By the mid-1980's, the "old-school" subset of kung fu movies had fallen out of favor with local audiences and were on their way out from being a staple of the Hong Kong film studios' output. So, in many ways, Lau Kar-Leung's 1984 Shaw Brothers picture The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter (aka Invincible Pole Fighter) can be considered a swan song of sorts for the genre, and, in that respect, it created a wonderful tribute to the style that still remains a vital and vivid movie, even after twenty-five years since its' initial release.