Now the equally influential "King Boxer" has been given its due after years of being a cult favorite, I guess this is one of the coolest Kung Fu Films I have seen in a long time. I can honestly say I enjoyed it more than Bruce Lee's films because it is not a perfect film that everyone expected.
The film is about a martial arts student named Chi-Hao (Lo Lie) under the tutelage of a Kung Fu Master Sung Wu-Yang who is already past his prime. To realize his full potential the Master sends Chi-Hao to a superior Master named Shen Chin-Pei and bids goodbye to his girl Yin-Yin (Tse Ling-ling). Along the way he meets a young female singer named Meng Tien-Hsiun who falls in love with him after saving her from the same thugs that attacked his master.
Upon arriving in the school he gets a tryout but was beaten by Chin-Pei's star pupil Han Lung, Chin-Pei informs Chi-Hao that he needs to start from the bottom to even be considered for training.
He performs simple tasks like cleaning the house until the day came when the master finally deemed him worthy for training.
Meanwhile martial arts tyrant Ming Dung-Shun sends Chen Lang to start trouble at the school, he proceeds to beat the members of the school even Han Lung. Only Chin-Pei was able to defeat the challenger but Chen Lang through trickery was able to injure Chin-Pei. Chi-Hao seeing no other choice to stop Ming Dung-Shun goes to the bar alone where Chen Lang and Ming Dung-Shun's son was staying.
He manages to beat Chen Lang singlehandedly and gains the respect of his master, Chin-Pein in return chooses him as his successor to learn and master "The Iron Fist" to win the Martial Arts tournament and defeat Ming Dung-Shun's school.
The film is full of mistakes, I thought the script was poorly written and the dubbing was one of the worst I have seen. There are times when the sound of the film is out of sync and the dialogue that the characters are saying may not even be correct. Some of the scenes were unintentionally funny, I immediately cracked up when Chi-Hao received the training manual for "The Iron Fist" technique instead of the grueling training we should expect from our hero. It is of course full of Kung Fu movie cliche's like the outcast hero able to redeem himself, the fading Kung Fu masters who are in need of successors, the jealous rival who wants to be the hero and the rival Martial Arts school out to challenge the competition.
The costumes also did not look good on some of the characters most notably on the two japanese fighters that wore a bad wig and also Chen Lang.
I can go on about the flaws of the film but what's good about it is the fighting choreography and the violence that ensues. The film reminds me of American Westerns but the only problem is this film's bad points makes it good.
The ass kicking alone is worth your time especially the final showdown between our hero and the Japanese fighter who was clearly modeled after the great Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune.
The director Chang-Hwa Jeong was able to explore the story quickly while jumping to the action packed fighting scenes without hesitation. This film is can best be described by using Quentin Tarantino's own words as an "ass kicking nirvana" film worth watching.
Grade: A-
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