Grindhouse Weekly – ‘Five Fingers of Death’

For our 18th entry in this feature, I decided it was time to discuss a kung fu flick. The 70s brought us an influx of martial arts movies and the market quickly became saturated with dozens of Chinese imported action-fests. Most of these films were sloppy, cheesy, and poorly dubbed, however the fast and expertly done fight choreography was something completely new and people couldn’t get enough. Most will credit the films of Bruce Lee as being the catalyst for this boom in the States, however the hardcore fans attribute the success of this genre to The Shaw Brothers and specifically 1972’s Five Fingers of Death AKA King Boxer.  

Directed by Chang-hwa Chung, Five Fingers of Death hit US theaters in March of 1973, the same month as Bruce Lee’s first film Big Boss (Fists of Fury). Its release marked the beginning of the kung fu craze and opened the flood gates for a ridiculous number of martial arts films to be released in the 70s. The film’s amazing soundtrack was used in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, and the director ranked this his 11th favorite movie of all time on Sight and Sound magazine.

The film stars Lo Lieh as Chi-Hao, a student martial artist who falls for Yin-Yin, the daughter of his master. One night the master gets beat up by a group of thugs and, feeling disgraced over this loss, sends Chi-Hao to another school for further training.  The deal is, if Chi-Hao wins an upcoming tournament he can have Yin-Yin’s hand.  What proceeds is a bevy of fights involving rivals schools, gangs, Japanese hit-men, and just about anyone else you can think of.  At every opportunity to show a fight, they show a fight.

One day, a thug from a rival group enters Chi-Hao’s new school and kicks everyone’s ass.  Chi-Hao proceeds to seek out this man and then kicks his ass.  After learning about this, his new master teaches him the extremely rare and dangerous Iron Fist technique.  This, in turn, makes Chi-Hao even more powerful and ready to do even more ass-kicking at the tournament.

For fans of classic martial arts cinema, Five Fingers of Death has everything you could ever want.  It’s got an interesting and compelling story that isn’t overly simple, yet it doesn’t become convoluted.  The action is top-notch featuring choreography from Liu Chia Yung (brother of famed Hong Kong actor Gordon Liu). The dubbing is exactly what you would expect, however I found myself having more fun with the dubbed version over the original audio with subtitles.

It’s easy to see why Five Fingers of Death became such a success and kicked off the martial arts craze of the 70s.  The fast, visceral action coupled with interesting characters and a great score make this easily one of the best from the era.  It’s unfortunate that Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon was released later that same year, as it quickly overshadowed Five Fingers, however this is still a simply must-see for any action fan.