Tang ren piao ke

Version: RBC Entertainment's 'Kung-Fu Theatre' DVD.

This movie is really just an 85 minute long fight scene. Jimmy Wang Yu stars as 'the Chinese guy', who wanders around beating up bad guys, while these bad guys are beating up good guys, who are also beating up bad guys. This is one of the movies where you just have to assume that everybody knows kung-fu - because they all do. Add the dubbing, and you have near-pure awesomeness.

5/10 - Wow. Nothing much to it, apart from awesomeness. It really is no better than a lot of other cheap kung-fu movies, but it seems like it wants to be more awesomely cool than the rest. It so is.

Final note: Why do these Kung Fu Theatre DVDs smell weird?

I am proud to say that I am a huge Jimmy Wang Yu fan!

While not the most authentic or graeful of fighters, the man has made some incredible kung fu films in his lifetime, both as an actor and a director. Some are incredible for his performance, some for the sheer violence of his fight scenes, and some, because they are downright outrageous. 10 Fingers Of Steel (also known as Screaming Tiger, and King Of Boxers), is a film that blends all of those descriptions together bringing a kung fu, fight-filled epic that entertains for its complete running time.

Directed by Chien Lung (credited as Kim Lung), the man behind classics such as Wang Yu's Shogun Saints, Tiger, and Kung Fu Mama, this little gem opens with Wang Yu at his utmost racist after arriving in Japan, until we soon learn about the massacre of his family and village back in China by a Nippon gang of martial artists...

Thankfully, with Japan being so tiny, he arrives exactly in the right town as to where these bad guys hold-up, led by Wang Yu film regular and awesome bad guy, Fei Lung (Beach Of The War Gods, One Armed Boxer) who takes no crap from anyone - even his master who he broke off from long ago. It doesn't take a minute for the action to kick-off as Wang Yu shows his skills off to some local hoodlums before catching the eye of a lady called Yoko (Chang Ching Ching), who nicks something from him and runs off. She just happens to be connected to all the people he needs to meet, which is quite handy!

10 Fingers Of Steel has a generic revenge storyline, beefed up by a mad performance by Wang Yu and plenty of crazy characters. The fights come fast and thick, from village throw-downs to fights in the ring with Sumo wrestlers to win money for dinner, anything and everything that moves pretty much gets its ass kicked. The fights are choreographed by Hong Kong movie veteran Wong Fei Lung, and Poon Chuen Ling who bring a hefty dose of fast moving, violent martial arts to the screen with our hero taking on gangs of men in many battles, as well as one-on-one's.

Generic, yes. Flawed, yes. But what brings this classic up to a four star for me is the incredible and long end fight that takes Jimmy Wang Yu and Fei Lung on a bloody battle from the street to a fast moving train, leaping onto a rickety old bridge before falling into a river, then continuing to fight and fall down slippery boulders before the climax at a huge waterfall..!!

It's just insane! This is 1972, and I've seen action films today that don't even offer the same amount of excitement in 90 minutes than this finale does. On its initial release in the UK, the film suffered heavy cuts from the BBFC due to excessive blood in the fights, the strangling of a child, and general violence. And while it may not be recognised as one of his best, I would watch it over again and again, as it was highly entertaining and is classic Jimmy Wang Yu all over...

Overall: Madness, but a kung fu epic that has to be seen to be believed!

I have no idea what 'The Screaming Tiger' was about. The story is basically incoherent but I gathered it had something to do with a Chinese fighter who travels to Japan in order to avenge a massacre.

It would have been nice to have understood what was going on, the weirdo who walks around playing a pan-pipe with a basket on his head is particularly perplexing, but a finely nuanced plot is hardly essential for an enjoyable martial arts film and what this film lacks in character development, it more than makes up for with some inventive and highly entertaining fight sequences.

Some of the martial arts highlights include a scene where the Chinese fighter takes on a group of Sumo wrestlers and an exhilarating fight sequence that takes place on the top of a moving train, a bridge and on the edge of a waterfall. The lead actor is competent and I enjoyed the actress who played his sarcastic love interest.

Recommended for fans of the genre.

i don't know why some people who say they like martial art movies could possibly speak ill of this film. this movie is everything that was good about 70's martial arts movies. Dragon Lee movies represent all that was BAD about 70's martial arts movies, but this movie's great. and Wang Yu is awesome.

This bizarre martial arts film is about a young Chinese man wandering around Japan in search of revenge, and the allies he picks up along the way. The head of a local martial arts school, who is also an arrogant murderer, has wronged many people, and our hero is going to exact vengeance.

There are a lot of strange flourishes and eccentricities in this film which can become very confusing if you let them. There is a nicely developed romantic subplot and a school vs school subplot which is, perhaps, underexploited here. But the value of this film is mostly wrapped up in the exceptional martial arts scenes - great settings, exciting action, excellent choreography.

Recommended for genre fans.