Member masterofoneinchpunch Posted March 2, 2023 Member Share Posted March 2, 2023 Chinese Hercules (1973: Ta Huang: Hong Kong): watched this for my 100th Jackie Chan movie. Basically, if you blink you can miss him. This is very early in his career where he was a stuntman and a fight choreographer – which he was for this film. The original title is Freedom Strikes a Blow and was retitled Chinese Hercules for the US/English market because of Bolo Yeung (Bloodsport) who is not even a main character here. This was released here in 1974 during a boon of Martial Art films (started with Five Fingers of Death aka King Boxer) when they were making good box office money. This is a basher meaning that there is quite a bit of unskilled fighting (though some skilled though not as good as the previous low budget film Fist of the Double K I saw) with no emphasis on styles. The plot seems to come from The Quiet Man and The Big Boss. We have a fighter (Michael Chan Wai-man who would later work for the Shaw Brothers) who killed a man and vowed never to fight again who goes to work for a dock/shipping company whose owner and minions treats the employees quite poorly. So poor that they beat up their best worker (the new guy) mainly because they can. I cannot see any competent employer actually doing this, but I guess we would not have a plot then. Rather obvious that his vow will not be fulfilled and also obvious that he will have to fight against THE CHINESE HERCULES aka Bolo who comes in when a drug lord does business with the owner. You may wonder at some point why there are no cops or you may just get sucked into the plot or more likely your mind will wonder and ponder what would be a good meal to cook for today. This is OK but more of a curio for those who want to see everything that Jackie Chan is in or kung fu film regardless of quality (and there are a lot worse films). This is a template film that tried to mimic The Big Boss on a lower budget 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member masterofoneinchpunch Posted March 2, 2023 Member Share Posted March 2, 2023 Yuen Biao: Jackie Chan: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Coliseum1972 Posted March 11, 2023 Member Share Posted March 11, 2023 50 anniversary HK premiere this month 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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