User Reviews

I saw Five Fingers at the Drive-In in...what, 1973, '74? It was the the first Kung-Fu movie I'd ever seen and I was greatly entertained. I recently bought it on DVD and watched it again. I was greatly entertained the second time, too. I believe this is probably the one most Kung-Fu movies are modeled after. Rival Schools, different styles, revenge, "white hat" good guys and "black hat" bad guys. They even threw in the Japanese (VERY bad guys) styles of Karate and Judo. I remember being amused by the dubbing dialog, along the lines of "Hey You! You are a very bad guy!" and "They should not get away with this! I will have a go at this bad crowd!" This time it wasn't so distracting, I guess I'm used to it. If you have even the slightest appreciation of this genre, this is one you should see.

This is truly a kung fu classic. This film appears to have influenced martial arts films for decades. The Spanish guitar background music, the competing schools, the impossibly high leaps onto the edges of rooftops, catching thrown spears, cheating in tournaments, the secret training for an exotic karate technique, themes of patience and perseverance, and more were copied by many later films such as "The Karate Kid" (1984), "Hero" (2002), "Kill Bill Volume 2" (2004), and "Kung Fu Hustle" (2004).

I feel lucky to have first seen this film in 1972, shortly after it was released, just before kung fu films became mainstream and before Bruce Lee became a household name. I saw it with two buddies of mine in a downtown San Diego theater frequented by sailors, and although the scenes of the glowing red hands and gouged eyeballs got some laughs, clearly the audience was getting into it, as was our little group. It was a very memorable movie for me. Decades later I could still recall several specific scenes, even after I had forgotten the film title. This film is extra special to me now because one of those two buddies with whom I first saw it (sailor Kenneth Lee Hines of the Kitty Hawk) has since passed away, so this film serves as a memento of that day together before we took judo and karate lessons in subsequent years.

Relative to kung fu films, I'd rate this film as 10/10. But since I have to keep the larger film audience in mind, I'll more objectively rate it as 8/10, due to obvious technical flaws. I just recommend that neophyte viewers consider those technical flaws to be proof of its vintage nature and of its authenticity, and then merrily proceed to enjoy its testosterone-charged mayhem.

"Five Fingers of Death" is a classic of 70's kung fu cinema. As the film that "broke out" HK cinema to the west, this is a must see for any serious fan of the genre. It's also a damn entertaining film, with hard-hitting, non-stop action, solid and mostly believable fight choreography and great over-the-top 70's era dubbing ("Oh I see ... so you want it THE HARD WAY!! HWAA!!").

"Five Fingers" is an eye-for-an-eye revenge tale ... and I mean literally, eye for an eye! It's great to see Lo Lieh portraying a hero. He played so many great villains later in his career - including Pai Mei in the classic FIST OF THE WHITE LOTUS, which was one of the characters Tarantino used in creating the Pai Mei of KILL BILL.

My only complaint is that I wish there was a better quality DVD - mine looks like it was a VHS transfer. Overall this is a great film - don't miss it!

Bart Blackstone Film Club - Hollywood, CA

In retrospect, this is indeed a mediocre example of early '70s kung fu product. However, fans of the genre should not forget that this was the film that began the martial arts craze. It established the typical themes of later films: Chinese/Japanese antipathy, over-the-top cartoonish violence (the eye gouge!), as well as the "rival school" conflicts. Not anywhere in the quality of later films such as "Enter the Dragon" or the unusual "Challenge of the Ninja", it still remains a rich piece of nostalgia for those who sat entranced in theatres watching men fight and fly around movie screens during the early '70s.

"Five Fingers of Death" started the American kung-fu movie craze but I remember seeing it for the first time as "King Boxer" in Chinatown, NYC, without the bad dubbing and few Americans. I also was fortunate enough to see the American premiere of "Five Fingers Of Death" on Times Square, NYC. What a contrast this turned out to be...same film but different audiences.

In Chinatown, this film took on a more serious tone to the viewers. It was because of hearing the real voices of the actors(In Chinese) that made this movie more believable. Chinatown theaters were showing violent kung fu films for years(1972's "Boxer From Shantung" beat them all in gore), so the action choreography & story were the main attraction. Rival school plots were not overused yet so the storyline seemed fresh. Every great kung fu film had wonderful, dastardly villains you wanted to see get their comeuppance and FFoD had them too. The star, Lieh Lo, was a known actor in Chinese theaters. The mostly Chinese audience enjoyed this film immensely. The audience buzz while leaving this film gives the final satisfaction to me.

