Sometimes, a film will be considered a classic of its genre, only for you to watch it and wonder, “Why exactly was this considered an essential classic?” This was the case while watching Chang Cheh’s The Flag of Iron (1980). I don’t want to take anything away from the film’s success in any way, however.
The master of the Iron Flag clan gets assassinated by a hired killer only known as the Wanderer. Iron Tiger (Feng Lu) has to step up and take his master’s place. The rival Eagle Clan may be to blame, so Iron Panther (Philip Chung-Fung Kwok) takes the fall and exiles himself in hopes of saving the clan. While waiting for money from the clan to survive, no money ever shows up, but multiple assassins do. Alliances change, and brother will fight brother in a bloody battle to the death.
While the story is compelling, the film runs nearly two hours, and I felt it could have been tightened up more than it was. It tends to drag quite a bit in the second act. The story was far too convoluted or confusing when it didn’t need to be. Aside from that, the action is terrific. There’s plenty of fighting to hold your attention, delivering different styles, blood galore, and a very Chinese sense of humor. There are lots of cool weapons in the film, and even the use of flags during the action looked far cooler than I had expected.
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Like the other releases in the 88 Asia Collection, The Flag of Iron comes with a reversible mini-poster and a reversible sleeve that features the classic artwork and the newly commissioned art from R.P. “Kung Fu Bob” O’Brien. There’s also a booklet featuring an essay from Andrew Graves titled “Red & Black Attack.” The disc comes with a Slipcase featuring O’Brien’s artwork as well.
As far as Special Features, this disc is lacking. The only extra to speak of is the audio commentary from Asian cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema, which offers some insight into the film and genre. The HD remaster from the original 35mm negatives looks pretty nice. There are a couple of spots that didn’t seem to clean up as well as the rest but overall, it looks top notch.
I may have had my issues with the film, I still wholly appreciate it for what it is, and for fans of Shaw Brothers productions and classic martial arts cinema, you could certainly do far worse. 88 Films has stepped up their game, and hopefully, more of their releases will become available in the United States.
