'King Boxer' (1972) – Jeong Chang-hwa.

Master Jeong Chang-hwa's iconic, super-kinetic Kung Fu phenomenon was one of the earliest films I saw as a kid that truly started my rabid interest in Asian cinema. This mythically majestic Mandarin martial arts masterpiece remains the righteously reigning, bloodied yet unbowed king of eye-gougingly intense, skull-shatteringly savage, serotonin-slaked Shaw Bros action! This exquisitely fashioned, sensation-stacked, gleefully gravity-flaunting adventure about one righteous martial artist's extraordinarily courageous, gore-spattered quest for love, honour, and vengeance has an indestructibly 'Iron Fisted' grip right until its internationally celebrated, scintillatingly cathartic, dazzlingly destructive, fatally fleet-footed, crimson-fisted finale!

King Boxer's supremely bellicose nature, gruesome balletic grace, fearsome fight scenes, teeth-grindingly tense training sequences, rousing blood n' thunder dramatics, and jaw-dropping, rib-cracking, body-rocking revenge makes for an uncommonly fascinating fight flick! So don't let anyone palm you off with cheapjack imitations; forget the limp-sabred whelp in the white pyjamas!!! as there's only ONE true hero's journey and that's master Lo Lieh's ecstatic ascent to Kung Fu supremacy! Director Jeong Chang-hwa's heroic, blood-crowned 'King Boxer' sits tall and imperious upon The Shaw Brothers triumphant throne, as both inventive instigator, esteemed scholar, and indomitable master of his gloriously mystical martial arts dominion! While many dishonourable Kung Fools have feloniously attempted a calamitous Kung Fu coup, none have ever been replete with the mythic mettle to successfully wrest his sanctified sceptre from King Boxer's terrible, titanium-tough grip!