# The Boxer from Shantung (马永贞)
**The Boxer from Shantung** (馬永貞; *Ma Yongzhen*) is a 1972 Hong Kong martial arts crime film produced by Shaw Brothers, directed by Chang Cheh and Pao Hsueh-li, and starring Chen Kuan-tai as Ma Yongzhen, a poor fighter from Shandong who rises through the Shanghai underworld by his fists and dies in a bloody last stand[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf). It was released in Hong Kong on 11 February 1972[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf). The film launched Chen Kuan-tai's career as a kung fu star, and its blend of gangster story and martial arts action influenced the later "heroic bloodshed" films of Ringo Lam and [John Woo](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-woo)[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 馬永貞 (Ma Yongzhen); released in the US as *The Killer from Shantung*[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf) |
| Release | 11 February 1972, Hong Kong; Shaw Brothers, Mandarin, color[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf) • [2](https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Filmprog/archive/schinese/2014gan/2014gan_film02.html) |
| Directors / writers | Chang Cheh and Pao Hsueh-li; screenplay by Chang Cheh and Ni Kuang[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf) |
| Lead cast | Chen Kuan-tai (Ma Yongzhen), Ching Li (Jin Lingzi), David Chiang (Tan Si), Ku Feng, Mario Milano (the foreign wrestler)[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf) |
| Production speed | Shot in thirty days, ten of them on the climactic brawl; most Shaw productions took two to three months[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf) |
| Hong Kong box office | HK$2,006,935, ranking 11th for the year[3](https://kungfutube.info/12607) |
| Runtime | 126 minutes per the Hong Kong Film Archive listing; the Arrow Films Shaw Scope Vol. 1 release is the complete uncut 134-minute version[2](https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Filmprog/archive/schinese/2014gan/2014gan_film02.html) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068310/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film transposes the deeds of a late [Qing dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/qing-dynasty) boxer to early Republican-era Shanghai[2](https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Filmprog/archive/schinese/2014gan/2014gan_film02.html). Ma Yongzhen arrives in Shanghai penniless from Shandong to seek his fortune, starting as a laborer at the bottom of society[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf) • [5](https://collections.nmth.gov.tw/CollectionContent.aspx?RNO=2006.002.2656&a=132). After a trial of strength he wins the respect of the gang boss Tan Si (David Chiang), whom he takes as his model for advancement; Tan Si has just split from the [Four Heavenly Kings](https://www.edgepedia.org/four-heavenly-kings) and is marked for destruction by the power behind the scenes, Yang Shuang[2](https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Filmprog/archive/schinese/2014gan/2014gan_film02.html).
Ma's reputation is made when he answers a public challenge from a foreign wrestler, played by the Italian professional wrestler Mario Milano, and floors him[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf) • [5](https://collections.nmth.gov.tw/CollectionContent.aspx?RNO=2006.002.2656&a=132). He then seizes one of Yang Shuang's gambling houses, earning Yang's hatred. Yang conspires with Tan Si's own men to have Tan Si killed, then turns on Ma. Learning of his friend's murder, Ma arranges a meeting at the Qinglian Pavilion teahouse, walks into an ambush, takes a hatchet wound, and still fights Yang's entire gang until he collapses, mortally weakened, in a pool of blood[5](https://collections.nmth.gov.tw/CollectionContent.aspx?RNO=2006.002.2656&a=132).
A quiet counterpoint runs through the rise: the teahouse singer Jin Lingzi (Ching Li) falls for Ma at first sight but leaves Shanghai because she cannot accept his entry into the underworld, a wordless judgment that gives the hero's story its unromantic sadness[2](https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Filmprog/archive/schinese/2014gan/2014gan_film02.html).
## Production
**Casting its star.** Chang Cheh cast Chen Kuan-tai after seeing him fight. Chen had won the lightweight title at the First Southeast Asia Kung Fu Tournament, held 17 May 1969 in Singapore, after which Shaw Brothers offered him a contract; he auditioned for *Boxer from Shantung* and was immediately given the lead role of Ma Yongzhen[6](https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/HKFA/documents/18995340/19057029/Oral%2BHistory%2BSeries_eng07_ebook.pdf). Chen, a [Cantonese](https://www.edgepedia.org/cantonese) speaker who did not know Mandarin, had worked as a stuntman on Chang's *Vengeance!* (1970) and had already appeared as Shi Jin in *The Water Margin* (1972) before taking the lead[6](https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/HKFA/documents/18995340/19057029/Oral%2BHistory%2BSeries_eng07_ebook.pdf).
The film was made at unusual speed: Chang and co-director Pao Hsueh-li completed it in thirty days, ten of which went to the climactic brawl, against the two or three months a typical Shaw production required[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf). Fight choreography was by Tang Chia, Lau Kar-leung, Lau Kar-wing, and Chan Chuan[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf). The screenplay was one of more than 400 credited to the prolific writer [Ni Kuang](https://www.edgepedia.org/ni-kuang) over his film career[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf).
