Customer Reviews

Flag of Iron

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

 

 

Similar in many respects to Masked Avengers, the weapon of choice here is the spear and its variations, ie short spears, long spears, flag spears, etc. In Masked Avengers, the trident was the featured weapon. Also, as in Masked Avengers, this is a bloodier gorier Venom flick. Also, as in Masked Avengers, the plot is rather convoluted (does it matter?) and Lo Meng and Sun Chien are nowhere to be seen (though they are listed on the box). The fighting, under Chang Cheh's masterful direction and camera work, is mind boggling and nearly every conceivable "spear move" is explored. Hand to hand fighting is sparse. I'm not a big-time spear fan, therefore I was not thrilled enough to give this a 5, but the movie nonetheless is a solid entry into your Venom collection.

One of the best Shaw Brothers old school flicks I've ever seen. If you don't know anything about this flick and the Venom Mob, you are not obviously a Shaw Brothers fan or this one was just "too much before your time - old timer." In this one, you will only see three of the famous five Venoms.

This one is full of action all the way through. Full of lies, treachery, and betrayal - you can't sleep and you don't know who you could really trust.

The plot picks up with the usual theme - two rival schools not liking eachother. The Eagles invites The Iron Flag to their school for a meal as a gesture of good faith and for settling their differences. The real motive was to get them on their ground and wipe them out in an ambush. The Iron Flag not trusting this "so called kind gesture" hires a hitman - The Spearman, to step in at the first sign of danger. Although The Iron Flag were victorious, their master was set up to be killed by the eldest member of their own school (played by Lu Feng) who had also hired The Spearman. During the heated portion of the fight, their teacher was killed. Unknowingly to The Spearman, the teacher was a good man. The Spearman later realized that after killing the teacher of The Iron Flag, he had been set up by the same person that hired him.

After the death of their teacher, Lu Feng becomes the head. He convinces Kuo Chui (the most versatile and gifted of the Venoms) to go into exile in order to take the heat off of the school and return later when things have smoothed over. He promised to send him money and look after his needs while in exile. Kuo never received any money from Lu Feng. Instead, he was constantly on guard because someone had hired ten killers to wipe him out. Kuo outclassed and outmatched all of them.

Kuo later learned that the name of his school had changed and that it was Lu Feng who hired the ten killers. He also learned that Lu Feng had joined forces with the rival school and began to run brothels and gambling rings. When Kuo returned, he did not receive a warm welcome. Lu Feng was still plotting behind the scenes to get rid of him and using his own followers as scapegoats to do it.

Flag-draped spears were the overall weapons of choice in this one. Usually the battle with spears can be a bit boring, but not in this one. The Venoms are the best at fighting with spears that you can get.

I would have given this flick five stars, but some of the scenes were cut out. I have this one on VHS and it's much longer. Why did they cut it? I don't have a clue. My version is quite clear - a pretty decent transfer at best. Even though some of the scenes were cut out, you will not go wrong watching this. Be careful to watch out for the millions of bootleg copies floating around out there.

3 of the main Venoms are on hand for this Chang Cheh snoozefest. Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng and Phillip Kwok are brothers who are part of the Iron Flag clan. Chiang Sheng and Kwok want to put a stop to the prostitution at the Eagle Hall casino, so they get get their master to go with them for a meeting with the Eagle Hall chief. There is a subplot that has the Iron Flag clan hiring the White Robed Rambler (played by Lung Tien-chiang) to secretly go with them to the meeting in case any trouble arises. Of course trouble does occur and out of nowhere the White Robed Rambler kills the Iron Flag's master with his secret shooting spear. For some reason, he is not suspected of the murder. Now there is controversy over which of the brothers should be the new leader of the Iron Flag clan, and it eventually goes to Lu Feng. Kwok is ordered to leave because of a really stupid reason and assassins are after him. This is all Lu Feng's plan of course. He had the whole thing planned out. He hired the Rambler to kill his master so that he could be the new leader. Can you believe it?!?! I usually don't give away the entire plot in my reviews, but I will do so with this movie because it is so freaking boring. Towards the end, the Rambler finds out he was tricked into killing the Iron Flag master, and once again decides to fight on the side of good, and help kill Lu Feng. Has he changed? I don't know, you will just have to find out by watching the mildly exciting fight filled finale.

The action is quite good. Not enough of it, but still good. The story is the main issue here. There is no question that Lu Feng is a bad guy, he always plays an evil character, but the director could have at least made it seem possible that he was good. Even if it was just one scene, they could have made it seem like he was something other than the guy you know the heroes will fight at the end.

So the fights are really good, but there is nothing else to comment on. This is a 108 minute movie that easily could have been cut down to 60.

2.5/5

Celestial has remastered this to perfection, so make sure to get the IVL version, and not the full screen bootlegs.

i love this movie it's one of my favorite filled with treachery and excitment this one will surely entertain you, i think it's a classic and recommend that you definitely give it a watch,philip kwok at his best, i am a fan of shaw brothers movies and i consider them to be one of the best martial arts producers, again i will make it clear kung-fu movies are triditionally low budget so the acting, special effect and audio ,may not be the greatest, even the editing may be weak, but it's definitely a classic movie for you collection laters folks.

This version is all right on DVD but some parts are missing. The ten deadly killers after Kuo Chui had just killed the Axe Man with Chiang Sheng was longer because the axe was left behind and Chiang Sheng was wondering who does that belong to? Kuo Chui points down int the well where he placed the body and they continue on about the appearance of the 10 deadly killers along with the saying "The axeman and the spearman, the butcher boy, the fortune teller, the bookkeeper, the young kid, the old man with the three youths," All of that is missing from the dvd version. If you want to check out the VHS version --- go to http://www.kungfuflix.com to get it and check it out. Other than that --- one of the reviewers was right Chiang Sheng didn't do much fighting in this film, only in the beginning and near the end. Hope this helps whoever is a true fan of the Shaw brothers films

Another Great Shaw Brothers movie. Starring The Venoms. Tons of great technique, awesome fights and just goes to show the Venoms are truly legends in the Martial Arts.