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I think the notion of the 36th chamber vs. the 1st chamber, i.e. the political vs. the spiritual, has intellectually shaped the way I view so many things after I watched that movie. I contemplate whether or not San Te would be better off abandoning the outside world and trying to master the 1st chamber. Communal obligation vs. self improvement. It has perhaps never been expressed better.
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Jul 20, 2013 04:42
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 12:33 |
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Can you elaborate on this? What an enigmatic response. I'll try. San Te's purpose in creating the 36th chamber is to teach Shaolin Kung Fu to people outside the monastery for the explicit purpose of resisting the Manchu government. When he expresses his intent to create this chamber, he had just been offered to teach his choice of chambers 35-2 with mention being made that the 1st chamber being the only one he hasn't mastered. The 1st chamber is for meditation and spiritual enlightenment. The film doesn't really take a stance as to which is the superior pursuit, but it does present them as incompatible. San Te's choice is motivated primarily by a grudge he has held for years, by anger. A monk who has successfully mastered the 1st chamber has let go of his anger. It is no longer a motivator and certainly not the primary one. When presented with the current political reality which I find so frustrating and terrifying, do I attempt to change it or find a healthier way to exist inside of it? Do I head for the 36th chamber or the 1st? If I head for the 36th, is that a futile struggle which will make me unsatisfied and miserable while failing to accomplish what I set out to do? If I head for the 1st, am I being selfish in failing to even try to help other people? Is it a retreat into Solipsism? The film is probably wrong to present these as wholly incompatible, you can try to do both, though I feel that one does undermine the other. I can't help but get angry thinking about politics. I can't help but get impatient trying to meditate. Has this helped? This movie connected with me emotionally in a way I find difficult to express in words.
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Jul 21, 2013 00:38
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The thing that you can find in every worthwhile Kung Fu film, from the absolute cream of the crop to the more run-of-the-mill thinly plotted and poorly written ones, is a celebration of human movement and body control. One of my absolute favorite examples of this is actually a more humorous one that comes not from a fight scene, but a training scene. In Fist of the White Lotus the protagonist (another phenomenal Gordon Liu performance)is trying to teach a bumbling non-fighter (Hsiao Ho) his two man fighting style to avenge his late partner. Ho's bumbling through the training session is masterful. He follows along with Liu's movements but manages to convey it as incompetence. The result is hilarious.
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Jul 22, 2013 00:44
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