THE EIGHT MASTERS (1976)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

Hard to believe though it may be, director Joseph Kuo and star Carter Wong managed to squeeze a THIRD "Shaolin Bronze Men" story into Year 1976, presumably on the heels of these two films. Neither of these films, despite sharing some actors aside from Wong, were connected by anything but the folk-legend that the Shaolin Temple trained its acolytes by having them fight warriors covered in bronze paint. Such warriors appear very briefly in EIGHT MASTERS, during the training of the hero, and one online review claims that these are recycled scenes from one of the earlier films. But the very brevity of these scenes might indicate that Kuo or someone else in production thought the "Bronze Men" gimmick played out.

Instead, the emphasis in on the discordance in Chu's psyche between two competing desires. Chu's father perishes in a battle against a kung-fu clan, the Eight Masters, but the Masters aren't content with the father's life; they want vengeance on the son as well. A friend of the family spirits little Chu away to be raised in Shaolin Temple. The Masters can't penetrate the temple's defenses, so they appear to lose interest and go away. Chu's mother, who goes blind at some point, receives help from the daughter of the family friend, Ming Chu (Lung Chung-erh, playing a non-fighting role this time).

Little Chu grows into Big Chu (Carter Wong), and the monks give him such impressive training that he can extinguish candles with his breath while standing several feet away. On the face of things, this sounds like dozens of other "you killed my father" chopsockies, wherein the Shaolin religion exists merely to empower the hero's quest for revenge. However, the writers, including Kuo, came up with a twist I've never seen in any other Hong Kong medieval-movie. The Shaolin monks become, in effect, Chu's new fathers, and their philosophy emphasizes that even if you train yourself for self-protection, a proper Shaolin is supposed to avoid confrontations. So after Chu leaves the temple, the first time he encounters some rowdies in a tavern, he tries not to fight, and almost gets beat up before finally unleashing his formidable skills.

Once he rejoins his blind mother and the young female-- whom Chu's mother wants him to marry-- it becomes evident that the Eight Masters never stopped monitoring the house of Chu's family. From then on, the Masters keep challenging Chu to fights. The reluctant hero sometimes tries to take the high road, which means he gets beat up. But when the clan kidnaps his mother, this fills the hero with vengeful resolve and he faces a lot more than just eight opponents. One of the antagonists is a female swordswoman played by Chia Ling, and the battle between Chu and the swordswoman is so good it rather eclipses the climax. Said climax includes the revelation that Ming Chu is actually a spy sent to watch the house of Chu's family, which she did, even though she ended up falling for the hero. The man who sent her (Fei-lung Huang) is the main leader of the Eight Masters, and he puts the hero through a series of diabolical house-traps and assails him with costumed fighters (called "demons," though there's no evidence of this). When Chu remained unkilled, the head villain duels him to the death-- guess whose death it is.

MASTERS had a strong idea in giving the hero a mental conflict between his loyalty to his relations and his training by his Shaolin masters. But the idea is never used for anything but to ramp up sympathy for the hero, though after Chu gets beat down a little too often he becomes rather comical. Still, many kung-fu opuses don't even have the glimmer of any good ideas, so MASTERS at least deserves a "fair" rating.