One of Wang Yu's better directing jobs
The story is the least important thing about this movie. It is all about the intriguing characters and great fights. Wang Yu helps to stop the Japanese, and there is also a subplot involving many different fighters looking for pearls.

There are so many good things to say about this movie. Nobody is cooler than Wang Yu, the directing focuses solely on making a great kung fu movie and nothing else, there is a long tournament scene, and like all the great movies Wang Yu directed, the villains are very interesting. In one match Jack Long fights an eye patch wearing Phillip Kao Fei. I won't give away what kind of crazy weapons they use, you have to see it for yourself.

One of the very few problems with the movie is that Wang Yu has no trouble handling any of his opponents. At one point he almost falls asleep when fighting 2 Thai kickboxers played by Blacky Ko and Ricky Tien. Even a large man with awesome kung fu skills like Kam Kong (the guy who played the Master of the Flying Guillotine) can't lay a finger on him. The only time he looks like he may be in for a tough fight is against 3 zombies. Lung Fei is the most memorable character. He is known as being the smartest person around, and for good reason. That is until he meets Wang Yu. Definitely one of Lung Fei's very best performances and the final fight is good.

3.5/5

Picture quality on the Crash Cinema DVD starts out bad, but is actually pretty good throughout the whole movie. It does deteriorate towards the end, but the widescreen presentation is what I care about most. I wouldn't mind seeing this remastered, but I would only double dip if there were some really good extras.

Return of the Chinese Boxer
This film naturally appeared when its leading star was beginning to pass his prime. As the star of ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN, GOLDEN SWALLOW,RETURN OF THE ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN, THE CHINESE BOXER, and ONE ARMED BOXER, Wang Yu actually revolutionized the martial arts genre along with the Shaw Brothers film of Chang Che. But after leaving Shaw Brothers to branch off on his own as actor-director, his career gradually began to slide until his work appeared formulaic. RETURN OF THE CHINESE BOXER reprises one of his major hits as actor-director. But, as one reviewer notes, it is episodic. Apart from the opening credits showing him in training (a common feature of these 70s films), Wang Yu does not appear until 20 minutes into the film. Obviously much of his energies went into directing the various martial arts scenes with Japanese actors. However, despite the developing puffiness of his face and a music score which borrows parts of Morricone's score from THE EXORCIST 2, this film is not without its pleasures. Wang Yu again uses the Thai boxer duo from ONE ARMED BOXER and brings in new elements such as the zombie martial artists who form a major challenge to the hero. Also, Wang Yu uses his own version of the mirror sequence from THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI when the villain enters a warehouse to find an array of dummies all resembling Wang Yu and challenging his perception. Although far from being his best work, RETURN OF THE CHINESE BOXER is much better than later films such as THE DRAGON SQUAD. Although the star has seen better days, his charisma and martial arts prowess still makes the film fascinating despite its narrative discontinuities.

A confusing patchwork!
A very confusing movie, which seems to have been hastily patched together. At times, it seems that the editors assembled footage from different films, with little attempts at continuity.

The fight scenes are largely drab and unexciting, there's no character development to talk about. There is a plot, but given the muddled nature of the film, it's near impossible to follow - nor does it seem worth following.

On a positive note, the transfer is pretty good: video and audio are fine, accurately reproducing a low budget, low quality HK film from the 70's.

Supposedly, the star of this film was the king of Kung Fu films before Bruce Lee came along. This film, then, shows what a vital service Bruce did for the genre.

This movie was exellent. Five Stars *****
This movie was very good. It's exiting combination of choreography and various fighting techniques made my palms sweat! I am a huge martial arts movie fan (Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li) and I would have to say that this was one of the best and most creative martial arts movies I have ever seen. I thoroughly enjoyed it!