Midweek Mention... The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Alrighty, we're going for the eight diagram pole fighter. Yeah. AKA Invincible Pole Fighter in North America. Yes. And Invincible Pole Fighters. Yeah. Internationally. Yeah. So they were less interested in the diagram element and more in in the poll. I'd say the diagram element of the film was was quite slight. It was very slight, the diagram part, yeah, but it more than compensated for it was a very good thing. A great title though, the eight diagram pole fighters. You know that's going to exist. Yeah, do you know what it's called in Poland? No? I just wondered. Just the eight diagram fighter. Maybe. Maybe, yeah. It refers, if you're interested, to the bagwa. Yeah. The eight trigrams of the I Ching.

unknown 0:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Which is the ancient Chinese cosmological system of eight symbolic figures. Which all our Chinese listeners are just saying, yeah. Yeah, everybody at home is probably screaming that, yeah. In Wuhu. Well, this one started really confusingly. There's a bit of text in the start, isn't there? About the eight diagram stuff. And then there's a woman and she's saying she has to sacrifice one of the the kids, doesn't she? Before it leaps off to the battle. Yeah. Um any kind of text, any kind of things that isn't a fight, it's just leading you, like it's just you're waiting for the next fight in this. Yes. Yeah, because this is a Shaw Brothers movie. And it stars Gordon Lew as well, so you you should know what you're in for with this sort of thing. Um So let me just get that right, because I didn't manage to see this film. So you're saying that she has to sacrifice one of her children before the war starts. That's what it starts with, doesn't it? The mother of the two it's like It doesn't really become a thing. No. It's sort of really disconnected because the film really kicks off with the all of the Yang brothers, seven of them, being introduced one by one in their like dynamic poses, each one following off the previous one. A load of text that comes on screen that wasn't translated in the copy of the film that I No, I spent the further so I can't remember exactly what happened at the start because I was flummocing around trying to figure out if I could have it in the original language but with subtitles, but you couldn't. You couldn't. No, you can only have the great dubbing. I know it dubbed with subtitles still. Oh. So it was like the We want to fight? Look, it's not it's not completely terrible, but I would have preferred it. You still get all of the original sound effects and musical scores, which you've heard over and over and over again. So that's so let's get into it. That why we went to see the Wu-Sang clan. Yeah. And then the algorithms got hold of me, and I had a clip of Rizza, you know, the the abbot of the Wu-Sang clan, going through ten of his favourite Kung Fu movies and where the samples for the first were a lot of the albums where they'd come from, and this is one of the movies that he spoke about. I I think I watched this was in his top three with the 36 chambers of De Shaolin. And he really related to it because he came from a large family as well. He had eight brothers and three sisters, and this is about seven brothers and two sisters. So there was some element of that that he connected with as well. Get into let's get into our first big fight. You can tell it's like it's a set, you know what I mean? But who cares about that stuff? Oh, but all the sets are amazing though. And especially the finale, but this one essentially it is the this is the Son dynasty, and this is the Yan family. The Yang family. They're famous throughout Chinese history. Like they're sort of these big mythical figures almost, but they were real. And they've been betrayed. Yeah. And this is uh an ambush for them by the Mongol, a Mongol army. Yeah. So they're down at this place called the Golden Beach, and it's Pan Mei. He's the traitor who's a general in the Yang Dynasty army, he's turned against him. Yeah. And the sons are massacred on the beach. They they sort of line up and they're obviously impressive fighters, and they've got these spears, but like one of them's taken down, like he has his eyes ripped out, doesn't he? And another one is taken down with a load of arrows. So the the Mongols, what are they? The the Liao army, they also have these big staffs, but there's you know, like a fizzy drink straw that bends at the end. Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what theirs are like. So the the s the Yang ones, they're just like a spear. Yeah, they're cheap, they are the golden sphere. But these ones are a bit more high-tech, and when they are fighting, they're able to hit them, and the end of the straw bit wraps around them and won't come undone. Yeah. And and quite a lot of the times you just see people just get impaled, and you can see then that they're really getting fucking lifted up and like moved around. And when they do it to the car later on, it's savage. Yeah, absolutely. And they're heavily outnumbered, these guys. You know, they're fighting maybe I don't know. In the background, there's maybe 20 guys just stood there waiting to get to go in, and they're fighting ten or fifteen guys at once in this super fast, great kung fu, you know, bit of wire work and that sort of thing. But the the brothers are pretty much dispatched, somebody's axed. But it's cool the way they they refer to each other as like fourth brother. Fourth