THE SHADOW BOXER (aka Tai Chi Chuan) 1974

this is an interesting early 70s Shaw Brothers movie. I had never heard of it until seeing it here. the kung fu used here is actually tai chi, which predates the more traditional kung fu styles.
however, not much of the fighting actually looks like tai chi. Tai chi can be a devastating martial art, but here, without the expert guidance of master choreographer Lau Kar Leung, all of our participants and just throwing punches, blocks and kicks without any regard to the style.

good thing in this movie one really doesn't need much more than that, as it's a story of an evil boss exploiting his workers and then our heroes go out for revenge when they've had all they can take and can't takes no more!

I did not recognize any of the actors, other than the lovely Shih Szu. but they all do a fine enough job here, including the hero Ku Ting, played by Wo-fu Chen. while they may not have had any particular training, they all throw themselves into the fight scenes with gusto, and I am sure more than one of them had injuries. some of the actors did have better style than the others, but at this time it was just not that important to look good, just be tough. for my money, no one looks very good doing the "basher" style of kung fu except Jimmy Wang Yu.

too bad it doesn't have an English dubbed track, but the picture looks great. definitely worth a look to see an internal martial arts style at work. sort of.