One Armed Boxer
There is something to be said of the determination of writer, director and actor Jimmy Wang Yu, matching that of the character he plays in his second feature behind the camera, Yu Tien Lung of the Zhengde Martial Arts School and Brick Factory, the titular One Armed Boxer (Du bei chuan wang, 獨臂拳王), shot in Taiwan with the Golden Harvest Company following a dispute with his former employers, Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers Studio, who had released his directorial debut The Chinese Boxer.
Released in 1971 and renamed The Chinese Professionals for its American release in 1973, One Armed Boxer has now been remastered from the original film elements for Eureka Classics Blu-ray release, presented with both Mandarin and dubbed English options and an alternative title sequence which employs a theme less familiar than Isaac Hayes’ Shaft.
The soundtrack officially credited to Fu-Ling Wang, like the rest of One Armed Boxer it draws on a plethora of sources and influences, Wang Yu’s eye firmly on the international potential of his martial arts extravaganza which is styled as nothing so much as a Spaghetti Western in its depiction of the rivalry between Zhengde and a neighbouring school which is home to the notorious Hook Gang of Master Chao Lauliu who runs the illicit opium trade.
His own students defeated by Yu Tien Lung and his associates, Chao Lauliu engages the services of a diverse group of multi-disciplined fighters, among them a Japanese karate expert and his proteges, two Tibetan Zen boxers, a Korean Taekwondo master, two Muay Thai fighters from Siam and a yogi from India, the latter trio casually surprising in brownface and blackface, with which he plans to take on and destroy the Zhengde school.
Wang Yu focusing on his strengths and ignoring such irrelevancies as character, between the fight scenes the narrative of One Armed Boxer is so slight it almost might be one continuous rolling confrontation across the locations, tea houses, dojos, factory floor, mill house, funeral parlour and occasionally beyond the confines of the studio, while the one sequence which might offer contrast as Yu Tien Lung is healed and retrains is half told in montage.
The film summarily ending as soon as the villains are defeated with no attempt at a deeper emotional resolution, everything is proficient but nothing is real, the showmanship and displays as fake as American wrestling of a generation later although thankfully only a handful of the combatants are given entrance themes, and while the new edition and the informed commentary by Frank Djeng will be of interest to existing aficionados the One Armed Boxer is unlikely to be prompting wider applause.
One Armed Boxer is released on Blu-ray by Eureka on Monday 24th May