brother, third brother. Five brothers. Yeah. Um eventually pretty much they're all killed. One's trampled underfoot. The fifth brother kind of gets away, and we'll come back to him. That's Gordon Liu that you'll have seen in Kill Bill, probably. Yeah, the guys in White Beard in King Bill part two. He trains that it's him younger. By a legend of Shaw Brothers and and all this kind of cinema. Uh and sixth brother gets away as well, doesn't he? He's like heavily traumatised. Alexander Fouchen, his role was heavily, heavily altered during filming because he died. Yeah, he died. So he had to kind of re-edit to him as brothers. So they yeah, they get away and they So the sixth brother, he's able to go back home. He's got a PTSD though, and he's like reenacting. Because they're a message first. It's Seven Brothers because the mum, the matriarch, she misinterprets the message. She does, yeah. I can't remember what it says, Seven Brothers. She doesn't realise that two are still alive, basically. She she's one has died, though. The way she reads the message, she thinks that one has died. Yeah. But it's only the message actually and the message is wrong because the message assumes that w only one survived, but actually two have survived. Okay, right. So there's a lot of confusion. But he makes it back. So she's expecting most of her sons to return. Yeah. Only sixth brother returns, and he's like got bad PTSDs, like reenacting the thing and screaming and he just wants to carry on the battle there with his own crew. So then this is just another excuse. More fighting we see, even the mum's a badass, and she like has to put him down, and you know, everyone's just fucking comfortable fighting. Yeah. Um With Fifth Brother, he makes it to a monastery. Well, first of all, he makes he meets the guy in the woods. It's another guy that he just meets his like he goes into his house, he's escaping from the Mongol army, and he goes into this trapper's place, and he ends up fighting him because he's taken some of his food and some of his clothes. So he turns out to be brilliant and they have this crazy fight. And then he ends up sacrificing himself, doesn't he? Fighting off the Mongols too. Yeah. And he they realise after a little bit of fighting that they're kind of Kidra's spirits. They they're both kind of he was just a bit general in an army or something. Yeah. And he's he's sort of wants to help him there. Well, at first he thinks he's a deserter, doesn't he? But then when he knows who finds out who he is, uh obviously he's a legend throughout the parts as well. He's a member of the chat, the what are they called? Yang Yang. And it's all like the Mongols they're fighting, is it the uh Is it Genghis Khan's kind of lot, or is this different time period and which I don't know with exact time it's the Song dynasty China period. I don't know where that aligns with the whole thing. Genghis timeline. But they're Mongols and there's some great like stuck on beards and people just doing, you know, straight beards. Like they have another great battle. But they have another great big battle here. And you're right, he he keeps them all at bay while Fifth Brother escapes down the tunnel. And he he is able to get to this it's sort of booby-trapped, isn't it? Because he he sort of hurls himself towards the tunnel and moves some rocks and it all sort of collapses down and they can't then get through to go after. Yeah. And they they're under order, so they're under pressure from their leadership, like we've got to fucking get all these guys if you you know. Well, Pan May doesn't want him to get word to the emperor, right? That's uh there'll be uh there'll be a sort of court martially type court case type thing. Yeah. So the fifth brother then this is when he does end up in the at the monastery, doesn't he? He like hears them first and then he There's all these monks and they're they're also trained fighters, but they're not they're not trained to kill. So it's expressly against they I mean it's not too clicks of the movie because they don't they say about you don't kill, you don't use this technique to what I mean is they're not players still look after themselves. They their whole thing is about protecting themselves from wolves, yeah. These wooden wolves. You know, uh if you picture I think it's karate kid three, you know, when Daniel's doing all the thing against the wooden they've got that, but they it's a but it's a wolf, and so they're training against this wolf, and it's got a mouth with like metal spikes, his teeth, and they're just kind of like poking it a bit, and then they're tiny enough, but then Fifth Brother comes on and he's just like fucking demolishing it and they've got the like headmike's like, no, you can't stay here, you're a f no, you can't. Basically, he's he's like he's still got rage, he won he's got the rage, and he sees these guys are pretty handy with this stuff, and he's like, Oh, I could learn your techniques and go and kill everyone, but they're they're Buddhists, and they're like, No, man, this is this is not about that. This is self-defense stuff, yeah. So he's told he's not allowed to be there, but he he does the initiation ceremony himself, anyway, doesn't he? On the water. No, with the thing. Oh, it's about the eight diagrams, is he they have just sticks burning and he just plum first of all he shaves his own head really recklessly. It's really horrible because he's got really long hair and he shaves his head completely like it's really effective the way they