 |
| Images courtesy of Arrow Video |
Arrow Video and other boutique labels such as 88 Films have
made it their mission to license and release through Fortune Star not only the
Shaw Brothers back catalog of pulpy martial-arts actioners, but of former Shaw
executive turned rival studio founder Raymond Chow and his Orange Sky Golden
Harvest production company’s catalog as well.
Founded in 1970 and only two years into the company’s lifespan, Chow
also managed to lure over Shaw Brothers kung-fu action talent Jimmy Wang Yu in
what became the actor’s third feature as lead actor, writer and director with
the 1972 martial arts favorite One Armed Boxer restored in 2K by Fortune
Star and released domestically through Arrow Video.
A stock trade martial-arts school turf war engendered by
young fighter Yu Tian Long (Jimmy Wang Yu) when he locks horns with the brutal
leader of a local crime syndicate at a nearby restaurant, the film starts off
initially as a petty squabble that soon balloons into a battle royale involving
a gang in charge of a prostitution and opium ring. Very quickly, Yu Tian makes easy work of the
gang which then hires a team of foreign martial artists including but not
limited to experts in karate, Judo, Taekwondo, Thai boxers, Yoga and two mystic
Tibetan lamas. Massacring Tian’s school
before tearing one of his arms from his sockets and leaving him for dead, Tian
the sole survivor is rescued by a medicine man and his daughter Jade who nurse
him back to health. Gifting him a
special elixir for his one hand left that turns his fist into a Crippled Master
sledgehammer, Tian now ready to rock and enact bloodthirsty vengeance on the
syndicate that destroyed his school.
Picking up where Chang Cheh’s Shaw Brothers’ produced The
One-Armed Swordsman films left off which also prominently featured Jimmy
Wang Yu in the titular role with one arm tied behind his back, One Armed
Boxer is almost like Wang Yu and Golden Harvest’s answer to that wuxia
trilogy. A startlingly gory and violent kick-punch
actioner with tons of astonishing physical feats, striking set pieces including
a fight inside an opium refinery with some grisly deaths, and among the more
thrilling Golden Harvest offerings for playing out largely in real time, the
film is at once nutty and brilliant.
While the soundtrack theme over the opening credits blatantly cribs
Isaac Hayes’ song for Shaft, the score by Fu-Ling Wang is serviceable but
quiets down for the fight scenes choreographed by Chih Hua Chen. Tragically the film’s cinematographer who
does a good job only worked until 1974 before mysteriously retiring from the
industry.
It goes without saying Jimmy Wang Yu is a one-man band,
writing, directing and prominently starring in the titular lead role. For a film with this much intensely violent
action going on, Yu somehow ends up doing the wildest stunts while keeping
control on a picture that could’ve easily spiraled into chaos. The supporting cast of characters is strong
with Yeh Tien as the film’s arch nemesis, Han Hsieh from A Touch of Zen
and and Hsin Tang as Jade the girl who rescues Tian and becomes his romantic
interest. Most of the film’s action
consists of fight scenes which are choreographed and blocked extremely well, taking
full advantage of the set pieces and outdoor open arenas for the film’s climactic
battle sequences.
Released on blu-ray disc with the original Mandarin language
mono track, an alternate Mandarin track and English dub, Arrow Video’s 2K
restored blu-ray disc comes with plentiful extras including a career retrospective
interview with the legendary Jimmy Wang Yu exclusive to this release and close
to half an hour of trailers for other Yu projects. As one of the first rival projects made
against Shaw Brothers featuring two of its key defectors in the production, One
Armed Boxer represents one of the first truly great Golden Harvest
productions years before they would make themselves known as a formidable rival
to the martial arts action film giant.
Arrow’s disc is great and in the pantheon of Golden Harvest films this
is one of the easiest to introduce the uninitiated into, a solid counterpoint
to the Scope of Shaw.
--Andrew Kotwicki
