Notable Cast: Jimmy Wang Yu, Yu Tien Lung, Yeh Tien, Hsin
Tang, Hsiao Yu, Fei Lung
“Hell sent me back. It was too early.”
Recently, I have found myself looking back much more
thoroughly at Jimmy Wang Yu’s career and revisiting a lot of the classics I
initially threw to the side. It has been quite refreshing. However, there are
still a handful of his films that don’t necessarily hit the mark with me like
they do for so many other people. One of those films is his iconic classic The One Armed Boxer. Made for Golden
Harvest in the early 70s when Wang Yu was really make waves in the industry as
a star, writer, and director, The One
Armed Boxer is something of a unique blend of styles – at times feeling a
bit more like Shaw Brothers production, yet obviously pushing the boundaries
like Golden Harvest liked to do at the time. I respect the film and find many
set pieces and moments enjoyable. The film as a whole though, it falls a bit
flat. It’s entertaining sure, but really The
One Armed Boxer is just a mash up for two far superior films he was in
previously – The One-Armed Swordsman and The Chinese Boxer – and the
resulting mash up isn’t nearly as cohesive or effective as either of those. It’s good, but hardly as great as its cult
status as made it become for fans.