Here is an essay on Chang Cheh's Flag of Iron by SMU senior English major Loic Fernandi.
Flag of Iron is a
1980 Shaw Brothers martial arts film directed by Chang Cheh and starring the
Venom Mob. It was one of many films that Chang Cheh directed as an employee of
Shaw Brothers Studio. The film comes after the successful run of The Five Venoms (also known as The Five Deadly Venoms), one of Chang
Cheh’s greatest films next to the One-Armed
Swordsman and The Assassin. Flag of Iron, while not as successful,
still showed moderate success in the Hong Kong and surrounding markets. It
achieved a cult classic status among American viewers when it was released and
shown on television by World Northal in the 1980s under the title Spearmen of Death as part of its “Black
Belt Theater” and “Kung Fu Theater” syndication packages often shown Saturday
afternoons on local UHF stations and the USA Network. The Five
Deadly Venoms and other films in the series were hugely influential on American
hip-hop culture and have been endlessly sampled and cited by artists such as WU
TANG CLAN ETC
Shaw Brothers Studio was the premiere Hong Kong film studio
in the 1960s, owning a theater chain which stretched across the Pacific Rim and
extended into Chinese communities in Europe and the U.S. Under company head Run-Run Shaw, they
innovated widescreen color films with high production values and major stars,
and they invented the modern action picture with their wuxia pian martial arts movies in period settings, producing one
major film a week at their Clearwater Bay sudio, Movie Town. Shaw Bros’ star
director was the prolific martial arts movie innovator Chang Cheh, who had
introduced the wuxia pian to the
world with The One-Armed Swordsman in
1967. However, by 1980, rival studio
Golden Harvest had begun to eclipse Shaw Bros in theater ownership, new modes
of production, and international co-productions. Flag of
Iron was made during the years that Chang Cheh’s allotted budgets were
declining and the studio was beginning to focus on producing programming for
their Hong Kong station TVB and for syndication throughout the region.
Still, Flag of Iron continues Chang Cheh’s fascination with the
brotherhood between men, and Venom gang members provide him and his longtime screenwriter
Ni Kuang with a typology of male characters to act out Chang’s obsessive
themes. There are very few female characters in his movies due to a mixture of
this interest and the difficulties he found working with female actresses. When
Chang Cheh made his classic The Five Venoms, he had gathered up a group of
talented fighters and actors known as the Venom Mob. Three of them are present
in the Flag of Iron, Philip Kwok, Chiang Sheng and Lu Feng were all major
characters in the Five Venoms. Philip Kwok more importantly reprises his role
of lead character, which he plays in almost every movie made with Chang Cheh. A
new change that occurred in this movie was that instead of the Shaw Brothers
usual fight choreographer Lau Kar-leung, the Venom Mob members, particularly
Phillip Kwok, took over the choreography. The fights were much more fast paced
and intense because of this, and had many new and innovative techniques, such
as the use of the flag spears in the movies ending fight scene.
Kwok plays the lead role of Iron Leopard Luo Xin, one of the
head members of the Iron Flag Clan, he is extremely loyal to is brothers and
decides to take the blame for the deaths caused in their fight against the
Eagle Hall Clan. He is exiled for a year until things cool down. While away he
is stuck working at a restaurant without receiving his promised amounts of
money from the clan for support. Eventually he is attacked by assassins and
realizes that something is amiss and that he must return to his clan. Chiang Sheng plays Iron Monkey Yuan Lang, a
very close friend of Luo Xin and who has undying loyalty to him. When things
start to go awry in the Iron Flag Clan, he goes to warn Luo Xin of what is
happening, eventually fighting by his side as they try to retake the clan back
from Cao Fung.
Lu Feng plays Iron Tiger
Cao Fung, the true villain of the movie. Cao Fung betrays Luo Xin and is the
main cause for their previous master’s untimely demise. He is a manipulative
liar that will do anything to remain the head of the Iron Flag Clan, even if it
means killing his own brothers in arms.
Lung Tien-Hsiang is the wandering
knight White-Robed Rambler Yan Xiu, a powerful and well renown assassin that is
the true killer of the original Iron Flag Clan’s Leader. He was paid and
tricked by Cao Fung and now wishes for revenge. He helps Luo Xin and Yuan Lang
for the second half of the film to kill Cao Fung.
