The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter

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The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter
The Hong Kong movie poster.
Traditional	五郎八卦棍
Simplified	五郎八卦棍
Mandarin	Wǔláng Bāguà Gùn
Cantonese	Ng5long4 Baat3gwaa3 Gwan3
Directed by	Lau Kar-leung
Written by	Lau Kar-leung Kuang Ni
Produced by	Mona Fong Run Me Shaw Run Run Shaw
Starring	Gordon Liu Alexander Fu Kara Hui Ko Fei
Music by	Stephen Shing
Distributed by	Shaw Brothers Studio
Release date	1984 (1984)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	Hong Kong
Language	Cantonese

The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter is a 1984 Hong Kong film by Shaw Brothers, directed by Lau Kar-leung and starring Gordon Liu and Alexander Fu in his final film appearance. It was released as The Invincible Pole Fighters outside of Hong Kong and Invincible Pole Fighter in North America.

Alexander Fu died in a car accident before the filming of The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter was finished. The script was partly re-written after his death and Fu's character does not appear in the final showdown as originally written in the script.^[1]

The film is based on the Generals of the Yang Family (Yeung family in Cantonese) legends.

Plot[]

With help from the treacherous Song dynasty general Pun Mei, the Khitan-ruled Liao dynasty army succeeded in trapping the loyal Song general Yeung Yip and his seven sons at Golden Beach. Yeung Yip and his sons were all killed or captured in the ambush, except for the 5th son and the 6th son who managed to escape. The 6th son returned home, but was severely traumatised by the events resulting on tantrums. Meanwhile, the 5th son sought refuge in a monastery in Mount Wutai, but the monastery leaders initially did not consider him calm enough to be a Buddhist monk. As blades were not allowed inside a monastery, he used his training in spears to practice with a pole, eventually developing the unique eight diagram pole fighting technique. When he finally appeared to have put his anger and past behind him, news broke that the Khitans had captured his younger sister, Yeung Baat-mui, who was looking for him. Now he must break Buddhist vows (including not kill and not be bothered by worldly affairs) to save Baat-mui and exact his revenge.

Cast[]

Note: The characters' names are in Cantonese romanisation.

Production[]

Actors Alexander Fu Sheng, his younger brother David Cheung Chin-pang and Wong Yue are involved in an automobile accident–in which only claimed Fu Sheng's life–during the shooting of the film. The director subsequently rewrote Fu's parts for Kara Wai's 8th child character.^[2]

Awards and nominations[]

1985 – 4th Hong Kong Film Awards

• Nominated – Lau Kar-leung, Best Action Choreography

References[]

External links[]

• Eight-Diagram Pole Fighter at Hong Kong Cinemagic
• Eight-Diagram Pole Fighter at IMDb
• Eight-Diagram Pole Fighter at AllMovie