Ma tou da jue dou

CHINESE HERCULES is a martial-arts movie with a nice plot, something you don't see too often in the genre! The fight scenes are also not bad, and considering that Bolo Yeung is one of the bad guys, can it really be that terrible?? :)

Starting with our protagonist Lee Hsi accidentally killing someone in a fight, CHINESE HERCULES follows him through his flight to a small village, which is entirely dependent on the traffic that comes into their pier. As such, the owner of the pier can control all the workers (isn't ownership great?) and beat them up without remorse. Lee wants to defend his friends, but he's sworn an oath to never fight again. Also, the current boss of the pier is eventually overrun by chain-smoking Boss Chan and his giant of a henchman, Chiang Tai (played by our buddy Bolo).

The fight scenes in CHINESE HERCULES, when they actually happen, are not terrible, with the exception of one scene in the middle (wherein a disgruntled worker barges in on the pier owner "doing business") that is entirely overdubbed by shabby sound effects. The most interesting part of the fights is seeing Lee's emotions as he fights with himself over whether or not to fight OTHER people. And eventually, what do you think he decides to do? Take a wild guess!

As mentioned earlier, the struggle of the village's inhabitants against the big bosses is possibly the best feature of CHINESE HERCULES. Add into that an emotionally torn Lee and a huge-ass bad guy and you've got a solid script, and a great movie. My rating: 7.5/10

This is indeed the film that solidified Bolo Yeung's international reputation as a strong and implacable villain. And he really pulls his weight in the film, killing with a rare enjoyment.

The trouble with the film is two-fold. First it is an early 'chinese boxing' film, not really about the self-discipline that 'kung fu' is all about. It is in the vein of what became known as the 'swining fist' fight movie, since that is what the fighters really do, swing their arms and legs about, without much technique.

This leads to another, larger problem: this film is downright cruel. The violence is unrelenting, even sadistic, and there is no great sense that the hero will at last achieve the much needed revenge and justice until the very end.

It is unclear why many Hong Kong filmmakers chose that kind of structure during that period; my own guess is that it made making films cheaper, easier and faster - everybody get's killed, and then the hero at last exacts revenge. That's pretty much the whole formula.

Historically interesting but actually difficult to watch. Definitely not for repeated viewing.

"Shen Wei Ta" (Wai-Man Chan) is a young man who is dating the sister of the local bully. One night the two men get into a fight and after Shen Wei Ta accidentally kills him he is forced to flee from the scene. Vowing to never fight again he changes his name to "Chung San" and gets a job as a manual laborer off-loading cargo from ships and tries to save as much money as he can. However, when young thieves are caught stealing some rice from a warehouse, Chung San stops them from getting beaten to death by offering to pay for the merchandise out of his earnings. This inexplicably angers the dockyard boss who doesn't like the fact that Chung San dared to interfere and proceeds to order some of his hired thugs to beat him up as well. Fortunately, some of the workers come to his aid and manage to stop things before he is seriously hurt. Not long afterward, things get much worse when the leader of a crime syndicate moves in and takes over the pier which subsequently disenfranchises all of the workers who have spent most of their lives working on the docks. Violence soon erupts with a particularly strong and muscled individual named "Chiang Tai" (Bolo Yeung) killing or maiming anybody who dares to interfere with the syndicate. It's at this time that Chung San realizes that he has to reevaluate his vow to abstain from fighting. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an old-style kung fu film of the type that gained prominence in the early 70's. While not as good as those movies which featured Bruce Lee, this particular film had more than enough action and several actors (most notably Bolo Yeung) who had previously performed with him to give it a certain amount of credibility. In short, fans of martial arts films from this general era might enjoy this particular movie and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Michael Wai-Man Chan plays a young fighter named Shen Wei Ta, who accidentally kills the obnoxious brother of his fiancee. Ashamed of himself, he takes it on the lam, ending up in a remote fishing village where corruption reigns supreme. He's vowed never to fight again - at one point, he even goes so far as to maim himself - but he just might have to, in order to combat the gangland bosses who intimidate all the locals.

"Chinese Hercules" is not the slickest film of this type that one will ever see, but it serves its purpose, delivering one intense fight after another. Granted, the dubbing is hilarious - and who would expect anything different? - and the over-use of LOUD "impact sounds" is also worthy of many a chuckle. But the story is pretty decent, and the on-screen performances are capable enough. Despite the supposed brutality of the combat, there's very little gore to put a bad taste in the mouths of more squeamish viewers. The widescreen photography and the location shooting are excellent.

Yang Sze (a.k.a. Bolo Yeung) is touted as the star attraction, and the presence of this martial artist with the awe-inspiring physique will no doubt be the element that will entice most people. But this is really Chans' film, with Bolo reduced to maybe 20 or 25 minutes of screen time, as he portrays muscle employed by the bad guys to keep the locals in line.

All things considered, this is pretty fun. It lacks true distinction, but there are much worse ways to spend 95 minutes.

Jackie Chan and Corey Yuen have bit parts.

Seven out of 10.

A small village is under the thumb of the local cigarette-flipping Boss Chan (Liang Tim) and his hired thugs, including a giant of a man, Chiang Tai (Bolo Yeung). A man, seeking to run away from his past (he killed someone in a fight) seeks refuge there, vowing never to lift his hand against another man again.

Memorable Quotes: "First we kill 'em, then we dump 'em"