Shaolin Boxers | Blu-ray (Eureka)
Director: Huang Ta
Cast: James Tin, Lee Tin-ying, Li Min-lang, Chu Mu, Leung Tin, Tien Mi, Hon Kwok-Choi, Chu Mu, Choi Sui-Cheng, Cheung Chok-Chow, Mars
Running Time: 78 min.
By Ian Whittle
“The only problem with James Tien seems to be his weight. When we first saw him on screen he was slim and muscular but of late his girth seems to have increased somewhat. Perhaps his marriage early in 1974 had something to do with it. The studio claims he does not drink much but home cooking can spoil the form of a kung fu fighter.”
– Clash Magazine, 1975
Ouch!
James Tien is probably one of kung fu cinema’s big enigmas – since retiring in 1993 after Blade of Fury, he does not appear to have given a single interview on his career. The impression some film critics/historians like to cultivate is of him seething away at Bruce Lee having stolen his thunder, much in the manner that we know Bela Lugosi did on Boris Karloff. But it would be nice to think that Tien is happily enjoying retirement and catching up on watching movies. Lord knows that is what I’d do with my retirement!
Tien was originally the star of new studio Golden Harvest’s first contemporary martial arts movie, The Big Boss, but during production he found himself relegated to sacrificial lamb in favour of Bruce Lee. And this was probably for the best – The Big Boss without Lee as the star would likely have seen Golden Harvest bankrupt fairly quickly. Tien consequently was in a fair number of GH’s films, but very much as support or antagonist to the leads – chiefly Lee and Jimmy Wang Yu. And by the end of the 70s he was support/antagonist to Jackie Chan in three films for Lo Wei, before spending most of the 80s as a busy character actor.
So The Shaolin Boxers is quite the oddity – a James Tien starring vehicle. Well, sort of…
Although Golden Harvest’s logo appears at the beginning, it would appear this is an independent production from Jia’s Motion Picture Company. Whose logo appears to be painted on a bedsheet, whilst GH’s Raymond Chow is noticeably absent from the credits. Not a good sign…
1974 was when Shaw Brothers began their Shaolin Cycle films, focusing on the destruction of the Shaolin Temple (allegedly; it turns out that only was there probably not a Southern Shaolin Temple, but that the Northern temple was restored by the Manchus!). Like Joseph Kuo’s Shaolin Kung Fu of the same year, The Shaolin Boxers doesn’t have anything to do with the temple or the legendary masters, but rather with some unknown martial artists who are apparently practicing Shaolin martial arts in what appears to be the early 20th century.
As a tournament is to be held between the martial artists of the Dragon and North Gate villages, which will decide the fate of the area, tensions and feuds flair up as Dragon fighters Lin (James Tien) and Shao Xiong (Lee Tin-ying) come into contact with a sleazy gangster Lei Biao (Li Min-lang) who is in cahoots with North Gate headman He Rong (Chu Mu). And it turns out Lei Biao raped Lin’s mother when Lin was a child… in front of said child, which is probably why the BBFC gave this an 18 for the recent UK Blu-ray (same rating they gave Dragon Lord back in 2003!)
This is a rather undwheming plot, and an underwhelming production, clearly shot on the cheap in the HK sticks. Where it does score is the very top-notch fight choreography by future HK action movie big cheese Ching Siu-tung, who incorporates a lot of stylish kicking and acrobatics into the fights. As with The Big Boss, the filmmakers seem to be trying out James Tien against another leading man, Lee Tin-ying in this case – here cutting between their fights with different characters at the same time, so as Tien is having his tournament match, Lee is fighting elsewhere against the slime-balls who are trying to rape his girlfriend. Two leading men, neither particularly up to the task of carrying a film, and they are not helped by the dull villain played by Li Min-lang, who is a convincing sleaze but not very intimidating as a martial arts villain – he is fast enough but too scrawny. So the idea that two strapping young men can only beat him with the aid of perennial scrawny clown Hon Kwok-choi is probably the biggest nail in the coffin for James Tien becoming a movie star – the film doesn’t give him a chance!
Ian Whittle’s Rating: 4/10
