In the early 1980′s the best kung fu movies were beginning to redefine the genre leaving films like The Eagle’s Killer to pick up the scraps of previous classics. This film shamelessly peddles genre conventions like they were going out of style and it fact they already had.
John Cheung plays Tai, your typical abused and penniless young man hoping to learn kung fu from a sadistic and inept kung fu instructor while working at his school. Yes, sounds much like Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978) which also starred Hwang Jang Lee. Jang Lee is introduced, not surprisingly as a vicious killer who displays a knack for tearing apart fake skeletons with his Eagle’s Claw as shown during the opening credits. The film’s pace slows to a crawl as Tai engages in a series of rehashed comical scenarios that ends up with him out in the countryside hoping to find a worthy kung fu instructor. What he finds is a stuttering, spoiled bully who becomes Tai’s mortal enemy after a mishap with a fish-kabob. Increasingly irreverent humor such as fighting over money stuck in a dead man’s mouth and an ludicrous scene involving an oiled Cheung in nothing but a towel being prepped for an impromptu rear cavity probe by a several muscle bound thugs grows almost as tiresome as the villain’s incessant stuttering. Finally, an hour into the film, Cheung begins his training which gives us an opportunity to see more than just wild fisticuffs. By this point, Cheung has already had a run in with Jang Lee who tried to sell him into slavery of all things. Everything is tied up nicely when the stuttering man’s wealthy father hires Ghost Han to kill Tai and his master. The two duke it out in classic style with Jang Lee displaying his incredible legwork.
Speaking of Jang Lee’s legwork, if you manage to see this film, pay attention to the opening credits and you’ll see one of the most unbelievable kicks imaginable. Jang Lee leaps into the air, locking his right leg around one guy’s neck and plants his left foot into the face of another guy! Sadly, the rest of the fights in the film don’t even match that single move, although the final bout is worth a gander. A lot of acrobatics by both characters insures that extensive use of stunt doubles took place. This doesn’t take away from Jang Lee’s skill though, since his distinctive Eagle’s Claw and kicking is clearly visible.
Despite Jang Lee’s presence and a moderately entertaining performance by Cheung, it’s hard to get excited about this film. The first two-thirds of the film basically contain no plot as Cheung simply wanders from one absurd scene to the next. Jang Lee does his usual appearance at the start of the film, followed by his absence for the majority of the remaining time before waltzing out in the final moments to take on our hero. Cheng Hong Yip is one of those character actors who have appeared in dozens of kung fu films while basically portraying the same character in each one. In this one, he’s even more annoying than usual as a stuttering idiot and the fact that he keeps turning up only tested my already strained patience further.
The bottom line is that The Eagle’s Killer is an inferior kung fu film that completely wastes the majority of its running time on tiresome, banal humor and overused genre stereotypes. Jang Lee’s presence makes the film of mild interest to a diehard fan like myself, but the small quantity of quality martial arts action isn’t enough to rate this one worth more than a glance.
by Mark PollardRelated Topics:
Genre: Kung Fu
