Freedom Strikes a Blow (1974)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Lee Hsi (a solid performance by Yeh Fang) accidentally kills his fiancé's brother in a fight. Lee promptly leaves town and vows never to fight again. He gets a job unloading boats in a small village. The ruthless Boss Chan (a perfectly hateful portrayal by Liang Tin) closes down the docks and puts everyone in the village out of work. It's up to Lee to face both Chan and his army of nasty flunkies. Director Ta Huang and writer Kuang Ni deliver a strong and compelling story about courage, morality and redemption that moves along at a steady clip, offers an interesting array of colorful characters, and certainly doesn't skimp on the copious raw, brutal and exciting martial arts fisticuffs. Moreover, the harsh, serious tone and bleak coastal community setting add extra grit to the absorbing narrative. The film earns bonus points for its realistic and unglamorous depiction of violence. Fang makes for a sympathetic tormented protagonist, with sturdy support from Di Chin as tubby, amiable bumbler Wa Ah-mao, Tien Ying Li as the hot-tempered Chu-heng, Wang Chung Tsung as tough, friendly foreman Uncle Lo, and Fan Chiang as Chan's sultry mistress Miss Ho. Top acting honors go to the ever-fearsome Bolo Yeung as the savage and intimidating Chiang Tai, who's the seemingly unbeatable henchman for the main bad guy. The climactic confrontation between Lee and Chiang is a total vicious corker. A worthy chopysocky flick.

Since this old kung-fu flick features China's answer to Arnold, the formidable Bolo Yeung, one can only assume the title refers to him. The reason this is a bit peculiar is because Bolo is a bad guy heavy who only has about 20 or 25 minutes of screen time. Still, he made his presence known; there's nothing quite like watching multiple Chinamen who weigh 115 pounds dripping wet take on the mighty pecs that are Bolo! Yeah, surprisingly, Chinese Hercules wasn't that bad of a fight flick at all, decent plot and everything. Also stars the chubby punk who "scolded" Bruce Lee for not wearing his uniform in Enter The Dragon.

Version: RBC entertainment (and probably bootlegged) DVD. Dub only.Chan Wai Man is a fighter, and doesn't get along with his fiancé's brother. In fact, he accidentally kills him and runs away. He vows never to raise his fists in anger again, and finds work at a dock. The company owning the dock is down-right nasty, repeatedly cheating and abusing their workers. The workers try to fight back, but only Chan is strong enough to actually beat the company bosses and their henchmen. If you bought a movie called "Chinese Hercules" for $8, and the cover makes out the movie to be completely about Bolo Yeung, what would you expect? I didn't expect much, but I was rather surprised. The story is pretty solid, you really feel Chan, and the fights (though not frequent) are pretty good. My only complaint would be that there isn't enough Bolo. Bolo is cool.My only complaint is the dubbing. Sure, it is hilariously bad, but it does detract from what is otherwise a pretty good movie.8/10

CHINESE HERCULES is a martial-arts movie with a nice plot, something you don't see too often in the genre! The fight scenes are also not bad, and considering that Bolo Yeung is one of the bad guys, can it really be that terrible?? :)Starting with our protagonist Lee Hsi accidentally killing someone in a fight, CHINESE HERCULES follows him through his flight to a small village, which is entirely dependent on the traffic that comes into their pier. As such, the owner of the pier can control all the workers (isn't ownership great?) and beat them up without remorse. Lee wants to defend his friends, but he's sworn an oath to never fight again. Also, the current boss of the pier is eventually overrun by chain-smoking Boss Chan and his giant of a henchman, Chiang Tai (played by our buddy Bolo).The fight scenes in CHINESE HERCULES, when they actually happen, are not terrible, with the exception of one scene in the middle (wherein a disgruntled worker barges in on the pier owner "doing business") that is entirely overdubbed by shabby sound effects. The most interesting part of the fights is seeing Lee's emotions as he fights with himself over whether or not to fight OTHER people. And eventually, what do you think he decides to do? Take a wild guess!As mentioned earlier, the struggle of the village's inhabitants against the big bosses is possibly the best feature of CHINESE HERCULES. Add into that an emotionally torn Lee and a huge-ass bad guy and you've got a solid script, and a great movie. My rating: 7.5/10