User Reviews

BOXER REBELLION is an oddly drawn-out Shaw Brothers epic telling the story of the uprising against German and Japanese forces at the beginning of the 20th century. By all accounts this should be a fantastic movie along the likes of 14 AMAZONS or THE WATER MARGIN, but somehow it isn't, despite the all-star cast and presence of Chang Cheh in the director's chair. The story feels lightweight and drawn out, dragging its feet in between the action scenes.

The good news is that, as is the normal for Shaw, the action is absolutely fantastic and that alone makes the film a worthwhile watch. In essence the plot is about three kung fu heroes - Shaw regulars Alexander Fu Sheng, Beardy, and Chi Kuan-Chun - who decide to help fight back against oppressive foreign forces, using their superior martial arts skills. How will fists and feet go against rifles and bayonets? You'll have to see it to find out, but the action is visceral and acrobatic and hugely entertaining.

The rest of the movie is a hit and miss affair. Scenes involving the Empress Dowager are routine and unnecessary in my opinion. A sub-plot about the fighters' belief that they are in some way magical is very interesting and the climax to that plot well-handled. Richard Harrison, returning to Shaw after MARCO POLO, plays an honourable villain with aplomb, and regular star Wang Lung Wei does well as something other than a stock bad guy. On the other hand, the location shooting in Taiwan makes this look cheap and unconvincing at times, with the same sets redressed over and over, and the sluggish nature of the narrative stops this from being an outright classic.

BLOODY AVENGERS (1976) is one of a handful of historical kung fu epics directed by Hong Kong master filmmaker Chang Cheh. The focus here is on the 1900 Boxer Rebellion as told from the Chinese point-of-view, in contrast with the 1963 Hollywood film, 55 DAYS AT PEKING, which told the story chiefly from the English and American standpoint.

The three heroes are young men caught up in the fervor of the times who join the Boxers, a cult which claims supernatural powers in its campaign to drive foreigners out of China. The heroes are played by Shaw Bros. kung fu stars Fu Sheng, Chi Kuan-Chun, and Leung Kar Yan (Liang Chia-Jen). Chi Kuan-Chun is the one who is most skeptical of the Boxer leader's claims of invulnerability and warns against attacks on foreign troops without adequate reconnaissance. The sect leader, Li (Wang Lung-Wei), turns a disastrous loss at the hands of the Japanese into a public relations victory that gets embellished as word spreads until the Empress Dowager hears-and believes-an outlandish tale of 9000 Japanese soldiers killed by the Boxers.

The Boxer Rebellion itself occurs offscreen and the rest of the movie involves its aftermath as foreign troops-chiefly Japanese and Russian soldiers-overrun Peking, pillaging, plundering and slaughtering. The heroes fight and kill quite a few soldiers but their efforts ultimately amount to little. At one point, they confront the German officer in charge of all the foreign troops (played by American actor Richard Harrison, a fixture in Italian films of the 1960s and 70s and a handful of Hong Kong films afterwards), who attempts to fence with them, but they let him live, allowing him to release sketches of the two remaining heroes, making it difficult for them to escape the city undetected. The Americans are notably absent from the action until the very end, when a handful show up in Civil War uniforms (!) and take off their hats for the heroes.

The fights are all staged by Liu Chia-Liang, who became a top-notch kung fu director in his own right the same year. For this film he has created a large number of exciting brawls with kung fu used effectively against rifles, bayonets and, in one memorable encounter, a Gatling gun. In addition, there are large-scale battles involving dozens of costumed extras, shot on outdoor Shaw Bros. sets and familiar Hong Kong locations.

The main actors are all at their peak and the rest of the cast is rounded out with familiar faces, including Billy Tang as a Boxer martyr and Gordon Liu in a small part as one of the Boxers. Li-Li Hua plays the Empress Dowager. There are many westerners in the large cast as well, although Harrison is the only name among them. This is an extremely difficult film to find in a good copy; if a new print is ever released in the world market, it will be an occasion of great joy for kung fu and Hong Kong fans everywhere.

