For once, the International Release poster looks cooler than the original... due to honestly conveying the sheer amount of red in the actual movie.
Flag of Iron, released internationally as The Spearman of Death is a 1980 Martial Arts Movie released by Shaw Brothers, starring the Venoms Mob consisting of Philip Kwok, Chiang Cheng, Lu Feng, and various Shaw action icons.
Released in full-swing after Five Deadly Venoms established the Venoms Gang as worthy icons of kung fu cinema, the film is one of their many collaborations back in their heydays: a martial arts school have their teacher unjustly killed, and its best students, Iron Leopard Luo Xin and Iron Monkey Yuan Lang (Philip Kwok and Chaing Cheng) sets out to uncover the truth behind his death. They end up stumbling into a conspiracy in the martial world while battling the dreaded Eagle Clan, with a run-in with a mysterious, white-clad stranger called The Rambler, and realize the true killer is closer than they thought.
It gets progressively bloodier from there, and never lets down. Blood, gore, and guts are spilled all over the place in this underseen Shaw gorefest. It's so damn entertaining.
Tropes of Iron:
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Played straight for most of the weapons. Lo Hsin's and Yun Liang's swords, the Rambler's spear, the Butcher's cleaver, and the like.
- Acrofatic: One of Lo Hsin's earlier, minor enemies, the Butcher. He's huge, overweight, with his absolutely massive gut bulging out of his robes, and yet he moves with surprising agility and puts up a really dangerous fight with only his short meat cleaver as weapon.
- Badass Cape: Most of the Iron Flag Clan experts wears cool-looking black and red robes in every single one of their fights, including Iron Leopard Luo Hsin, Iron Monkey Yuan Lang and Iron Tiger Cao Fung.
- Bag of Kidnapping: Early on in the film, the fate of a young woman captured by the Eagle Clan, which Lo Hsin and Yun Liang uncovers and publicly exposes, releasing the woman captive before fighting the clan.
- Band of Brothels: The Eagle Clans runs an illicit Human Trafficking business and uses a high-end brothel as front for their shady businesses.
- The Butcher: One of the many killers of the film have this nickname, and is an assassin who masquerades... as a butcher.
- Carnival of Killers: The Ten Killers of the Underworld, who shows up to challenge The Rambler, Lo Hsin and Yun Liang . One of the killers is The Accountant who uses a weaponized abacus. Another is a Hitman with a Heart who ends up aiding the heroes.
- Destination Defenestration: Iron Monkey Luo Xin kills two of his opponents by kicking their blades back into their guts, through their backs, and sending them flying backwards through a tavern's windows with the bloody blades still sticking out their guts when they land.
- Dual Wield: The Rambler wields dual shortspears in the final battle.
- Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: With the Five Venoms Gang playing prominent characters, and most of the Shaws' stuntmen and professional action icons showing up... yeah.
- Feather Motif: The members of the 14 Eagles Clan wear tall, plumed feathers in their hair as sign of allegiance to their clan. The leaders notably have feathers as tall as their heads.
- Flechette Storm: The Rambler's spear, once it was used by Lo Hsun and Yun Liang at the end of the film. Besides a projectile launcher on its front, its back also contains an automatic needle-launcher, which can fire hundreds of needles all at once. This is the special weapon used to overpower Cao Fung in the final battle.
- Gorn: Buckets and buckets of it.
- High-Pressure Blood: They show up throughout the movie in entire geysers. The most notable being how Cao Fung the Big Bad meets his end, getting two spears wielded by Lo Hsin and Yun Liang through his stomach, leading to an entire fountain of karo syrup going vertically skywards.
- Human Pincushion:
- Two of the Iron Flag brothers ends up in this state while attacking several mooks armed with bows and arrows, leading the charge into the villa. The good news is that they managed to kill all the archers before they succumb to multiple arrow wounds.
- Cao Fung, the main villain ends up in this state when the Rambler's spear is revealed to contain a hidden needle launcher in it's back, which fires and impales hundreds and hundreds of tiny needles all over his face, body and guts.
- In a Single Bound: The Rambler, Lo Hsin and Yun Liang, and most fighters of the Iron Flag clan can leap dozens of meters into the air unassisted.
- In the Back: The Rambler gets mortally wounded in this fashion at the ending.
- Light Is Good: Played straight with the Rambler, the only hero whose attire is completely white, including his white Martial Arts Headband. Unlike other characters whom are somewhat morally ambiguous, he's pure through and through.
- Made of Iron: The Rambler; in the finale, he gets a spear-polearm combo with a flag attached shoved into his back, which goes cleanly through his gut before embedding into a wall in front of him. His response is to tear off his clothes, shove it into the hole in his guts, and then grab his mini-spears and continue killing mooks.
- Major Injury Underreaction: The Rambler doesn't seem to flinch even with a gaping hole in his midsection, casued by a flung spear that goes clean through.
- Mook Horror Show: The mooks working under Cao Fung at the end have this reaction when they realize The Rambler, despite having a spear shoved cleanly through his guts, is somehow still alive... and capable of fighting back. Imagine their horror witnessing this man, drenched almost entirely in blood with a gaping hole through his guts, somehow still capable of charging towards them with his spears, and somehow killing them in droves...
- Only a Flesh Wound: Taken to the extreme, where the Rambler can keep on fighting after getting a spear shoved cleanly through his guts.
- Red Baron: Most of the named characters have cool nicknames befitting their status as killers in the martial world. There's the heroes Iron Leopard Luo Xin, Iron Monkey Yuan Lang, White-Robed Rambler Yan Xiu, the villain Iron Tiger Cao Fung, and minor baddies like the Killer Butcher, Flying Eagle, Iron Abacus, Iron Axe, and the like.
- Slashed Throat: Loads of it, with plenty of close-ups on the gaping holes in the victim's - mostly mooks - trachea spewing red sauce all over the place.
- Swiss-Army Weapon: The Rambler's spear, which can extend when needed, contains a projectile launcher in it's tip, and a hidden catch in it's back that fires hundreds of tiny needles.
- White Shirt of Death: On the Rambler, whose white robes ends up getting full of red at the ending.
- The World's Expert (on Getting Killed): The legion of expert killers and assassins, with awesome nicknames like "The Butcher", "Iron Abacus", "Crimson Eagle" and the like, sent to challenge Lo Hsin. They all die in their first battle against him.
