After one of its lead actors (cherub-faced 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).
Bonus Materials
Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative by Arrow Films
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
Original lossless Cantonese, Mandarin and English mono audio
Optional English subtitles, plus hard-of-hearing subtitles for the English dub
Brand new commentary by Jonathan Clements, author of A Brief History of China
Newly filmed appreciation by film critic and historian Tony Rayns
Interviews with stars Gordon Liu, Lily Li and Yeung Ching-ching, filmed by Frédéric Ambroisine in 2004
A Tribute to Fu Sheng, a short film commemorating the late actor that played before early screenings of The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, presented via a German-dubbed telecine (the best available copy) with English subtitles
Alternate opening credits, as The Invincible Pole Fighters
Theatrical trailer
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Marc Aspinall