ADDENDUM (5/26/08): Since the above review was submitted, the film has been released on Region 3 DVD by Celestial Pictures under its original title, BOXER REBELLION, in its original cut of 137 minutes, roughly 30-45 minutes longer than the version I saw for review, which was an English dub taped off broadcast TV back in the 1980s. The DVD is in Mandarin with English, German, and Japanese characters speaking in their own languages. Without digging my VHS copy out of storage, it would be hard to identify exactly what scenes were cut from the TV broadcast, although I can say with some certainty that there are longer scenes with the Empress Dowager, including a nearly ten-minute scene at the beginning showing her getting ready, step-by-painstaking-step, for an evening's entertainment, all while keeping her ministers, who have important news about the Boxers, waiting. There are also significant scenes with another important woman character, "Master Cai" or "Second Master," played by Hu Chin, who turns out to have once been a lover of the German officer (Richard Harrison) in charge of the Allied occupation of Peking. I don't recall these scenes from the TV version.

The emphasis in this longer cut is less on martial arts or bloody battle scenes than on the whole arc of the disaster caused by the Boxers, from the Empress Dowager's tacit support of them, enabled by lies spread about an outright defeat the Boxers suffered at the hands of the Japanese that became a "victory" in its retelling, to the complete failure, from a military and strategic standpoint, of their attack on the Foreign Legation in Peking, to the pillage of the city by foreign troops in the wake of it. The thread throughout the film is the peculiar devotion of the three brothers, played by Chi Kuan Chun, Alexander Fu Sheng, and Leung Kar Yan, to a cause they see through right at the beginning, one they know is lost, but one they cannot tear away from. Near the end, the two surviving brothers perform a wise and heroic act that saves the lives of many Chinese while putting their own in danger. It's a fascinating film and quite a change of pace from the usual all-star Chang Cheh martial arts spectacle.

BOXER REBELLION is an oddly drawn-out Shaw Brothers epic telling the story of the uprising against German and Japanese forces at the beginning of the 20th century. By all accounts this should be a fantastic movie along the likes of 14 AMAZONS or THE WATER MARGIN, but somehow it isn't, despite the all-star cast and presence of Chang Cheh in the director's chair. The story feels lightweight and drawn out, dragging its feet in between the action scenes.

The good news is that, as is the normal for Shaw, the action is absolutely fantastic and that alone makes the film a worthwhile watch. In essence the plot is about three kung fu heroes - Shaw regulars Alexander Fu Sheng, Beardy, and Chi Kuan-Chun - who decide to help fight back against oppressive foreign forces, using their superior martial arts skills. How will fists and feet go against rifles and bayonets? You'll have to see it to find out, but the action is visceral and acrobatic and hugely entertaining.

The rest of the movie is a hit and miss affair. Scenes involving the Empress Dowager are routine and unnecessary in my opinion. A sub-plot about the fighters' belief that they are in some way magical is very interesting and the climax to that plot well-handled. Richard Harrison, returning to Shaw after MARCO POLO, plays an honourable villain with aplomb, and regular star Wang Lung Wei does well as something other than a stock bad guy. On the other hand, the location shooting in Taiwan makes this look cheap and unconvincing at times, with the same sets redressed over and over, and the sluggish nature of the narrative stops this from being an outright classic.

NB. I've recently had the pleasure of rewatching the Celestial remastered release of this film, with a lengthier running time and much more context. Seeing it afresh in high definition widescreen and with the original language track, my impressions have improved no end. It's not quite a masterpiece, but the action is complimented by the involving politics of the story and it keeps you engaged from beginning to end.

