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Jun
01
2006

Cinematheque Ontario Report: King Boxer REVIEW

Posted by Mathew at 2:21pm.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Martial Arts, Action, Asia, Toronto Film Festival 2006.

2006_6_1_king.jpg

Well, I’ve been staring at this open word document for far too long now, not sure where to start when talking about the Shaw Brothers’ seminal King Boxer. I don’t know where to start because there are simply so many things to say about it.

Do I introduce this piece by discussing just how ground breaking King Boxer was, as the first Kung Fu film to be a hit in the west? Released in spring 1973 with the exploitation-tastic title of ‘Five Fingers of Death’, it created the Kung Fu phenomenon which continued throughout the 70’s, breaking ground for the likes of Bruce Lee and the many Shaw Brother’s productions that followed.

Or do I take a more trivial hook, and discuss the most familiar musical cue in this film, a repeating klaxon stolen from Ironside. Stolen in turn from this film by serial style-kleptomaniac Quentin Tarantino, it gained fame in his Kill Bill series, but is probably less worthy than the stirring main theme of the film.

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Reader Comments

  1. Rhythm-X 06/01/2006 @ 9:50pm

    Let’s not overlook the memorable appearance of that same klaxon in the Above The Law track “Murder Rap” from 1990 or thereabouts, well after IRONSIDE and KING BOXER, well before Tarantino used it. It’s not hard to picture Quentin driving around LA in the early 90s with his CYF trenchcoat on, blasting Above The Law in his Geo Metro. And it’s funny, too.

  2. Kate 06/02/2006 @ 8:11am

    Saw The New One-Armed Swordsman last night - Aceness

  3. olivier 06/02/2006 @ 9:40am

    If I had 3 Swords I could have defeated you!

    oh. wait. CHOPPED in two bitches.

  4. Kate 06/02/2006 @ 12:09pm

    Dude - that part was incredibly harsh. The audience seemed stunned. Being hung up and cut in two is not the coolest of kung-fu deaths.

    Oh - get back to work

  5. mathew 06/02/2006 @ 12:13pm

    If I knew how to I would mod these posts for NOT BEING ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE FILM I REVIEWED, you naughty monkeys.

  6. YTSL 06/03/2006 @ 8:00am

    Much as I like for the late Lo Lieh to have hailed from Malaysia, he was, in fact, from Indonesia.

    (So, Matthew, does that remark count as being (somewhat) about the movie you reviewed? ;b)
    -----

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