One Armed Boxer

One Armed Boxer (獨臂拳王) is a 1971 Hong Kong martial arts film starring Jimmy Wang Yu. It is about a skilled Chinese martial artist who loses an arm and must exact revenge on his rival school.

One Armed Boxer
Traditional Chinese獨臂拳王
One Armed Boxer
Traditional獨臂拳王
MandarinDú bì quánwáng
Directed byJimmy Wang Yu
Produced byRaymond Chow
Written byJimmy Wang Yu
StarringJimmy Wang Yu, Tien Yeh, Tang Hsin, Lung Fei
Music byWang Fu Ling, Wang Ping
CinematographyMo Shen Ku
Edited byChen Hung Min, Chang Yao Chung
Distributed byGolden Harvest Company
Media Asia Group
Release date
  • 1971 (1971)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryHong Kong
LanguageMandarin

For the film, Wang Yu, who has both of his arms in real life, had his right arm strapped to his back, and in some shots his other arm can be briefly seen. Released worldwide during 1973, the film came to the United States in late 1973 with a name change: it was released to U.S. theaters as The Chinese Professionals.

Plot

Tien Lung, the best fighter at the Ching Te martial arts school gets into a fight with the local Hook Gang at a restaurant where Tien Lung and his friends are dining. The Hook Gang are part of a local opium-dealing and prostitution ring run by a man named Chao and are rivals of the Ching Te school. The Ching Te school is the most prominent martial arts academy in town and controls the local clothes-dyeing and brick factories. In a quick battle, Tien and his friends easily defeat the Hook gang both in the restaurant and again later in the valley where they have a battle royale.

The beaten Hook gang members return to Chao and tell him how Tien and the Ching Te school beat them for no reason. More importantly, the Hook gang lies and tells Chao that Tien had disrespected their group. This infuriates Chao enough to go to the Ching Te dojo and challenge Tien's master, Hang Tui, to a fight. Hang Tui quickly defeats Chao, leaving him even more humiliated.

Chao plans his revenge by hiring a group of mercenary martial artists from Shanghai. This group consists of two karate experts and their teacher, a Judo master, a Taekwondo expert, two Thai boxing fighters, a Yoga expert, and two mystic Tibetan lamas (who are later revealed in the sequel to be students of an Imperial Assassin). With this group, Chao easily destroys the Ching Te school and all of their businesses, leaving everyone dead except for Tien Lung who loses his right arm to Chao's Japanese professional.

After escaping the massacre at the school, Tien Lung flees and is eventually rescued by a woman named Jade and her father, who happens to be a specialist in medicine. The pair nurse Tien Lung back to health but Tien Lung is still inconsolable for his lost arm and vows revenge and begins his training to destroy anyone and everyone who stands in his way. After hearing his intentions, Jade and her father eventually offers to help Tien Lung by explaining that they are in possession of an elixer that strengthen the arms and would make any fighter very powerful, whether or not they have both arms. However, for the elixer to work, Tien Lung must destroy all the nerves in his remaining arm, which he agrees to do so by singing his arm on an open flame. After recovering from the ordeal, Tien Lung's abilities improve vastly and has become strong enough to demolish everything with his fist, which he decides to finally carry out his mission.

Tien Lung eventually returns to town and exacts his revenge on the Hook gang by first killing two of the group's professional fighters. Upon killing the Judo master, Tien Lung orders the Hook Gang's school to relay a message to tell Master Chao to meet him in the quarry for a showdown. Master Chao eventually meets with Tien Lung at the quarry but not without the experts he had hired. Tien Lung easily defeats Chao and his professionals but fights a lengthy duel with Chao's Japanese professional, in which he emerges victorious.

Cast
  • Yu Wang
  • Yu Tien Lung
  • Yeh Tien
  • Hsin Tang
  • Hsiao Yu
  • Fei Lung

Sequel

One Armed Boxer was followed by Master of the Flying Guillotine, with Jimmy Wang Yu both directing and reprising his role as the one-armed kung fu master Tien Lung.[1] With his arm strapped behind his back, Wang Yu had earlier portrayed the One-Armed Swordsman in two films for the Shaw Brothers Studio.

Notes
  1. Thomas, Kevin (24 May 2002). "A 'Master' of Style in Martial Arts". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
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