O Lutador de um Braço Só

One Armed Boxer is directed and starring the legendary Jimmy Wang Yu. Wang Yu was the first male kung Fu superstar with also legendary director Chang Cheh's swordplay classic The One Armed Swordsman. Before that the genre was dominated by women and was in a more graceful and operatic style. One Armed Boxer was over a decade after that and is a really fast paced, action packed and innovative martial arts film. Quite violent and bloody, it's quite gritty and has nods to ) both samurai and spaghetti westerns of the period. There is quite an eclectic mix of martial arts styles on display and a awesome array of colorful villains ( which Wang Yu must dispatch). Most notably a Okinawan karate master with fangs! This movie I didn't know much about previously, but I really enjoyed it. A lot of the material here is pretty wild and unpolished, but comes across well and nicely structured and choreographed. I also learned that cult flick The Master Of The Flying Guillotine is the sequel to this. That movie is a must see and is completely insane! Thumbs up for One Armed Boxer!

These films are great in a series. If you enjoy this one youll love One Armed Boxer 2 even more. Shame somebody doesnt re-release these on DVD. Even the sound effects are classic. Someone moves a finger and you hear gunshots. Someone twitches you get explosions. I love it. Over the top as hell! Give me more. Pure comedy or genius, I can never decide!

The first rule for a successful career in motion pictures is - find something that works and beat it to death. Jimmy Wang Yu lost his right arm in 1967 in "One Armed Swordsman". The movie shot him to the top and he followed the rule and made a career out of it. As many have commented, this movie has many similarities to "Master of the Flying Guillotine". This movie falls flat in many ways but it's interesting to watch next the other movie and see how Jimmy took the flopping carps and turned them into leaping dolphins. I particularly enjoyed his one finger handstand. Yes, the special effects are not special at all but still it was fun. On the sad side, whatever happened to the girl in this movie, Cindy Hang Tsin (1951-1978)? I can't find anything explaining her untimely death.

What ever happened to the good old days? Sitting in a Times Square movie theater all day watching the 3 or 4 movies for the price of one. Well onto the movie, I also remember this movie from the good old days, the effects and story are wild. Watching this one armed man running around on 2 fingers to beat an opponent or popping a hole in the inflating monk. I would love to see this and some of the other oldies ( Duel of the iron fist, Chinese Hercules ) released on DVD. I will keep hoping.

This review is for DU BEI CHUAN WANG/ONE ARMED BOXER from Red Sun. The print is pretty good for a 1970s martial arts film and amazingly the film has subtitles--not those stupid dubbed voices--a major plus. As far as the quality of the subtitles go, they are fair. There are a reasonably high number of misspellings but compared to many films of the genre, this one ain't bad--it's not good, either, but at least you can understand what they are trying to say.

The plot is a very, very familiar one in many ways. First, it's the standard fight between two schools of martial arts and the bad guys cheat...a lot. Second, it's probably the fourth film I've seen involving a one-armed martial artist, so it's a bit of a cliché. However, oddly, none of the films are sequels--it just seems that getting your arm torn off in a fight is an everyday occurrence. And, when this happens you eventually train and return to whip the entire gang--a relatively common event in China if these films can be taken seriously. However, despite having so many familiar plot elements, it is a very good film. I liked seeing all the different styles of martial arts that were supposedly brought from all over Asia. But, more importantly, despite a very simple plot, the film is all about the action--non-stop and insane action, actually. While the fighting isn't among the top echelon of martial arts films (you won't mistake this for a Bruce Lee or Sonny Chiba flick), it is far better than average and so much is going on, it's eye-popping and occasionally brutal action from start to finish.

If you like martial arts films, then this one is a must. If you don't, well it's worth a look--maybe you'll see something you like.