Two men who later became directors worked as assistant directors on the film: Ho Chih-chiang and John Woo[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf). A reviewer has traced a line from this film's stylized gang warfare to Woo's later crime operas[7](https://www.franksmovielog.com/reviews/the-boxer-from-shantung-1972/).
## Chang Cheh and the film's place in his career
Chang Cheh (1924–2002) joined Shaw Brothers in 1962 as chief screenwriter and became the studio's leading action director after *One-Armed Swordsman* (1967) made him a "million-dollar director"; *Boxer from Shantung* stands among his prominent early-1970s works alongside *The Heroic Ones* (1970), *Vengeance!* (1970), and *The Blood Brothers* (1973)[8](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/English/Chang-Cheh_e.pdf). He directed nearly 100 films and nurtured stars including Jimmy Wang Yu, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Chen Kuan-tai, and John Woo[8](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/English/Chang-Cheh_e.pdf).
The film fits Chang's recurring rags-to-riches tragedy: a poor but skilled fighter climbs the ladder of social hierarchy through gangs, in a narrative framework close to a crime film that nonetheless lives on its action sequences[9](https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/19053/Thesis-Connor-McMorran-complete-version.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=2). Its finale, a one-against-many massacre ending with the protagonist bathed in blood, follows the pattern Chang also used in *[Disciples of Shaolin](https://www.edgepedia.org/disciples-of-shaolin)*, and the MUBI synopsis calls the last stand one of the bloodiest battles in the Shaw canon[10](https://letterboxd.com/mushiminion/film/the-boxer-from-shantung/) • [11](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/the-boxer-from-shantung).
## Reception and legacy
The film earned HK$2,006,935 in Hong Kong, placing 11th for 1972[3](https://kungfutube.info/12607). Chen Kuan-tai's charismatic performance as the grinning, ambitious Ma is repeatedly identified as the film's center; the Arrow booklet credits his "suggestive grin" with putting the film over the top in 1972 and with inspiring the heroic bloodshed films of Ringo Lam and John Woo in the 1980s[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf).
**Remakes.** The story has been reworked at least twice: Corey Yuen directed the remake *Hero* in 1997, and the film was remade again more recently as *Once Upon a Time in Shanghai*[12](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068310/news/) • [13](https://midwestfilmjournal.com/2022/07/15/88-films-hero/?noamp=mobile).
**Restoration.** Arrow Films restored *The Boxer from Shantung* in 2021 in collaboration with L'Immagine Ritrovata, the Hong Kong Film Archive, and Celestial Pictures, scanning the original 35mm negative at L'Immagine Ritrovata Asia and restoring it in 2K resolution in Bologna; the film appears in Arrow's Shawscope Volume One box set as the complete uncut 134-minute version[1](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068310/).
## References
1. [The Boxer from Shantung, Arrow Films booklet](https://mvd.cloud/press/ARROW/BOOKLETS/48273_7_SHAW_BROTHERS_BOOK_INNER_PAGES_WATERMARKED.pdf)
2. [马永贞 film note, LCSD Film Programmes Office](https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Filmprog/archive/schinese/2014gan/2014gan_film02.html)
3. [上海ドラゴン 英雄拳／馬永貞（1972）, Kungfu Tube](https://kungfutube.info/12607)
4. [The Boxer from Shantung (1972), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068310/)
5. [《馬永貞》電影宣傳單, National Museum of Taiwan History collections](https://collections.nmth.gov.tw/CollectionContent.aspx?RNO=2006.002.2656&a=132)
6. [When the Wind Was Blowing Wild: Hong Kong Cinema of the 1970s, Hong Kong Film Archive Oral History Series 7](https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/HKFA/documents/18995340/19057029/Oral%2BHistory%2BSeries_eng07_ebook.pdf)
7. [The Boxer from Shantung movie review (1972), Frank's Movie Log](https://www.franksmovielog.com/reviews/the-boxer-from-shantung-1972/)
8. [Hong Kong Filmmakers Search: Chang Cheh, Hong Kong Film Archive](https://www.filmarchive.gov.hk/documents/6.-Research-and-Publication/06-02-Filmmakers-Search/English/Chang-Cheh_e.pdf)
9. [Connor McMorran, PhD thesis, University of St Andrews](https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/19053/Thesis-Connor-McMorran-complete-version.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=2)
10. [The Boxer from Shantung review by MushiMinion, Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/mushiminion/film/the-boxer-from-shantung/)
11. [The Boxer from Shantung (1972), MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/us/films/the-boxer-from-shantung)
12. [The Boxer from Shantung news, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068310/news/)
13. [88 Films: Hero, Midwest Film Journal](https://midwestfilmjournal.com/2022/07/15/88-films-hero/?noamp=mobile)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Martial arts films › Released 1943 to 1985*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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