The 44th Chamber of Shaolin

I've followed Jon Truei's work for years - namely since the early days of online indie martial arts action fandom - and this latest short stands to gain plentily from his creative ambition for an inspired audience craving Kung Fu movie concepts that more than surpass expectations. 44th Chamber Of Shaolin is an energetic, inspired and bold experiment in modern day martial arts comedy storytelling, and anyone with exponential taste in genre film can appreciate what Truei and his team are going for. Let's see what this story delivers in a feature framework with an even larger budget and bigger canvas for Truei to play on!

I saw this movie in the context of the major Horror-Fantasy-Sci-Fi festival FilmQuest in Provo, Utah. It is so brilliant that it literally stunned me. It's almost flawless in every respect, acting, directing, writing, choreography... The actors are great performers but also actually have Kung Fu skills. The balance between comedy and more serious aspects is excellent: many jokes eventually prove to be connected to meaningful underlying topics, which makes the movie both fun and inspirational. To an extent I had the impression to watch a short modernized version of the legendary trilogy of the 36th Chamber of Shaolin by the Shaw brothers. Afterwards I learned that it took several years to put together, which makes sense. I hope it will lead to a feature-length film, which would undoubtedly become a classic of the genre and be much appreciated by a large audience.