On Times Square, this film was an action comedy...probably unintentionally. I enjoyed it here too but for different reasons. The crowd was ethnic and quite energetic. From the start, the movie made you laugh. As soon as the audience heard those strange British accents come from those Chinese actors the movie turned into a violent and gory cartoon. Most American audiences saw this kind of gore in a horror film not in an action film. The action sequences blew the audience away. Unfortunately, the movie studios saw that they enjoyed it so much that, bad dubbing and unnecessary violence became a kung fu flick formula.

I had fun seeing this movie with an American audience but enjoyed it much more in Chinatown. Some films can pass the test of time but the dubbed version of FFoD can't. The original "King Boxer" is still enjoyable...a CLASSIC!

Hong Kong filmmaker Chang Chang Ho's 1972 martial arts movie epic "Five Fingers of Death" is widely considered by a great many film experts and kung-fu movie fanatics to be the martial arts movie that started it all.

Being released in 1972, it was phase-two of the three-step process that would lead to the explosion of martial arts movies in the West - "Billy Jack" (1971), with its famous Hapkido showdown in the park, was released the year before, and Bruce Lee starred in "Enter the Dragon" (1973) two years later, thereby solidifying martial arts movies' place in Western cinema.

But what is all the hoopla about regarding "Five Fingers of Death"? The movie, with its terrible dubbing, explosive (if not highly improbable) action sequences and technical flaws and all, has a plot, albeit a very thin one. Chih-Hao (the late Lo Lieh) is a young and dedicated student of Chinese gong-fu who is selected to represent his school in an upcoming martial arts tournament. His teacher offers to allow him to self-train in the "Iron Fist" style of fighting, a style so deadly that it could very easily kill a man with only one blow.

Additionally, Chih-Hao's arrival at the school coincides with a violent conflict with a rival school, its students, and a trio of murderous heavy hitters from Japan. Before you know it, a major setback threatens Chih-Hao's training, and his ability to represent his beloved school in the upcoming tournament.

Let me just say that "Five Fingers of Death" is in fact the movie that started it all. As another viewer mentioned, "Five Fingers of Death" helped to set a lot of standards in martial arts movies over the next three decades - Asian, European, and North American martial arts movies. Such standards include the dedicated student, the learning of patience and endurance, conflicts between rival schools, the intense ethnic animosity between the Chinese and Japanese, and learning a system of fighting for that good old-fashioned action movie motive: revenge. "Five Fingers of Death" would also serve as a major influence on American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" movies (Tarantino borrows quite liberally from this project, among many others, just so you know).

The acting is pretty good, considering the fact that this is a martial arts movie from the early 1970s, the best of which is Lo Lieh. As the atypical student of the martial arts, his performance is quite groundbreaking, though upon first glance at this movie you wouldn't really know it because of how that particular character arc has been done to death so many times over the years. He's quite humble in his acting, doing anything he can to persevere over his enemies and not fight them in anger or stoop to their level of stupidity or arrogance. Also, when he suffers his major setback, it does make your heart sink a little bit because it's so brutal and you wonder if he's going to recover enough to realize his life-long ambition.

"Five Fingers of Death" is a classic in every sense. It's by no means perfect, and viewers would be crazy to expect something on the caliber of the "Godfather" of martial arts movies. What it does offer you is the ultimate example of Eastern hand-to-hand combat from the time before Eastern cinema was a major fixture in the West.

7/10

P.S.: "Enter the Dragon" Bolo Yeung also appears as the Mongolian street fighter near the beginning of the film.

Released as KING BOXER in the U.K.

This film was essentially the FIRST kung fu film to go on general release in the U.K. Many of us had ratcheted through Kurosawa's astonishingly gritty and involving dramas and were used to oriental film being beautifully shot and lit, with somewhat restrained pacing, all in all like leafing through an album of very fine still photographs that just happened to be moving.

Along come Run Run Shaw and co. with their widescreen "home movie" production values, and astonishing ripe-for-parody dubbing and all the rules have changed. KIng Boxer was the first in through the door, leaving a clearly marked trail for others to follow with their feet planted firmly on top of the blazed footsteps.

In spite of hokey plots, pantomime acting, cheesy jump-cuts and spaghetti western style snap-stepped zooms, this film was marvellous. Gorgeous without being opulent and with the most brilliant fight choreography ever to grace a screen. We loved the sickening violence, the anguish, the testosterone. The martial artists among us found some of the techniques fascinating, if flamboyant and oftentimes silly. It was so very different from the Japanese stuff we all knew, and it had lovely acrobatic grace that perfectly complemented the sickening violence and bloodstained floors. Delightful.

