Customer Reviews

Eagle's Claw [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Eagles's Claw is one of the better movies in Tai Seng's Martial Arts Theater collection. The film features the Eagle Claw and
Mantis styles of kungfu, and the fight scenes are well choreographed and also very well filmed. The cinematography is excellent not only in the fight scenes, but also in the rest of the film.

An evil Mantis and Eagle Claw kung fu master wants to destroy the Eagle Claw kung fu school. He attacks the school and mortally wounds the teacher of the school, but he is also injured himself. The evil master recovers from his injuries, but the teacher of the Eagle Claw school does not, and he dies. After the death of his teacher, one of the main disciples of the Eagle Claw school defects to the enemy, and joins the evil master and his clan. Meanwhile, the second disciple of the Eagle Claw school becomes the new leader of the school, and he prepares his school to fight the evil master and his henchmen, who still want to destroy the school.

The plot is interesting, but the middle of the movie is sort of boring. The end of the movie is much better though, and the fights near the end are the best in the film. The sets in this film are excellent, better even than most Shaw Bros. films. One of the best parts of this film is the villain, played by Chang Yi; he is so good that it makes you want him to win. The only flaws I found in this movie are that the heroes are not very good at kungfu, or acting, so it is sort of disappointing when they win in the end. This version of the film is widescreen and the quality is very good.

Hey, another one of those old school kung fu classics where the white-haired villan must be killed off. Yes, this is one of those.

Tai Seng - Martial Arts Theater did a pretty good job with the transfer to DVD of this classic. When I first saw it on VHS it was great then. The overdubs and picture quality was pretty good. The widescreen is exceptional - can't complain at all.

In this flick you basically have the Praying Mantis school trying to eliminate The Eagle's Claw school. The head pupil, played by Lo Lieh, pretends to defect to the Praying Mantis school after pretending to kill his master. In actuality, his master was fatally injured by a chest blow from the teacher from the Praying Mantis school. He died two days later. Knowing he will die soon, the teacher from The Eagle's Claw school told his head pupil to infiltrate The Praying Mantis school in order to learn their kung fu techniques in order to later take revenge. The Eagle's Claw school soon put out the word that the head pupil killed their master and that they wanted him dead. The teacher from The Praying School felt he could use this situation to his advantage by enlisting the help of Lo Lieh to kill everyone in The Eagle's Claw school. After The Eagle's Claw plan was discovered by the Praying Mantis school, the white-haired villan decided to quickly outfox his enemies by attacking them earlier than planned.

This is an old-school must have!

The best thing about this film is the main villain Ching Yi, with pointed boots and a stupid hat. Fighting is surprisingly weak, but gets better towards the end and the plot has a few interesting twists (though predictable.) Enjoyable film, but doesn't have to be seen more than once (ok, I've seen 3 times already...).
For some really energetic fight action, get Sammo Hung's masterpiece Warriors Two (the best kung fu film ever), also from 1978 (which makes Eagle's Claw look very slow and very very old skool). But still. Maybe Lee Tso Nam's best film (definately over-rated here, it's far from 5-star quality, or even 4,) so see it if you have to (worth a rental.)

If you like Shaw Brothers Style of movies this is a must have. Picture quality and audio are fair as typical of poor quality transfers, but tolerable. Fighting and movie are classic old style kung fu and make up for above.

Chi Cuan Chun, Wang Tao, Luen kar Yan, Chang Yi star in this martial arts masterpiece involving an evil Mantis fist master hoping to kill all remaining students of the Eagle claw technique. After a student of the eagle's claw (Chi Cuan Chun) has a fall out with his school he joins forces with the rival mantis school. Can he trust them, or do they have other plans for him and his former school? The story is deeper then you would ever imagine. Great fight choreography, and a cast like no other. Must have for any collector.

And certainly chang yi playing the white-haired villian is always great. Overall, a really good story.

When the master is dying at this schol, he is going to name a successor to him. He does not pick the elder student(chi Kuan-chun), but a younger one(don wong). From here we get quite a few unexpected twists. And they are very well done.

So no real great fighting, just some good old movie magic happening. I think this movie was missing dorian tan. He could have boosted it up to a 4, but the action just wasn't all that great.

The film starts out interestingly enough. Several fighters go through their eagle claw sparring forms on some soundstage with a serious-sounding narrator describing the history of the forms. You know what I'm talking about. This always gets me excited that I'm in for a treat. I was not disappointed. In this Shaw Brothers-like tastey little kung fu diddy, the film relies heavily on the "7 eagle claw styles" and the secret 8th and 9th styles. Pretty nice classic kung fu storyline. The fighting is intriquing and satisfying. Having said that, this is not a great movie, but a nice, supremely watchable movie. As I think back to the days when I saw films like these in theatres in the 70s, this would probably be the "second" movie on the triple bill, not the "marquee" film, though not the "third" film either. Nice film to add to your classic collection.

NICE MOVIE JUST LIKE YOU WERE AT THE MOVIE BACK IN THE DAY. GOOD ACTION NOT A REMASTERED VERSION BUT STILL A GOOD PICTURE YOU WILL HAVE FUN IF YOU LIKE THESE TYPE OF MOVIES.

There are three types of kung fu styles I find to be the most impressive:Eagle's Claw, The Crane and Monkey kung fu,,,any kung fu flicks which has these thyles in it,,,to me is always facinating. However,I though Eagle's Claw was a really good movie,,,the cinematography and choreography is well put together,,,a really great flick to check out!!

Now before I get to the movie let me say something about these
MAT (Martial Arts Theatre) dvd's! YOU WILL NOT FIND THESE
ANYWHERE ELSE! Most of these movies are lost and will never be
found! You will have to put up with the fact that these films
can't be saved to perfection! Perhaps a shot in a dark you will
find even a few of these in widescreen! Like Crash Cinema's My
12 Kung Fu Kicks! You should be thankful that these films are
still around and you should be brown-nosing Tai Seng for keeping
them alive as of today! Want someone to blame for fullscreen
crap, blame Ocean Shores! This copy of Eagle's Claw is in
widescreen (one of the few MAT films in widescreen! The picture
is good but not perfect! The film itself is one of the better
kung fu films ever made! Lee Tso Nam is one of the best b-movie
indie kung fu film directors ever! You should check out his
other films! Most avalible from Tai Seng's MAT! THe fights were
good and there is alot of it!