The longest training montage in the history of cinema?

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)

First a bit of a disclaimer, I'm not a big fan of martial arts movies, I mean I surely don't hate them but the fighting is not enough for me to make a good movie. So when reviewing a genre defining classic like this I'm sure to anger some fans of the genre because of my ignorance. My expectations were of course high because I had read and been told this was one of the best in the genre, so the premise for the movie was maybe a bit unfair. Anyway, after seeing it I surely didn't hate it, but it didn't really blow my mind either. So this is a story of San Te (Chia Hui Liu) who gets mixed up in a fight between the patriots and the Manchu, two rivalring groups in the Canton area. His friends and family ends up dead so he swears revenge and seeks the help of a Shaolin temple and their knowledge of martial arts. He seems to be a natural talent and ends up going through the different chambers in a record time to become a master. Surprisingly I quite liked the story, it's very basic and simple, but what can you expect from a movie like this so it worked rather brilliantly. Also the movie looked great with some very nicely framed shots and the restored print on the DVD did it perfect justice. The music was not that great, but didn't bother me either, though the sound effects did get a bit annoying after a while, them being extremely repetitive. The acting was also surprisingly good and surely the cast were extremely good at what they did fight wise. Some of the stuff they do is just mezmerising. But the biggest flaw of this movie is funnily enough the training, it goes on way too long. Sure that's the part where all the skills come to show, but really it could have been cut in half with the same effect for me. I mean I'm not a fan of training montages for sure, but it just got a bit tedious with it's duration. Anyway, I wasn't bored and was quite happy to see this one as I had heard about it quite often. I guess for fans of martial arts this is pretty much a perfect movie, for me it was "just" a good movie.
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