The Hammer of God (1970) User Reviews (16)

Quite Good

[henry-girling · 7/10 · 21 March 2003]

Jimmy Wang Yu, an authentic Asian superstar, directed and wrote this film which I have only seen in a dubbed videotape version. The widescreen (Shaw Scope!)shape was lost and the original actor's voices absent but this is still good to watch. The story is the usual martial arts school fights villains from Japan plot with our young hero winning out in the end by beating up loads of assorted thugs.

The combat gets better as the film unravels. Early in the film it looks stiff and dull but later there is a great scene where Wang Yu fights hordes in a gambling joint then walks out into a snowy scene and takes some more villains on with knives, sword and fists. That part is very exciting.

Quite good then but it would be interesting to see a non dubbed widescreen version if there is one.

Top-notch entry in 1970s kung fu craze

[mhantholz · 8/10 · 14 April 2010]

Saw this as HAMMER OF GOD @ Loew's DELANCEY with Mario Bava's HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON-- -one of the *best* twin-bills I ever saw and I saw hundreds from the mid-1950s till the *end of the double-bill*, as a movie-going fact-of-life, mid-late 1970s.

The DELANCEY was a huge old "movie palace"-style theater, with humongous screen, super sound system, balcony, full-service concession stand in a big-BIG lobby, *the works*.

The big screen is absolutely *vital* to the peak enjoyment of the rich color, speed-of-light action of HAMMER.

The impact of HATCHET on a small home screen must be terribly attenuated, the atmosphere sharply reduced, surely.

BOTH these films were made with *big screens* in mind. The film-makers of that bygone era could not have foreseen today's cracker-box 'plex "theaters" (*hawk-ptooi*) which generally seat >500, in malls built in the ever-popular Birkenau style of architecture.

I'm High Church about the big-theater films of that era ---I simply won't see them again: My *memory* serves me well enough.

It is simply too depressing, too degrading to see the scratched and pitted prints with their bleached-out "colors" and raggedy soundtracks on a tiny home screen.

I wouldn't accept THE LAST SUPPER or LA PRIMAVERA as thumbnails, and that's what watching vintage movies of happy memory is to me today.

Cheers !

china's secret weapon-jimmy wang-yu

[john-1451 · 8/10 · 18 August 2004]

In the last few months, I've become reacquainted with Jimmy Wang-Yu, whose movies I hadn't seen since Friday nights at the drive in back in the 70's. An authentic Asian superstar, Wang-Yu's movies usually have a simple plot familiar to any chop-socky fan. What sets him apart is that he had an appreciation of fighting styles from other countries that really liven up the fight scenes. (A great example of this is the movie "The Chinese Professionals".) This movie is one of the few to explain why karate fighters had an easy time with kung fu students but would always fall to the masters. If you're looking for a representative kung fu movie, this is the one. The plot is a template for most every kung fu flick that came after. Not as spectacular as his later films, but the climactic battle with Lo Lieh (star of another classic, "Five Fingers of Death") is well worth the price of the movie. Recommended.

Classic old style Chop Socky

[Jules-78 · 15 March 1999]

The Chinese Boxer, unsurprisingly bears some similarity to Jimmy Wang Yu's other popular franchises- The One Armed Swordsman and the One Armed Boxer. This time Jimmy takes on the baddies with both arms. It's a simple morality play, he's good, they're bad and after inflicting pain upon him, his family and his village, they're going to have to pay. What makes it so damn entertaining, is the style, and dare I say it, the passion that has gone into it. Ignore the bad dubbing (the Australian version has an atrocious British accented soundtrack) the panning and acanning, and sit back and enjoy a true classic of HK cinema. You'll also enjoy learning traditional Chinese medicine and philospohy in the manner with which it was intended. Take note of the traditional themes of Chinese cinema- Honour, family values, retribution. Listen for the quick sample of one of John Barry's Bond themes in some of the action sequences.

Decent but not that great

[wargod-00582 · 6/10 · 28 July 2023]

Just watched it on Prime Video. At a time when Jimmy Wang-Yu, David Chiang, Ti Lung and Lo Lieh were superstars, tons of more or less similar movies were made based on more or less the same plot, with two arms, one arm, two fists, one fist, one guillotine and so on... This one is another vehicle of the superstar of that beloved era. You got some dude and in particular our hero, pupils in a kung-fu school, that is threatened by bad guys. Japanese bad guys, yeah!

What happens next leaves no place for surprise but let's admit it: it's still fun and efficient.

The cinematography, as usual for a Shaw Brothers, is beautiful, with nice snow, beautiful scenery, cool casinos... The thing is there are some flaws. When Jackie Chan seeks revenge, he finds a funny old master to train with and it occupies the second act almost entirely. Here, Jimmy's training is on his own, and lasts for way too short. It looks too easy.

