One Armed Boxer [DVD] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Before Bruce Lee, there were a few kung fu movie stars. The first huge star was Jimmy Wang Yu who started working in the very first Shaw Brothers sword plays back in 1965. He directed and starred in 'One-Armed Boxer' for Golden Harvest in 1971 and is in top form both in front of and behind the camera. While you can clearly see Jimmy Wang Yu is not a real martial artist, he is still one of the best kung fu stars ever. At least 50 people die in this movie and he does the most damage.

The story is simple. A gang that is involved in opium smuggling and prostitution is looking to take out Wang Yu's kung fu school. When defeated, the gang hires Japanese fighters. Well, mostly Japanese. 2 Thai kickboxers, 2 Tibetan Lamas, a Yoga kung fu master(I never heard of Yoga kung fu, but hey, it's a movie), a Judo expert, a Taekwondo expert, and the unstoppable Lung Fei. Lung Fei also brings his 2 students, and obviously Wang Yu doesn't stand a chance against all of these guys. These are truly 10 of the craziest villains that you will ever come across. Wong Wing San played the Yoga guy with extendable arms in 'Master of the Flying Guillotine', but he just plays one of Lung Fei's 2 students in this. I will stop my review right now and let you find out for yourself how Wang Yu loses his arm and gets revenge.

If you are a fan of kung fu movies pre-Bruce Lee, this is a must have. Maybe the best basher ever. It's one of the movies that started the imaginary world where only martial arts schools exist. So the one martial arts school is a gang, and the other school is made up of good people. You just have to go with it, but it more than works. The movie is serious, but takes place in a complete fantasy world. "Never insult Tibetan martial arts".

There are too many good things to speak of when it comes to this movie. The great soundtrack, TONS of bloody fights (there is like 20 individual fights), Lung Fei's fangs, very creative training sequences, and best of all, Jimmy Wang Yu's acting. He was always the best at making me believe that he is in a really tough fight.

Overall, this is a one of a kind. They didn't make enough crazy movies like this that actually had good stories. A true classic in every way. 5/5

Red Sun version is widescreened with English and Cantonese languages. I don't know who they stole the print from.

Unfortunately, the subtitles in this Red Sun release are not that great. I myself do not know the chinese languages, so the subtitles make the story for me, and I must warn, for others in my position, they have put in a bit of a lousy effort, to the point that it can, at times ruin the storyline somewhat. I was disappointed and frustrated with this, and got to the point that I would rather turn the subtitles off and just try to remember what was REALLY said! Luckily, I still have the original movie subtitles on VHS that I dubbed from the TV so long ago. I had actually bought this DVD to replace it, however it looks like I will still have to hang on to my VHS for now. I would still recommend not passing up the opportunity to own this film, despite this minor flaw, though.

The movie itself gets 5 stars from me and that goes without saying. I remember many years ago when I was only a child, waking up and turning the television on to find this movie showing... I was completely drawn in to the unique fighting scenes and story line, both of which have been explained well by the reviewer before me. It is a timeless classic of Hong Kong cinema, which seems to get overshadowed by Master Of The Flying Guillotine, I prefer One Armed Boxer, however both movies really are a must own. Let's just hope that some day they release a DVD of this film, and give it the treatment it truly deserves, starting with better, more accurate subtitles...

The movie is in widescreen, colors are great, transfer is very good.
Looks just like I saw it at the movie theater.
This kung fu movie is o.k. It does look like they spent some money on this movie.
One of the best 70s' kung fu movies.
Worth taking a gamble on the purchase if you never saw it.

I saw MASTER OF THE FLYING GUILLOTINE and I was thrilled to find it was a sequel to another film, ONE-ARMED BOXER (aka THE CHINESE PROFESSIONALS). Even more thrilled to find that Wang Yu wrote and directed this one as well, and his trademark pedal-to-the-metal craziness is in effect. It's not as outlandish as MOTFG, but there are more fights per gallon, and Wang Yu is in it start to finish - it's his show all the way. And the main bad guy has fangs. FANGS. That stick out of his mouth.

The English dub is fun (this from a dub-hater), and the original Mandarin version uses...the theme from SHAFT. Yes, really. So you'll want to watch both versions.

Don't call it a prequel - a prequel is something made AFTER, but showing events that took place BEFORE the first film. This is simply the first in a series of two films. Why oh why weren't there more movies about Yu Tien Lung, the One-Armed Boxer? The concept is basically Wang Yu saying "Hm...the one-armed swordsman worked well for me....and so did the Chinese boxer...I'll just make a mashup of the two and put some asses in theater seats." And by all accounts it worked, so I have to wonder why there wasn't a 3rd, 4th etc OAB film. Wang Yu had other one-armed films after this, so he did have loyalty to the formula, but sequel mania didn't really hit filmmakers until the Age of the Blockbuster, so maybe that's it.

A basher through and through - little graceful kung-fu work here (no Lau brothers, I think) as Jimmy moves from one ass-whuppin' to another. The usual suspects are all present, San Mao and Lung Fei (our fanged Japanese baddie) especially, and the two Tibetans Jimmy fights are none other than Chow Lung and Chow Fu, who deliver their message from beyond the grave to get The Master of the Flying Guillotine all fired up in the pre-credit sequence of MOTFG ("Master Fung Sheng - if you receive this message, it will mean that both Chow Lung and I will be dead. Carved on the tile is the image of a one-armed man. Teacher, he will have killed us...").

Bottom line: FUN movie, as fun as MOTFG, but different in tone. This is another that gets lots of repeat viewings, and it's one of the best of the Wang Yu oeuvre. See what I did there, going all oeuvre on you? Yeah? YEAH.

This movie was one of the early kung fu classics. The prequel to the master of the flying guillotine for those who like. This copy is great the dubbing is not perfect.