Who else wanted a 3rd and final film in the One-Armed Boxer franchise?

[WangYu]

I can’t get enough of the one armed boxer and master of the flying guillotine, I wish Wang Yu visited that character and its crazy world one final time. Was there ever any talk of this? How successful were these 2 movies back then? They have a splendid reputation now but I have no idea if it was the same initially. I love the various villains in both movies as much as the title character itself!

I always felt return of the Chinese boxer took place in that same world, was it really too much to ask to play this part with just one arm to complete an awesome trilogy 😜

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

I guess after four One Armed Swordsman films, and two One Armed Boxers, he felt he maybe milked that concept enough. Was never the biggest fan of the Chinese Boxer sequel, though I would have gladly taken a third One Armed Boxer flick, if done right.

Edited February 7, 2023 by TibetanWhiteCrane

[Cognoscente]

It would have been nice to see him in a crossover movie with the real-life crippled masters.

[WangYu]

If a third had happened it would have been hard to come up with another stand out villain though, what gimmicks could he have had?

I love the opening of ”master of the flying guillotine”. He looks like a monster in his lair, love the rocky scenery and the hut and he looks so iconic. It all perfectly sets the stage for what’s to come. This is how you introduce a comic book villain.

What I love most about both films is that it is not only Wang Yu that has fight scenes, there are tons of other fight scenes not involving him which is important to not get a fatigue of the character(s).

I really cannot pick a favorite between the 2 films.

[WangYu]

@TibetanWhiteCrane

Yeah I’m not the biggest fan of Return of the Chinese boxer either but it shares the same insanity as the one armed boxer films. There are more films out there that get a similar atmosphere like one armed swordsmen, one armed swordsman vs nine killers, killer meteors, the deadly silver spear. None of them come close to the one armed boxer films imo.

[DrNgor]

14 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

I guess after four One Armed Swordsman films, and two One Armed Boxers, he felt he maybe milked that concept enough.

I suppose the former would be five if you count Point the Finger of Death.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

8 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

I suppose the former would be five if you count Point the Finger of Death.

Yeah, forgot about that and One Armed Against Nine Killers. 

[DrNgor]

3 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

Yeah, forgot about that and One Armed Against Nine Killers. 

That would give us:

The One-Armed Swordsman (1967)
Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969)
Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman (1970)
The One-Armed Swordsmen (1976)
One Armed Against Nine Killers (1976)
Point the Finger of Death (1977)

plus:

The One-Armed Boxer (1972)
Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976)

Am I missing any?

Edited February 8, 2023 by DrNgor

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

I think that's it..... and quite enough.

Weirdly he never got any better at hiding that "missing" arm through all those movies.

[shukocarl1441996347]

It would have been great to have a trilogy of One Armed Boxer films. It would have been hard to come up with more crazy fighters unless they where somehow more "Superhuman"...or would that have 'jumped the shark'?

[shukocarl1441996347]

2 hours ago, DrNgor said:

That would give us:

The One-Armed Swordsman (1967)
Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969)
The One-Armed Swordsmen (1976)
One Armed Against Nine Killers (1976)
Point the Finger of Death (1977)

plus:

The One-Armed Boxer (1972)
Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976)

Am I missing any?

Zatoichi meets the One Armed Swordsman?

[DrNgor]

10 minutes ago, shukocarl1441996347 said:

It would have been hard to come up with more crazy fighters unless they where somehow more "Superhuman"...or would that have 'jumped the shark'?

I think he would have either had to go for local villains and had a variety of kung fu styles and more local weapons, or he would have had to bring in fighters from outside of Asia, a lá Fearless. Hmm...maybe I should write a story that serves as a second sequel...

 

10 minutes ago, shukocarl1441996347 said:

Zatoichi meets the One Armed Swordsman?

Ah, yes. Added that one to the list. That makes it six and two. How many times did Jimmy Wang Yu play a blind hero?

[BornToDefense]

Personally I always kinda wanted to see a "New One-Armed Boxer" type movie. Wang Yu is one of a kind but imo the Lau brothers made him look as good as he was ever going to with one arm behind his back in Master of the Flying Guillotine. If someone who could do some shapes played the new guy I think there would have been a lot of interesting choreography possibilities. Wang Yu could play the old OAB and teach him Kung Fu or something, maybe get some fights in.

Only blind Wang Yu movie I can think of is Sword of Swords but for all I know there's more. Wang Yu never got tired of a gimmick (I say that in the most positive sense possible).

