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nTitle: The Avenging Eagle (1978)
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nDirector: Chung Sun
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nCast: Sheng Fu, Lung Ti, Feng Ku
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nReview:
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nI love me a good Kung Fu flick, for the longest time, the problemnfor me with these old kung fu movies was getting a hold of them. They simplynweren’t available on any format! Also, so many of these films have beennproduced, that sometimes they get lost in the shuffle; case in point, ThenAvenging Eagle; a Kung Fu movie that I’d never heard about, yet ended up lovingnthe hell out of. I guess that’s okay, especially when we take in considerationnthat many of these Kung Fu movies received a theatrical released way back innthe 70’s and then were never seen again. But now, thanks to the folks atnCelestial Pictures I have been getting up to date with a lot of these old KungnFu Flicks. The Weinstein Company has unearthed them through their ‘Dragon Dynasty’nlabel. I have to thank these guys for that. They’ve been releasing these oldnKung Fu movies in pristine condition, re-mastered and looking grand spankingnnew. If it wasn’t for these guys I would have never seen films like The OnenArmed Swordsman (1967) and Return of the One Armed Swordsman (1969) or thenawesome Kung Fu classic King Boxer (1972), so this is a good label to look intonmy friends, they got some really interesting films on their roster.
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nBut today I will be talking about The Avenging Eagle (1978)nwhich is a film about this man who is running from a group of outlaws who callnthemselves ‘The 13 Eagles’. The groups leader is a man who calls himself ‘KingnEagle’; what this King Eagle does is he takes children and trains them in thendeadly ways of kung fu, then he brainwashes them into believing that they havento follow his every whim and desire; which they do. He sends them to steal goldnand to kill his own personal enemies, they do it blindly, because its all they’venever known. After a while, our protagonist decides he wants out of the ’13 Eagles’nwhich of course upsets ‘King Eagle’ who sends the remaining 12 to hunt down andnkill the traitor. Will he escape the claws of his past?
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nThis Kung Fu classic has many great things going for it,nchief amongst them is the fact that it is never for a minute boring. Since wenhave 12 deadly assassins chasing after the hero of the film, we have to see himndefeat all 12 of them through out the course of the film. This of course meansnthat every five minutes, two new Eagles appear to fight against our hero. Coolestnpart of it all is that every fight is just a bit different then the other becauseneach eagle specializes in a different fighting technique and weapon. So we haventhe dude who fights well with axes, the guy who fights with swords, the guy whonfights with his pipe (true!) but trust me, the weapons get cooler and cooler asnthe film moves along. This is something that distinguishes Kung Fu films, thenvariety of weapons that the characters use, and this film has some awesome ones.nWe get everything from wrist blades to Iron Claws.
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nThe fights all build up to the amazing climactic fight withnthe leader of The Eagle Gang, King Eagle. Now this is one amazing Kung Fu duel!nFirst the good guys have to dispatch of a couple of lower class kung funmothers, but the final confrontation between the good guys and King Eagle is awesomenone to behold, coolest part? It’s a lengthy fight that goes on and on, like Insaid, the film is never boring. The production also has good art direction, specialncare was taken to make this one look just a bit different, the sets andnlocation give it a unique look that makes it stand out from other Shaw Brothersnproductions. For example, the lair of the 13 Eagles is this awesome, spacious setnthat looks like the interior of a boat, whit a giant golden eagle hanging innthe background. Same as Hammer Films did, The Shaw Brothers had a roster ofndirectors that commonly made films for them. The most renowned were Chang Cheh whonmade The Five Deadly Venoms (1978) and Chia Liang Liu who made The 36thnChambers of Shaolin (1978). The Avenging Eagle was directed by Chung Sun andirector who wasn’t as renowned as the others, but from what I gather, he putnhis name on the map with The Avenging Eagle. The film balances great fightingnsequences, with an involving revenge story that has more then a couple ofnsurprises in store for the audience. The director chooses to tell his talenthrough a series of flashbacks, each more revealing then the next until it allnhooks up to the amazing finale, which is worth the wait. Highly recommend thisnone if your looking for a night of awesome Kung Fu action.
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nRating: 5 out of 5
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