Regarded by some as the last "true" old-school kung fu movie, Lau Kar-Leung's 1985 Shaw Brothers release Disciples of the 36th Chamber does indeed mark a passing of the torch when it comes to populist Hong Kong action cinema. Upon its' premiere, the film only stayed in theatres for a week, showing that local audiences were growing tired of the traditional Shaw Brothers style.

This paved the way for the more modern stylings of Jackie Chan's Police Story, which was a huge hit release later that same year that marked the new direction Hong Kong action directors in the mid-1980's -- especially those who were heavily influenced by films from the west -- were going.

It is kind of a shame, then, that Lau's final official entry in the 36th Chamber trilogy comes off as cookie-cutter. There's little of the inventiveness and vitality that figured so heavily in the previous films. Instead, here, we're given a standard kung fu revenge plot tinged with comedy featuring folk hero Fong Sai-Yuk (Hsiao Ho) teaming up with the Shaolin monks (led by San Te, played by the venerable Gordon Liu) to take on those damn dirty Chings.