Aka - Freedom Strikes a Blow

We get it. You pledged never to fight again after killing a man with your bare hands. It happens and he kind of deserved it. But this is a movie and I didn't pay to watch you mope around for 80-minutes like a little weenie. Fight! I began to lose my patience with this film by about the one-hour mark. Enough of this Shane stuff. Michael Chan Wai-man was the real deal in Hong Kong films during his career. Between his work for the triads and inside the ring, he had earned street cred and respect. He turned to acting, but most of his roles were supporting and often as a triad member. But he is the star in this one and I was looking forward to some tough guy action. Yes, if only bookends count.


Chan plays a student in a martial arts school and one night he is goaded into a fight with the son of the Master and brother of the woman he loves. In the fight, the brother pulls a knife and slices him and Chan loses it and beats him to death. He runs away, smashes his right hand with a stone and swears never to fight again. A fine sentiment unless you live in a world where violence is the currency that everyone spends.


He gets a job at a loading dock as a coolie, being paid for each sack he hauls off the incoming boats. The entire small community depends on this work and so the sadistic boss is the law. He takes an instant dislike to Chan and orders his men to beat him up. Chan refuses to fight back. His friends are killed, he refuses to fight back, the triads move in and beat up the workers, he refuses to fight back. Finally, that girlfriend comes looking for him and gets beat up, he refuses to fight. My patience is running out. Fight, damn you. And there is the Chinese Hercules of the American title waiting for him. Bolo Yeung. In all his glory, shirtless, flexing, snapping necks. Get to bashing. He does and earns every penny of his salary. Mind you, there has been other action going on but this is what we came for.