Queen Boxer has some great fight sequences, a cool lead character and an enjoyable storyline. It's far better paced than a lot of 70s Kung-Fu movies, and keeps the movie brisk and entertaining with regular fights of increasing complexity, and a good plot about a young female Kung-Fu master out for revenge and a young man trying to better the lot for those around him by taking his town back from the local mobsters (who also killed the girl's brother).
As 70s genre Kung-Fu goes, Queen Boxer is pretty good. It isn't as good as my personal favourite Fatal Flying Guillotine, but the fights are impressive and satisfyingly brutal, especially the final fight which must have been an influence on Kill Bill's climactic Crazy 88 fight. It even has some of that sequence's gonzo gore make-up.
Still, something annoying kept stopping me from ever fully enjoying it. I don't know if it's just an issue with the version I bought, but 34 years on Queen Boxer is not in good shape. It's either a case of no good version being available (i.e. A direct video transfer from a bad copy) or there's a serious problem with the editing, but almost every other shot is off centre, with the lead combatant in a fight or the main speaker in a shot frustratingly half in and out of shot. For some unknown reason, the entire movie was out of focus, certain shots didn't stay still in the same point of focus and popped suddenly off centre as if something had happened to the film stock and shots constantly centred on tiny unimportant parts of the action, almost as if the film had either slipped or been re-edited by overzealous and under-skilled censors. My advice on this matter is that A: Queen Boxer is good enough that I got past this eventually and enjoyed it despite the distraction, and B: Maybe try a different copy to the UK Vengeance Video version I got hold of, as it could be a different print.
So, while ultimately satisfying, the current version of Queen Boxer is unfortunately badly put together, most likely edited together from several aged prints of the original reel. It's a shame, because it makes an otherwise enjoyable Kung-Fu flick deeply frustrating to watch.
As 70s genre Kung-Fu goes, Queen Boxer is pretty good. It isn't as good as my personal favourite Fatal Flying Guillotine, but the fights are impressive and satisfyingly brutal, especially the final fight which must have been an influence on Kill Bill's climactic Crazy 88 fight. It even has some of that sequence's gonzo gore make-up.
Still, something annoying kept stopping me from ever fully enjoying it. I don't know if it's just an issue with the version I bought, but 34 years on Queen Boxer is not in good shape. It's either a case of no good version being available (i.e. A direct video transfer from a bad copy) or there's a serious problem with the editing, but almost every other shot is off centre, with the lead combatant in a fight or the main speaker in a shot frustratingly half in and out of shot. For some unknown reason, the entire movie was out of focus, certain shots didn't stay still in the same point of focus and popped suddenly off centre as if something had happened to the film stock and shots constantly centred on tiny unimportant parts of the action, almost as if the film had either slipped or been re-edited by overzealous and under-skilled censors. My advice on this matter is that A: Queen Boxer is good enough that I got past this eventually and enjoyed it despite the distraction, and B: Maybe try a different copy to the UK Vengeance Video version I got hold of, as it could be a different print.
So, while ultimately satisfying, the current version of Queen Boxer is unfortunately badly put together, most likely edited together from several aged prints of the original reel. It's a shame, because it makes an otherwise enjoyable Kung-Fu flick deeply frustrating to watch.