Gli implacabili colossi del karate

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.

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.

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.

Two strangers—one seeking revenge, the other looking for redemption—join forces to defeat a common enemy, the Iron Boat Clan, a gang of bloodthirsty bandits raised from childhood by the cruel overlord Yoh Xi-hung (Feng Ku). As the two men (brilliantly played by tragic star Alexander Fu Sheng and martial arts legend Ti Lung) fight side by side, they form an unlikely friendship, but when they finally face their ultimate foe, the despicable Yoh Xi Hung, the tragedy that connects them threatens to divide them.

An epic tale of love, revenge, absolution, camaraderie, and intertwined destinies, The Avenging Eagle is classic Shaw Brothers storytelling, told with the utmost skill and style by director Chung Sun, who delivers a visually stunning and throughly engaging masterpiece. Sun also proves to be no slouch when it comes to capturing awesome fight action: featuring an incredible raft of villains, each adept at a different weapon (including spears, rings, axes, swords, and metal claws), this marvellous martial arts spectacular delivers some of the most entertaining fight scenes I've seen in an old-school kung fu movie, with incredible stunts, impressive acrobatics and brutal violence galore, all leading up to a fantastic finale in Yoh Xi Hung's HQ that sees our 'heroes' duking it out with numerous henchmen on their way to the top man, including a duel with a pair of deadly one-armed bandits (the human kind, not the fruit machine variety).

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.