Cinematheque Ontario Report: King Boxer REVIEW

Well, I’ve been staring at this open word document for far too long now, not sure where to start when talking about the Shaw Brothers’ seminal King Boxer. I don’t know where to start because there are simply so many things to say about it.

Do I introduce this piece by discussing just how ground breaking King Boxer was, as the first Kung Fu film to be a hit in the west? Released in spring 1973 with the exploitation-tastic title of ‘Five Fingers of Death’, it created the Kung Fu phenomenon which continued throughout the 70’s, breaking ground for the likes of Bruce Lee and the many Shaw Brother’s productions that followed.

Or do I take a more trivial hook, and discuss the most familiar musical cue in this film, a repeating klaxon stolen from Ironside. Stolen in turn from this film by serial style-kleptomaniac Quentin Tarantino, it gained fame in his Kill Bill series, but is probably less worthy than the stirring main theme of the film.