Departing from long-standing practice, I turned on the audio commentary the first time I watched King Boxer. That might have been a mistake - the commentary included Quentin Tarantino, so I should have known it would completely overwhelm the movie.

You don't have to be a film scholar to know Asian martial arts epics like King Boxer were a tremendous influence on QT's work, so it's no surprise to hear him doing an enthusiastic commentary track for this DVD release. (He's joined by film scholars David Chute and Elvis Mitchell, who come across much more restrained. So would a six-year-old with ADHD, come to think of it.) Tarantino's affection for the material is obvious - in fact, he even swiped some of King Boxer's score for Kill Bill. But does the film deserve it?

As Tarantino and company note, the 1972 Shaw Brothers production King Boxer was the film that really kicked off the kung fu cinema boom in the United States, after Warner Brothers released a dubbed version under the magnificent title 5 Fingers of Death. It retains a devoted following to this day, and martial arts film cultists will likely be thrilled with this Dragon Dynasty release, featuring very nicely restored picture and sound, English and Mandarin language audio tracks, trailers, stills, interviews, and the aforementioned commentary.

Speaking as a more casual fan, I was entertained, but I found myself wondering what all the fuss was about. The plot couldn't be simpler - the young hero is sent to enter a martial arts competition to defeat the other, evil kung fu schools - but the movie is packed with too many characters, and the action sequences just didn't blow me away like other, more recent martial arts films did. (See the last half hour of another Dragon Dynasty release, Thailand's Born to Fight.) The production values are much higher than I expected - some of these sets and costumes couldn't have come cheap - but many of the fighting scenes rely more heavily on camera tricks than the performers' kung fu skills.

King Boxer deserves its place as a milestone of cinema, but those of you who've never even seen a grindhouse theater may be a bit disappointed. I'd never begrudge Tarantino his devotion to the movie, but listening to the commentary made me feel a little like being at a party where I don't know anyone.