Hero, The | aka Rage of the Master (1972) Review

“The Hero” Chinese Theatrical Poster

AKA: Wang Yu the Destroyer
Director: Wong Hung Cheung
Cast: Jimmy Wang Yu, Lee I Min, Lisa Chiao Chiao, Lung Fei, Shan Mao, Cheng Fu Hung, Sit Hon, Cho Kin,
Cheung Bing Yuk, Hong Hoi
Running Time: 80 min.

By Ian Whittle

Every once in a while, you will encounter a kung fu film where the English dubbing is so bad it dominates your views of the film. Fearless Hyena, with its Monty Pythonish British accented caterwauling, comes to mind, as does the “Joey” dub for Chang Cheh’s Nine Demons.

But the fault of the dubbing for The Hero is that it is too authentic: the dubbers appear to be Asian, but the trouble is they clearly don’t speak English as a first language, resulting in bizarre pronunciations (“You eedjit!”) and conversations full of non sequiturs (“Our master wouldn’t have thrown me out of the school, if you had not told a tale!”). It’s hard to enjoy a bad dub when you can’t even tell what is being said!

The Hero is Jimmy Wang Yu’s first return to the formula he established with his ground-breaking The Chinese Boxer, and would return to not long afterwards with One-Armed Boxer. A disgraced kung fu student (Sit Hon) returns to cause trouble with the aid of some foreign fighters (in this case, a gaggle of “cough” Thai boxers), and only Jimmy can stop them.

Wang Yu’s films frequently had the Japanese as antagonists, and part of that could be attributed to memories of the Sino-Japanese War, WWII, and even more contemporary events such as the Senkaku Islands disputes. As a change of pace, here the villains are Thai Boxers. I’m not aware if there was a strong anti-Thai sentiment back in 70’s Taiwan, but for all I know Wang Yu had a lousy vacation in Bangkok and was feeling grouchy. It’s likely that their inclusion here is a reaction to the Thai boxing seen in Shaw’s Duel of Fists, and to a lesser extent, Golden Harvest’s The Big Boss.

Compared to the vampiric Japanese seen in The Chinese Boxer and One-Armed Boxer (fangs and all!), the Thai boxers here are less extreme, but are still bizarre caricatures. Most of them are dressed in shorts and vests with boot-sandles that recall circus strongmen more than anything else. Tien Yeh plays the lead boxer, and is quite a sight for sore eyes in his first appearance; a shaggy black fright wig and Dracula cape on top of his blinding yellow-and-red boxing garb is one of the most outlandish outfits I’ve ever seen in a kung fu movie. He does get a hair-cut soon after, which leads to the girls drooling over him like nobody’s business. Meh, Lung Fei is much better looking.

The survivors of the kung fu school massacre seek the aid of Tiger Wong (Jimmy Wang Yu), who, in a likely nod to The Big Boss, has promised his family he will fight no more. It’s probably just as well he made his promise, as the film would hardly make it to 90 min if he started fighting straight away, since he defeats the bad guys incredibly easily!

Whilst we wait for Wang Yu to break out his fists, the film finds ample padding in the form of a long tournament fight sequence (a trope Jimmy would return to frequently in his later films), where the Thai boxers pummel the local competition (and giving me ample opportunity to beg the blubbery Cheng Fu-Hung to put his shirt back on); numerous scenes of idiot locals getting duped at the bad guy’s casino; and some surprisingly well executed fights showcasing the female leads Chiao Chaio and Chang Ping-Yu, who hold their own well in some pretty rough looking fights.

This is definitely recommended as an exciting basher classic.

Ian Whittle’s Rating: 7/10 (but that dub…sheesh!)