The Manchu Boxer
(aka Masters of Martial Arts, Martial Arts Masters, Bonecrushers)
1974; directed by Wu Ma

The first entry in the set is a bit of a dud, which is especially perplexing since it was directed by Wu Ma with Sammo Hung handling the fight coordination. Lau Wing is the lead actor in this pedestrian affair as he plays a young man who promises to stop fighting after killing a man. He begins wandering around the countryside and finds work helping to build the stage for a large martial arts tournament. Of course, our hero doesn't want to participate at first, but after his friends are hurt by some villains (including Sammo Hung in a small role) looking to win the tournament by any means necessary, the fists of fury come back out. The fights here really aren't anything special -- they're certainly not worth wading through the plodding exposition scenes to get to them. It's obvious that Golden Harvest wanted to push Lau Wing as a big star, especially after his appearances in Bruce Lee pictures like The Big Boss, but he never really had the acting chops or kung fu finesse to be anything other than a B-lister.

RATING: 4

Note: A more detailed review of the film can be found here.

The Skyhawk
1974; directed by Jeng Cheong-Woh

The Chinese folk hero of Wong Fei-Hung (sometimes spelled Huang Fei-Hung) is best known to many viewers via Jackie Chan's portrayal in the Drunken Master films. However, Wong was a mainstay of Chinese cinema long before that, with the venerable Kwan Tak-Hing playing the role in a series of over 100 movies that lasted from 1949 to 1969. 1975's The Skyhawk was Golden Harvest's attempt to begin another set of Wong Fei-Hung films, but Kwan's advancing age -- he was nearly seventy years old at this point -- proved to be a roadblock. In particular, his footage for the finale had to be shot on a soundstage in Hong Kong versus on location in Thailand because Kwan could not handle the hot and humid weather. This leads to some awkward looking editing that hampers what is otherwise a very solid oldschool picture that is the high point of this set. While Kwan could not physically display the kung fu aspects of the role as he was once able to do, he still brings a suitable amount of gravitas, and his students (Carter Wong and Sammo Hung) do a good job in fulfilling the action quotient. Golden Harvest was not able to fully resurrect the Wong Fei-Hung series until Jet Li's Once Upon a Time in China came out in 1991, but The Skyhawk's success led them to establish a formula to be able to use Kwan Tak-Hing for other movies featuring the character, such as Dreadnaught, and helped to keep Wong Fei-Hung relevant in Chinese films and pop culture during the 1970's and 1980's.

RATING: 7

The Association
(aka Operation Ironman)
1975; directed by Jeng Cheong-Woh

Going by various internet reviews and discussions, The Association has become famous (or infamous, depending on who you talk to) among kung fu movie fans and collectors due to its' copious amount of salacious elements. Namely, there's a whole lot of naked people on display here. This has made it somewhat of an underground cult classic, especially since good quality versions of the movie were hard to come by. Thus, The Association's inclusion, especially in a widescreen and subtitled form, will most likely be enough to entice some into buying this set. Taken outside the realms of rarity, The Association gets by a lot on its' curiosity/shock factor. While it doesn't pander as much to the raincoater crowd as the movies from Hong Kong's Category III heyday of the early 1990's, it is quite sleazy, especially as it features well-known actors such as Angela Mao and Sammo Hung, who thankfully does not get nude. The rest of the movie is really not all that notable, being a martial arts potboiler with a hard-boiled stoic cop played by Byong Yu investigating a prostitution ring, occasionally getting into fights when he isn't too busy looking at boobies. Sammo collaborated with Korean bootmaster Whang In-Sik to coordinate the fisticuffs, but they all seem a bit too rushed and sloppy, lacking the polish the better productions in the genre showed off.

RATING: 5

Note: a more detailed review for the movie can be found here.

The Dragon Tamers
1975; directed by John Woo

From the trailer full of battling babes in all manners of dress and undress, one would think that The Dragon Tamers would be slap-and-tickle mild exploitation fare in the vein of The Association. While there is some T&A present, it takes a backseat here to more traditional kung fu action. Though this was only John Woo's second effort as a director, you can already see many of his tropes coming to life here. Technically, this looks like a mature Woo picture, with lots of zooming shots and liberal use of slow motion. Joseph Koo's score will also evoke some of Woo's classic heroic bloodshed films, in particular A Better Tomorrow. Thematically, Woo's often-employed theme of brotherhood and loyalty is front and center here. The notion of homoeroticism in Woo's work can be seen in the way Carter Wong puts aside his (female) lover to help his (male) teacher; there are some shots of student and teacher that could be easily be mistaken for a tender embrace. In many ways, this is a very male dominated picture, so when the subplot of women's martial arts schools fighting each other comes up, they don't quite fit in. Though Woo is credited as the screenwriter, one gets the sense that perhaps Golden Harvest insisted the female-oriented scenes (complete with mud wrestling and catfights in a bathhouse) be placed in to increase the "production value".

RATING: 6