The "KIng Lear" scene was, at the time, quite a milestone in schlock "You cruel bastards.. My **** !!" Now it's rather less shocking, but still a bit of a gut-churner

We didn't notice that any females in sight were absolutely one-dimensional. After seeing more films of the genre, it now stands out like a sore thumb, but at the time it didn't matter

This film defined what would rapidly become the kung-fu movie clichés. All of them. Watch it and remember that until this burst onto the western screens, there was no genre for it to slot into. It was unique and awesome. It was the first kung fu movie and it still is, for me and many others, the best.

This was the very first kung fu movie that I have ever seen. The dubbing is not the greatest but alot better than some that I had seen. The plot is much better than some that are made today. It is gory at times but that is what gives it that special push. Academy award material is it not. But if you like to watch fights and a decent story backround, this is for you!

This is my favourite kung fu movie. It has a very authentic flavour, seasoned by an eerie music score (of tradition chinese instruments, I think), and some wonderfully over-acted melodramatic moments contrasted by heavily affected comedy. Indeed, while attempting to create their own "Western" (i.e. Cowboy film) genre, the Chinese concocted a whole new animal, marked by kung fu fighting and its associated sound effects.

The story of Five Fingers of death is simple, a story of revenge (for killing a loved one) and the pursuit of the main character to master the "iron-fist-technique" that will enable him to wreak holy vengeance on his enemies. There is even a love interest, though the awkward, polite kind (found in most Chinese films of the period). The end result however is great and much more authentic than any Bruce Lee movie.

This film is best for its historical importance. This is what is considered the first martial arts hit. The film is pretty dry once you get past its historical importance.

Lo Lieh stars as a martial arts students who is training for a tournament. His new teacher teaches him an unbeatable style called Iron Fist. Whenever he uses Iron Fist his hands glow red; the parts where this happen are always cool. With this style he wins the tournament and beats up some thugs.

The film uses trampolines heavily. The choreography is good, but like i said earlier it really falls short of some of the later masterpieces.

I have been browsing through a few Shaw Brothers films from the 70's of late and decided it was time to watch the one that is credited with bringing these films to the American attention. King Boxer (as the version I saw was called) sees promising young student Chi-Hao sent away to train under a new master in order that he may be able to win a martial arts tournament and thus prevent the local thugs from getting the power and prestige that would come were they to win it. Within this very basic frame there are lots of characters coming and going and lots of complications. While I wanted to like this aspect for doing more than the norm, the truth was that the film gives too much time to too many characters and tries to do too much with them in terms of their actions and changes of heart within the main plot.

The impact this has is to make the film longer and slower than it can bare, which is a real shame because when it has pace it moves well. It could easily have lost 1 or maybe 2 characters to make the plot a bit leaner and lose 20 minutes or more from the running time and it would have been a better film for it. It doesn't help that the performances often err on the side of being too earnest and come over a little stiff. I liked Lo Lieh as a presence but he was guilty of this. By contrast I liked the minor turn by Shen Chan as he was smirking in his villainy. The rest of the cast tend to be a bit too sluggish and earnest which is a shame but doesn't extend to the action. On this front the film has a lot to recommend and the action looks and moves well. I would have liked a bit more of an impacting final few fights but it was good stuff even if the longer running time tended to rob the film of energy between fights.

Another good Shaw Brothers film then, but it runs too long and is given too heavy a tone and as a result the film feels a bit too sluggish for its own good.

Having recently seen Grindhouse, I was browsing in Video USA looking for some movies that might have played in real grindhouse theatres in downtown areas during the '70s. The Hong Kong action flick Five Fingers of Death seemed just such a picture. The cartoon-like sound effects and the quick jump cuts seemed a little distracting at first but after a while I was so involved in the story and the characters I didn't care. Parts of the music score sounded like the "Ironside" TV theme song that was subsequently used in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill movies. Some scenes involving the hero's fiancé seemed to border on parody but they were so brief that they didn't ruin the film. The most exciting parts involve the tournament and some revenge segments after that. Well worth seeing for kung fu fans!

