Blu-ray Release: The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter

By
Laurence
– May 3, 2022Find Others: Blu-ray, Movie, New Release, NewsGet More: , ,

Blu-ray Release Date: Available now
Price: Blu-ray $27.99
Studio: Arrow Video/MVD

After one of its lead actors (action icon Alexander Fu Sheng) unexpectedly died midway through production, fight-choreographer-turned-master-director Lau Kar-leung (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin) retooled his latest film, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, as the ultimate action spectacular in tribute to his young star.

Loosely based upon the legendary Yang dynasty chronicled in Chinese folklore, the film starts as a family patriarch and all but two of his sons are brutally wiped out in a bloody battle with a rival family. One surviving son (Fu Sheng) returns to his mother and two sisters, driven mad with grief; the other (Gordon Liu) escapes and joins a nearby monastery while in hiding. Once he learns his sister (Kara Hui) has been captured by their enemies, however, the warrior-turned-monk realizes he must renounce his peaceful ideals in order to mount a rescue mission and avenge his family.

One of Shaw Brothers’ final all-star martial arts epics before they ceased filmmaking altogether, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter is often regarded as Lau’s masterpiece, as elegiac and suffused with anguish as it is thrillingly violent (not least in its bone-crunching, teeth-smashing climax).

Buy or Rent The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter

Related titles:

  1. Blu-ray Release: Street Mobster
  2. Blu-ray Release: Burst City
  3. Blu-ray Release: Legendary Weapons of China
  4. Blu-ray Release: Monkey Kung Fu
  5. Blu-ray Release: Come Drink With Me

About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.