The Chinese Boxer

[RGemmell]

I recently ordered the film from Amazon.co.uk and I can say that this film is without a doubt, a well deserved trailblazer of the martial art film. The film has been heavily influenced by Samurai movies. Directed in 1970 by Jimmy Wang Yu the film tells of Japanese karate experts who wipe out a kung fu school, only leaving the main character played by Jimmy Wang Yu alive. After gruelling training in the iron palm and weightlessness methods, he is ready to challenge the Japanese in a duel to the death. The fight sequences were very well done for this time (the 70s). However there are a few scenes that look pure stupid such as the scenes where the master of the kung fu school leaps into the air like a puppet on strings and the final duel is a bit too stagy. However, these are only minor complaints and they don't stand in the way of it's success and definitely deserves half of the credit (the film King Boxer released in 1972 which also broke new ground) in the start of the kung fu boom. Please put forward any questions or opinions based on this film.

My Rating: 10/10

[MrBooth]

I watched this one recently too, on the new Celestial remastered DVD, and it is definitely a cracker that deserves to be better known than it is.

One thing that was quite worrying though - the film is meant to be 95 minutes, but the Celestial DVD plays at 85 minutes... but apparently nothing is cut, it's just running 10% faster than the original projection speed