Anyway, what bothers me the most, is I can't stop thinking about the uber-superstar that will shatter the world a couple years later. No wonder, sadly or not, that all the superstars of that time were sent to the closet.

Jimmy hadly can rise his legs very high. His blows don't look very powerful. He is more like a dancer rather than an invicible fighter.

Don't misunderstand me, he likes him very much and his fellows as well.

Trouble is, well, there is a unbeatable master who is the only one martial artist in history. Jimmy, here, looks like an artist only. A very good one though, capable of the best, see for instance GOD OF WAR:

Amazing!

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 25 November 2021]

Written, starring and directed by Jimmy Wang Yu, The Chinese Boxer moved martial arts films away from fantasy and weapons into a world where one man and his fists could do plenty of damage.

JImmy Wang Yu was a martial arts superstar in Hong Kong before even Bruce Lee and this movie proves exactly why. I've honestly never seen a bloodier hand to hand combat film, as nearly every punch sends mouthfuls of blood everywhere when they're not blasting people through walls.

Diao (Hsiung Chao, Five Fingers of Death) was thrown out of the kung fu temple and spent years learning judo, defeating each of the students of the school upon his return until the master defeats him. Not being a man of honor, he sends for Japanese karate mercenaries, who are also defeated, until he sends samurai who not only destroy the school and murder all of the kung fu students and the master but also have the gall to take over the town and make it a city of sin.

Lei Ming (Jimmy Wang Yu) has survived, however, and he's willing to do anything and everything to take his town back. You may think you've seen this before - and you have - but that's because every other movie like this came after. A training sequence, much less one where the hero punches his hands into burning sand to toughen them? Yep. A room full of men with weapons and one unarmed hero? Here. A man fighting for the honor of his dead master? This is where it all began at least in film form.

There's also the bad guy KItashima (Lo Lieh, nearly a Shaw Brothers supervillain) who can chop tables in two and provides a more than perfect secondary villain for our hero to fight. And it all looks astounding, because it shares a cinematographer - Hua Shan - with one of the most kinetic and strange movies that Shaw Brothers put out, The Super Infra-Man. Just one look at the fight in the snow and you'll know that this is a movie to be studied just as much as it was stolen from.

Wang Yu's grisly kung fu classic

[Leofwine_draca · 10/10 · 29 December 2015]

Good production values highlight this old-school kung fu movie which is packed with all the crazy action and excessive violence that you could hope for in a martial arts movie. Sure, the plot may be familiar and simple stuff to any genre fan, with the typical Japanese portrayed as the cruel bad guys and a young, everyday Chinese guy becoming the hero and training to take on the bad guys by using the usual methods of running with iron bars attached to his ankles and sticking his hands into a cauldron of red-hot iron filings. However, the direction - also by star Jimmy Wang Yu, who wrote the story on top of this - is lively and imaginative, the fight sequences nicely choreographed and the settings, which include a wintry landscape complete with falling snow, picturesque. Often the film is enlivened with a bright red splash of gore to highlight the action and worry the censors.

Jimmy Wang Yu - who was something of a star in China at the time, appearing in other Shaw Brothers classics like THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN - is acceptable in the leading role, conveying emotion when the script calls for it and displaying his athleticism in the action sequences. The supporting cast is mainly populated by caricatured bad guys who strut their stuff menacingly well, with Lo Lieh a real stand-out. The only offensive thing in the film to my mind is an ill-conceived rape sequence which feels unnecessary and out-of-place, even though nothing explicit is shown it still leaves an unpleasant taste. Where The Chinese Boxer hits home is in its imaginative touches, both in the directorial style and the many fights. The scene in which Wang Yu bathes his hands in iron shows him surrounded by macabre decaying dummies which proceed to disorientate him - a visual nightmare sequence straight from a horror movie. Another moment has two samurai swordsmen chopping up a dozen cage birds from the air to display their skill - what cold bastards. There's also a surprise homage to Sergio Leone's THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY as two fighters measure each other up.

Amongst the well-staged scenes of action are two large battles, one taking place in a casino in which Wang Yu dispatches dozens of black-clad bad guys, wearing a mask and gloves and looking bizarrely like a surgeon as he does so. There's also a spectacularly violent massacre which shows a man having his eyes gouged out in graphic blood splattering detail, much to the sadistic viewer's enjoyment. Other gruesome highlights include many bloody punches, bone-breakings, surprise decapitations, and a literal geyser of pumping blood. Marred by only a few flaws - one of which is a serious lack of music - The Chinese Boxer is an entertaining and violent kung fu romp with all-out action for the genre fan to enjoy. Simple, yet fun.

greatest martial arts movie i remember as a child

[calmexed · 10/10 · 22 September 2006]

I must have been around ten years old when my uncle took me and my brother to see this martial arts movie at the " DRIVE IN " at the circle drive in in Long Beach. The Title was " HAMMER OF GOD " from which i can never forget for some reason, but what i do remember are the different scenes that have left an imprint on my mind forever.

