I’m not the biggest Jimmy Wang-Yu fan in the world. When watching his films, I tend to lose concentration and my mind goes off on weird tangents like, “Is Jimmy Wang-Yu the man with the smallest mouth in the world ever?” and suchlike.

But credit where credit’s due, Chinese Boxer is not a bad film. In fact, I’d begrudgingly call it a “good” film. Not great, but good. Certainly, the lead man appears more like a human being than a walking plank, and I find this helps a lot. This is also one of the first true “unarmed” films made in the era (this is not an attempt at a lousy pun, Jimmy Wang-Yu has both arms in this one), which paved the way for the style of combat we’ve seen ever since. Plus, as usual, the Shaw Brothers’ production values help keep things looking nice and professional.

As with some of the other Celestial Pictures’ remasters, the opening credits and some of the music have been redone. It’s quite obvious and anachronistic. I’m not sure what I think of this practice (I’m sure there was a good reason behind it), but I’m just pointing it out for information purposes.

More than just a museum piece, Chinese Boxer can still be enjoyed today - which is more than can be said about so many of Wang-Yu’s films.