City on Fire Presents: In Search of the Single-Legged Man

Having got into martial arts cinema in the late 90’s, during the DVD boom of the early 2000’s I ravenously picked up practically every kung-fu movie that hit the format, even titles that I thought at the time were kung-fu flicks but, several years later, I’d learn were a different genre all together. One such title was the production that kick-started the taekwon-action genre in Korea – the 1974 Lee Doo-yong directed Returned Single-Legged Man – which received a release courtesy of Pathfinder Entertainment in 2003. While today such a title may be readily available in its original Korean language, with pristine English subtitles, uncut, and remastered in HD on the Korean Film Archive’s Korean Classic Films YouTube channel, 20 years ago it was a very different story.

Newspaper advertisement for Returned Single-Legged Man.

For a start the DVD wasn’t titled Returned Single-Legged Man, which in the pantheon of Asian movies that have been re-titled for a western release, is certainly one of the more understandable ones. Instead it was called The Korean Connection, which I can only assume was a play on Bruce Lee’s Fist of Fury being re-titled The Chinese Connection upon its initial release in the U.S. An ugly hodge podge of a cover that unceremoniously blended together a stretched image of its star Han Yong-cheol, Microsoft Paint drawn flames, and floating heads of the villain’s mid-battle cry, it wasn’t a title that immediately popped off the shelf, but my younger self bought it anyway.

Pathfinder Entertainment’s DVD for The Korean Connection. 

The back of the box didn’t get much better, with Han Yong-cheol introduced as “Korean martial arts star Yong Chul”, apparently unworthy of having a minor detail like his surname included, and a bizarre synopsis that ended with “It’s a race against time as Tiger must fight his way to uncover The Korean Connection”. The print was dark, the seemingly simple plot felt impossible to fathom, and everyone was dubbed into English by what sounded like a group of softly spoken American college students. Mercifully it only had a runtime of 75 minutes, and after its abrupt and equally nonsensical ending, having been in the midst of a staple diet consisting of Hong Kong Legends and Tartan Asia Extreme releases, I was swift to announce that Korean cinema from the 70’s should be avoided at all costs. The irony isn’t lost on me that many of my favorite Korean movies are now from the same decade.

German lobby card #1 for Returned Single-Legged Man.

Despite the poor quality of the print, one scene did stick out. Upon leaving a remote train station Yong-cheol walks to a nearby suspension bridge crossing a ravine, where kicking legend Hwang Jang Lee lies in wait along with a small army of lackeys to block his way (including Kwon Il-soo and a literal who’s who of taekwon-action). Undaunted and decked out in an all-black suit, Yong-cheol confidently begins to cross the bridge set to the soundtrack of his footsteps, unleashing a flurry of kicks against his attackers while continuing to stride forward. Despite the scene looking like it was filmed through a mosquito net and with sound like it had been filtered through a wet sock, the bad assery still came through, marking a high point in what was otherwise a rather torturous slog to make it to the end credits (which, as it turned out, were non-existent).

German lobby card #2 for Returned Single-Legged Man.

Skip forward 20 years to the spring of 2023, and the Korean Film Archive released a remastered HD print of The Returned Single-Legged Man on their Korean Classic Films YouTube channel. No more softly spoken American college students. No more mosquito nets. No more wet socks. To watch the production in its original language for the first time was a revelation, revealing the old Pathfinder version to not only be a disaster in terms of its audio and visual quality, but it was also missing 10 minutes and had been re-edited into a completely different story. Of course the highlight was to watch the suspension bridge scene again, this time as it was meant to be seen (short of watching it in the cinema!), and it was while watching Yong-cheol kicking the living daylights out of anyone who crossed his path that I decided – I need to find that bridge!

German lobby card #3 for Returned Single-Legged Man.

As it happened my wife and I were travelling to Korea in September of the same year, and she was understandably thrilled when I told her of my wish to find a random bridge from a 1974 taekwon-action movie. I hope sarcasm comes across in writing. In fairness she had every right to be apprehensive, as the last time I decided to try and find a Korean location from a 70’s kung-fu movie it was for the finale of The Secret Rivals, when John Liu and Don Wong Tao face off against Hwang Jang Lee, playing the Silver Fox villain in his breakout role. That became a year long odyssey spread out over 3 trips, involving one false start and another a failure to research opening times. However that was in 2017, and it was now 2023, surely 6 years is long enough for a guy to start talking about finding obscure filming locations again!?

Hwang Jang Lee in Returned Single-Legged Man.

Also working in my favour, the footage available of The Secret Rivals finale in the 2010’s (and which I don’t think has changed much since!) was pretty grainy and scratched, but with the new release of Returned Single-Legged Man it was possible to watch a print that, comparatively at least, was crystal clear. There are times in every marriage when difficult questions have to be asked, and so it was I approached my wife and put it all on the line – “You look beautiful and, ummmm, can you help me find this bridge?”. It’s probably worth pointing out at this point that my wife is Korean, so this isn’t just me demonstrating an extreme example of laziness, but rather a case of Google searches in English like “bridge in Returned Single-Legged Man” not exactly displaying the most helpful results (perhaps this feature will change that!?).

