CHINESE HERCULES is a martial-arts movie with a nice plot, something you don't see too often in the genre! The fight scenes are also not bad, and considering that Bolo Yeung is one of the bad guys, can it really be that terrible?? :)
Starting with our protagonist Lee Hsi accidentally killing someone in a fight, CHINESE HERCULES follows him through his flight to a small village, which is entirely dependent on the traffic that comes into their pier. As such, the owner of the pier can control all the workers (isn't ownership great?) and beat them up without remorse. Lee wants to defend his friends, but he's sworn an oath to never fight again. Also, the current boss of the pier is eventually overrun by chain-smoking Boss Chan and his giant of a henchman, Chiang Tai (played by our buddy Bolo).
The fight scenes in CHINESE HERCULES, when they actually happen, are not terrible, with the exception of one scene in the middle (wherein a disgruntled worker barges in on the pier owner "doing business") that is entirely overdubbed by shabby sound effects. The most interesting part of the fights is seeing Lee's emotions as he fights with himself over whether or not to fight OTHER people. And eventually, what do you think he decides to do? Take a wild guess!
As mentioned earlier, the struggle of the village's inhabitants against the big bosses is possibly the best feature of CHINESE HERCULES. Add into that an emotionally torn Lee and a huge-ass bad guy and you've got a solid script, and a great movie. My rating: 7.5/10
