This movie is available for purchase at www.hkflix.com

Rating:

5

Year of release: 1972

Genre: martial arts

Director: Cheung Yat-Woo

Action director: Leung Siu-Chung

Producer: Runme Shaw

Writer: Li Cho-Chien

Cinematography: Wang Ti, Wang Tien-Yu

Editor: Chiang Hsing-Lung

Music: Wong Fook-Lin, Frankie Chan Fan-Kei

Stars: Si Si, Chuen Yuen, Fang Mian, James Nam Gung-Fan, Tung Lam, Lee Ka-Ting, Wong Gam-Fung, Someno Yukio, Gam Kei-Chu, Chan Feng-Chen, Wong Ching-Ho

Not rated; contains IIB-level violence and brief nudity

DVD Information

Company: Bonzai Media

Format: widescreen

Languages: English (dub)

Subtitles: none

Extras: trailers

Notes: The picture is very nice - shame the same can't be said about the hissy and mushy soundtrack.

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The Thunderbolt Fist

The Thunderbolt Fist is your usual Shaw Brothers tale of revenge. A small village is taken over by the "nasty" Japanese, who kill the town's top kung fu fighter in order to scare the populace into submission. Escaping the wrath of the Japanese, the son of the master (Chuen Yuen) flees into the hills, where he trains with a group of rebels led by Gam Kei-Chu. Fast-forward ten years, and Chuen returns to the village armed with his father's secret technique of the "Thunderbolt Fist" with the hopes of killing the leader of the Japanese (James Nam Gung-Fan).

So, yeah, this is pretty much the same plot anyone who's seen more than a handful of kung fu films has seen many times over. And the mise en scene isn't going to win any awards -- it's pretty cheap, even by the Shaw's tight-fisted standards. Many shots are out of focus, and some even feature very visible wires and gaffes like shadows from boom mikes. There are quite a few fight scenes, but none of them are anything outstanding. The film-makers try to liven things up with liberal doses of blood, but most times, it comes off as terribly fake-looking. In the case of the final brawl -- whose end puts some of the fatalities in "Mortal Kombat" to shame -- the violence becomes just plain ridiculous.

What saves The Thunderbolt Fist from slipping into total B-movie hell is Si Si. Though she really only has a supporting role, she carries the whole film through her charm. She doesn't look all that great during the fight scenes, but she still lights up the screen with a "devil may care" attitude that is the perfect mix of cute and tough. If The Thunderbolt Fist had concentrated more on her character, then we might have had a real winner. Still, it does do a decent job of what it sets out to do, and if you're a fan of old-school flicks, there are a lot worse movies out there than this one.