9th Old School Kung Fu Fest: The 36 Deadly Styles Review

This will be one of many reviews during the 9th Annual Old School Kung Fu Fest by the Museum of the Moving Image and Subway Cinema featuring the works of Director Joseph Kuo, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

The 36 Deadly Styles is another film by renowned Kung-Fu director, Joseph Kuo, but it is also not his strongest in terms of narrative or action choreography. It’s one whose budget served as its greatest adversary but despite some minor setbacks is still one of his most humorous action films.

The 36 Deadly Styles follows Wah-Jee (Cheung), a mild-mannered servant who lives within a Buddhist temple after his uncle is killed while fleeing from Tsu-Mun and his brothers who roam the nearby forests as thugs. After discovering a plot by Tsu-Mun to kill one of his mentors, Wah-Jee tries to warn him only to discover that his father was killed at the hands of one of Tsu-Mun’s brothers, kickstarting a path of revenge for Wah-Jee as he begins to study the manual of the 36 Deadly Styles to face his family’s killers for the final time.

While there are some interesting fragments to this story, it is let down by its lack of fluid fighting choreography compared to that of other Kuo films contain. Meanwhile, the characters found their emotional arcs quickly glossed over, most notably through the impact of Wah-Jee’s father and uncle’s death and thus, his entire motivation for revenge, but the final act reconciles some of this through solid banter between Wah-Jee and the film’s villain.

The humor is one of its strongest parts of the film as there are multiple fights, mostly involving Tsu-Mun, which feature hilarious pratfalls or circumstances where he is outmatched by inanimate objects. Once more, viewers are treated to a mythos containing a fabled manual of the 36 deadly styles of Kung-Fu with which Wah-Jee learns from, but not enough time is spent with this lore which should’ve served as the film’s narrative crux.  The 36 Deadly Styles also showcases an appearance by a famous Bloodsport villain, Bolo Yeung, who sports an atrociously comical wig that seemed destined to fly off his head at any moment. Still, his role as one of the villainous brothers was a welcomed sighting as he played the heavy well alongside the more comical turn of Tsu-Mun to help round out the film.

In the end, The 36 Deadly Styles is not a standout Kung-Fu movie nor one of Joseph Kuo’s best outings in the director’s chair, however, there are still plenty of aspects from the movie that are easy to enjoy and love. While the choreography is not as strong as other Kung-Fu films, it still offers a solid variety of styles and moves that which brought plenty of entertaining and humor, keeping the plot from dragging. And a Bolo Yeung sighting is never a bad thing in a movie.

still courtesy of Hong Hwa International Films

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