Bullet Points: Chinese Hercules
One look at the poster for 1973’s Chinese Hercules and you would expect it was Hong Kong’s turn to tell the story of Hercules with Bolo Yeung in the titular role.
Instead it proved to be just another example of misleading advertising, something more often reserved for the Bruceploitation wing of Hong Kong cinema…
- Little Orphan Shen Wei Ta: The movie opens with Shen Wei Ta (Michael Wai-Man Chan, Bruce’s Deadly Fingers) doing some late night training. We get some of Shen Wei Ta’s backstory via Miss Ho… at least that is how IMDb lists Fan Chiang’s character. Her character’s name was never spoken in the cut of the movie I saw. Miss Ho tells us that Shen Wei Ta was taken in by her family and her father trained Shen Wei Ta along with her and her brother. In fact, there seems to be a bit of a rivalry between Shen Wei Ta and Miss Ho’s brother. This becomes more apparent when Miss Ho’s brother shows up after a night of drinking and picks a fight with Shen Wei Ta… Shen Wei Ta resists at first but after he is thrown through a wooden fence that’s all he can stands and he can’t stands no more… so he opens up a can of whoop ass and Miss Ho’s brother ends up DEAD! Shen Wei Ta freaks out and takes off running… eventually he punishes himself by smashing his own hand with a rock!
- Alias: Shen Wei Ta decides the best way to move on from involuntary manslaughter is to start a new life under a new name. Shen Wei Ta becomes Chung Sun and Chung Sun gets a job on the docks of a small village. Chung Sun busts his hump, and it becomes obvious that Chung Sun is using work as a coping mechanism for the sin that haunts him. Chung Sun is doing more work than anyone, hauling two big sacks of rice at one time and not even stopping for a lunch break.
- The Big Boss: You would think a hard worker like Chung Sun would be just the kind of employee the big boss of the dock workers, Mr. Chan, would covet. But when Mr. Chan’s henchmen beat the crap out of some beggars they caught stealing rice out of storage, Chung Sun speaks up on behalf of the beggars and offers to pay for the rice they stole. When Chan’s men tell Chung Sun he doesn’t have enough money… Chung questions them and then he gets a beating too and since he vowed never to fight again it is an ugly one sided affair. Mr. Chan shows up but he’s not there to call his dogs off, on the contrary, he joins in on the beat downs and reminds everyone in earshot that he runs this town and if anyone else is caught stealing they are to be beaten to death!
- Syndication Deal: It should come as no surprise that a man with no scruples like Mr. Chan would be more than willing to do business with Mr. Lee of the Syndicate. Mr. Lee shows up with his bodyguard Chiang Tai (Bolo Yeung, Bolo) and a big box of money for Mr. Chan, if Chan will agree to give the Syndicate having exclusive rights to his pier. But Chan also has to get rid of all the dock workers before this deal becomes official. Chan immediately realizes this could be an issue.
- Labor Dispute: Mr. Chan and his henchmen show up at the pier the next day and confront, Uncle Wang, the foreman of the dock workers. Chan instructs Wang to get rid of all the dock workers and that he’d find a spot for Wang in his organization. Uncle Wang refuses, showing loyalty for his men, who will be forced to leave their homes and look for work elsewhere. Chan responds by having his men tear down the employee “break room” and telling incoming boats that the pier is closed. Uncle Wang does not want to respond with violence so this leaves the dock workers all just sitting around with nothing to do… one of the workers, Chu, gets a wild hair up his ass and pays Mr. Chan a visit at his home that night… the next day Chan and his goons bring Chu’s dead body back for all to see. We then learn that Uncle Wang is in a similar boat as Chung Sun, he too once accidentally killed a man and he vowed to never fight again… but the time has come for Wang to break that vow!
- The Bigger Boss: Wang beats the tar out of Chan… breaking one of Chan’s arms and legs in the process. While Mr. Chan is recuperating at home, Mr. Lee and Chiang Tai return and Lee is highly disappointed that Chan has not been able to get rid of the dock workers, so he has Chiang Tai kill Chan for his incompetence. Mr. Lee and Chiang Tai set out to do what Chan couldn’t do. Mr. Lee meets with Uncle Wang and Wang points out that with all their money the Syndicate could just build their own pier in the harbor (something I shouted at my TV screen earlier in the film), but Mr. Lee blows off that logical suggestion and turns the negotiations over to Chiang Tai…
- Break Your Neck: Chiang Tai beats Uncle Wang within an inch of his life, snapping his neck and not leaving him much time on this mortal coil. Uncle Wang knows that Chung Sun was a man like him… a fighter, who has chosen not to fight… he also knows Chung Sun is the one man who can stand up to Mr. Lee and Chiang Tai. But that stubborn ass Chung Sun STILL doesn’t fight… it isn’t until Miss Ho shows up after searching for weeks and talks to him that Chung Sun (aka Shen Wei Ta) finally fights again!
Chinese Hercules was not what I expected at all, but I enjoyed what it actually was. Chung Sun’s slow burn storyline was well done… so well done I started to question if he’d ever fight, but when he did it was worth the wait. And while it would have been interesting to see Bolo as Hercules, I can’t argue with casting Bolo as the monster heel. It just makes sense.
Ending a Bullet Points review with some Bonus Bullet Points also makes sense…
- AKA: Chinese Hercules is also known as Freedom Strikes a Blow, A Duel of Harbor and The Kid in Pier.
- Chiang Tai’s Motto: “Kill ’em and dump ’em in the sea.”
- Parenting Advice: Not having any children of my own, I am in really in no position of experience to give this advice… but for the unemployed dock worker who was beating his kid for crying about being hungry… how about instead of sitting around waiting for boats that aren’t coming in, you take your kids down to the harbor and FISH so you can at least eat!
- The Real Miss Hoe: Mr. Chan has a gorgeous mistress, but when he is eliminated by Mr. Lee, she quickly becomes Mr. Lee’s mistress.
- The Name Game: A documentary covering the career of Bolo Yeung, titled Chinese Hercules: The Bolo Yeung Story is currently listed as “in-production” on IMDb with a list of talking heads that include Richard Norton, Corinna Everson, Matthias Hues, Cynthia Rothrock, and Robert Wall.