BOXER REBELLION starts off well enough, with several kung fu men (led, more or less, by Chi Kuan-chun) arguing that it's folly to bring a knife to a gun fight; the Foreign Devils have Gatling guns, while the Chinese freedom fighters are armed only with swords and spears (and, well, Magic that protects them from bullets...). Logical argument- but then Chang Cheh gives us a scene in which a kung fu man charges a machine gun nest, takes a burst full in the chest, wrestles the weapon away from the machine gunners (taking another burst full in the chest as he does so) and then proceeds to beat them to death with their own automatic weapon. WTF...? Having heard the rather sensible argument that such a thing wasn't possible, we then see that it IS possible (at least in this movie, though the actual freedom fighters fared less well against the coward's weapon- the Gun). The first half of the movie is often slow, but it heats up in the second half when Kuan-chun and Fu Sheng set about harassing the occupying forces. Well worth seeing, though some viewers may wonder why it takes our heroes so long to get in gear.

I do not are that the costumes were wrong or that a Colt 1911 wa used 11 years before it was developed. My concern is the plot and whether the dialogue can keep things flowing. There are some choppy moments in this, but most movies have them. I was impressed that once more Chi Kuan-Chun (Shui Feng-Yun), my go-to Kung Fu Movie actor, plays a stoic character capable of seeing both sides of the issue. Alexander Fu Sheng (Tseng Hsein-Han) is Feng's Blood Brother, who wants justice for China. Everyone in a leadership position in this movie has an agenda. The Foreigners want to split up China into tiny pieces for themselves. The Dowager Empress wants someone to fight for China, even if its the Boxers, who are definitely seeking power. The local Boxer leader, Lung-Wei, is out for power and is willing to sacrifice all who come to fight in the name of China to get it. The Boxers tell followers that their "spells" can make them immune to the foreigners' bullets. It's total crap, but people fall for it. The Boxers do have a Kung-Fu style that makes them "immune" to typical Chinese weapons. It takes YEARS to master. Innocents are collateral damage to both sides of the Rebellion. The first "battle" Feng & Tseng encounter is more a sacrifice of fellow Chinese to Japanese guns. Hundreds are killed by Gatling guns. Swords are not exactly the best defense against bullets. Even Feng's friend Chen knows he won't return from the "battle" but has go to avenge his fallen brother. People pan this movie and Martial Arts films for their view of foreigners. It is no different than how American Westerns Portray Native Americans as the enemy. It should be expected these will be shown from the Chinese POV. I am not sure what "sugar" some reviewers say in this movie. There was definitely a lot of blood being spilled. Mainly, Chinese, for the benefit of others. Feng and Tseng defend fellow Boxers against Japanese who have followed from the battle. 9 Japanese are killed in the process. Feng and Tseng leave with the surviving Boxers. Lung-Wei's character encounters the aftermath as more Boxers appear. He takes credit for the Japanese deaths in an attempt to perpetuate his "spell" is working. The 9 dead Japanese quickly inflates to 90 then 900 then 9000 as news of the "battle" heads toward the Dowager Empress in Peking. Feng, Tseng, Lung Wei and other Boxers are invited to visit the Empress and "show off" their skills. Feng and Tseng have to watch in silence as Brother Boxers are killed in demonstrations of being "immune" to Foreign weapons. The pain of WAR's reality is ever visible in Feng's eyes. The reality that killing an enemy soldier will not stop the War and may result in more enemy attempting to get a foothold in China. weighs very heavy upon him. He also learns someone he once trusted has secrets of her own that make the situation worse. Feng and Tseng become trapped in Peking with only one foreseeable way out between the Boxers and the Foreigners. They become Public Enemy #1 for standing up to the German "in charge" of slicing up Peking and all of China. Feng and Tseng make a plan to head South for reinforcements no matter which makes it out of Peking. Feng is well aware they may die in the process. The loss of one to save millions is what must happen. Some refer to this as the Godfather of Kung-Fu movies. I like this movie far better than the Godfather series. Another reason I like it is it is a Who's Who of Shaw Brothers actors. There are several familiar Shaw faces, aside from Chi and Fu, in this film. Their presences actually move the story along and are not just there to being a movie, like some films who use actors for cameos.