King Boxer

Friday, October 19 - Saturday, October 20, 2018

** Please note the showtimes on Fri Oct 19 and Sat Oct 20 begin at 12:20am, not 11:59pm! **

“Well, I’ve been staring at this open Word document for far too long now, not sure where to start when talking about the Shaw Brothers’ seminal KING BOXER.  Do I discuss just how groundbreaking it was, as the first Kung Fu film to be a hit in the West?  Released in the spring of 1973 under the exploitation-tastic title of FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH, it created a legit Kung Fu phenomenon which continued throughout the ‘70s.

Or do I take a more trivial hook, discussing the most familiar musical cue in this film: a repeating klaxon stolen from the TV show “Ironside:  It later gained fame in Tarantino’s KILL BILL but is probably less worthy than the stirring main theme of the film.

I think I’ll return to the idea that this was probably the first Kung Fu film a whole generation saw.  Seeing this film in 1973 with no idea what you were in for was probably mindblowing, as it’s still an incredibly visceral and exciting piece of cinema today.”  (“Mathew”, TwitchFilm.net)

Screening as part of our Shaw brothers retrospective, Shaw Brothers Spectaculars: Presented in Glorious Shaw-Scope through Dec 29, 2018.

• Country 1972
• Running Time 97 minutes
• Director Cheng Chang-ho
• Writer Yang Chiang

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.