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Cast/Crew
Hong
Kong
director
Cheung
Yat Woo
cast
list
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 he
Thunderbolt Fist" is a re-release of the 1972
Shaw Brothers film, directed by Cheung Yat Woo,
who also made "The Fists of Vengeance"
for the famous studio in the same year. The film
is another focusing on the Chinese struggle
against the Japanese, though essentially it
follows the usual formula of the protagonist
learning a powerful martial arts style in order to
defeat his enemy and avenge the deaths of his
loved ones.
The film begins with the
cruel Japanese occupying a town in North-eastern
China
, where a vicious gang of thugs abuse and rob the
people, until a brave man stands up and defeats
their leader in a duel and killing him.
Unsurprisingly, the Japanese immediately have the
Chinese man murdered, and his young son
Tie
Wa
flees to join a group of resistance fighters
hiding in the nearby mountains, leaving his
family's secret martial arts manual in the hands
of his childhood sweetheart Feng Niou. As the
years pass, Tie Wa becomes a skilled fighter (now
played by Chuen Yuen, also in "The Lady
Hermit", and who looks a little old for the
role), and longs to avenge his father's death by
taking on Gu Gang, the even less pleasant son of
the old Japanese chief who now rules the town with
an iron fist.
Although the plot as listed
on the back of the DVD may sound somewhat similar
to that of Jet Li's recent wuxia swansong "Fearless",
referencing the hero having to disprove the
insulting tag of the Chinese as being 'the sick
people of Asia', "The Thunderbolt Fist"
is far less concerned with formal martial arts
battles, and more with melodrama, treachery and
revenge. It is a fairly tragic affair, filled with
doomed romance and brotherhood, and with many of
the cast meeting bloody fates. As such, despite
being short and fast moving, it does at times have
the feel of a cut-price patriotic epic.
Although it is wholly
predictable throughout, the characters are
interesting enough, and the film works well as
both a tale of revenge, and of oppressed people
fighting back against their tormentors. It is
certainly a good deal grittier than other similar
efforts from the studio, with little in the way of
humour, focusing instead on the wickedness of the
Japanese, who never miss a chance to backstab or
cheat.
Tie
Wa
actually spends a fair amount of the film being
either beaten to a bloody pulp or being tortured,
which serves quite well to generate further viewer
sympathy. This having been said, there are a
couple of amusing scenes, including one where Tie
Wa finally masters the titular move by imagining
the laughing face of his foe on a tree trunk,
which he promptly kicks in half.
There is a good amount of
action throughout "The Thunderbolt
Fist", most of it fairly gruesome, with
plenty of flying limbs and arterial sprays,
especially during the final scenes. Interestingly,
although
Tie
Wa
is the nominal protagonist, a higher proportion of
the fights involve another of the rebels, played
by actress Shih Szu (also credited sometimes as Si
Si and who starred in many Shaw Brothers' films
including "The
Young Avenger"). Shih Szu's fights are
actually more exciting, mainly since they feature
her taking on multiple sword-wielding opponents at
once.
The action direction by Leung
Siu Chung (who also worked on "The
14 Amazons" amongst others) is solid, if
unspectacular, with no real outstanding scenes. In
fact, the same can be said of "The
Thunderbolt Fist" as a whole, as while
entertaining enough for fans of the studio and
genre, it is quite blatantly one of their lesser
outings. Although by no means a bad film, there is
little in the way of invention, and whilst
originality is by no means expected or required
for the genre, there is a definite lack of
ambition or real thrills, which prevents "The
Thunderbolt Fist" from being anything other
than merely above average.
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