Five fingers of death: Although previous Shaw Martial Arts epics had shown the influence of the American cowboy genre, none had paid such open tribute to it as this one, especially in the saloon fight scene. And though Shaw Bros. films had borrowed from the Japanese chambara (swordfight) genre before, none had done so with such success as this one. i suppose some of this had to do with the fact that the director originated from Korea, and thus brought a non-Chinese perspective to such borrowings, which certainly raises some interesting questions about culture; but in any event, this film presented real innovations in technology and technique in Hong Kong action films. for the first time in Hong Kong, the camera was given access to the whole of any given set, which meant shots from many different angles, such as the low-angle interior shot showing the ceiling of a room (the original American innovation of which usually credited to John Ford), or the high angle long shot that allowed visualization of a large ground area, or the frontal tracking shot.

It is true that this was not the first hand-to-hand combat film of real cinematic substance - that remains Wang Yu's 'Chinese Boxer'; but on a commercial level, Shaw Bros. were right to choose 'Five Fingers' as their first major release to the West because, one might say, it was the 'least Chinese' of their action films, that is, the least dependent on purely Chinese theater traditions. Although this made no impression on the American critics at the time (who universally trashed the picture), it wasn't lost on American audiences, especially among African Americans, whose culture had always been - by necessity - an eclectic patchwork of borrowed elements and innovation. In 'Five Fingers' they were given the opportunity to discover the core of the story, in the earnest young man forced to make the extra effort to overcome social barriers and betrayal in order to have his merit recognized. This seems to be an issue universal to Modernity, but each culture has its own way of expressing and resolving it; 'Five Fingers' presented it in a way many Americans could relate to as well as Chinese.

So is the film now only of historical value? Certainly not. For one thing this issue hasn't gone away. Secondly, some of the innovations leave much of the film looking as fresh today as it did on first release. Also the action is well-staged, and the performances, though a little too earnest, are crisp. The film is a might over-long, but the story does cover a lot of ground. And there are marvelous set-pieces through-out, such as the saloon confrontation, the fight on the road to the contest, the odd double finale.

definitely looks better on a theater screen, but still impressive for home viewing: recommended.

The first major martial arts import into states. Yep, before Bruce Lee's "Fist of Fury". Credit goes to Wang Yu's "Chinese Boxer" which started the trend of story-driven kung fu films. This, only coming two years later retains almost the same structure as that film, minus Jimmy himself. There's a lot more emphasis on building a story here than on the actual fights and it's understandable how that might dissatisfy most viewers who expect a martial art film similar to Wang Yu's "One-Armed Boxer" films which reverse that emphasis. Not a bad film as an addition to Shaw Bros. filmography, it certainly opened up new 'frontiers' for other films to come in terms of some of the new techniques, but as an entertaining martial arts film I would go for something a little more "kung phooey", like Wang Yu's "One-Armed Boxer" films.

This early Shaw Brothers outing (which features a plot that's very similar to the ones found in THE ONE-ARMED BOXER and THE Chinese BOXER) proved to be a hugely successful release for the studio and ended up sparking a trend that saw hundreds of imitations made over the next five years. As kung fu films go, the plot is strictly per functionary, as we watch an escalating feud between rival kung fu schools that can end in only one way – death for most of the cast. Still, these films are never about the plot and on a technical level this is top notch stuff – a strong cast with acting as well as fighting skills, great fight choreography and sumptuous filming that looks absolutely great on DVD.

Lo Lieh, typically cast as the bad guy in these productions, is a breath of fresh air playing a hero for once. He plays the stock character – impetuous, fearless, hot-headed et all – but I found the screen alive whenever he was present. Tons of familiar faces, like Tien Feng and James Nam, make up the cast of bad guys.

The plentiful fight sequences are quite wonderful and sometimes extraordinarily violent for the era, with one or two literally eye-popping interludes that have to be seen to be believed. Our hero ends up learning the 'iron palm' technique, signified by some hilarious siren-style music on the soundtrack that Tarantino lifted to memorable effect in KILL BILL, which leads to some strong showdowns against sinister Japanese fighters and huge numbers of unfortunate henchmen. Compared to the rest of the genre, KING BOXER is nothing new – but this trend-setting classic ushered in a new type of martial arts film and remains a hugely enjoyable outing to this day.

