The Avenging Eagle

The Avenging Eagle is a nearly flawless Kung Fu flick that has tight direction, great looking sets, great storytelling, great characters, as well as fantastic fight choreography and acting. The film is top tier in pretty much every regard and the leading man Ti Lung won The Golden Horse award for his performance here. Ti Lung is a former member of a gang of assassin's called The 13 Cold Blooded Eagles which is made up of orphans that are trained from childhood to be cold blooded killers. Ti Lung eventually grew tired of the killing and left the group. He is joined by a wandering man with excellent Kung Fu skills (Fu Sheng) and together they find an alliance and team up against The 13 Cold Blooded Eagles. There is pretty much non stop fighting, but never at the expense of the story with just as much dialogue to develop the characters and story. This is one minor flaw of the film as it is a lot to take in on one sitting. But once you watch it again, you put together the nuances missed from the 1st viewing. Shaw Bros studios was on top of their game at this period with many, rich, high quality productions. The Avenging Eagle is no exception to this and director Sun Chung made an impressive Kung Fu classic that really holds up.

I love this movie more for the truisms it presents regarding the heart of a man as well as for the wonderful kung fu it represents. The main character displays a depth of emotion that is not often seen in this genre managing to convey in word and memory induced vignettes the tragedy of his life, the wrongs he has committed to survive and his sorrow at what he has become. The man he has wronged is also compelling in that instead of exacting quick revenge as we see with other martial arts films he wants to know his families murderer to find out why he killed them. The ultimate protagonist and leader of the Eagles is also good but more in line with other kung fu baddies than as a truly original character. I would recommend this movie because it manages to tell a story of vengeance and human frailty without sacrificing either of them.

This is the one that boosted Sun Chung's directorial fame that was later followed by The Kung Fu Instructor, The Deadly Breaking Sword, and Human Lanterns, to name a few.

A mysterious wandering swordsman (Fu Sheng) on his journey to accomplish a personal mission meets a renegade assassin of the infamous Eagle Clan (Ti Lung) who is being hunted and marked for death by his clan brothers for insubordination. They befriend each other and before long discover that they are heading for the same fate: to confront the leader of the Eagle Clan, King Eagle (Ku Feng). Things do not come easy for them. Before confronting the King, they must fight their ways against 12 Eagle Clan assassins, each with their unique fighting weapons, who will stop at nothing to capture their fugitive.

It's always desirable to watch the charismatic Ti Lung in action and surprisingly also likable to watch the comical Fu Sheng act soberly in this particular entry. Watching them fight against the 12 assassins is the main attraction besides the incredible final fight with King Eagle, who seems invincible.

The other 12 eagles are only given the usual bad-guy stereotypes which give very little to improve the plot. Playing opposite the heroes are some familiar faces of the time: the ultimate Shaw Bros villain - Johnny Wang Lung Wei (as eagle no.1 the Vulture), Kao Shiung (as eagle no.2 the Owl), Hui Thien Che (as eagle no.6 the Blue Eagle) and Dick Wei (as eagle no.7 the Red Eagle). These assassins wield unique weapons of choice, ranging from something cool like double wrist blades and a chained dagger to something weird like a smoking pipe!

Tang Chia's fight choreography is tight, particularly in the final duel. But the slow-motion technique with jerky freeze frames employed in certain moments in it doesn't quite look good.

AVENGING EAGLE is one of Shaw Brothers wuxia flicks that definitely warrants repeat viewings. Highly recommended for old school kungfu film lovers.

Another really well-done Shaw epic from director Sun Chung. This one has Ti Lung and Fu Sheng teaming up as they tackle the all-star team of bad guys headed by Ku Feng in a classic role. You get the likes of Wang Lung Wei, Dick Wei and Eddy Ko as the professional assassins and inevitably the action is superior. Lung does the brooding hero part so well by this stage while Fu Sheng starts out goofy but reveals a dark back story later on. The momentum builds to a vibrant and bloody climax in Feng's lair, and it's not to be missed.

I grew up watching this movie, and I owned it twice, on VHS, DVD. When I started to buy the Shaw movies from itunes, I stayed way from this one. But I just watched it on Amazon Prime, because I wanted to be sure about this movie. This is a beautiful to look at, because of the quality, its a Shaw Brothers movie. The fight scenes are lacking though. Ti Lung was terrible with the 3 sectional staff, and the other eagles where exciting to look at, but they still had lame fight scenes. The same for Alexander Fu Sheng.