The One-Armed Boxer

Director; Wong Yu
Starring; Wong Yu
Genre; Martial Arts
Year; 1971
Release; US Bonzai

Ok, first off, I'm being uber-geeky and using the correct spelling of the director/ star. Wong Yu, more commonly known as Wang Yu (a very early misspell that just got repeated), or Jimmy Wang Yu. Now, the film. It has absolutly nothing at all to do with the earlier Shaw Brothers classic, The One-Armed Swordsman, also starring Wong Yu. This is a Golden Harvest film, made shortly after Raymond Chow left Shaw Bro's and set up on his own. Here, our intrepid but unlucky hero is involved in a typical 'honour of our school' type story. There are also many forms of MA on show here, as the story brings together fighters from all over Asia. Japan, Okinawa, Korea, Thailand, Tibet (those pesky Lamas again) and, bizzarely, and Indian who uses Yoga as a fighting style. This film is early in the genre of martial arts movies, and it shows. The various fighters are blacked up in the most comical way. The Yogis moves are accomplished with obvious stop-motion. Worse though, are the fights. Wong Yu is very skilled in real martial arts, but, for me, he never quite cut it on the screen. Too jerky and obviously choreographed, his kicks and punches lack any conviction or power, you just never get the impression he'd hurt anyone. This, however, was a fault with many cheap, 70's chop socky films, especially the early ones. The different fighters too, although perform katas in a convincing way, all look the same while fighting, you'd never know they were using vastly different styles. Oh, and the way Yu loses his arm? Give over!
Don't get me wrong though, this is a decent enough film, and a significant one in helping define the genre in those early days. I prefer the sequal though, Master Of The Flying Guillotene, it's more fun.