Monday, March 14, 2022

The Chinese Boxer (1970)

The Chinese Boxer (1970)
aka The Hammer of God
Chinese title: 龍虎鬥
Translation: Dragon Tiger Gate




Starring: Jimmy Wang Yu, Wang Ping, Lo Lieh, Chen Sing, Wong Chung, Chiu Hung, Fang Mian
Director: Jimmy Wang Yu
Action Director: Tong Gaai

The Chinese Boxer is regularly considered to be the first modern kung fu film. But about Come Drink With Me (1966), which is considered the first modern Chinese martial arts film? What is that? Chopped liver? No. What people mean is that The Chinese Boxer was the first Chinese martial arts film made with modern filmmaking sensibilities to focus on open-handed combat. Or at least it gets credit for that. It’s certainly the one people (re: fans) remember the most.

That’s not quite accurate. You see, The Chinese Boxer came out in Hong Kong theaters in the final weeks of December of 1970. Ten months earlier, Cathay Studios, one of the Shaw Brothers’ biggest rivals, had released From the Highway, which would be the first kung fu movie filmed in color. But who remembers that film today? That’s right, nobody. Of it John Richards of the defunct website Wasted Life observed:

“[From the Highway] really can't be watched with the same expectations as the kung fu films that  followed soon after. The story is rather slow paced and there isn't any real action for the first 45 minutes or so. What there is is good drama and character development and the film has a very accomplished feel in terms of production values, cinematography and acting. There are some nice camera movements here and there indicating a competent production team...The action choreography however is very primitive, but entertaining, with no stylised martial arts techniques whatsoever. In fact it reminded me more of the style of fighting seen in Kwan Tak Hing's movies from 20 years earlier (and more). Things do pick up quite a bit come the end though but it is more the use of some interesting weaponry (spiked ball on a chain) than real martial arts that makes it enjoyable. Worth seeing as a curiosity[1].”

The story is surprisingly prescient in terms of audience tastes, placing the Japanese (as played by Chinese actors) as the main bad guys, thus making the story a showdown between Chinese kung fu and Japanese karate (and to a lesser extent, judo and kendo). And like many of these films, writing the Japanese as villains ends up´a compliment if you tilt your head, as it portrays Chinese martial arts as being no match for its Japanese counterparts, save the “hidden” styles that the Chinese master didn’t even have the forethought to start teaching his students early on.

There’s something strangely ironic about the first important modern kung fu movie being written and directed and starring a man who had no formal martial arts training. But then again, Jimmy Wang Yu had set the standard for modern male martial arts heroes a few years earlier in The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), so perhaps it was fitting that he be the one introduce that archetype to hand-to-hand combat. It’s equally ironic that his main adversary, the deadly Japanese karate master Kitamura, would be played by Lo Lieh, who also didn’t really have a formal martial arts background. And thus you get a big finale where two guys who can’t throw a convincing roundhouse kick to save their lives are fighting for their lives and for the honor of their respective styles.

Questionable fighting chops (pun intended) aside, Tong Gaai’s action is brutal, bloody and entertaining for the most part. People spit up blood, have their eyes gouged out, get decapitated, and get punctured into Swiss cheese by invincible kung fu (and karate) fingers! The showstopper is the fight at the casino, where Jimmy Wang Yu, wearing gloves and a surgical mask[2], beating the absolute hell out of about twenty goons armed with knives, hatchets, sticks and chains. This  fight is the manifesto for the infamous “basher” style of fight choreography, in which technique, complexity and traditionals styles were de-emphasized in favor of wild punching and kicking you might get from a street fight, of which actor Jimmy Wang Yu was a veteran. This fight leads into an equally-exciting sequence, where Wang Yu stalks a contingent of kenjutsu stylists in the snow, hiding in the tall grasses and striking when his quarry is off their guards.

Despite having been a big star for only about four years when this film came out, Jimmy Wang Yu shows himself to be a surprisingly competent director. The camerawork is more than solid. He knows when to use wide shots and close-ups. He has an eye for subtlety, that is, when people aren’t being beaten into mounds of pulped flesh covered in red paint. He knows how to build suspense in scenes where you just know that a fight will break out. Wang even pays homage to old western movies, when his character and one of the Japanese swordsmen have a fast draw duel with knives and shuriken, which is performed with the intense calm you’d find in classics like The Big Gundown.

Jimmy Wang Yu showed us it could be done: updating those old Kwan Tak-Hing kung fu potboilers and embewing them with modern filmmaking sensibilities, like brutality, graphic violence and sleaze. Ten months later, a newcomer by the  birth name of Lei Jun-Fan would show how it should be done.


[2] - I watched this twice during the first half of 2020, thus making it the perfect film to watching the COVID-19 pandemic(!).

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