless. So with Gordan Liu minus his brothers he goes to find an improved method of fighting, but the shaolin monks he seeks don't take him in since he'll inevitably kill again once he learns the martial art. He actually has to change his mentality to be accepted and learn the art of pole fighting.

Fights are great in this movie, Gordan liu is amazing when he's not fighting anyone, i.e. moving his pole around at the pond, try moving with that kind of power and precision on your own and see how good Mr. Liu is. Also, I really enjoyed the final fight scene, very fluid and well choreographed, most martial arts movies now have maybe one good fight sequence at the beginning and then... well... CGI plays a larger and larger role throughout the movie and the "martial" part of "martial arts" disappears and you're left with an art show.