Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

The 36 Deadly Styles Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 18, 2022

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Cinematic Vengeance: 8 Kung Fu Classics from Director Joseph Kuo.

The hits (and/or kicks, smacks and whacks) keep on comin', with this set from Eureka! Entertainment following releases like Shawscope Volume One from Arrow and a number of offerings from 88 Films like The Chinese Boxer and Disciples of Shaolin in my review queue. The big difference between those films and the ones featured in this huge collection is that these were the handiwork of one Joseph Kuo, a name which may frankly not be all that familiar even to lovers of the "kung fu" genre. Kuo was, as they say, a "multi-hyphenate" who frequently wrote, produced and directed his films, which tended to be independently financed far, far away from the riches and "studio system" of facilities like the Shaw Brothers. As commentator Frank Djenge mentions on more than one disc, that meant Kuo often tried to film outside, where he didn't have to pay for things like sets, which can give these films a kind of distinctive ambience at times. According to the press sheet Eureka! sent with the (check) discs, seven of the eight films in this set are making their worldwide debuts on Blu-ray.

While the second disc in this set may have a more perceptible link to some of Jackie Chan's work courtesy of such titles as The World of Drunken Master, which obviously was fashioned deliberately to evoke Chan, this kind of peculiar film has some of the loosey-goosey elements that helped make Chan such a defining figure in the martial arts genre. That said, this film kind of hilariously seems to want to outdo the "secret training manual" aspect of The 7 Grandmasters by having yet another instructional tome underpinning the story, albeit this time with three dozen styles to contend with.

The 36 Styles is almost deliberately disjunctive in its narrative, offering ping ponging elements that feature flashbacks which some may feel aren't properly delineated, and it also has a rather huge variance in tone, lurching kind of uncontrollably between the kind of physical schtick that became one of Chan's calling cards and a much darker undertone anchored once again in the martial arts standby of vengeance.

The 36 Deadly Styles Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 36 Deadly Styles is (are?) presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka! Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is another presentation that is aces in palette reproduction, and, for the most part, a good accounting of detail levels. The glut of outdoor material helps keep things well lit and popping extremely well most of the time, and fine detail on everything from hair to fabrics on costumes to, well, bulbous noses is typically great. There are some occasional downturns, where clarity can falter for a moment and where grain looks slightly chunky and yellowish (see screenshot 10).

The 36 Deadly Styles Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 36 Deadly Styles features LPCM Mono audio in either Mandarin or English. As I am wont to do, I toggled between the two tracks as I watched. Both of these tracks have pretty brash, even slightly painful at times, high ends, which can crackle and have quite a bit of hiss and other attendant issues. Music in particular can be overly bright, especially in the upper registers. As with virtually all of the films in this set, there's a boxy, overly reverberant sound in both tracks that can make the already goofy sound effects even more comical. Kind of weirdly, the music between the tracks struck me as being about a quarter tone different, though I noticed no timing discrepancies. Despite the issues, dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The 36 Deadly Styles Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Mike Leeder and Arne Venema

The 36 Deadly Styles Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The 36 Deadly Styles might fare better for some viewers if not watched directly after The 7 Grandmasters. This film is a bit too derivative and repetitive for its own good, but it does feature some decent fight sequences. Technical merits vary from generally nice (video) to occasionally problematic (audio), for those who may be considering making a purchase.