1. Birth of a Shaolin Warrior
The RZA saw The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, then called The Master Killer, for the first time when he nine years old, on a local New York TV channel. “We’d all be watching the kung fu movies and come out and start fighting each other,” he remembered. But the film awakened a social and historic awareness in him: “Beyond the kung fu, there was something about the reality of the situation.” The story of fighting against an oppressive government particularly resonated with him: “As a black man in America, I didn’t know that story existed anywhere else.”
2. Name That Tune
The RZA knows the movie so well that when he was backstage at LACMA’s Bing Theater, he could identify a fight scene just from the soundtrack. “Without seeing it, from music cues,” he said, he could tell that “San Te was fighting with the axe against the monk.” He also noted the subtitles had been revised in this particular film print: “They changed some of them, but I can work with that.”
3. Bring da Ruckus
The RZA’s favorite fight in the film: “When [San Te] loses the second fight, as far as choreography — the butterfly knives against the crescent blade. He had a plan to beat him, but he countered every move.”
4. Secrets of Shaolin
Before the Wu-Tang Clan released Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), the group had adopted “chamber” as an all-purpose noun; in context it could be applied to an attractive girl or a bottle of Olde English malt liquor.
5. Early Ambitions
“When Wu-Tang first came out, there were no DVDs ; my goal was to put a cassette in your car, and have an audio movie.”