# The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (五郎八卦棍_)
**The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter** (五郎八卦棍; *Wu Lang ba gua gun*, [Cantonese](https://www.edgepedia.org/cantonese) *Ng Leung bat gwa gwun*) is a 1984 Hong Kong martial arts film produced by Shaw Brothers, directed and co-written by Lau Kar-leung (刘家良) with screenwriter [Ni Kuang](https://www.edgepedia.org/ni-kuang) (倪匡), and starring [Gordon Liu](https://www.edgepedia.org/gordon-liu) (刘家辉), Alexander Fu Sheng (傅声), Kara Hui (惠英红), and Lily Li (李丽丽)[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2020-4-1-14.html) • [2](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/217201/%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D-%E9%82%B5%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8-%E5%82%85%E8%81%B2%E9%81%BA%E4%B8%96%E4%B9%8B%E4%BD%9C). It adapts the legend of the Yang family generals, following the Fifth Brother, who becomes a monk on Wutai Mountain and turns his family's spear art into a pole style after the spearhead becomes a liability[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2020-4-1-14.html). The film is also remembered as Fu Sheng's final work: he died in a car accident during production[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D/3634929?fromModule=lemma_inlink).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 五郎八卦棍 (*Wu Lang ba gua gun*); English titles include The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter and The Invincible Pole Fighter[2](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/217201/%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D-%E9%82%B5%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8-%E5%82%85%E8%81%B2%E9%81%BA%E4%B8%96%E4%B9%8B%E4%BD%9C) • [4](https://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/the-eight-diagram-pole-fighter/) |
| Director / writers | Lau Kar-leung (director, co-writer, action director); Ni Kuang co-writer[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2020-4-1-14.html) |
| Studio and release | Shaw Brothers; Hong Kong release 17–26 February 1984[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D/3634929?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Box office | HK$3,792,852 in 10 days in Hong Kong[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D/3634929?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
| Lead cast | Gordon Liu as Yang Fifth Brother; Alexander Fu Sheng as Sixth Brother; Kara Hui, Lily Li[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2020-4-1-14.html) |
| Runtime | 93 minutes per the Hong Kong Film Archive; other listings give 97 or 98 minutes[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2020-4-1-14.html) • [4](https://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/the-eight-diagram-pole-fighter/) |
| Award nomination | Best Action Choreography, 4th Hong Kong Film Awards[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D/3634929?fromModule=lemma_inlink) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is based on the Yang family generals legend. In the Northern Song, the court is weak and the Yang family army alone holds the border. Through the scheme of the treacherous minister Pan Renmei (played by Lam Hak-ming), the Yang family is nearly annihilated at the Battle of Jinsha Beach; only the Fifth Brother (Gordon Liu) and the Sixth Brother ([Fu Sheng](https://www.edgepedia.org/fu-sheng)) escape[2](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/217201/%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D-%E9%82%B5%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8-%E5%82%85%E8%81%B2%E9%81%BA%E4%B8%96%E4%B9%8B%E4%BD%9C). The Hong Kong Film Archive synopsis describes the central device: the Yang family spear is countered by specially made Liao weapons, so the spearhead once used to strike enemies becomes a burden; the Fifth Brother removes the spearhead, fights with the shaft, and creates the "Five Brothers Eight Diagram Pole" with which he kills his enemies[1](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2020-4-1-14.html).
In the film's account, the Fifth Brother takes vows at Qingliang Temple on Wutai Mountain, where he sees the monks' "wolf-tooth staff" techniques. The abbot (Philip Ko) openly disapproves of his desire for revenge while quietly teaching him. To keep enemies from recognizing the Yang family spear, he removes the spearhead and fuses the staff techniques with his family's spear method, creating the Eight Diagram Pole; in the end he joins his family and the monks to kill his enemies, then leaves with his skill rather than joining political struggles[2](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/217201/%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D-%E9%82%B5%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8-%E5%82%85%E8%81%B2%E9%81%BA%E4%B8%96%E4%B9%8B%E4%BD%9C).
