Movie Review: The Boxer From Shantung/馬永貞

1972 was a long time ago.

Cars were so big they had zip codes.

It’s hard, sometimes, to look back at things from the past and see them the same way.

A 1972 Plymouth is still a big-ass car, but not as big as it was when I was 6.

But sometimes that’s a good thing.

I was actually very happy when Celestial Pictures announced they were remastering almost 800 Shaw Brothers titles and restoring the original audio.

I remember the so-called glory days of dubbed martial arts movies, and frankly I don’t miss them.

If you think dubbing doesn’t completely alter the tone of a movie, try watching Friday in French.

“Ce qui la baise est-ce???”

So these remastered Shaw DVDs make me happy.

They make me happy not just because of the audio.

The visuals are also a million times better.

I think Shaw Brothers deserves a lot of credit for establishing a kind of signature aesthetic.

The fast zoom and pan is an obvious aspect, but that’s not all.

The Shaw Brothers movies have a certain kind of look to them, and I really like it.

If you look too long at the sets, it’s obvious they are very fake.

But so what?

Overall, the look of the movies is very appealing to me.

It reminds me, in some ways, of the old Hammer Studios movies.

They weren’t always visually convincing, but they were visually distinct and looked interesting.

Like these Shaw Brothers movies. They just look good to me.

Even the bright red blood.

And there’s a lot of that in The Boxer From Shantung/馬永貞.

Chen Kuan Tai plays Ma Yongzhen, a young man from the countryside who comes to Shanghai to seek his fame and fortune.

He falls in with the wrong crowd, and before you know it, he’s the new boss of the block.

If this sounds familiar, it’s probably because this story is the basis for Once Upon a Time in Shanghai.

But this earlier film is different in a lot of ways.

 As I said, there’s a lot of blood.

This movie helped establish Chen Kuan Tai as a dramatic actor, and in some ways it’s easy to see how and why.

During the film’s climactic battle, he’s seriously wounded, and I thought he did a good job conveying it.

I have to admit, I’ve always wondered what that blood tasted like.

It didn’t hurt that he was being directed by Chang Cheh and, supposedly, a young John Woo.

What I found most interesting about The Boxer From Shantung/馬永貞 is the surprising ways in which it is different from movies today, and certainly different from Once Upon a Time in Shanghai.

As I said, this film is much more graphically violent.

In addition, the character of Ma Yongzhen in this movie isn’t so morally pure.

He smokes, he drinks, and he’s banging hookers four at a time.

I’m not just saying that; watch the movie and you’ll see.

He doesn’t seem morally conflicted about becoming the local gang boss, and while he’s not the meanest extortionist in the world, he still seems to have no trouble collecting protection fees from people he knows have almost no money.

His love interest in this movie is different, and so is the romantic subplot. The social and political subplots are different too.

Ma Yongzhen has a duel with a Russian wrestler. I bet you can guess the outcome.

But let’s just say that I appreciated the way that scene made its point implicitly and not explicitly.

Speaking of which, it was nice to see a movie where the bad guys weren’t Japanese for a change.

The action choreography in this movie is very much of its time, and some people may not find it very interesting, much less exciting.

But I find that in every sequence there is at least one shot that makes up for that by being really interesting or exciting.

That’s really the best thing I can say about The Boxer From Shantung/馬永貞:

Sometimes it’s exciting, it’s always interesting, and it even manages a few surprises along the way.