[Cognoscente]

It's too bad that he didn't do it in the nineties. It could have been like Clint Eastwood's The Unforgiven, and it would have been more worthwhile than Tsui Hark's OAS remake The Blade.

[BornToDefense]

That's kind of what I was thinking. I know I said shapes because I'd love to see that too, but I've always kind of imagined a One-Armed Jet Li situation as well, with fast hand work, hardness and softness, linear and circular motions. Maybe a little Bajiquan in there? And you're right that a slightly grizzled older Wang Yu would have made a great foil.

[Cognoscente]

And it would have got younger fans hooked onto the older movies.

[DrNgor]

Is it me, or did the sequel do a total time period retcon from the first one? I always understood that the first film is set during the Republic era, but then the sequel comes around and suddenly the Master of the Flying Guillotine is an assassin hired by the Manchus (ignore the fact that nobody wears a queue in it). If that's the case, you could further retcon the sequel into an even earlier dynasty, just to screw with us hardcore fanboys.

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

12 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

Is it me, or did the sequel do a total time period retcon from the first one? 

Always felt that. Not that I expect great continuity from a mid 70's indie sequel starring Jimmy Wang Yu. 

[RebelIntruder]

I doubt he'd come up with anything novel for a 3rd movie.  Return of the Chinese Boxer is just Master of the Flying Guillotine in new packaging.  There would be a tournament.  Someone would jump over the wall to enter the tournament.  Jimmy would be a confident badass and kick people's ass in a restaurant.  Lung Fei would play a Japanese character. The final fight would take place in a barn or storage building with birds and other obstacles. 

[One Armed Boxer]

10 hours ago, WangYu said:

If a third had happened it would have been hard to come up with another stand out villain though, what gimmicks could he have had?

The final reveal would be that Wang Yu actually had 2 arms the whole time. Oh, wait a minute...

6 hours ago, BornToDefense said:

And you're right that a slightly grizzled older Wang Yu would have made a great foil.

We kind of got that with Peter Chan's 'Wu Xia', his 2011 reimagining of the OAS tale with Donnie Yen in the Wang Yu role and Wang Yu as the villain.

On 2/8/2023 at 10:17 AM, Cognoscente said:

It would have been nice to see him in a crossover movie with the real-life crippled masters.

Weird, yes.  "Nice"? Hmmm...

[Cognoscente]

Giving visibility to the underdogs is always nice.

[WangYu]

I forgot to add how much I love these films are played with a straight face. Today such films would turn into action comedy, being self aware of how ridiculous it all is. Wang Yu avoids all of that and as a result you get really tense fight scenes.

I love how inventive he needs to be to beat his opponents, he is not an invincible master like in every other MA film, he gets beaten up a lot before he finds a way to spot his opponents weaknesses.

A crazy villain for a third movie would be the invisible man. Wang Yu fighting an invisible opponent until he finds a way to make him visible. I can imagine some tense set pieces watching foot prints, paying extra attention to sounds etc

[shukocarl1441996347]

54 minutes ago, WangYu said:

I forgot to add how much I love these films are played with a straight face. Today such films would turn into action comedy, being self aware of how ridiculous it all is. Wang Yu avoids all of that and as a result you get really tense fight scenes.

I love how inventive he needs to be to beat his opponents, he is not an invincible master like in every other MA film, he gets beaten up a lot before he finds a way to spot his opponents weaknesses.

A crazy villain for a third movie would be the invisible man. Wang Yu fighting an invisible opponent until he finds a way to make him visible. I can imagine some tense set pieces watching foot prints, paying extra attention to sounds etc

Ninja 'Invisibility', all kinds of tricks that Jimmy would have had to counter with his own?

[WangYu]

4 hours ago, shukocarl1441996347 said:

Ninja 'Invisibility', all kinds of tricks that Jimmy would have had to counter with his own?

I’m afraid,I don’t quite get what you mean, sorry about that 😞

Anyway a ninja like opponent would have been very cool. Which reminds me of revenge of the ninja which is an incredible action film! Have to rewatch that at some point!

[shukocarl1441996347]

14 hours ago, WangYu said:

I’m afraid,I don’t quite get what you mean, sorry about that 😞

Anyway a ninja like opponent would have been very cool. Which reminds me of revenge of the ninja which is an incredible action film! Have to rewatch that at some point!

By legend, Ninjas were able to 'blend in' with their surroundings, so as to become almost invisible. I suppose you can equate that with modern camouflage techniques.