King Boxer

This breathless Shaw Brothers movie is widely cited as instigating the kung fu craze in the US, it being released before Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon cemented the demand for martial arts cinema among western audiences. All the genre staples are present and correct: the pure-hearted hero, a jealous rival, their exacting master, plus a fiendish baddie and his curiously haired henchmen - all wrapped up in a familiar story of rival schools vying to win a celebrated tournament. The scrapping and sparring become increasingly violent as the film builds to its relentlessly exciting finale, with samurai slicing, crippling beatings and eye-gougings all thrown into the mix. Before it became de rigueur to do such things (and most likely for budgetary reasons), the soundtrack also appropriates existing scores to complement the action, with John Barry's early Bond music heightening the tension and the wailing-siren theme to TV's Ironside used to herald star Lo Lieh's glowing fists of fury (Quentin Tarantino also doffed his cap by using the latter to similar effect in Kill Bill). For those following their own warrior's path through Far Eastern action cinema, this is a recommended stop off.