'King Boxer (1972)' (also known as 'Five Fingers of Death' in the U. S.) is a Kung fu flick about a man who gets embroiled in a feud between martial arts schools when he travels across the country to train with a new master and learns a deadly palm technique that he's warned must only be used righteously. The schools operate kind of like gangs, with the antagonists doing everything they can to dismantle their competition (including murder) before a big tournament arrives that will decide who gets to teach martial arts in the north of the country. It's almost like a war for territory, in a way, as the baddies will supposedly have free rein over the country if they win the tournament and it's this that prompts the heroes to do everything they can to beat them. It's a classic martial arts movie in many ways, especially when it comes to the broad beats of its narrative. There are betrayals, unbeatable techniques, fighting competitions, training montages, unrequited loves, tragedies and a whole lot of deaths. The action is mostly in the form of extended fist fights, although there are some weapons-based encounters as well, and they're sometimes punctuated by surprising moments of full-on gore. A lot of people are killed in the film, and it's almost like it makes a point of not rolling its credits until every even one-time villain has seen some sort of comeuppance. There isn't a lot in the way of philosophy or theming, just old fashioned vengeance and mastery of combat. It's a blunt, down-the-barrel experience that features plenty of exciting set-pieces and has some satisfying moments of stylisation (listen out for the music Tarantino stole, which this also stole). It is a little bit slow overall, though, and some of its second act is less compelling than you'd like. There are some slightly repetitive elements, too. However, it's a solid effort overall that should please fans of the genre - especially if they're feeling particularly bloodthirsty.

The skeleton of the story is that the main character needs to win a public kung fu tournament with high stakes. The flesh of the story consists of LOTs of fighting, a love triangle, betrayals, rivalries, and revenge.

There is a lot to this story. The main character is very likeable as an even tempered, mild mannered, and very tough country boy. A good versus bad movie is only as good as the villains and the main villains are tough and smart, not to mention ugly, devious and tricky.

If there is one weakness, it's the scene where the fiance of the main character is imagining her and the protagonist running towards each other in a flowery field and hugging when they meet. I thought I was watching The Sound of Music for a second and nearly lost hope for the movie. Luckily, the movie recovered quickly with a fight scene.

Theses were the martial arts movies I grew up watching. Though it was made in 1972 I was watching them on Saturday nights on our local channel 26 in the late 80's.

Seeing that this was a Run Run Shaw production I decided to see how many movies he was credited with because his name was the most popular in kung-fu movies as long as I could remember. I just saw that he has 363 movies to his credit! That is insane! He was extremely busy and I, for one, surely appreciate it.

This film is the best kung fu film of all time. Although there is not wire-work and special effects like those used in Crouching Tiger, this movie uses ingenuity and creative camera-work to create memorable fighting moments, and the fight scenes are well choreographed and tight. There is a ton of action in this film with lots of great fight scenes, but the story is very good too,with lots of twists and turns. The characters are well rounded and have real depth to them, as the motivations for their actions and personality are revealed in a much greater detail than most kung fu films. There is some really great camera-work in the film, with my favorite shot starting as a close up on our hero's face showing his reaction, then pulls back quickly to reveal the scene before him that is the cause of his look. Originally, I bought the movie to hoping see some great fight scenes, but upon multiple viewings I learned how terrific the acting and story were as well. Overall, a great film.

All anyone really needs to know about "Five Fingers of Death" is that it was the film that introduced North American audiences to kung fu movies, a few months before Bruce Lee became a kung fu superstar in the West. In this film, we have good guy Chih-Hao (Lo Lieh) being trained first by the father of his girlfriend Ying Ying (Wang Ping) and then by a greater Master in the martial arts; the latter even gifts him with the knowledge of the rare (and lethal) Iron Palm, making sure to warn him that it can never be used in a mere personal fight but only in the most noble of causes. There are rival schools, of course, which are hoping to have their champion win the regional martial arts competition, and there are a bunch of evil Masters and students who aren't above using dirty tricks to kill their rivals, including Chih-Hao.... The fun thing with this film is that it's quite straight-forward, with little of the crazy supernatural tweaks that some films in this genre include; and there are, of course, staged fights every 2 or 3 minutes, so exposition and character development, etc., never get in the way of a good choreographed scene. Lots of fun!

This is indeed the film that popularized kung fu in the 1970s. However, if it ever had any kind of excitement or even halfway interesting plot, it doesn't seem to have aged very well.

Long story short: extremely drawn out, slow-moving, confusing plot with run-of-the-mill choreography, typically annoying and exaggerated whiplash sounds with every punch and kick, and constant "plot twists" that never come to an end. By the time the film reaches its emotional climax, I had long had all the wind knocked out of me to actually care.

Watch it for its historical value as a milestone of Chinese kung fu cinema -- just leave your expectations at the door, or you'll be bitterly disappointed.

For hardcore fans only.