Han Yong-cheol in Returned Single-Legged Man.

Have you ever spent a Saturday afternoon with your loved one researching bridges in Korea from the 70’s? Underrated for sure. So we started in earnest – Gwangandaegyo Bridge in Busan? That wasn’t it. Gamaksan Suspension Bridge in Seoul? That wasn’t it either. This continued for quite a while, I mean how many of you out there realise that Wikipedia even has a page called ‘List of bridges in South Korea’!? (It wasn’t listed!) But then, after finding ourselves deep down a rabbit hole, we struck gold – Deungseon Bridge in Chuncheon. The good news? It was in Gangwon Province that was only an hour or so train journey away from Seoul. The suspension bridge was built in 1972, which meant it would have just been a couple of years old when it was used for the iconic action scene in Returned Single-Legged Man, and was apparently popular with local tourists in its day, being a go-to spot for couples to take photos together.

Known for its tendency to sway, the Deungseon Bridge connected the old Gangchon Station on the now abandoned Gyeongchun Line, which is where we see Han Yong-cheol getting off at in the beginning of the scene (now long gone) to National Route 46. However it turned out that Gangchon Station wasn’t the only thing to have been lost to the sands of time. The bridge itself was demolished in 1985, just 13 years after it opened, due to safety concerns. With Korea’s rapid development I’d feared it could be the case that it was no longer there, and it seemed the worst-case scenario had come true. However, thankfully all was not lost! In 2015, 30 years after its demolition, the Chuncheon City government announced a plan to transform the old Gyeongchun Line into a tourist attraction, which included rebuilding Deungseon Bridge as a slightly scaled down version of the original!

Italian Theatrical Poster for Returned Single-Legged Man, retitled to Billy Chang.

The bridge opened the same year, and does indeed look its predecessor, erected in exactly the same spot. That was all I needed to uplift my spirits, so in September a visit to Chuncheon was on! Skip forward a few months, and upon arriving at Chuncheon Station I did as any good tourist should do, and picked up a copy of the Chuncheon Travel Guide Map, dutifully perusing the pamphlet for the bridge. Ironically, despite the 2 billion Won that it apparently cost to re-build it, there’s not a single mention! There’s an Animation Museum, LEGOLAND Korea, a cable car, but no mention of the bridge and the iconic role it played in Returned Single-Legged Man. I call it a missed opportunity, despite my wife insisting she was sure we were the first people to travel there for such a crazy reason (her words not mine), and that we’d probably be the last.

In any case, it was a weekday and it wasn’t a national holiday, so the town was relatively quiet, and anyone who had gotten off at the same station had sauntered off in the direction of attractions like Soyanggang Skywalk and the Gangchon Rail Bike, clearly unaware of what they’d be missing out on. As for us, we headed down a quieter road, and within 10 minutes there it was. Despite being a re-build of the original, it still looked just like Hwang Jang Lee and his gang could have jumped out at any moment, and there was something undeniably cool about walking onto the bridge much the same way Han Yong-cheol did almost 50 years earlier.

What made it extra special is the simple fact it’s still there, even if it’s not the original. A few years earlier when we’d identified Hongneung Royal Tomb as being the location of The Secret Rivals finale, it turned out to be a UNESCO World Heritage site, so it’s protected historical status meant that it didn’t look a whole lot different than it did 40 years earlier by design. However the Deungseon Bridge was out in the wild so to speak, still bearing a resemblance to how it looked in 1974 when Lee Doo-yong, Han Yong-cheol, and Kwan Yung-moon came together to create the taekwon-action genre, which gave it a certain indescribable aura of cool. Ironically the one thing that our visits to both the bridge and Hongneung Royal Tomb had in common is that we were the only people there. I’m telling you; I sense a business opportunity to create a Korean Movie Tour business based on 70’s kung-fu and taekwon-action locations!

As if to highlight just how far the taekwon-action genre has fallen into the annals of Korean cinema history, the bridge itself has a small gallery of pictures installed next to it, featuring old photos that were donated by the public who’d visited the bridge during its 70’s heyday. The photos are shown on a wall that’s designed to look like a reel of film, with a film camera used prominently in the galleries title design! A movie themed display, and not a single mention of Returned Single-Legged Man! I was silently outraged. In any case, I hoped our visit would at least justify the 2 billion Won that was spent on rebuilding the bridge, as I eagerly looked up the scene of YouTube and proceeded to coerce my wife into being in photos that recreate certain moments. Indeed it may not mean a whole lot to many who visit Chuncheon for the day, but for this taekwon-action fan, the discovery of the reborn Duengseon Bridge was a trip highlight.

You are now leaving Gangchon.

For a deep dive into the taekwon-action genre, check out our feature Fists, Kicks, & Kimchi: A History of the Korean Taekwon-Action Genre in the 1970’s – 1980’s.

Check out our other Korean location feature In Search of The Secret Rivals.