(View Trailer)Chinese Hercules (1973)
Directed
by: Choy Tak
Starring: Fang Yeh, Bolo Yeung, Chiang Fan, Liang Tin
Dock Worker: Why won't you help us?
Lee Hsi: Can't you see it? My fists are full of blood. I can't even help myself... I can't use my fists!
Lee Hsi (Fang Yeh) is an honest man training to become a great fighter. However, when he's forced to kill his fiancé's brother (in self defense), he swears to never fight again. Desperate to start a new life, he runs away from his family and his fiancé, and becomes a coolie at a loading dock.
The other workers at the dock treat him with suspicion at first, but eventually come to respect him when he takes a beating for two homeless people accused of stealing food. He begins to live a normal life, and thinks he has put the violence behind him. Of course, things are never that easy.
The owner of the dock, Boss Chan (Liang Tin) enters into a deal with the Chinese Syndicate that gives them exclusive use to the dock for their nefarious purposes. Unfortunately, this means all of the coolies who've worked on the docks for years are out of work. Most of them are uneducated and unable to get new jobs, so they initially oppose the closing of the dock. They look to Lee Hsi to help them, but because of his vow, he's helpless to do anything about it. The coolies try to fight back on their own, but two of them (who happen to be close friends of Lee) end up dead.
To punish the coolies for not leaving the dock area, and for trying to fight back, Boss Chan brings in Chiang Tai, aka the Chinese Hercules. Chiang is played by the legendary Bolo Yeung, but, if you're only getting this movie to see Bolo, be advised that he's not in most of the first half of the movie.
About this time Lee Hsi's fiancé shows up and tells him that he'll never be a man if he doesn't learn to fight for what's right. The fiancé neglects to tell Lee that he didn't actually kill her brother (he was just knocked out) because she feels Lee needs to overcome his guilt if he's ever going to amount to anything. Try wrapping your mind around that logic. Of course, Lee finally decides to fight back, and goes to challenge Chiang Tai & Boss Chan.
Chinese Hercules isn't a great movie by any stretch, but it's a decently entertaining entry in the 'Hero with a Crisis of Conscience' sub-genre. Maybe a little too much of Lee Hsi staring impotently at his fists, but the decent story and violence to keep things going. Bolo Yeung is great in the scenes he's in... he doesn't talk much, and when he does, it's usually just a variation of the line "Kill 'em and Dump 'em." There are a few good fight scenes, and one fight in particular has some pretty graphic depictions of broken arms and legs. In all, there are much worse ways to spend an evening that with the Chinese Hercules.
- Micah