## Production and Fu Sheng's death
The film was produced by Shaw Brothers as a late-period work of Lau Kar-leung, who wrote, directed, acted, and served as action director, with Ni Kuang as co-screenwriter[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D/3634929?fromModule=lemma_inlink). It belongs to the early-1980s wave of kung fu films built around traditional martial arts systems, and the title itself names the style it showcases[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D/3634929?fromModule=lemma_inlink).
**Fu Sheng's death reshaped the film.** The star Alexander Fu Sheng died in a car accident on 6 July 1983 while shooting exterior scenes for the film, at age 27[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D/3634929?fromModule=lemma_inlink). The production had to substantially revise the script: the Sixth Brother's scenes were reassigned to the Eighth Sister, played by Kara Hui[2](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/217201/%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D-%E9%82%B5%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8-%E5%82%85%E8%81%B2%E9%81%BA%E4%B8%96%E4%B9%8B%E4%BD%9C). Critics have described the result as restructured around Gordon Liu's character, with the narrative occasionally feeling disjointed as a consequence[5](https://letterboxd.com/davidapunch/film/the-8-diagram-pole-fighter/). Shaw Brothers prepared a short tribute to Fu Sheng that played before early screenings, and it is included on later home-video releases[6](https://criterionforum.org/review/the-8-diagram-pole-fighter-arrow-video-blu-ray).
## Action design and the martial art behind the title
Lau Kar-leung, a [Hung Ga](https://www.edgepedia.org/hung-ga) practitioner whose father Lau Cham was a student of Lam Shirong, built the fight scenes around real staff techniques[2](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/217201/%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D-%E9%82%B5%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8-%E5%82%85%E8%81%B2%E9%81%BA%E4%B8%96%E4%B9%8B%E4%BD%9C) • [7](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/Chinese/Lau-Kar-leung_c.pdf). The duel between the abbot and the Fifth Brother stages the difference between the single-head pole, which concentrates attacks on one end with circling, pointing, flicking, and lifting techniques, and the double-headed staff, which uses both ends and can trap an opponent's weapon against the wielder's body[2](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/217201/%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D-%E9%82%B5%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8-%E5%82%85%E8%81%B2%E9%81%BA%E4%B8%96%E4%B9%8B%E4%BD%9C). The Liao side uses other classical weapons, including the two-section staff connected by an iron chain[2](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/217201/%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D-%E9%82%B5%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8-%E5%82%85%E8%81%B2%E9%81%BA%E4%B8%96%E4%B9%8B%E4%BD%9C).
The film also adds deliberate exaggeration. To project the "wolf-tooth" image, the temple's monks train against a wolf-shaped machine, and in the finale the staff monks successively smash their enemies' teeth, evoking the crushing of wolf fangs; Gordon Liu credited this style to Lau Kar-leung's own design, meant to convey the raw flavor of national and family hatred[2](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/217201/%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D-%E9%82%B5%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8-%E5%82%85%E8%81%B2%E9%81%BA%E4%B8%96%E4%B9%8B%E4%BD%9C).
The historical link between the pole style and the Yang family is a later attribution. A 1936 manual by the Hung Ga master Lam Shirong recorded a Bagua Pole Method said to be taught by "Yang Fifth Brother of Wutai Mountain, who turned spear technique into pole technique," which is why the routine carries the name Five Brothers Eight Diagram Pole[8](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/116034/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D). The martial arts historian Ma Mingda, who has studied the classical Chinese spear in depth, has argued that Song-dynasty spear technique had already declined by the [Ming dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/ming-dynasty), making the claim that the bagua pole is Yang Fifth Brother's legacy unlikely; spear technique centers on the thrust, while the bagua pole uses circling, pointing, seizing, cutting, swinging, covering, lifting, and deflecting techniques suited to a headless shaft[8](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/116034/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D). The style is in fact a southern single-head pole tradition, with lineages in Guangdong's Pearl River Delta by the late Qing and early Republican periods, including the Lam, Xie, and Zou family bagua poles[8](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/116034/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D).
