Ma Yong Zhen

There are a few issues with The Boxer from Shantung that keep it from being a great martial arts movie, but when it's firing on all cylinders, it's thrilling stuff. It's hard to even remember many of the problems after the huge final battle, which takes up basically the last half-hour of the movie, and features just about every surviving character getting absolutely drenched with blood and/or sweat, all the while tearing apart the interior of a restaurant to the point where I was surprised the fight didn't end with the building imploding. Anyone who's seen Kill Bill Vol. 1 might come away from this finale thinking Tarantino was heavily influenced by The Boxer from Shantung's best action sequence (it wasn't shot-for-shot remade in Tarantino's movie, but the build-up, location, and some of the specific shots looked very similar).

At 134 minutes, The Boxer from Shantung does feel a little overlong. It has a premise that sometimes feels a little simplistic, while at other times feeling a little convoluted. It's easy enough to follow that it's about gang warfare and territorial disputes, but some of the plot specifics are a little harder to fully understand. When it comes to the action though, it largely delivers, and I'd say even those who find the first 90 minutes or so a little rough around the edges should stick with it for that finale.

Once the fighting's over, the ending to the movie itself also feels a little tacked on and rushed, but it's a nitpick, at the end of the day/movie. If you want very exciting (and very bloody) martial arts action and a decent gangster storyline, I reckon this one largely delivers. I always like it when a martial arts movie saves what's easily its best action scene for the end, and in that regard, The Boxer from Shantung really satisfies.