King Boxer

King Boxer

Starring: Lo Lieh, Tin Fung, Gam Hei Chu, Ping Wang, Chin-Feng Wang

Directed by: Chang-Hwa Jeong

Reviewed by: Conor Flynn








• Mono Subtitles in Mandarin and English
• Audio Commentary by David Chute, Elvis Mitchell, and Quentin Tarantino
• Interviews
• Trailers
• Picture Gallery
• Commentary Biogs

‘Dragon Dynasty’ is the brain child of ‘Kill Bill’ producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein (as suggested by Quentin Tarantino). This label will cater the very best that Asian cinema has to offer on DVD. King Boxer arrives on these shores as the first in a series ‘Shaw Brothers’ classics on the label. Certainly with this first film classic, things are off to an explosive start. This 1973 picture is credited as the film that began America’s craze with all things martial arts related. That might seem like a bold statement considering this came out the same year that the monumental classic ‘Enter the Dragon’ slammed its way into public consciousness, but after watching King Boxer (also amusingly known as ‘The Five Fingers of Death’), it’s not difficult to see how this film started it all…

Chi-Hao (Lo Lieh) wishes to marry his childhood sweetheart Yin-Yin. After his master is attacked by a gang of hoodlums, it is decided that Chi-Hao must travel to a more advanced martial arts school to learn the Iron Palm fighting technique in order to win a tournament and, more importantly, win the hand of Yin-Yin. Standing in Chi-Hao’s way is local martial arts tyrant, Ming Dung-Shun and his gang of thugs…

King Boxer has been blunted ever so slightly by inferior rip-offs. Admittedly the film plays to all the usual clichés of the genre with courage, honour, dishonour, betrayal and a bit of inconsequential love being the order of the day. There is also the obligatory camera crash zoom and rather iffy soundtrack (which steals directly from James Bond and the television series ‘Ironside’) which add unintentional amusement to the film. Despite all this, the film has a surprisingly layered story for its compact ninety plus minutes and the (sometimes splatter filled) action scenes are also top-notch. Overall it is highly entertaining stuff, even if you aren’t a big fan of martial arts.

The film has been given a miraculous re-mastering and looks incredible; both pin-sharp and devoid of any print damage or noticeable grain. The English dub track is not too bad and the Mandarin track is good. Both are very clear. Extras wise it’s a mixed bag. The disc includes three interviews, though two of these are very short, but are still quite interesting. The highlight of the disc is a commentary with David Chute, Elvis Mitchell, and Quentin Tarantino. It’s a lively affair, though rather light on facts behind the production. It’s still better than nothing. A number of trailers, a picture gallery and commentary biogs round up some decent extras.

King Boxer is a highly important film which set a benchmark for the cycle of martial arts films to come. Dragon Dynasty has given the film the DVD treatment it rightly deserves.