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Without provocation, Master Li's (Fang Mien) martial arts school is attacked by martial artist Diao Erh (Chao Hsiung), who beats several of his students to a pulp before Li can interfere and teach Diao Erh a lesson. But Diao Erh vows to return with a group of Karatekas, and so he does only a few weeks later. And these Japanese fighters, led by Kitashima (Lo Lieh), attack Li's dojo and fight and kill most of his students and ultimately the master himself. With Master Li out of the way, they turn the dojo in the casino, run by Diao Erh, while Kitashima trains a gang to work as the casino's debt collectors - and soon enough, pretty much everybody in town in paying them protection money. Of Master Li's students, Lei Ming (Jimmy Wang Yu) is one of the few survivors, and he's nursed back to health by the master's daughter (Wang Ping). Of course he immediately wants to avenge his master, but the master's daughter convinces him Kitashima and gang's karate is just too strong for his kung fu. But then Diao Erh has his neighbour Lin (Tsai No) beaten up and rapes his wife (Chiang Ling), to the effect that they both hang themselves, and now Lei Ming realizes something has to be done. Fortunately he remembers something his master has said, that to beat karate one has to merge two certain techniques of kung fu, so he trains in secret, and once he has mastered the new technique, he dons a mask to beat up Diao Erh and Kitashima's men, often by the dozen, so much so that Diao Erh and Kitashima take notice. But it's one thing for Lei Ming to take out their men, another to take out these two villains ...

Now it would be wrong to call The Chinese Boxer any kind of masterpiece: Sure, it's put together with all the necessary care you'd expect from a Shaw Brothers movie, and its action sequences are nothing if not exciting, but the story lacks both nuance and subtlety, and its characters hardly rise above cardboard quality. But that all said, I'm by no means trying to take the movie down, because taken for what it is, it's great, an unapologetic martial arts hero's tale, told with some panache but also very over-the-top action, some quite vicious, grossly exaggerated bits of gore, and a certain degree of campiness throughout. And while not exactly brain-heavy, it's great fun for what it is!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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