ma-cortes ¨The invincible pole fighters¨ , international title , seems to be one of the best Kung Fu movies , including overwhelming combats and spectacular scenarios . Exciting attacks and groundbreaking fighting perfectly staged , the result is a strong entry for action buffs . This is a Run Run Shaw Brothers vintage film and widely considered to be one of the greatest Kung Fu flicks of all time . Epic imperial and subsequent treason and upheaval during China's Ching dynasty , being marvelous and colorfully directed . The picture starts with Yang family battling a group of Mongols , showing a demonstration of splendid martial arts . Insidious Mongols want to overthrow the dynasty with the help of a traitor . As they ambush the influential Yang Family , defenders of the dynasty . The Mongols must hunt down all Yang survivors so their scheme will not be uncovered . During the cruel Mongol attack , the fifth son (Chia Hui Liu or Gordon Liu) arranges to getaway and he arrives in a temple where devotes himself to learning the martial arts at Bhuddist location in order to seek vengeance . In a short period of time he learns the art of fighting , thanks his expert Bhuddist master . When his learning is completed , he set out in pursuit his enemies .This classic flick displays lots of violence , action filled , zooms ,thrills and fierce combats. This luxurious Kung Fu film was wonderfully filmed with good production design , glimmer cinematography , impressive combats and breathtaking scenes . This is a colourful , Hong-Kong set , mostly filmed in studio and quite budget movie ; leave no cliché untouched , though the fighting are magnificently staged . The picture is full of tumultuous sequences with frenetic action , surprises , climatic combats and groundbreaking struggles . Amid the glamour and grandeur of the scenarios is developed an intrigue about nasty Mongols or Tartars and a learning period at famous Bhuddist temple , including betrayal , crime and exploring the dark side of vengeance . Overwhelming and rousing fights with deadly use of fists , feet and palms , along with such weapons as swords, sticks , and lances . Highlights of the film are the notorious struggle between the master and his pupil and of course the breathtaking and overlong final fighting . Kung Fu training scenes are a direct reference in ¨Kill Bill¨ by Quentin Tarantino , enhanced by the fact that Gordon Liu stars in both movies . The picture is well starred by Chia Hui Liu or Gordon Liu , he is the adopted brother of the greatest Kung-Fu director , Liu Chia-Liang . He is almost always playing a bald-headed monk of some sort . He started his movie career as a stuntman and got promoted to martial arts instructor afterwards . His debut project was Shaolin Martial Arts in which he played a supporting role . In the Challenge of the master, director Liu Chia-Liang successfully moulded him to be a "Hero of Kung-Fu" and he was in the main cast for the movie , too . The 36th Chamber of Shaolin marked the success of Liu and he followed this role and made several Kung-Fu movies ; amongst those , he always portrayed himself as the "Kung-Fu Monk". He played two roles in the "Kill Bill" films . When Sheng Fu was killed in car crash during filming script was rewritten to make Yang No. 5 the hero."8 Diagram Pole Fighter" was compellingly directed by Chia Liang Liu and won the Best Martial Arts Award at Asian Film Festival and was the Top 10 Box Office Hits in Hong Kong . Chia Liang Liu or Lau Kar Leung made stunts and directed several Kung Fu movies as ¨Legend of drunk master¨ , "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" , "8 Diagram Pole Fighter" , ¨Shaolin executioners¨, ¨, ¨Seven swords¨ , ¨Return to Shaolin¨ also with Gordon Liu and ¨Shaolin 3 : Martial arts of Shaolin¨ with Jet Li . Rating : Above average , well worth watching , an unforgettable martial art movie not to be missed. The tale will appeal to art martian fans , essential and indispensable seeing .

Masta_Ruthless Another classic Shaw Bros. gem has found it's way into my heart. Invincible Pole Fighter host everything that is right about a Shaw classic. The beginning really speaks for it's self. The Yang family has 7 sons and 2 daughters. In a fight, they are betrayed by an ally that they have trusted for so long. Five of the 7 brothers are killed along with the father.Gordon Liu escapes and joins the Shaolin Temple as they are very hesitant in excepting him. I won't drag this to long, but the end fight had a very unique flavor. Instead of killing most of their enemies the Shaolin Monks performed an act called defanging the wolf, meaning they knocked out their teeth. The last guy really got it bad, but honestly the only bad thing about this film is that Fu Sheng did not fight with brother 6 and sister 8. I found out that Fu Sheng had died in a car accident, while filming this movie, that's why he was not in the end fight.But, as I said before, forget these other reviewers that think Bruce Lee is the only one that can make good movies, hell wire fu is what made some of these movies legendary, The Matrix is living proof. In the end don't believe the hype about this movie being good. Believe the hype about it being off the chain!!!!! 9/10

sarastro7 I'd heard a lot of people praise this movie, so I expected a lot.What I got was a decent but overly gaudy and loud ("aaaaaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!!!" all the time) movie. Lots of cool action, and (all things considered) a fair story, but I didn't really find it either believable or particularly memorable. The bad guys' pole-snagging device was extremely silly. I thought some of the costumes were good, but the chaotic way they fought (and screamed!!!) was too over-the-top and non-stop. Not much to be taken seriously, despite this not being (intended as) a comedy. I have seen many kung fu movies much better than this; I am not a great fan of the exaggeratedly flashy type of martial arts movies.Still, this was not a bad movie, and I rate it a 7 out of 10.

3sectioncudgel Many reviews I have read say that this is one of the best Martial Arts movies ever made.I disagree. Please consider the fact that the version I saw was fullscreen and dubbed.This movie seems to have crossed the cusp of good Kung Fu movies. It was made in 1983 which seems to explain the crappy costuming. In my humble opinion, the costumes are grotesque and gaudy. We are talking liquid gold and leopard skins. The plot was very jumbled and not very clear. The classic Kung Fu training sequences were not very long or explanatory. And if you've seen the movie you will know how lame the wolf training dummies were. And for being called `The Invincible Pole Fighter' he seemed to be the exact opposite One redeeming quality was the cool ass bendy poles that the Mongols used to entrap the Yang's spears. They were highly annoying to the heroes and the audience. A real sense of hopelessness. One good thing was the intensity of the final fight scene. A real cliffhanger.