Terrific martial arts film starring Wan Yu (a.k.a. Jimmy Wang Yu of One Armed Boxer fame) as a rebel during the Manchu occupation of China and Hsiao-Chuang Kuo (billed as Kou Shu Chung) as a leader in the boxer rebellion. Some melodrama involved but mostly a fight film with Kung Fu battles occupying just about the entire second half of it's 92 min. running time. Plenty of edged weapons fighting, mostly swords, and anyone familiar with Wang Yu's fighting style will see it on fine display here. His female counterpart Hsiao-Chuang Kuo does an excellent job portraying the stoic proud rebel leader fighting overwhelming odds. She has a casual manner when it comes to execution of her fight scenes, but the choreography is wonderful. I viewed this on a pan and scan VHS under the title Fury of King Boxer, and even with the picture cropped the modest but impressive cinematography shines thru. If you enjoy the genre, especially old school martial arts, this film is for you.
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actionfilm-227 February 2011
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ckormos130 April 2019The narrator speaks of war atrocities. Our girl, Gwok Siu-Chong, only in seven films, fights the soldiers alone. She talks to groups of men about the revolution and meets others grateful that she has freed them. They try to make plans but argue then fight. At another meeting Jimmy Wang Yu speaks up. Soldiers come to arrest them all and fail. After more talk they leave Japan and return to China, knowing it is a trap.
The movie starts a tad heavy on the politics and drama but the action is still there. The fights start with fists then by the second half of the movie it is mostly fights and mostly swords. Most of the action is not one on one but brawls.
I define a "brawl" as fight sequence with many fighters going at it. It can be long shot in which no actor in particular is the center of attention. Or it can be a sequence where one actor in particular is going against a ridiculous amount of opponents. Brawls put a lot of action on the screen but often that action is just a lot meaningless movement. To someone who is not a fan of these movies a brawl sequence can often lead to "Change it, I am not watching this crap!"
I respectfully call Jimmy Wang Yu "The Mad Man of Martial Arts Movies". This is mostly because of his masterpiece "Master of the Flying Guillotine" a.k.a. "One-armed Boxer vs. the Flying Guillotine". He is the man who got the brawl right. An excellent example of what I mean by that happens at about the 16 minute mark in this movie. Jimmy and crew take on a gang of Manchu soldiers in white. Somehow he takes all the ridiculous amount of opponents and crazy amount of movement and makes it look good.
My copy is the Kung Fu Theater DVD. It is dubbed in English by the good voice over team. Though physically a DVD it is really the VHS tape converted to a digital file. The picture resolution is good but the format is 4:3. Flash Legs Kung Fu has a version that claims to be wide screen but this group makes that claim often and it is really fake wide screen. I cannot confirm the wide screen either way but will revise this if I can confirm it.
You can't call yourself a fan of this genre if you haven't watched this one. I rate it a tad above average and it is on my list to watch again sometime as appropriate.