The Boxer from Shantung
Eat the Rich
•
2h 14m
1972 • Hong Kong • Directed by Cheh Chang, Hsueh-Li Pao
By 1972, Chang Cheh was already Shaw Brothers’ most prolific and well-known director with a plethora of box office hits (including the One-Armed Swordsman franchise) to his name and renowned for discovering the hottest young talents to star in his films. In The Boxer from Shantung (co-directed with Pao Hsueh-li), Chang’s brutal and bloody retelling of a real-life Chinese rags-to-riches story introduced a new action icon in Chen Kuan-tai (playing the title role) and would prove a key influence on a young man working on-set as an assistant director named John Woo.
In 1920s Shanghai, no one pays the dirt-poor Ma Yongzhen (Chen Kuan-tai) any attention – until he proves himself easily capable of knocking down all-comers in a street fight, where his talents are encouraged by local gang boss Tan Si (David Chiang). Soon, Ma is carving out his own territory in the city and punching his way up the criminal ladder, step by step… but will his deadly fists be enough to get him out of the trap that awaits him?
Up Next in Eat the Rich
-
Betty
1992 • France • Directed by Claude Chabrol
Betty, adapted from the novel of the same name by Maigret author Georges Simenon, is a scathing attack on the upper-middle classes, featuring an extraordinary performance by Marie Trintignant as a woman spiraling into alcoholism, but fighting to redefin...
-
Double Face
In the post-war years, the proliferation of transnational European co-productions gave rise to a cross-pollination of genres, with the same films sold in different markets as belonging to different movements. Among these, Riccardo Freda's ('I vampiri', 'The Horrible Dr. Hichock') 'Double Face' wa...
-
Wake Up and Kill
During the 1960s Luciano Lutring committed more than one hundred armed robberies in Italy and on the French Riviera. To the media he was the ‘machine gun soloist’, a name he’d earned as he kept his weapon in a violin case. To the public he was a Robin Hood figure, one who only targeted the wealth...
