Chinese Hercules (1973)

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.

Director:

Ta Huang (as Tak Choy)

Writer:

Tao Liang

Stars:

Michael Wai-Man Chan, Fan Chiang, Yeh Fang

Cast

Credited cast:
Michael Wai-Man Chan	...	Shen Wei Ta (as Wai-Man Chan)
Fan Chiang	...	Miss Ho
Yeh Fang	...	Lee Hsi
Bolo Yeung	...	Chiang Tai (as Yang Sze)
Feng Chiang	...	(Guest star)
Fung Yuen	...	Girl Beggar (as Feng Yuan)
Tin Leung	...	Boss Chan (as Tin Liang)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Chi Ping Chang
Ti-Ko Chen
John Cheung
Tao Chiang
Ti Chin	...	Wu Ah-mao
Yuet Sang Chin
Alan Chung San Chui
Fat Chung

Storyline

A martial arts fighter, haunted by his past, takes a job as a dock worker in a small village. The villagers are dependent on the traffic that comes to the pier, which gives its cruel owner too much power over his beleaguered workers. The situation worsens when an even crueler gangster takes control. His most powerful weapon is his henchman, a muscle-bound brute, who remorselessly and easily cracks the skulls and breaks the necks of anyone who gets in the way. The new dock worker had sworn never to fight again, but the deaths of his co-workers force him to act.

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Plot Keywords:

deception | fight | pier | martial arts | death | 

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Taglines:

"Chinese Hercules" ... He's got a crush on you!

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Genres:

Action | Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Hong Kong Taiwan

Language:

Mandarin

Release Date:

2 January 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Chinese Hercules

Company Credits

Production Co:

The Hong Kong Kai Fa Film Company

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This movie played theaters in New York City, Cleveland, and parts of Illinois and Florida, with Blood (1973) serving as a second feature under the title 'Black Nightmare in Blood'.

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Quotes

[last lines, dubbed version]
Lee Hsi: Please don't. I won't try to take your pier. I'll leave here. I won't come back.

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Connections

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

User Reviews

An Old-Style Kung Fu Film

"Shen Wei Ta" (Wai-Man Chan) is a young man who is dating the sister of the local bully. One night the two men get into a fight and after Shen Wei Ta accidentally kills him he is forced to flee from the scene. Vowing to never fight again he changes his name to "Chung San" and gets a job as a manual laborer off-loading cargo from ships and tries to save as much money as he can. However, when young thieves are caught stealing some rice from a warehouse, Chung San stops them from getting beaten to death by offering to pay for the merchandise out of his earnings. This inexplicably angers the dockyard boss who doesn't like the fact that Chung San dared to interfere and proceeds to order some of his hired thugs to beat him up as well. Fortunately, some of the workers come to his aid and manage to stop things before he is seriously hurt. Not long afterward, things get much worse when the leader of a crime syndicate moves in and takes over the pier which subsequently disenfranchises all of the workers who have spent most of their lives working on the docks. Violence soon erupts with a particularly strong and muscled individual named "Chiang Tai" (Bolo Yeung) killing or maiming anybody who dares to interfere with the syndicate. It's at this time that Chung San realizes that he has to reevaluate his vow to abstain from fighting. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an old-style kung fu film of the type that gained prominence in the early 70's. While not as good as those movies which featured Bruce Lee, this particular film had more than enough action and several actors (most notably Bolo Yeung) who had previously performed with him to give it a certain amount of credibility. In short, fans of martial arts films from this general era might enjoy this particular movie and I have rated it accordingly. Average.