The Hammer of God

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.

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.

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

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.

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...