Ma tou da jue dou (1973)

Director:

Ta Huang

Writer:

Kuang Ni (writer)

Release Date:

2 January 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Tagline:

The first and only Muscle Mad Monster of the martial Arts! He fights to the death

Plot:

A martial arts fighter, haunted by his past, takes a job as a dock worker in a small village. His vow never to fight again is tested by the cruel owner of the pier.

Plot Keywords:

Pier | Martial Arts | Vow | Loss Of Friend | Deceit

Cast

Bolo Yeung	...	Chiang Tai (as Yang Sze)
Fan Chiang	...	Miss Ho
Yeh Fang	...	Lee Hsi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Wai-Man Chan	...	Shen Wei Ta
Di Chin	...	Wu Ah-mao
Yuet Sang Chin
Yuan Feng	...	Girl Beggar
Tien Ying Li	...	Chu-heng
Wen Tai Li
Yukio Someno
Liang Tin	...	Boss Chan
Wang Chung Tsung	...	Uncle Lo
Biao Yuen
Corey Yuen

Also Known As:

Black Guide (Philippines: English title)
Chinese Hercules (USA)
Freedom Strikes a Blow (International: English title)
Ma tou shao zi (Taiwan)
The Kid from Pier (Taiwan)

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

Hong Kong | Taiwan

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:R

Company:

The Hong Kong Kai Fa Film Company

Quotes:

[first lines, dubbed version]
Young Woman: Shen Wei Ta, you're practicing at night?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 8 (2002) (V)

Only Good 'Cos Bolo's In It..

Like most people, i was drawn to buy this film because of the pictures of the mighty Bolo Yeung plastered all over the box, and the assumption (from the aforementioned pictures and the title of the film) that this film is all about the Beast from the East kickin' ass for 90 minutes.

However, to my disappointment, Chinese Hercules is to Bolo Yeung what No Retreat No Surrender was to Jean Claude Van Damme and Fearless Tiger was to... erm, Bolo Yeung - maximum exposure on video box, minimum actual screen-time! Oh well!

The storyline is pretty basic stuff, but it was well done - peaceful kung fu fighter (played by Chen Hui Min) accidentally kills a man and promises never to fight again. He then runs away to work as a labourer on a pier where he impresses his co-workers with his heavy sack lifting prowess, causing them to suspect him to be a formidable fighter (dont quite know how that works but never mind). Meanwhile, the corrupt boss of the pier does a deal with gangsters, giving them exclusive use of the pier. As a result, the workers are thrown out on their ear and forced to live on the beach, where they unite against their boss, the gangster boss, and his hulking henchman Bolo Yeung.

While the film was quite watchable (mainly through waiting for the next glimpse of Bolo), i had a few problems with it - firstly, the bad dubbing, but of course thats a given in old kung fu films. But also, the film tended to drag between the various fight-scenes. And as for the fight scenes themselves, i found them to be over-long, badly choreographed (apparently by Jackie Chan!), badly shot and at times performed by people who didn't seem to have any martial arts ability.... in fact, most of the fights in this film weren't 'fights' at all, just people getting beaten up without offering any resistance!

Finally, the hero - played by Chen Hui Min. I've never seen any other films with this guy in, but at no point was i rooting for him. Not only did he look wimpy and on the verge of tears at all times, but i found his insistence on not fighting infuriating! I understood his reasoning, but he could have saved a lot of people a lot of pain if he had done earlier what we all knew he was gonna do eventually, and fight! A bigger mystery was why this entire community of people were pinning their hopes on a guy they've never even seen fight!

Really, the big saving grace in this film was the presence of Bolo Yeung. Not only is he as huge and brutal as ever, he has some great, funny lines and gives the rest of the cast a master-class on how to fight on film. The guy oozes screen presence and you can easily see how he became a star. The guy scares the life out of me, but i'm sure i wasn't the only person to have watched this film who was rooting for Bolo all through the end fight!

All in all then, a below-average kung-fu film lifted several huge notches due to you-know-who. I've never met a person who didn't think Bolo Yeung was great. The man's a legend!!