King of Boxers
Director: Kung Min
Year:
1972
Rating: 6.0
There seems to be some confusion about this film
depending on what title you saw it under. Some expect it to be the Lo Lieh
film King Boxer; others including myself saw it under the title Hands of
Death and I kept waiting for Jackie Chan to show up. It is neither but it
freely borrows from a few classic films - King Boxer, Boxer from Shantung
and Fist of Fury - all released in 1972.
The director is Kung Min who only helmed
two other films and it shows in how the film meanders for the first 30-minutes
as we go on a tour of Thailand. But fortunately. Kung brings two fine action
choreographers on board - Lau Kar-wing and Huang Pei-chih - and the action
is quite well done. Starring as the vile Japanese is Kurata Yasuaki in only
his third Hong Kong film. He was to get stuck with similar roles many times.
The hero is portrayed by Meng Fei in only his second film. Meng grew up in
China where he studied martial arts and then made it to Hong Kong by swimming
for hours. He is quite impressive here with his martial arts and good looks,
but he spent most of his career in Taiwan and the Philippines.
Chao (Meng Fei) leaves his martial arts
school and goes to Thailand to learn Muy Thai and after spending time at
a fair watching an elephant-men tug of war and a folk dance, he is introduced
to a Muy Thai fighter Tyson (popular Thai actor Nard Poowanai) and then they
go sightseeing after Tyson kicks ass in a Muy Thai match. They become buddies
and Chao teaches Tyson his fingers of death. Three fingers to rip out a man's
intestines. A little messy but effective. Meanwhile, back in China, Kurata
and his Japanese underlings have beat up the men in Chao's dojo and broken
their sign. He also demands to marry Chao's sister (Maggie Li Lin-lin). Finally,
Chao returns and we get some fine action. Tyson shows up too. Admittedly,
the elephant tug of war was exciting, but we probably didn't need to see
it. Now I have to find the Hand of Death that I thought this was.