did it. He's using a knife, but then at the end he's like basically cutting his scalp off. He's he's kind of scalping. It's like a big dice basically with eight instances. And they're like, wow, he's a badass. And then he does this performance on it'd be like a ceremonial kind of pond thing. Yeah, on these stones and he's um he's just doing all these moves, and they're like, Yeah, you we can see that you're tidy enough, but you still you don't have it down, the ethos is not right, you'd be not killers. You need to be in your heart, not in your head. Well, your head in your heart. Actually, what they say is that you can fight, but they they do it through the analogy of the wolf, because they say we've removed the wolf's teeth. This is what they say, isn't it? That's how you render him harmless by removing his teeth. You'll become quite a bit. We could say that's for the last 20 minutes of the movie. Yeah, there's always a great analogy in country movies. Um I think Six Brothers have basically been edited out of it now because of what happens. Well, there's a lot of backwards and forwards at this point, isn't it? Because one of the monks from the temple goes off to He goes to get Hal goes to their place to check out the story, ends up getting in a scrap there on the way and all that sort of thing. There's a load of like Mongol spies basically outside the palace, isn't there? Yeah. And when he he goes off, the the mother gives in this jade dragon says, take this back. Or does she give that to the daughter? She gives that to the daughter, yeah, because then eighth daughter. Yeah, so he goes out, he's killed. He actually kills himself rather than he so he knows obviously that fifth brother's back at the monastery. All these Mongol guys are outside the palace, they like get a hold of him, he fights Lotham off, but eventually they've got him wounded, or they've shot him with an arrow, yeah, and they've they've got him pinned down, and they're like, tell us where he is, tell us where he's and he just grabs the arrow and shoves it in his throat and kills himself rather than give him up. Yeah, and then yeah, you say there, the the eighth sister. Yeah it's now she looked quite a bit like Trin Lee, I thought, the outfit and everything. Yeah. Well Street Fighter Trin Lee. Yeah. She's sent off now to go and find Fifth Brother at the monastery. Yeah. So she heads out to the road. Just take this um this like golden thing with the jade thing hanging off it. Yeah. Take that with you to prove to everybody that you know something stuff, some stuff. Because she does spinning kick? She always does the bar. Study with a sword. Yeah. So she'll meet someone on the way, she gets into a fight with him, and then he it's just the guy who owns the bar, I think, isn't it? He gets into a fight with him and then ends up back at his place, and Pan May turns up. Well sh he turns out to have the golden sword. Yeah. Or the golden So there's there's a ceremonial like yang. So it's a massive pole, but it's got an enormous golden blade on top of it. That's but I think there was more stuff in the film that must have ended up cut out because of what happened. Because they hadn't really referred to this earlier, I don't think. No, it just sort of comes up. It just becomes a thing. And and so she wants that back, and then they sort of they s realize that she's important, but there's more Mongols flying around. Yeah. Because I think it's at the bar where it all known. It's at the bar where it all kicks off, isn't it? Because Pan May co turns up, they try and sneak her out, don't they, in the basket. Yeah. And then she comes out and has a fight. She's like hideously outnumbered. Yeah. And it's she's been they infer that she's been killed. Right. Yeah. Okay. She she does do some really cool fighting, and she's the first one that has sort of has a sword, and she's like really handy with that. So anyway, word gets to Fifth uh Fifth Prime. She's gone. That you know, so he's like, right, fuck it. And he just grabs a load of poles, and you see him like going up the street with these. Well, I know he has to fight the the monk. Oh, he has to fight the monk first. Because they do the stuff with the beanbags and they have a solo fight and he passes on the ceremonial red robe as your sort of endorsing him going. I don't know whether that was like you're now the leader or you're just one of us. He's amazed by his technique basically, because he's really good. Well he fights him in a sort of passive, you know, because he's flicking the uh cushions at him and he realizes that he can fight, you know, just take the teeth out. Just take the teeth out away, yeah. So yeah, he goes then down to the bar where he's got wind the water. They hear a wolf their fight is stopped when they hear a wolf cry, don't they? And then they both just stop and bow and that's it done, like show the respect. Yeah. Yeah. So then it's all set up for the final scenes with him heading off to the bar with his trolley load of poles. Back in those days, still bar fights. That's where it all kicks off, eh? Yeah. So he rocks up to the door. This was honestly, I was laughing so much about this because he's got all these poles, and the guy's like, Well, that's a bunch of bamboo poles, that's shit. And he just slices off the end one and he's like, Well, don't worry about that, I've got several, and then he just throws them at them and it just then sort of kicks off. He does like the waah, but he's just impales about four of them, and then he does it again, and