This tale of Kung Fu School Vs Kung Fu School pits some very good guys against some very bad guys (with the occasional swapping of sides) and some really nasty Japanese. Spawned a million extremely bad US imitations (well, it felt like that, anyway!) and became the first Hong Kong film to be seen by the west.

It’s ironic that some watershed films in Hong Kong’s history owe debts to non-Chinese influences. ONE-ARMED SWORDMAN was an homage to Japanese Chambara films, and this has a Korean director! The approach of Cheng Chang-Ho in this film is distinctly different in style to those that went before it. Having said that, I’m not entirely sure that Hong Kong directors wouldn’t have hit upon this formula itself, given time. That’s not to belittle the achievements of KING BOXER – it’s certainly a quantum leap from CHINESE BOXER, which started the “unarmed” trend that pretty much continues to this day. Although a little clumsy in its execution at times and still relying on a few of the old tricks, the choreography is miles ahead of anything at the time and it would be another six years or so before the rest of the industry caught up and started doing what this film does on a regular basis. At the risk of upsetting fans, I’d even go as far as to say that this is better than FIST OF FURY (which seems to be referenced several times during KING BOXER), although admittedly the lead isn’t as charismatic or as physically gifted.

This film still has the ability to shock some 30-odd years later with its unrelenting brutality. Be warned, there’s many a drubbing administered by virtually every character in the film, and some of it is very bloody indeed. It perhaps could have done with the same attention to the story and the dialogue as with the fight choreography – there’s a glaring error in the narrative that just grates on me every time and some of the characters are very two-dimensional indeed. That said, there’s a reason why this is a classic, and it’s the high-octane action every time.

Sadly, Lo Leih was never to become a notable Hong Kong leading man following the success of this film. In the late 70’s he had already been relegated to playing mainly bad guys – a kind of 70’s equivalent of 80’s James Tien!