FIVE
FINGERS OF DEATH (1973)Director: Chang Ho Cheng
Steeplechase
FIVE
FINGERS OF DEATH (1973)In the same year of Bruce Lee's untimely death, Warner (thank God they don't still own it or you'd never see it on DVD) Bros. released this Shaw Brothers martial arts epic in the United States. Known primarily as the first film of this sort to be widely distributed in this country, FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH helped define the Kung Fu craze of the 70s.
Exercising themes procured in many American and Italian westerns, the story concerns a young Chinese boxer Chao Chi-hao (Lo Liegh) and his duration at a respected school to improve his fighting techniques. During his term, he is toughened up by an old master, making him stronger and more skillful. He is later double-crossed by a jealous rival, and has his hands bloodied up and broken by a gang of thugs. Their attempt to diminish his "iron fist" backfires when he recuperates just in time for the big tournament.
FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH is certainly not the best martial arts film ever made, but it is above average and very influential. The plotline of a young hero fighting enemies while making his way to the big event is standard stuff, but it's padded out with all the right elements. There's lots of graphic violence; eyes are poked out and dropped to the floor (this never happened when The Three Stooges did it), foreheads are split open, blood sprays like a shaken beer can, and there's even a decapitated head swerved around for good measure.
Add an endless series of well-orchestrated fights, decent acting, laughable dubbing, and attractive period setpieces, and you have a kung fu classic. But I think that there's four or five main characters too many and it runs 10 or 15 minutes longer than it should. But nevertheless, it's made up of the stuff that made Shaw Brothers the Hammer Films of over-the-top chop socky flicks!
Steeplechase's DVD of "The One, The Original Kung Fu Classic" is a bit of a mess. The transfer is somewhat dupey, with bleeding images, and is nowhere as smooth as a conventional disc. There are also giant glitches and drop outs that appear throughout the presentation. It seems as though the master is a tape that is in poor condition. When I bought this on VHS several years ago and witnessed these problems, I thought that Steeplechase just used cheap cassettes to make their copies with. Now it is obvious to me that all these annoying blemishes are in their master!
On the good side, the picture is fully letterboxed to the film's original scope attributes, and the colors all look correct. Spotlighting a great soundtrack that could be what Bernard Herrmann would've done had he scored the film, the sound is also adequate, but nothing special. There is also a surprisingly fancy screen menu.
This title was never available properly in the U.S. (you can get horrible, pan & scan and sometimes edited bootlegs in New York's Chinatown for about $5), but a Canadian company once had it out on tape under it's original title, KING BOXER. That edition was stunning, especially compared to Steeplechase's, so it's a shame that they didn't seek out a better master for this DVD. By the way, a terrible video-generated title card reading "Five Fingers of Death" is superimposed here over "King Boxer" in the opening credits. (George R. Reis)