Five Fingers of Death (1972)

5 Fingers of Death (1972)
Aka: King Boxer; The Iron Palm; Invincible Boxer
Chinese Title: 天下第一拳
Translation: The World’s First Punch

 

Starring: Lo Lieh, Wang Ping, Wong Gam-Fung, Tien Fung, Tung Lien, Fang Mian, Ku Wen-Chung, James Nam, Chan Shen, Kim Ki-Ju, Chao Hsiung
Director: Walter Chang Chun-Hwa
Action Director: Lau Kar-Wing, Chan Chuan

King Boxer, released in the United States as 5 Fingers of Death a year after its Hong Kong debut, will go down in the annals of world cinema as the film that brought the “kung fu craze” to America. It was an enormous success, occupying one of the top spots in the box office during the month of May, alongside The Big Boss (released as Fists of Fury) and Lady Whirlwind (released as Deep Thrust). While Enter the Dragon ended up being the most successful martial arts film of that year, King Boxer still made it to the top five martial arts films released stateside that year, competing with more than 30. It made more than ten million dollars in theater rentals worldwide, which suggests that the box office receipts fell around 25 and 35 million dollars, against what must’ve been a miniscule budget in Hong Kong dollars.

It feels almost appropriate that the movie that introduced mainstream American audiences to kung fu cinema would be a virtual remake of The Chinese Boxer, credited as the first modern kung fu film. The film revolves around Chao Chi-Hao (Lo Lieh, of The Chinese Boxer and Clan of the White Lotus), a kung fu student studying under the aging Master Sung (Ku Wen-Chung, a director who also played the abbot in The Shaolin Temple). There’s a big tournament coming up, and Master Sung realizes that he’s not good enough to get Chao read for it. So he sends Chao over to the next town to study with his colleague, Master Suen (Fang Mian, of Thousand Mile Escort and The Association). Suen charges Chao with menial tasks around the school, but gradually comes to admire the guy’s dedication, humility and moral fiber, and decides to teach him the Iron Fist technique.

This naturally angers Suen’s senior student, Han Lung (James Nam, of Little Superman and Concorde of Bruce), who throws in his lot with a rival school, ran by Master Meng (Tien Feng, of Fist of Fury and Young Master) and his wastrel son, Tien Hsiung (Tung Lin, of Supermen Against the Orient). Meng wants his student to win the tournament, and has hired fighters from around, including Japanese martial artists, to beat up or kill any school he perceives to be a threat. Through Han’s treachery, Chao is ambushed by the Japanese and crippled—they break his hands, which naturally makes it difficult to perform a fist technique if your carpals have been reduced to shards. Will our hero be able to recover in time for the tournament and win back the honor of his masters’ schools?

In broad strokes, the story is very much a remake of The Chinese Boxer. Both films feature a young and promising martial artist who’s in love with his master’s daughter. Both films feature the school being taken down by a trio of Japanese fighters, who have been hired by the main villain. Finally, both films feature our hero getting seriously injured and training in an esoteric “Iron [insert body part here]” style in order to defeat his enemies. Nevertheless, while The Chinese Boxer’s plot was stripped down to the bare essentials, King Boxer is a lot richer in terms of story and characters.

This time around, the relationship between the student and the master’s daughter is complicated by the addition third member of the ménage: a pretty singer (Wong Gam-Fung of The 14 Amazons) who wants to sheathe Chao’s straight sword, if you catch my drift. There are now two righteous schools, not just one, that are involved in the conflict with the villains, and this film adds a jealous classmate into the mix. There’s also some treachery and counter-treachery on both sides, as certain characters regret their actions, or the consequences of their actions, and turn against the villains.

Obviously, as this is a kung fu film, turning against anyone ensures that there’ll be fights aplenty and there are, for the most part. Despite coming out two months after Fist of Fury and six months after The Big Boss, it’s pretty clear that choreographers Lau Kar-Wing (Boxer from Shangtung and Valley of the Fangs) and Chan Chuen (The Delightful Forest and When Tae Kwon Do Strikes) were drawing more inspiration from Jimmy Wang Yu’s seminal film than from Bruce Lee’s blockbusters. There are lots of trampoline leaps, slow motion scenes of people hitting each other in mid-air, and a gimmick in which Chao’s Iron Fist technique causes his palms to glow red, set to the theme music from the TV show “Ironside,” which was later homaged by Quentin Tarantino in his Kill Bill films.

Lo Lieh’s limited martial arts skills means that this “basher” choreography is going to be a bit sloppy when executed, although he’s improved somewhat from his villainous role in The Chinese Boxer up to this point. At the same time, it’s clear that Lau Kar-Wing is working to integrate traditional kung fu forms into the fighting, even if it never becomes actual “shapes-oriented” combat, which was still a couple of years in the future. Basher movies are frequently criticized for their overlong fights; sloppy choreography; flailing arms and low kicks; bad fight editing; and a distinct lack of power to the blows. While the low kicks and flailing arms are there, the other technical aspects of the action are pretty solid. That said, none of the fights reach the manic energy and brutality of the casino fight in The Chinese Boxer, or the style and violence of the swordfight in the snow that immediately follows in the same film.