King Boxer DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

While the last movie I reviewed for my Kung Fu Week extravaganza, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, was the best martial arts movie I've ever seen, its release in America might have not possible without the success of this movie, King Boxer, also known as Five Fingers of Death. Its American release in 1973 was so popular it started the martial arts craze in America, paving the way for releases like Bruce Lee's swan song, Enter the Dragon later that year. While I don't think it's quite as good as 36th Chamber, it's still a very important classic and quite a good movie.

This is the second movie in the Dragon Dynasty's Shaw Brothers Collection and it actually reminded me a lot of The Chinese Connection and was likely the basis for any martial-arts tournament flick you've ever seen, like Bloodsport or The Karate Kid. It reminded me of The Chinese Connection because this movie is basically about rival kung fu schools, and their feud for martial arts supremacy. We start out with Chao Chi-Hao (Lo Lieh), a promising young student who's with an older master whose skills are starting to fade. The older master's actual son has been flourishing with another master, Shen (Mien Fang) so he sends Chao Chi-Hao to Shen, where he, eventually, continues his training and becomes embroiled in a war with Ming Dung-Shun (Feng Tien) and his baddies. Both clans want to win this tournament, to show who's skills are superior, but, naturally, there can only be one. Of course, Chiang Yang's script doesn't sound original at all, today, but that just shows how great it was, 35 years ago, and it still influences things today.

There's quite a big difference in the look of this movie, which has to do with the vastly different styles of the director Chang Chang Ho. Instead of long, sprawling shots like 36th Chamber, he really speeds things up, utilizing snappy editing to give the movie more of a busy feel to it. His camera techniques are rather unique in some places as well with extreme closeups of fists flying at the camera and heads falling away as the blow is landed. Sure, this is all old hat now, but back in 1972, it really wasn't, or at least as prevalent. Ho's direction is simply outstanding, and paramount to this movie's success.

Even though Lo Lieh is supposedly the first martial arts film star, I really wasn't that impressed with him. Oh, don't get me wrong, his martial arts skills and fighting ability are top-notch, but his actual acting really wasn't. He severely lacks charisma in this flick and really only has one look, a morose somber look throughout the entire movie, save a wry smile or a odd frown here and there. Most of the supporting roles are nicely done though, with solid turns from Hsiung Chiao as the Japanese assassin Okada, Chi Chu Chin as the Ming henchman Chen, Feng Tien as Ming himself and a bunch of others I can't find character names for. They really need to work on that at IMDB. It's getting annoying...

King Boxer (a real dopey title, actually...) is a historic film that can easily appreciated today, for the then-innovative artistry and story and to see how many movies have been influenced by this Shaw Brothers classic today.

We get our Dragon Dynasty garden-variety features here, with three interviews a Trailer Gallery that's essentially the same as 36th Chamber and a Stills Gallery that is similar as well. So, let's talk about the interviews then.

First up is an Interview with Director Chang-Hwa Jeong, or Chang Chang Ho as he's credited on the package. It's really weird because the whole interview it seems like he's reading from a cue card. It's just a dull, lifeless delivery and it really surprised me. The interview is only five minutes long, probably the shortest I've seen on one of these Dragon Dynasty discs, and we do get a few nice tidbits, but it really isn't that much fun to watch.

Next up is an Interview with Action Director Lau Kar-Wing, who is director Liu Chia-Liang's brother. He talks about his early involvement in the movies, through his brother and talks a little bit about this movie and then just talks shop about his job in general and differences between todays actors and those of yesteryear, and practical stuff about martial arts itself. He's like the guy you meet at a party and talks about his job all night long. I don't know why the action director's interview is 19 minutes and the actual director's is only five minutes, but whatever. There's some decent stuff here, and if you have some time to kill, why not.

Lastly we have an Interview with Film Critics/Scholars David Chute and Andy Klein and they talk about the history of the movie, that it was the first martial arts movie ever released in America and the significance of certain things. I didn't know until this that the awesome theme music from here that was used in Kill Bill actually originated from the TV show Ironside. Weird. There are a lot of other cool little factoids in this six-minute interview that is worth the watch.

This disc is presented in the widescreen format, enhanced for 16x9 widescreen televisions.

The sound is handled through the Dolby Digital format.

Another nice design from Dragon Dynasty. We get a great shot of Lo Lieh in Iron Palm mode with a big title card above his hand and a nice random shot below it. The back is roughly the same as the other Dynasty discs: a few random shots, a praising critic's quote, a synopsis and a big special features box along with the billing block and tech specs. Another nice design here.

A smashing classic that's a must own for any old movie freak or martial arts collector. It's a historical film that has influenced countless films already, and will likely do so into the future.