Hello fight film fans!! We've got a rare one for
you here at Hai! Karate:
The Bloody Fight!!!
This flick is from 1972 and comes from the
little-known Guangming Film Company. The
Bloody Fight stars Pai Ying, Tang Ching,
Goo Man Chung, Alan Tang, Ingrid Hu and
Pawarna Chanajit. In the director's chair
for this one is Ng Tan.
THe Bloody Fight begins somewhere in the
hills of Northern China. There's a Japanese
fighter by the name of Chen Chang(Ying) who
is going around challenging kung-fu masters
and dispatching them in merciless fashion.
Although that's not totally clear at first;
when the film gets out of the credits sequence,
you see a Japanese fighter lounging in the
grass after slaying a couple of people. How
do we know this? 'Cause there's bodies in
the distance when he gets into it with a
Thai boxer and Ka Wa(Chanajit). He turns out
to be one of a group of fighters, with Chen
Chang at the head of a group that also has
his two lieutenants, Shen Ta Kuei and Yung
Yen Nan. If you recognize these two, your
eyes aren't fooling you; Ta Kuei is played
by the great Chen Kuan Tai and Yen Nan is
played by veteran actor Eddy Ko. They are
the advance group that arrive at the school
of another master. He is thengiven a death
match challenge by Chen Chang. They have a
spirited battle that takes them throughout
the hills until Chang delivers the
death blow.
Master Shi, on his deathbed, asks Shi Yang
(Hu)not to seek revenge but instead to go to
her uncle, another kung fu master by the name
of Master Shi(Cheung). Master Shi is hard at
work training visiting Thai boxers, one of
whom fought earlier in the first scenes.
Shi gets a visit from Chen Chang along with
Ta Kuei and Yen Nang and they immediately
challenge the Thai boxers. This fight comes
to the attention of Chen Wa(Tang) who gets
taken away from an arm-wrestling match(yeah
you read that right)with a local drunkard,
Chi San Hau(Ching). San Hau and others go
to watch the match. In short order, the Thai
boxers get lumped up and one gets his head
cracked like an egg in brutal form. Chang
and Shi take their fight off the school
grounds. BAD MOVE. 'Cause Chang gets wild
with kick after kick, until that final snap
collision in air.
Master Shi lies unconscious, and the beating
he takes stirs something in San Hau. See, Chi
San Hau behind all that drunkenness is in
fact a highly skilled boxer. He challenges
the Japanese in his local tavern. They take
him up on it and fight in the mountains. San
Hau takes out Ta Kuei but gets snuffed by Chang
when he goes through a dizzy spell. Meanwhile,
Ka Wa's brother dies and Master Shi awakens.
Chen Wa, his son, vows with him that the
Japanese will never take over. They then set
a plan of action with Shi Yang, Ka Wa and
Chen Wa training to defeat Chang and the
other Japanese fighters.
Shi Yang has something else on her mind. She
keeps thinking about her father throwing out
another prized pupil of his years earlier.
One guess who that is. And so, she sets out
to find him during their training for the
ultimate bloody fight to stop the Japanese
oppression once and for all!!
The Bloody Fight DOES live up to its name,
if only towards the end. Overall, the film is
regarded as an old-school classic. It's not
a stinker, but it's also not fantastic as
the Crash Masters release info would have
you believe. For one thing, the movie starts
out a bit jumbled. Ka Wa and her brother just
get into the fray without no lead-in convo
outside of a few words. Now, there is a
theory out there that this film was made in
response to the overwhelming success of the
Bruce Lee flick Fist of Fury, released not
only the same year, but no less than THREE
WEEKS before this film was released. I can
see that for a couple of reasons. One being
that the Guangming Film Company was tiny at
best and wanted to make some waves. This would
explain why this was their next to last film
ever made. Out of TEN films total. It's also
interesting in how this film brought together
talent both on the rise and established from
Shaw Studios. Tang Ching was a couple of years
removed from his matinee idol status with Shaw
in doing this picture. Chen Kuan Tai was on
the verge of breaking out as one of their major
bankable stars of the 1970's. And Goo Man
Cheung had done many films with Shaw.(Side note:
Cheung would follow this picture up with his
turn in the iconic King Boxer. That film was
released TWO weeks later than this one.)Lastly,
the anti-Japanese sentiment was rising as a
theme in Hong Kong cinema more openly now.
Never mind that Japanese stars were filming there
and vice versa. Pai Ying does okay here as the
snarling and cool villain. Alan Tang in a
team-up with Tang Ching is also a bit of
foreshadowing that I Kuang and Shaw Studios
would observe and implement in at least one of
their later flicks in terms of style. As for
Ingrid Hu, her fighting is adequate. It's good
to note that she and Parwarna get a good deal
of mixed screen time especially on the action
tip. For Parwarna it's also interesting that
this is a heavy action role for her; she was
more of a vivacious and beautiful lead acting
figure as we featured in another post here. That said, she
does get her share of lumps. The fight scenes
are crisp even when they're sprawling all over
the set. They make up for a choppy plot. If you
want to catch the classic in some downtime, The
Bloody Fight is available online and in DVD but
you'll have to hunt for it.
RATING: 2 OF 5 DRAGON PUNCHES