My brother always reminds me of the movie although it has been forever it seems since we seen the movie. From time to time throwout the years i would look for it at the rental stores and from time to time i would check on the web and for some reason it appears like it is never available or no one knows what movie I'm talking about.

If i only knew if and were it was available i would love to purchase that movie. If anyone is aware of its availability please inform me.

Not a fan

[1L19 · 4/10 · 4 October 2021]

When these types of movies are all a variation of the transgression, training montage and revenge theme it comes down to the fight scenes that stand out. Other than the fact that I really don't need to see a rape this movie has two big problems:

1. The hero goes from a student to a master in one year, with no master of his own, by wearing weighted anklets and sticking his hands in hot iron pellets.

2. The fight scenes are very slow, the sound effects are poor, the choreography is such that you can see every telegraphed blow. Due to the liberal use of fire engine red paint to spew from everyone's mouth it's a case of the first or second hit ends the fight. Unfortunately the fight scenes are very long so all you hear (other than the mass fights) is a whole bunch of misses.

I didn't really enjoy this movie and probably won't watch it again.

A Shaw Brothers movie written by, directed by, and starring Jimmy Wang Yu.

[ckormos1 · 8/10 · 6 March 2019]

The most important fact about this movie: A Shaw Brothers movie written by, directed by, and starring Jimmy Wang Yu. That was the first and last time that ever happened.

It starts on a busy street in a small Chinese town. I think Shaw Brothers was just showing off that they could put together a throw away scene with hundreds of extras wandering a complete small town. So it really starts when our villain enters a kung fu school and criticizes them. He is a former student, kicked out for violence, and now a student of Japanese martial arts. Challenge accepted! He fights them but his moves do not resemble karate. During the opening credits one student runs, it seems to be about ten miles, to notify the master. He arrives first at a rock quarry where Jimmy Wang Yu and Cheng Lui seem to be working like slaves. They rush back to the school. Karate guy is now using judo. After introductions and rudeness the teacher arrives. They fight and teacher draws first blood. Karate/Judo guy vows to return with karate experts.

Cut to Jimmy Wang Yu walking and talking with his girl. She predicts a bad ending to all this karate versus kung fu business. Back at the school the master bores everyone with a lecture on the history of martial arts. Two important points are- the Chinese take credit as the originators of all martial arts and the Iron Palm and Light Leaping techniques can defeat karate. Remember that, there will be a one question test at the end of the movie. "How do you defeat karate?"

What follows is then the first training sequence. Jimmy engaged in many exercises to show the physical demands required to gain martial arts proficiency. In reality this is a redundant and mind numbing process so the movies had to make it look more interesting.

Lo Lieh plays an absolute bad guy in this movie. He is one of the few leading men who had real martial arts experience before he started acting. His career began with hero roles but subsequently turned to villains. He is probably better remembered as a villain. His background was in karate so was a perfect fit for this role. Chan Sing is another villain in this movie. He also has a background in Goju-Ryu karate. I am unable to verify of this is before, after, or during his acting career. He fights Jimmy at about 30 minutes into the movie and most of the fight choreography is actually karate for the first time in this movie. He takes out Jimmy with a hit to the forehead.

This movie has my highest recommendation which is underwhelming because it is a landmark film that had social and cultural influence beyond the movie world and is mandatory viewing for any fan of this genre.

I see the appeal but....

[wpickett-10401 · 5/10 · 9 December 2020]

While I was certainly entertained by the martial arts scenes, and campy special effects, the plot was not spectacular, nor was there anything groundbreaking. Save this for when you want to zone out and laugh at some early seventies camp.

Super fight

[hgulfraz · 24 March 2001]

Chinese Boxer is one of the best kung-fu movies,In Chinese Boxer the Japanese with the help of a kung-fu master beat the hero's village,school and throw him out so he trains and learns new amazing techiniques such as the Iron Palm and the Weightleness and then takes revenge

WANG YU DIRECTS

[kirbylee70-599-526179 · 8/10 · 3 May 2022]

Fans of Chinese martial arts films should be incredibly pleased lately. Many of the classics, especially those from the Shaw Brothers studios have been making their way to Blu-ray in recent months. Arrow Video put out their Shaw Brothers Collection Volume 1 to great acclaim. But closing in on them is 88 Films with their rapid releases of other classics including THE CHINESE BOXER.

THE CHINESE BOXER from 1970 was the first film to be directed by Jimmy Wang Yu who'd become a rising star in Chinese films by this time. Also known as HAMMER OF GOD the film used a somewhat familiar tale but gave it its own spin. Add to that the fact that Wu also starred in the film and you had a guaranteed hit.

