King Boxer

A promising young martial arts student named Chao Chi-hao has spent most of his life studying under his master Sung Wu-yang, and has fallen in love with the master's daughter Ying-ying. After Master Sung fails to properly fight off a group of thugs, he sends Chi-hao to study under a superior master, Shen Chin-pei. He instructs Chi-hao to learn from Chin-pei and defeat the local martial arts tyrant, Meng Tung-shan, in an upcoming tournament in order to earn Ying-ying's hand.

Chi-hao meets a young female singer, Ms. Yen, on the road to the city and rescues her from Meng's thugs. She falls in love with him, but he resists her advances with difficulty. He reaches town and begins studying under Suen Chin-pei. After an initial beating by Chin-pei's star pupil, Han Lung, Chi-hao improves rapidly. One day, another thug of Meng's, "Iron Head" Chen Lang, breaks into the school and beats all of Chin-pei's students. Chin-pei finally arrives and fights him, but is struck by a dishonorable blow and wounded. Chi-hao tracks Chen Lang down and defeats him. When Chin-pei hears of this, he selects Chi-hao to receive his most deadly secret, the Iron Fist.

Han Lung discovers that Chi-hao has been chosen as Chin-pei's successor and becomes intensely jealous. He conspires with Tung-shan to have Chi-hao crippled. He lures Chi-hao into the forest, where Tung-shan's three new Japanese thugs - Okada, Oshima, and Zaemon - ambush him. They overpower him and break his hands. Later, they visit his Master Sung's school and kill him as well. Yen helps Chi-hao recuperate and again tries to woo him, but he resists her. Finally, Chi-hao's fellow students locate him and encourage him to regain his fighting spirit. He begins training and soon overcomes his wounds. Ying-ying arrives, but withholds the news of her father's death. A rejuvenated Chi-hao successfully defeats all the other students to become Chin-pei's representative for the upcoming tournament. Han Lung returns to Tung-shan with the news, but Tung-shan's son blinds him and casts him out.

On the day of the tournament, a conscience-stricken Chen Lang warns Chi-hao of the three Japanese thugs lying in ambush on the road to the arena. Chi-hao fights the thugs killing two of them. Then Chen Lang arrives and holds off the head of the Japanese thugs so that Chi-hao can get to the tournament on time. He arrives just in time and defeats Tung-shan's son to win the tournament. Tung-shan stabs and kills Chin-pei in the midst of the celebration and departs. As Tung-shan arrives back home, he discovers that all the lights are out. Han Lung appears in the darkened room and, guided by Yen's direction, fights Tung-shan and his son. Han Lung blinds the son, who is then stabbed by his father in the confusion. Tung-shan bursts out of the dark room and summons his minions who kill Han Lung and he himself kills Ms. Yen.

Chi-hao arrives at Dung Shun's house, but Tung-shan flees and commits suicide by stabbing himself before Chi-hao can fight him. As he leaves, the chief Japanese thug arrives with Chen Lang's head. He and Chi-hao face off. Chi-hao uses his Iron Fist power, causing his hands to glow red, and delivers several powerful blows that send the thug smashing into a brick wall. With the thug defeated and killed, Chi-hao, Ying-ying, and Ta Ming departs.

{{castlist|

• Lo Lieh as Chao Chi-hao ({{zh|t=趙志豪|p=Zhào Zhìháo|first=t, j}})
• Wang Ping as Sung Ying-ying ({{Lang-zh|s=|t=宋瑩瑩|labels=no|p=Sòng Yíngyíng}})
• Wang Chin-feng as Ms. Yen ({{Lang-zh|t=燕姑娘|p=Yàn Gūniáng|labels=no}})
• Tien Feng as Master Meng Tung-shan ({{Lang-zh|t=孟公山|p=Mèng Gōngshān|labels=no}})
• Tung Lam as Meng Tien-siung ({{Lang-zh|t=孟天雄|p=Mèng Tiānxióng|labels=no}})
• Fang Mien as Master Suen Hsin-pei
• Ku Wen-Chung as Master Sung Wu-yang
• Nam Seok-hoon as Han Lung
• Yau Lung as Tu Wei
• Chan Shen as Wan Hung-chieh
• Jin Bong-jin as Lu Ta-ming
• Kim Ki-joo as "Iron Head" Chen Lang
• Chao Hsiung as Master Okada
• Yukio Someno as Masataro Oshima
• Chiang Chuen as Zaemon
• Bolo Yeung as “Mongol” Baatar
• Yang Tse-lin as Gan

}}

The theme song from the American television series Ironside, composed by Quincy Jones, is used as a leitmotif. The original score was composed by Chen Yung-yu and Frankie Chan.

King Boxer was released in Hong Kong on April 28, 1972.{{Cite AV media notes |title=Shawscope Volume One |chapter=King Boxer |year=2021 |page=16 |type=booklet |publisher=Arrow Video |id=FCD2076}} When the film was released in director Jeong Chang-hwa's native South Korea, it was re-titled The Iron Man. The distributor Shin Sang-ok sold the film falsely as a South Korean co-production to avoid paying import taxes. Ten minutes of the film are cut in this version, removing all the gorier scenes.{{Cite AV media notes |title=Shawscope Volume One |chapter=Trivia |year=2021 |page=17 |type=booklet |publisher=Arrow Video |id=FCD2076}}

It was released in March 1973 in the United States as Five Fingers of Death.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} On re-release in the United States, it was titled The Invincible Boxer.

