Award winning musician and film director RZA (founder of the Wu-Tang Clan) is unleashing his hip-hop genius on the mother of all martial arts masterpieces, Lau Kar-leung’s THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN in a live re-score for the ages.
Long before he was universally acknowledged as a guiding force in hip-hop by birthing Staten Island’s finest clan, RZA was an obsessive encyclopedia of martial arts cinema, in particular the work of the famed Shaw Brothers studio out of Hong Kong. RZA first saw THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN on television when he was 12 years old and again 2 years later on the big screen of a seedy 42nd Street theater with his cousin, Unique (who went on to become Ol’ Dirty Bastard). Dazzled by Kar-leung’s rich kung-fu tapestry, RZA (then Robert Diggs) was most profoundly affected by something that ran much deeper: the struggle between oppressed Chinese villagers and the repressive Manchu authority. “Beyond the kung-fu, it was the reality of the situation that hit me. Growing up as a black kid in America, I didn’t know that that kind of story had existed anywhere else,” said RZA.
In viewing THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN in this allegorical light, RZA was inspired to create a wildly complex mythology, transforming his immediate urban surroundings of Staten Island into a Shaolin and his cousins and childhood friends into the Wu-Tang Clan. The resulting effort is one that stands as one of the most important hip hop albums of all time; Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).
RZA: LIVE FROM THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN features RZA re scoring the film from opening sequence to closing credit. Every frame of the original film has been revisited and will be re scored by RZA utilizing a Wu-Tang catalog over two decades deep. This new score features a vast array of over 40 instrumental tracks, beats and vocals individually crafted and placed to amplify the narrative and electrifying action of Kar-leung’s enduring classic. A true, redefining assault on the senses, this is an experienced not to be missed.
Thursday, Sept. 29 @ 10:45 a.m.
Austin, TX
Fantastic Fest at Alamo Drafthouse S. Lamar – festival attendees
Thursday, Sept. 29 @ 7:00 p.m.
Austin, TX
Stateside Theatre at the Paramount – open to the public (Tickets)
Wednesday, Oct. 12
Los Angeles, CA
Egyptian Theatre – open to the public (Tickets on sale soon)
[VIA Alamo Drafthouse]