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After one of its lead actors (cherub-faced action icon Alexander Fu Sheng) unexpectedly died midway through production, master director Lau Kar-leung (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin) retooled his latest martial arts epic, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, as the ultimate action spectacular in tribute to the fallen star.

Loosely based upon the legendary Yang dynasty chronicled in Chinese folklore, the film starts as the family patriarch and all but two of his sons are brutally wiped out in a bloody battle. One surviving son (Fu Sheng) returns to his mother and two sisters, deeply traumatized; 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.

Made during the legendary Shaw Brothers studio's twilight years as a filmmaking powerhouse, The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter is often regarded as director Lau’s masterpiece, as elegiac and suffused with anguish as it is thrillingly violent (not least in its bone-crunching, teeth-smashing climax).

Special Edition Contents:

• 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

First Pressing Only: Illustrated collectors' booklet featuring new writing on the film by Terrence J. Brady

Worth getting for the new 2k restoration but holding onto the 88 UK disc. Arrow's new cover has nothing on Kung Fu Bob's 88 artwork.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen that logo, or not in a very long time at least. Beautiful!

In case anyone was curious about the subtitle translation, Dylan Cheung confirms on Twitter that it's "a slightly tweaked" version of his translation which appeared on the 88 Film release.

Matt wrote: Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:19 pm I don’t think I’ve ever seen that logo, or not in a very long time at least. Beautiful!

It is quite glorious!

This is a weird Shaws Bros entry- I found the film incredibly alienating for its first two acts, which may be appropriately reflexive to the themes of displacement and trauma, but nonetheless left me primarily disengaged. Still, the anxiety of the pulsating trauma was felt throughout and ultimately served a key function where the last act exploded into chaotic violence with a unique breed of catharsis that is perversely not rooted in the culmination of an invested story or character arc, but rather arriving at a solution to make tangible all the nebulous sensations of estrangement that came before it. It’s fitting that this endgame’s solution is not comprised of smooth, elegant, passionate action, but relentlessly anarchic haywire violence- reflecting an impetus of insecure destabilized anxiety rather than a traditional confidence.

feihong already detailed some of the more unsettling aspects of this ending, though for me it was the manner in which these disturbing ideas were played out repetitively, disallowing then to stand out (whereas a ‘normal’ film may have included the teeth-pulling bit only once for a maximum effect of novelty) that was most alarming- producing a rote internal logic, as if forcing us to acclimate to the desensitized state towards violence these characters psychologically occupy. I actually preferred the penultimate setpiece fight which was more representative of what we’ve seen before from SB only with exceptional choreography, but that whiplash to the finale was a necessary sensation to close the loop of this disorienting meditation on isolation and confusion, where only violence can offer a palpable, impermanent reprieve.

Beaver.