In December 2021, the film was released on Blu-ray in the UK as part of Arrow Films' Shawscope: Volume 1 box set, including an audio commentary by David Desser.{{cite web |author=Salmons, Tim |date=19 April 2023 |title=Shawscope: Volume One (Blu-ray Review – Part 1) |url=https://thedigitalbits.com/item/shawscope-vol1-arrow-2021-brd#king_boxer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422004549/https://thedigitalbits.com/item/shawscope-vol1-arrow-2021-brd |archive-date=22 April 2023 |access-date=13 August 2024 |website=The Digital Bits}}

In the United States and Canada, the film repeated its success in Europe. It earned {{US$|4 million}} in American and Canadian rentals, the second highest grossing film of the genre in the U.S. in 1973 after Enter the Dragon with rentals of {{US$|4.25 million}}.{{cite news|title=Big Rental Films of 1973|work=Variety|date=January 9, 1974|page=19}} Five Fingers of Death exceeded {{US$|10 million}} in worldwide rentals by October 1973,{{cite news |date=10 October 1973 |title=Hollywood's alive, well and living in Hong Kong |page=22 |work=The Miami News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38627273/hollywoods-alive-well-and-living-in/ |access-date=8 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608102335/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38627273/hollywoods-alive-well-and-living-in/ |archive-date=Jun 8, 2020 |quote=Worldwide rentals on "Five Fingers of Death," distributed by Warners, have already passed {{US$|10 million|long=no}}.}} and went on to earn {{US$|4.6 million}} in North American rentals.{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=David A. |title=Lost Illusions: American Cinema in the Shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970-1979 |date=2002 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-23265-5 |page=266 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HVygqYMVP2wC&pg=PA266}}

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, Roger Greenspun wrote, "I don't know much about karate, but I know what I like. And the karate in 'Five Fingers of Death,' for all its slow-motion high leaps, its grunts, its whooshing fists, has the look of the bottom of the barrel. It is all too extravagant, too gratuitously wild—as if composed for show, rather than for attack, defense or any real purpose."Greenspun, Roger (March 22, 1973). "[https://www.nytimes.com/1973/03/22/archives/film-5-fingers-of-deaththe-cast.html Film: '5 Fingers of Death]'". The New York Times. 54. Variety called it "a Chinese actioner glossed with all the explosive trappings that make for a hit in its intended market ... Exquisitely-filmed and packed with colorful production values, direction by Cheng Chang Ho is powerful and direct and he gets top performances from cast headed by Lo Lieh, as the student, and Wang Ping as his beloved.""Film Reviews: 5 Fingers of Death". Variety. March 21, 1973. 18. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and called it "a shoddy, poorly dubbed melodrama stuffed with insane dialog," though he acknowledged "the genuine excitement generated by the fight sequences, providing you can get excited at the sight of a karate chop that splits a forehead."Siskel, Gene (April 20, 1973). "Mortal combat, East and West..." Chicago Tribune. Section 2, p. 3. Fredric Milstein wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "Director Chen Chang Ho, who has a definite sense of style, keeps the pace fast and the action spectacular ... Dubbing is awful, but you don't come to this one to hear people talk."Milstein, Fredric (March 23, 1973). "A Karate Caper in 'Fingers'". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 16. In a review for the Monthly Film Bulletin, John Gillett found that the trick effect in which characters leap into the air to land either in a tree or on the opposite side of an opponent become "somewhat tedious as the film progresses." However, "...the sheer panache of the staging and apparent enjoyment of the participants keep the narrative moving swiftly".{{cite magazine|magazine=Monthly Film Bulletin|title=King Boxer|volume=39|issue=456|page=251|year=1972|publisher=British Film Institute|last=Gillett|first=John}}

In a retrospective review, AllMovie gave the film three stars out of five, stating the film was "not the best Kung fu movie the Shaw Brothers put out, but as an early entry it holds up surprisingly well for a genre getting its legs." The review noted that "a more unfortunate stereotype perpetuated by this and future films is the Japanese as primitive ape-like villains" and that the film "drags a bit on what are now tired Kung fu clichés, but the punchy spirit that made it popular still survives".{{cite web|url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/five-fingers-of-death-v91587/review|publisher=AllMovie|access-date=May 2, 2016|last=Buening|first=Michael|title=Five Fingers of Death}}

Quentin Tarantino ranked the movie among his 11 favorite films of all time.{{cite web |title=Quentin Tarantino names his 11 favourite films of all time |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/quentin-tarantino-names-his-11-favourite-films/ |publisher=Far Out Magazine}}

Quentin Tarantino includes several references to King Boxer in his martial arts duology Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2.{{Cite web |last=Entertainment |first=Martial Arts |date=2015-04-26 |title=Five Fingers of Death (1972) {{!}} Martial Arts & Action Entertainment |url=https://www.martialartsentertainment.com/five-fingers-of-death-1972/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |language=en-US}} Notably, the use of the "Ironside Theme" as a musical motif, and Tien-siung's eye-gouging move.

The 1977 film Bruce and the Shaolin Bronzemen was retitled in some territories as King Boxer 2.

• List of Shaw Brothers films
• Hong Kong action cinema

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0070800|King Boxer}}
• [http://www.koreasociety.org/content/view/309/86/ Essay about Chung Chang-Hwa, and review of the film at "Tracking the Blue Dragon Dumplings"]{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Category:1972 films

Category:1970s martial arts films

Category:Hong Kong martial arts films

Category:1970s Mandarin-language films

Category:1972 martial arts films

Category:Shaw Brothers Studio films

Category:Warner Bros. films

Category:Kung fu films

Category:Films directed by Jeong Chang-hwa

Category:1970s Hong Kong films