Wu stars as Lei-ming, a dedicated martial arts student in 1940s China during the occupation by the Japanese. Living in Shanghai problems for those living their increase when the triads work hand in hand with the Japanese to keep the population down. Lei-min attempts to stand up to them and the results are deadly.

The triads hire a group of assassins to wipe out the martial arts school Lei-ming belongs to. Master Kitashima (Lo Lieh) and his group decimate the every member of the school and leave Lei-ming behind as well thinking him dead. But Lei-ming survives the attack and hides while he rebuilds his strength. Aided by Li Hsiao Ling (Wang Ping), the daughter of his master, Lei-ming heals.

Recovering is painstaking but he does so. Determined more than ever to seek revenge he practices his martial arts skills daily to achieve that goal. Remembering the words of his master he sets out to learn the "Iron Fist" technique, the only way to defeat his enemies. Along with this he must train himself to learn to leap in order to avoid the deadly karate strikes thrown his way. And when he finally reaches the point where he has the abilities he needs, he sets to exact that revenge.

The usual sights to be seen in martial arts films from China are on hand here. The high flying leaps, the bone crunching punches and the determined hero setting out to get revenge for a wrong doing done to him. Rather than being simple tropes in the films though the each film using this theme has always had its own flavor and this one proves that.

Wang Yu was one of the first mega-stars in the genre, even before Bruce Lee came along. Earlier films he made were filled with sword play but here the hand to hand combat sequences equal any of those previous films. His star power is evident throughout. Lo Lieh was another huge star in the genre and seeing the two of them together is a treat.

88 Films has done a fantastic job with their release of this film. Not only is this a restored HD master they've added a ton of extras as well. Those include an audio commentary track from film journalist Samm Deighan, "Open Hand Combat" an interview with journalist David West, "Wong Ching at Shaw" an interview with actor Wong Ching by Frédéric Ambroisine, the US 'Hammer of God' trailer, the Hong Kong trailer, the English trailer, the US TV spot and a reversible sleeve with brand-new artwork from R. P. "Kung Fu Bob" O'Brien & original Hong Kong poster artwork.

If you love the genre or are simply a fan of action films by all means this one needs to go into your collection.

Lots of fun.

[Hey_Sweden · 8/10 · 15 May 2022]

The late, great Jimmy Wang Yu wrote, directed, and starred in this martial arts classic with an appreciably simple, straightforward story. A swaggering heel named Diao Erh-yeh (Hsiung Chao) comes to a school of Chinese boxing to throw his weight around. But the wise teacher (Mien Fang) sends him packing. Soon, the villain has returned with brutal karate fighters from Japan, and they slaughter almost everybody in the school. But our hero survives, and spends time recuperating and training for what he knows is going to be a tough quest for revenge.

This viewer would agree that "The Chinese Boxer" only gets better as it goes along. The fighting is top-notch, of course, and the film has a definite energy and flow to it. It's also quite amusingly violent, with a lot of bright red movie blood oozing from various mortal wounds. Our hero, Lei Ming, is a calm, steady, soft-spoken type, and the villains are absolutely classic in their unsubtle nastiness. (To add insult to injury, Diao Erh-yeh takes over the whole town, turning it into a hotbed of corruption.) Best of all is when the climactic action is taken outside, and our opponents start tangling in the snowy wilderness. But the training scenes are also as cool as can be, as Lei Ming learns to practice "weightlessness" and creates "hands of iron". Interestingly, in this saga, karate is portrayed in a largely negative way, with the teacher explaining the difference between karate and Chinese boxing to his students.

The music is good, the widescreen photography excellent, and the cast solid; this viewer did watch the English-language version, but the dubbing really didn't bother him that much. Overall, this is quite engaging, and clearly influenced later films such as Quentin Tarantinos' "Kill Bill" saga.

Eight out of 10.

Eye gouging, action packed chinese propaganda

[Mick-55 · 9 November 1999]

The Chinese Boxer is typical of Chinese propaganda about the Japanese. Chinese boxing is for sport, Karate is for killing, and boy do they kill. Eye gouging and rape in an action-packed fist-fest. A chinese man returns to challenge the kung fu master who threw him out of town with his new found Judo skills. His defeat leads to calling on Japanese Karate experts, and on it goes from there. Our hero's entire school is wiped out, leaving him to seek revenge by learning new techniques.... you get the idea. The town becomes an excuse for the local gambling den. The final fight seen involves some nice sword play. An ok flick, could have done without the rape scene, which isn't too explicit, but still...

For Lo Lieh Completists

[Boodikka · 1 April 1999]

For fans of Lo Lieh (Five Fingers of Death) this is a chance to see him as the evil Japanese karate master. In the US, advertising hyped this as "the most blood-spurting" martial arts film. It's hardly that; but the fight scenes are wild.