there's just multiple people down, and it's quite gory, and it's quite it looks a bit silly now, but there's a lot of blood, and they're I don't think it does look all. There's the one where the guy gets his cheek cut off, and that was like fucking hell. Yeah, it's like all flapping around. But he goes into then he f he basically kills about 20 of them, and he goes into the bar and it's just set up with these caskets uh almost like a pyramid. Yeah, and it's not Hi May, is it's someone else on the other guy on the city. It's all the other guys, they come flying out of their castle. It's like your sister's dead, you know, and like he's and he's she's in here and he's stood on top of a casket. Yeah, and then he's like, right, he's really fucking not happy about that. So massive fight. This fucking choreography is so fucking cool. I mean, it really just goes off the hook, you know, beating multiple opponents at once, and then it gets really So he's gotta like jump up levels and they'll like open the lids of the casket and he's jumping off there and fighting them, and then all the other monks turn up and it always fucking is How many of them ending up in caskets? It'd be impossible to describe like the intricacies of the fight, but some of the stuff that happens is basically what Rig says before. When they say you've got to take their teeth out, so many guys get all left so they'll just slam the stuff into their mouth. At the teeth just go flying out across the street. Some of those got someone's teeth like embedded in his skull. Like they put their mouth on the edge of the casket and then smack their head into it, and they fall away and all their teeth are still there. It's just all teeth, teeth, teeth. And yeah, because all the fit the monks turn up to help him as well. Come in with the with their wooden wolf. Yeah, they do, yeah, yeah, they do, yeah. Yeah, some of it it's it's just so entertaining. Do you know what I mean? It's like proper movie violence, it's choreographed, can't feel yourself, but it's so fast. The athleticism, the fucking skill level, like it's amazing. There's one point where he's got her eighth sister on his back, C3PO style, and he's fighting everyone, like and she's like at the back holding off, and he's kicking everyone, and he's just got her tied to his back. There's so many impressive physical athletic feats, and you look at it like going, How the fuck did they do that? Like, you know, when they're she's held up like all four limbs on one of those fizzy drink straws, yeah. Just being like swung around in the air, and it's for real. I mean, it's just like it looks really banded about. And due to you know, the sort of lack of labour laws in this place, they can just twat people in the face, nobody cares. Like so it's brutally impactful, a lot of it. It's not just like, you know, it can be a bit balletic and dancy, but a lot of it looks really fucking painful. Yeah, they they've always given what what kind of year are we looking at for this movie? 84, okay. So they get beaten, Pan May gets done. It's him who gets his cheek done, Pan May, in it. And then he gets launched into the coffin, and then that's it, isn't it, really, for him. So that's brother number five down. No, no, he's he's alright, he lives to save the day. He so eventually the goodies we're in, they there's gonna be I don't know if they kill them or they they are gonna stand trial, are they? I can't remember. They're gonna go off to that trial, they're gonna testify there and make sure that Pan May is held to account. So fifth brother's there and eighth sister, and she's shouting off to him, and he just ignores her, and he walks up a hill, yeah, and he's like, fuck this shit, I'm just gonna go live in that hut up there. And it's the most relatable ending to the move like that, doesn't he? I've just had to treat of his brothers, I think, doesn't he? There's like a little thing of his brothers, is he? And that's it, close, done. And about 20 seconds of credits. It's amazing with a movie like that, honestly. About 20 seconds of grillets. So, did you like it? I fucking loved it. Yeah, it's good, wasn't it? It's the most like enjoyment, like proper enjoyment I've had out of a movie for so long. Because you could just watch it and just you know, I I had the Wu-Sang connection, I was like listening out for samples, yeah. And there's so many good little you're like, oh, that's from Wolves or that's from whatever. Brilliant, and then realising that that's Gordon Lew and that's you know, he's Pi May, is it in Kilburg 2 and other things. So rad. And the fighting is is so good. I was I was gonna like go back through Riz's list and then watch more, but I haven't had a chance to, but I will, because it's fucking great. You could buy them really cheap in HMV, the Shaw Brothers box sets, and it was just a great thing to put on, especially when we're at universities, put it on in the background. You know, just a load of people sitting around talking and it's just on in the background. Loads of action, always something happening. Always something crazy or yeah. Well, it sounds like I missed out on it. Yeah, really liked it. I think I've seen it before because like I say, I've seen a lot of Shaw Brothers movies and went through a bit of a phase of that, and yeah, just great. Really enjoyed it. Yeah, well, it sounds like I missed out on this one, so I will catch up. I look forward to it. I think it's a pound ninety nine on Prime if you want to get involved. Okay, bargain. Strong recommend. Strong.