Critics reviews

King Boxer (a.k.a. Five Fingers of Death) sets the standard for the “rival schools” template... wherein the discipline and righteousness of one school of kung fu inevitably beats out the unprincipled practitioners of another. The 1972 film stages its confrontations with panache, not to mention buckets of gore and a whole lot of gouged eyeballs.

With some stellar work featured here and being quite an important piece of work in the genre beyond most measures within the film itself, this is certainly an important and prominent work in the scene. Wholly recommended to any fan of old-school kung-fu efforts or just martial arts cinema in general.

Back in ’73, Warner Bros saw King Boxer as a perfect introduction for western audiences to martial arts cinema, and it remains one today. If you’ve never seen a proper kung fu film, this is great place to start, and if you’re already a fan you have no excuse not to seek this one out. A fully-fledged classic.

[Five Fingers of Death] kick-started the kung fu phenomenon, even predating Bruce Lee’s Fist Of Fury. And rarely has such an honour been so richly deserved… Whether you’re a martial arts fan or not, King Boxer should definitely be on your wishlist – a genuine 70s kung fu classic!

King Boxer was so popular in America that its conventions became the genre's conventions... [It is] handsomely shot and action-packed, with vivid characters and resonant themes.

The main problem with "Five Fingers" is what happens when the hands and feet stop flying: very little. In most of the other Shaw Brothers features I've seen, the legato passages have been better handled.

The karate in "Five Fingers of Death," for all its slow-motion high leaps, its grunts, its whooshing fists, has the look of the bottom of the barrel... It is entirely possible, perhaps intentionally possible, to take the film as a joke... But humor at this level palls very rapidly; laughing at a movie is never fun for long.