L'aigle ne pardonne pas

Formerly a minor star at Shaw Brothers, Chi Kuan-chun tries his hand at Jackie Chan-influenced kung fu slapstick in "The Eagle Fist." When a militia captain (Chi) attempts to arrest some bandits, an old vagrant (Cheng Kei-ying, the director and fight choreographer of this film) steps in and shows him just how inadequate his martial skills really are. The captain takes the vagrant as his teacher and learns some of the deadly nerve-locking techniques of the eagle claw style. The rest of the techniques can be found only in a manual stolen from the vagrant ten years earlier by a masked killer known as the Red Dart.

Will Chi track down the Red Dart and retrieve the manual for his teacher? Will you care? Doubtful, but the final fight scene does deliver if you can make it that far. (Don't get the notion that the filmmakers were doing you a favor, though. One decent fight is the least you can expect after ninety minutes of insufferable nonsense.) Long-faced and grave of expression, Chi Kuan-chun is not at all convincing in the kung fu comedy realm; he's a competent screen fighter but doesn't have much charisma, and the rest of the cast has even less. "The Eagle Fist" is a dreary, cheap-looking and excruciatingly unfunny film that simply doesn't do what it sets out to do. It's the kind of martial arts movie that gave the genre a bad name in the years before it achieved mainstream acceptance.

This was a film I picked up recently on DVD. I was expecting a horrible Kung Fu movie and was surprised to discover that this movie was actually very entertaining. The movie is a straight-forward classic Kung Fu flick, but there is a comedic feel to it. Our hero is the constable of a small village. After being beaten and humiliated in battle, by an old Kung Fu master, he sets off to become the old man's student. He learns the teacher's "Eagle Fist" style only to discover that the final step of the technique is a secret even to the teacher. The only surviving source of information on it is in a book, stolen from the teacher 10 years prior. Our hero goes out in search of the thief, to reclaim the book and his teacher's honor. There are some good fights, and a twist ending I honestly never saw coming. I recommend this movie if you like 70's style kung fu movies or just need to see some old fashion beat downs.

A cheap and undistinguished kung fu story. THE EAGLE FIST features the unknown-to-me Chi Kuan-Chun who plays the usual brave and upstanding young constable who clears up the crime in his local village. The plot begins for real when he encounters a crazy old man who proceeds to hand him his backside on a plate, so Kuan-Chun begs the old guy to train him in the ways of the martial arts.

Lengthy training sequences follow, typically involving the catching of songbirds and various strenuous weight and resistance elements. There's even a dancing toad method and some statue attacking, as well as some random shaky camera-work that really doesn't work. Eventually an evil fighter called the Red Dart is introduced via flashback, and it turns out the technique to beat him is hidden within a long-lost manual.

What follows will surprise nobody, the film culminating in an end fight which is funny rather than exciting. And the truth about THE EAGLE FIST is that it really isn't very good, at least compared to its peers. Other, similarly-budgeted films had better humour and in particular better fight choreography; this one's below average all round. The cinematography is often too dark as well and the actors seem to be going through the motions rather than innovating.

Chi Kuan Chun certainly had seen better days before making this but I still think it is an enjoyable kung fu comedy.

It throws in just about every single plot element of just about every kung fu movie made at this time.Wierd old kung fu master?CHECK!Funny,contantly abused student who eventually gets big and strong and kicks some booty?CHECK!Find the stolen artifact for master?CHECK!Avenge someone's death?CHECK!

It's all here in about 98 minutes.The fights are a little bland but I have seen worse.I recommend it to most kung fu fans who enjoy their kung fu cheesy and lowbrow.