The 8-Diagram Pole Fighter

Turned upside down during production by the death of Fu Sheng in a car crash, this is by far Lau's most sombre and serious minded film. It set out to retell the famous Song Dynasty legend of the Yang family, massacred by Mongol invaders with the connivance of a Chinese traitor. In the film, Yang's 5th and 6th sons (Liu andFu respectively) survive the massacre: 6 returns home deranged to be nursed by his mother and sisters (but, due to Fu's death, never to fight again), while 5 eventually finds his way to a temple where he learns to use his now bladeless spear as a weapon, mastering the art of 8-Diagram pole fighting. The many scenes of combat, choreographed to Lau's usual high standard, are relentlessly grim and bloody; the monks who back up 5 in his climactic revenge respect their Buddhist principles by disabling rather than killing their enemies - by knocking out all their teeth.