Korean director Chung Chang-wha was among the foreign talent hired by studio mogul Run Run Shaw in the late ’60s to help meet Asian audiences’ growing taste for tough action films. King Boxer’s gritty revenge tale met that challenge, and then some. It became the first kung fu film to be a hit in the West and paved the way for the Bruce Lee phenomenon to come. 1972, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 97 minutes.

Korean director Chung Chang-wha was among the foreign talent hired by studio mogul Run Run Shaw in the late ’60s to help meet Asian audiences’ growing taste for tough action films. King Boxer’s gritty revenge tale met that challenge, and then some. It became the first kung fu film to be a hit in the West and paved the way for the Bruce Lee phenomenon to come. 1972, Hong Kong, color, 35mm, in Mandarin with English subtitles, 97 minutes.