As in most Chang Cheh films, the lead female
character is a passive object of exchange present only to motivate the male
characters and to demonstrate their chivalry or brutality: Lam Sau-Kwan plays Lan Xin, country girl that
is being brought to become apart of a brothel at the beginning of the film. Luo
Xin and Yuan Lang save her, but she eventually ends up in the brothel. Toward
the end of the film, she and the the develop a romantic connection, but this
only serves to demonstrate the Rambler’s selfless sacrifice on her behalf and
to underscore the tragedy of his eventual death.
Flag of Iron
starts with Luo Xin and Yuan Lang playing a drinking game until they notice two
men carrying what looks like a person caught in a bag. Upon further
investigation they realize that it is a young country girl, Lan Xin that has
been captured and was about to be brought to the local brothel owned by the Eagle
Hall Clan. They force the men to lead them to the brothel where they kidnap the
brothel manager and then bring him to the casino, which is also owned by the
Eagle Hall Clan. There they begin to use the brothel manager’s limbs as betting
tokens and cause havoc in the casino until Eagle Hall members show up and fight
with them. Cai Fung arrives and the fighting stops, and our two heroes return
back to the Iron Flag Clan. Once there they receive an invitation from the
Eagle Hall Clan Chief saying that he would like to have them over for a
peaceful dinner. The Iron Flag Clan leader realizes that this is a trap and
prepares a countermeasure with the help of the White-Robed Rambler. Upon
arrival they begin to eat and are attacked by the Eagle Hall clan members. Much
of the Eagle members are slain including the chief, but during the fight the
Iron Flag Clan’s chief is fatally wounded by an unknown assailant. During his
final moment,s he tries to appoint Luo Xin as his successor but Cao Fung steps
in front of him as the Clan leader dies, thus making it seem that he was the
one that was actually chosen. With Cao Fung as the new chief, Luo Xin agrees to
leave the clan temporarily to let the aftermath of the events die down.
Luo Xin
begins working at a restaurant and some time passes by, with him obviously
bored and tired from the constant badgering by his coworkers. While cleaning
some of the dishes he is attacked by an assassin carrying a big ax, he is one
of ten deadly assassins that are apparently looking for him. He continues to
fight them as they come, and is visited by his friend Yuan Lang, whom he does
not trust at first. Lang tells him of the changes that have occurred in the
Iron Flag Clan, such as the brothel and casino now being run by them, and Luo
Xin becomes furious as he suspects something is amiss. The rambler Yan Xiu
comes to visit and they all head back to where the Iron Flag Clan is located.
Eventually Luo Xin finds out that the rambler is the one who assassinated his
master and vows to kill him, only after he has killed Cao Fung who he finds out
was the one who hired the rambler and is the cause for the great changes that
occurred in the Iron Flag Clan. After an epic fight with Yan Xiu (due to being
forced by Cao Fung) Luo Xin finally is able to fight Cao Fung in a battle cumulating
in both using the iconic “Iron Flag” that is associated with the clan. Thank to
help from Yuan Lang, Luo Xin is able to defeat Cao Fung and end his reign of
tyranny.
The Flag of Iron
deals with themes of brotherhood and betrayal as well as political corruption.
Much of the fighting is caused by the betrayal of Cao Fung and the corruption
of the Eagle Hall Clan. Luo Xin and Yuan Lang only intervene because they see
an innocent girl being taken to a brothel house where she would likely be
transformed into a sex worker, and the politics within the clan are greatly
skewed as they pay off politicians to turn a blind eye even though they seem to
be on the side of justice. The initial assassination of the Iron Flag Chief is
just another point being made as to the betrayal of honor, as the chief dies
realizing that Cao Fung is the one who has had him killed.
Flag of Iron was
released in Hong Kong on August 14, 1980 and then West Germany on April 1,
1983. It was later released in the U.S.A. and France in 1984.
The film was distributed in America by the Weinstein
Company’s Dragon Dynasty. The Flag of Iron was released to moderate
success in the Asian countries, and in America it became incredibly popular
through its screenings on American television thanks to Dragon Dynasty. It has
received a 7.1/10 on IMDb and a 58% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though this
rating is very skewed as a few of the reviews are what can be considered as
“trolls”. The overall consensus was that, while a fun action movie, it lacked
some of the depth of other venom movies, especially when compared to The Five Venoms. The movie was followed
by other venom films, such as Masked
Avengers, House of Traps, and The Nine Demons. Flag of Iron helped to increase interest in Hong Kong Cinema along
with other great Shaw Brothers films of the time.
