One Armed Boxer (1972) Review

Regular readers of this website should have come to expect that every so often we are going to feature a kung fu film. Yes we are well aware that many of these have no horror in them but as we have said many times before we love kung fu too so what can we do. Also at least in this one someone gets their arm ripped off. That’s pretty horrific right!

After staring in wuxia epic the One-Armed Swordsman which made his name, martial arts movie star Jimmy Wang Yu broke his contract with the firmly established Shaw Brothers studio and signed with Golden Harvest where he got the chance to write, direct and feature in his own film and that film was Du bei chuan wang, released in the US as The Chinese Professionals but better known as One Armed Boxer.

One Armed Boxer is an absolute classic of the genre propelled onward by its pure action orientated structure and exciting fight scenes that offer up a multi-national roster of martial artists all demonstrating different styles in a war between schools that goes way too far.

Jimmy Wang Yu is Yu Tien Lung one of the best students at the Ching Te martial arts school. After confronting some dishonourable bully boys from the Hook Gang, a group involved in smuggling drugs and women, in a tea house Tien Lung leads his fellow students into an all-out brawl to teach the thugs a lesson.

Although they triumph Tien Lung is punished by his teacher who realises his disobedient discipline might have caused more trouble than he could ever expect. The master is correct and the ruthless head of the Hook Gang, Chao Liu (Yeh Tien), demands retribution, gathering his men and storming into the rival school.

After a furious fight between the aged kung fu masters the evil Chao Liu is more angered than ever and decides that nothing short of the total destruction of Ching Te and all its students is good enough for the disrespect he has suffered.

Seeking outside assistance he employs a gang of mercenary martial artists from across Asia including a Taekwondo master from Korea, a judo master from Japan, a mystical Yoga expert from India, two Muay Thai fighters from Thailand, two lama’s who are masters of Zen Boxing from Tibet and three formidable karate champions from Okinawa.

The fearsome foreign fighting specialists lay waste to the unprepared Ching Te trainees destroying both the school and the two factories that they work at with Chao Liu gleefully taking charge of them for his prostitution and opium-dealing. In the biggest battle Yu Tien Lung valiantly takes on the unstoppable assortment of pugilists however when he faces the fang toothed Erh Ku Da Leung (Fei Lung) leader of the karate experts, he loses the bout, his arm and all hope.

Near death but driven by revenge Yu Tien Lung’s only chance at challenging Chao Liu is a secret style known as the Crippled Fist that involves ingesting an ancient elixir and burning off all the nerves in his remaining hand to give it strength beyond anything imagined. The question remains however will this be enough to defeat the deck of deadly masters he lost to before including the one who disarmed him?

Playing out almost like the plot of a beat ’em up video game One Armed Boxer is relentlessly entertaining giving the audience fight after fight with very few pauses for plot or anything else. The battles are brilliantly choreographed and the variety of styles on display makes the action even more engaging.

There are some questionable elements to the proceedings most striking being that for half of the movie Jimmy Wang Yu very obviously has his right arm badly strapped to his side. This silly low rent special effect is excusable and at times down right hilarious as is the surreal and frequent use of Isaac Hayes extremely famous and familiar Theme From Shaft which pops up on the eclectic soundtrack throughout.

Less forgivable is the unexpected racism mainly in the representation of the India yogi who is played in black face but also more subtly in the presentation of the other martial arts experts especially the Japanese. Underlying proceedings is a patriotic message that Chinese kung fu is the best in the world something justifiable and wonderfully well injected into Ip Man but less thoughtfully placed here.

These issues, which are all products of the period the movie was made in, aside One Armed Boxer is a unique and inventive movie with thrills and spectacle aplenty. Fast paced and full of frantic and fantastic action it’s a must have for all martial arts fans especially those who like their kung fu films filled to the brim with battles.

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