## Reception and legacy
The film earned HK$3,792,852 in its first ten days in Hong Kong and Lau Kar-leung received a nomination for Best Action Choreography at the 4th Hong Kong Film Awards[3](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D/3634929?fromModule=lemma_inlink). Overseas, its home-video editions have been reissued repeatedly[2](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/217201/%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D-%E9%82%B5%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8-%E5%82%85%E8%81%B2%E9%81%BA%E4%B8%96%E4%B9%8B%E4%BD%9C).
Critics have treated the film as a late peak of the Shaw Brothers kung fu film. It was one of Lau's last films for the studio and a marked tonal departure: the critic Sean Gilman called it the bleakest of Lau's works, breaking with his usual semi-comic tone[9](https://mubi.com/en/films/eight-diagram-pole-fighter/critics-reviews), and Jake Cole of Slant Magazine described it as both the culmination of Lau's work for the studio and his biggest departure from it[10](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-8-diagram-pole-fighter-blu-ray-review/). The film scholar David Bordwell characterized it as a somber dissection of the revenge motif that insists on the price of revenge[11](https://www.davidbordwell.org/books/planethongkong-davidbordwell-110111.pdf). Its finale, in which the monks disable enemies by knocking out their teeth rather than killing them, is frequently singled out as one of the studio's most memorable action sequences[12](https://midwestfilmjournal.com/2022/04/06/arrow-the-eight-diagram-pole-fighter/).
**Restoration.** Arrow Video released the film on Blu-ray in 2022 from a new 2K scan and restoration of the original camera negative, shot by An-Sung Tsao on 35 mm in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, with Cantonese, Mandarin, and English mono tracks and supplements including a commentary by Jonathan Clements and interviews with Gordon Liu, Lily Li, and Yeung Ching-ching[13](https://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/8-diagram-pole-fighter-arrow-2022-bd) • [6](https://criterionforum.org/review/the-8-diagram-pole-fighter-arrow-video-blu-ray).
## References
1. [五郎八卦棍, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/sc/web/hkfa/pe-event-2020-4-1-14.html)
2. [〖電影〗五郎八卦棍：邵氏經典 傅聲遺世之作, HK01 武備志](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/217201/%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1-%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D-%E9%82%B5%E6%B0%8F%E7%B6%93%E5%85%B8-%E5%82%85%E8%81%B2%E9%81%BA%E4%B8%96%E4%B9%8B%E4%BD%9C)
3. [五郎八卦棍（1984年刘家良执导的动作电影）, 百度百科](https://bkso.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D/3634929?fromModule=lemma_inlink)
4. [The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter review, easternkicks.com](https://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/the-eight-diagram-pole-fighter/)
5. [The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter review by David Punch, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/davidapunch/film/the-8-diagram-pole-fighter/)
6. [The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter Blu-ray Review, Criterion Forum](https://criterionforum.org/review/the-8-diagram-pole-fighter-arrow-video-blu-ray)
7. [香港影人小傳檢索：劉家良, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/Chinese/Lau-Kar-leung_c.pdf)
8. [五郎八卦棍, HK01 武備志](https://www.hk01.com/%E6%AD%A6%E5%82%99%E5%BF%97/116034/%E4%BA%94%E9%83%8E%E5%85%AB%E5%8D%A6%E6%A3%8D)
9. [The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter critics reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/eight-diagram-pole-fighter/critics-reviews)
10. [Blu-ray Review: Lau Kar-leung's The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter on Arrow Video, Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-8-diagram-pole-fighter-blu-ray-review/)
11. [Planet Hong Kong chapter, David Bordwell](https://www.davidbordwell.org/books/planethongkong-davidbordwell-110111.pdf)
12. [Arrow: The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, Midwest Film Journal](https://midwestfilmjournal.com/2022/04/06/arrow-the-eight-diagram-pole-fighter/)
13. [8 Diagram Pole Fighter, The (Blu-ray Review), The Digital Bits](https://www.thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/8-diagram-pole-fighter-arrow-2022-bd)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Martial arts films › Released 1943 to 1985*
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