The Boxer From Shantung (1972) November 16, 2008
Posted by Cal in : 1970s films, Kung Fu , trackbackDirector: Chang Cheh; Pao Hsueh-Li Main cast: Chen Kuan-Tai; Cheng Kang-Yeh; Ching Li; Ku Feng; David Chiang Territory: Hong Kong Production Company: Shaw Brothers
Ma Wing-Jing (Chen Kuan-Tai) is a penniless (but principled) worker from Shantung trying desperately to make a living in Shanghai. He dreams of wealth and influence, and his dreams start to come true when he defeats a Russian wrestler in a prize bout. He is also watched over by benevolent gang boss Tan Si (David Chiang), who starts Ma on the road to organised crime, albeit a kinder, gentler form of extortion hitherto unseen in Shanghai. But not everyone is happy when Ma extends his empire and impinges on the territory of the Four Champions, who have at their disposal a lethal gang of hatchet wielding killers.
The Boxer From Shantung is a biopic-cum-kung fu movie, and I have to hold my hands up and say I know nothing about the real Ma Wing-Jing, despite his story being told more than once in popular Hong Kong cinema. Even a search on the Internet fails to reveal much. Apart from winning a bout against a Russian wrestler, I’m assuming everything else was made up until someone can tell me otherwise.
Although a bona-fide kung fu classic, The Boxer From Shantung falls down in several places. The main problem is the editing of the non-action scenes, which is pretty dire. There are great pauses between lines of dialogue, making for some very stilted exchanges that are quite uncomfortable to watch. As we’re on the subject of dialogue, it has to be said that the script is pretty awful most of the time and about on the same level of a school play. What really gets my goat is Ma’s continual gazing off into the distance saying something to himself along the lines of: “one day I will be somebody,” every few minutes. Although this is nothing compared with when things finally start falling into place and Cheng Kang-Yeh watches Ma ascend the ladder of the dosshouse and proudly hammers the point home in case you had a head injury earlier in life and miss subtlety: “brother Ma is going up the ladder!”
Childish scripting and bad dialogue aside – I’m really not sure how much involvement Chang Cheh had in this film – there are a couple of neat touches and fight scenes early on. David Chiang’s Tan Si is a mentor/father-figure for Ma and is sadly underused (he was probably shooting fourteen other movies with Ti Lung at the time, so can’t be blamed personally). His character is probably the most likeable of the lot, although I don’t buy the whole “kindly gang boss” thing as a rule. Ma himself is not the most memorable character Chen Kuan-Tai has played. The only attempt at depth is to give him a device – a cigarette holder – as a symbol of his success, much the same as the shoes in the Shaw Brothers-esque film Barefoot Kid twenty years later.
What really makes this film is the final reel. And by that, I mean that everything is forgiven the moment Ma steps into the Green Lotus Teahouse for a friendly chat with his rivals. It’s here that Chang Cheh’s presence is felt as things turn into a bloodbath. It’s worth mentioning that this was Chen Kuan-Tai’s first starring role, and this ending became a bit of a template for a lot of his Shaw films. The action-packed finale is criticised by some as being unrealistic, a fault that seems redundant considering the flights of fancy that the genre usually takes. Chen takes the Teahouse apart and paints the screen red with the blood of his victims in one of the genre’s defining moments. One can only imagine what we would have seen if Bruce Lee had accepted the offer to work at Shaw and made a film under Chang Cheh. As it happens, Chen Kuan-Tai was up to the task and it’s a shame his name isn’t known to a wider audience.
The Boxer From Shantung is an unbalanced film that really hasn’t stood the test of time when there isn’t a fight on the screen. But when the action scenes start up, it becomes truly amazing.
Comments»
An old fave of mine. The odd scripting and direction of dialogue is less obvious in the English version even though they are the same length