Guan Xiao-lou, ready for some Vengeance!
Vengeance! (original title 報仇 Bao Chou) is a 1970 Martial Arts Movie from the Shaw Brothers.
In 1930s Peking, an opera performer and acrobat, Guan Yu-lou (Ti Lung), is assassinated by a triad gang after discovering his girlfriend had a one-night stand with a powerful triad boss. With the authorities unwilling to get involved, Yu-lou's younger brother, Guan Xiao-lou (David Chiang) decides to take matters into his own hands, to investigate the true circumstances behind his brother's death and avenge him. Assisted by Hua, the sister of Yu-lou's girlfriend who is also being used by the triads, Xiao-lou will take down the triad syndicate single-handedly.
Chang Cheh, director of Vengeance!, received the Best Director Award at the 16th Asian Film Festival for this movie. David Chiang, then 21 years old, would establish himself as a domineering presence of kung fu cinema, as Chang Cheh's most prized protege (alongside Ti Lung, who plays his onscreen brother). The two of them would star alongside each other in multiple martial arts movies later, including The Heroic Ones, The Deadly Duo, Duel of the Ironfist, Have Sword, Will Travel, The Anonymous Heroes, The New One-Armed Swordsman and a few others.
Unrelated to Vengeance (2022) or Batman: Vengeance.
This film provides examples of:
- Agonizing Stomach Wound: What eventually took Guan Yu-lou down and finally kill him, after receiving roughly a dozen injuries and stab wounds.
- Anyone Can Die: The entire triad syndicate's higher-ups, the corrupt general and his lieutenants, and BOTH of the Guan brothers failed to outlive the credits.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Guan Xiao-lou, in a suave suit in every scene he's shown.
- Bittersweet Ending: Guan Yu-lou's death has been avenged, the triad leaders are all dead, and Hua is finally freed from being the triads' personal concubine. However Guan Xiao-lou only has a few minutes to savor his victory before succumbing to the multiple wounds he suffered, but at least he dies knowing that his mission is a success.
- The Can Kicked Him: One of Xiao-lou's many fights takes place in a public toilet, where he manage to finish off an enemy by repeatedly dunking the baddie's face into a latrine.
- Cacophony Cover Up: The assassination that takes place in conjunction with a Chinese Opera show, where the noise from the performance allows Xiao-lou to sneak upon the triad leaders and kill them, then flee before being noticed.
- Dead Star Walking: Ti Lung, who plays Kuan Yu-lou, Xiao-lou's brother. Lung is a rather huge star even back when this movie is released, and he ends up dying within the first 12 minutes of screentime.
- Dies Wide Open: Many, many characters dies like this, including Yu-lou, Feng, the corrupt general... subverted with Xiao-lou, who appears to have died like this, but turns out he's only pretending to be dead.
- Distracted by the Sexy: In more than one occasion, Hua would use herself to distract henchmen and guards as Xiao-lou sneaks in and out of triad leaders' rooms, killing them as the bodyguards are distracted.
- Emerging from the Shadows: Xiao-lou is depicted like this in his debut, stepping out from beneath a streetlamp in a darkened alley.
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge: Xiao-lou eliminating Feng Kai-shan, the triad subordinate responsible for his brother's death, by smashing Feng through furniture, tables, walls, using Feng as a punching bag, before throwing him off a balcony where Feng dies a crumpled heap.
- Eye Scream: Yu-lou, after fighting off loads and loads of Feng's minions, is finally taken down when one lucky mook manage to drive his axe through Yu-lou's eyes. The image of Yu-lou writhing in agony with no eyes would later inspire John Woo in the creation of one of his masterpieces, The Killer (1989).
- Finishing Stomp: Xiao-lou kills a mook by knocking him down, and then repeatedly stomping said mook's face.
- Match Cut: Xiao-lou fights off a bunch of mooks, concurrently as a Chinese Opera is taking place. As the opera depicts a warrior getting "killed" by having his throat slashed, the scene intercuts with Xiao-lou strangling his opponent, both shots focusing on the victim's throats.
- Mêlée à Trois: The final battle between Xiao-lou, the triads, and the corrupted general and his lieutenants. At first Xiao-lou tries Playing Both Sides tricking his two opponents into fighting each other, but as the battle goes on it becomes clear that he's not affiliated with either side, and the finale quickly becomes a three-way duel.
- Playing Possum: At the end of the climax, after being overwhelmed by scores and scores of Master Jin's mooks, eventually Xiao-lou seemingly expires, appearing to have Died Standing Up with his eyes opened. Master Jin, deciding to have a closer look at the man who's foolish enough to try to assassinate him, gloats at Xiao-lou - only for Xiao-lou to reveal he's still alive and slice Jin through the jugular.
- Revenge Before Reason: Xiao-lou puts everything aside - his safety, code of honour, values, prioritizing his vengeance for his deceased brother.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The very premise of the movie. Its right in the title!
- Slashed Throat: Plenty of bad guys suffer this fate, including the true Big Bad, Master Jin.
- Step into the Blinding Fight: More than one fight scene Xiao-lou finds himself in takes place in total darkness, either in the stables, rafters above an opera building, or some darkened rooms.
- Symbolic Blood: Guan Yu-lou in the opening scene plays a fallen warrior on an opera performance, where the show ends with him getting "killed" by having his stomach sliced open
. Later on when being ambushed by Feng's thugs, Yu-lou dies the very same way as his fictional character, being stabbed and gutted. - Walking Shirtless Scene: Yu-lou, played by Shaw Brothers' very own Mr. Fanservice Ti Lung. He had around 9 minutes of screentime, and every single minute features his exposed bare chest, either in his tight-fitting opera costume without an undershirt, or with his coat unbuttoned and exposing his pecs.
- White Shirt of Death: In contrast to the black suit with white accents that he wears for most of the movie, Xiao-lou wears white for the final battle with the triads in an iconic moment that would inspire many a Heroic Bloodshed movie, and while he eventually dies, he takes the bad guys with him.
