REVIEW: ‘The Avenging Eagle’ (1978)

My first impression of THE AVENGING EAGLE was not a favorable one. This swordplay classic from Shaw Brothers starring Ti Lung and Alexander Fu Sheng appeared on a budget DVD cropped to full screen, badly dubbed into English and was looking like it had been mastered from an overused, fourth-generation VHS tape. Not having had as great an appreciation for Shaw Brothers filmmaking at the time, I quickly dismissed this film as little more than a mediocre effort. Finally viewing it remastered and presented on DVD as it was meant to be seen years later, I find this effort from talented Taiwanese director Suen Chung to be one of Shaw Brothers’ finest.

The costumes can be somewhat gaudy and the acting a tad exaggerated, but the tragic story is quite gripping and the kung fu screen action is fantastic.

I’m willing to bet this film bears some relation to THE THIRTEEN COLD-BLOODED EAGLES (1993), although their plots are somewhat different. Likely, they’re both adaptations of the same wuxia novel. In THE AVENGING EAGLE, two fighting strangers form an unlikely partnership after a chance meeting in the wilderness. One is Chi Ming-sing (Ti Lung), former member of the notorious Iron Boat gang and master of the three-section staff. Chi was one of the gang’s prized thirteen eagles, a group of superb fighters trained from childhood by Yoh Xi-hung (Guk Fung) to be ruthless killers and carry out his villainous whims. A tragic event with a lady friend (Si Si) had turned Chi off of being a criminal and now he’s on the run from his former associates. His new friend is Cheuk Yi-fan (Alexander Fu Sheng), a mischievous, yet righteous hero determined to aid Chi for reasons that are initially unclear. As we learn more about their pasts, the two heroes battle the remaining eagles, who are in hot pursuit of Chi, and eventually take on their iron claw-wielding leader.

This is a pure martial arts movie with liberal doses of complex kung fu action, propped up by especially good direction from Suen Chung and an intense plot with just the right amount of suspenseful twists to keep viewers on their toes. Tang Chia and Wong Pau-gei oversee an almost endless number of memorable fight scenes with excellent execution from leading men Ti Lung and Alexander Fu Sheng. In contrast to many of his other swordplay film roles and possibly as a nod to Lau Kar-leung’s THE 36TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN, Ti takes up the three-section staff instead of a sword as his prime weapon. Both its strengths and weaknesses are shown, and of course Ti has at least one trick up his sleeve when the going gets tough. The other leads get some more unusual implements of death to toy with. Fu Sheng gets a pair of the coolest hidden weapons in the form of blades in the soles of his shoes that connect to iron armbands. For taking on these two heroes, Ku Feng arms himself with iron claw gloves.

The way in which our heroes cruelly and efficiently dispatch with their foes leading up to a fateful final confrontation is where much of the pleasure comes in watching this film. Those foes include notable stunt actors like Johnny Wang, Eddy Ko, and Yuen Bun. Even expert action director Tang Chia gets in on the action by playing a security chief protecting a gold shipment. Helping this action along are some unusual outdoor locales that do not look like your typical back lot locations at Clearwater Bay. It practically goes without saying that SB’s artificial indoor sets are also used, but it appears that Suen at least attempted to shoot as much as he could in real-world environments and in a creative fashion.

For any fans of Shaw Brothers films, THE AVENGING should be a real treat. It’s definitely above average and gives two of the studios’ top kung fu stars a wonderful opportunity to showcase their talents in classic martial arts action scenes.