From the 60s to the 1980s, the Shaw Brothers shot a large number of films, mainly martial arts films, and it is no exaggeration to say that it was the golden age of martial arts films.
Unlike the bells and whistles of the martial arts films of the 90s, the Shaw Brothers' martial arts films are limited by the times, there are no excessive special effects, nor the imaginative martial arts ideas of Yuan Ping and others, on the contrary, they are all one-move, real martial arts actions, so it does not look too fresh, but it is expensive in reality.
Because it's real, it's underrated.
Today, let's talk about an underrated Shaw double male protagonist martial arts film "Cold-Blooded Thirteen Eagles".
Dillon plays the Qi star, the killer of the "Cold-Blooded Thirteen Hawks" of the Iron Ship Gang, ranked ninth, nicknamed "Black Hawk".
He and twelve others were adopted by the Iron Boat Gang leader Yue Xihong (Gu Feng) and trained as a tool for killing with cold-blooded weapons.
Once, the Iron Boat Gang learned that the Thirty-two Dart Bureaus in the Central Plains were escorting a batch of gold and silver jewelry from the imperial court, so Yuexi Hong sent the "Thirteen Eagles" (actually 11, the other two were Yuexi Hong's personal bodyguards) to rob the darts.
Eleven masters took advantage of the night to sneak into the dart team's garrison, and in the melee, although the "Thirteen Eagles" successfully stole the property, Qi Xingxing, in order to cover the retreat of the others, fell into a tangled fight with the dart head golden gun Todd Biao, although later, he was able to successfully escape, but his right arm was stabbed.
In the process of escaping, Qi Xingxing fainted on the ground because of his injuries, but fortunately, in the invincible way, he was saved by the family of a hermit named Jiang Shungui. In the next few months, under the careful care of Jiang Shungui's family, Qi Xingxing not only recovered from his injuries, but also changed his outlook on life, and under the influence of the noble character of the Jiang family, he realized how absurd and sad his previous life was. There are more interesting things to do in life, and more meaningful people to be cared for. Just like Qi Xingxing asked Jiang Shungui's sister Xiaofeng: "Do you want to know what kind of person I used to be?" Xiao Feng replied with a smile: "It doesn't matter what kind of person you are, what is important is that you know how to be a person in the future." The two also sparked love.
At the same time, the Iron Boat Gang was not idle, they were looking for the whereabouts of Qi Xing on the one hand, and on the other hand, they were looking for the enemy of the year, Wang An, the god who had captured Yue Xihong. Soon, they found Wang An's hermitage and took the returning Qi Xingxing to seek revenge.
As a result, what Qi Xingxing often did not expect was that his savior Jiang Shungui was Wang An, although Qi Xingxing repeatedly dissuaded, Wang An's family still died at the hands of the Iron Boat Gang, and after returning to the Iron Boat Gang, Qi Xing was punished by Yue Xihong. At this moment, Qi Xingxing was completely heartbroken.
And what really made Qi Xing embark on the road of rebelling against Yue Xihong was because another thing happened, Yue Xihong found another enemy, Sima Xin, and slaughtered the latter at all, and in the fierce battle, Qi Xingxing did not move at all, because he promised Xiao Feng, helplessly, under the compulsion of Yue Xihong, he finally personally ended up with Sima Xin's daughter, who was pregnant with Liujia at that time.
After that, Qi Xingxing completely rebelled against Yue Xihong, and one person died in the world, and Yue Xihong naturally could not tolerate betraying his righteous son, and successively sent three waves of killers with a total of 10 people to pursue and kill.
On the way to the world, Qi Xingxing accidentally met a person, this person is called Zhuo Yifan (Fu Sheng), brave and strategic, is Sima Xin's son-in-law, he deliberately contacted Qi Xingxing (saved him at a critical moment), just to avenge, of course, at the beginning, Qi Xingxing did not know.
At the edge of the desert, the first wave of killers in the "Thirteen Eagles" 3 people found Qi Xingxing and Zhuo Yifan, a fight, and the two easily solved 3 killers. Then, they encountered the second wave of "Thirteen Eagles" killers, a total of 4 people, Qi Xingxing and Zhuo Yifan, one person against two, after leading the opponent into the woods, successfully solved.
The film uses the technique of flashbacks, and the experience of Qi Xing mentioned above is what Qi Xing said to Zhuo Yifan after the two suffered together. After experiencing two waves of fighting, Qi Xingxing did not plan to hide anymore, but went to the Iron Ship Gang to find Yue Xihong to understand the grievances.
The third wave of masters that the two have to face is a total of 3 people, including yan Lin, the boss of the "Thirteen Eagles", and Wanda (Gao Xiong), the second blue eagle, both of whom are top masters. In order to deal with these three people, Zhuo Yifan thought of a way, they pretended to be the guys in the guest house, and specially waited for Yan Lin and the other three people.
At the inn, Zhuo Yifan first introduced the "owl" Qiu Gaocheng into the kitchen, and then joined forces with Qi Xingxing to sneak attack and kill Qiu Gaocheng, and then, Zhuo Yifan against Yan Lin, Qi Xingxing against Wanda, after a melee, successfully killed the latter two. At this point, in addition to Qi Xingxing, there are only two people left in the "Thirteen Eagles".
On the eve of the decisive battle, Qi Xingxing asked Zhuo Yifan not to send him to death, and to face it alone, Zhuo Yifan asked: "Aren't you afraid of death?" Qi Xingxing said with a bit of sadness in his tone: "Death? No one is not afraid, what matters is what to die for, I have done too many immoral things before, I only hope to make up for the sins of the past with my life, in case I am lucky enough to live the best, even if I die, I also seek peace of mind. Zhuo Yifan only said coldly: "Busy, not a white gang, a benefactor, not necessarily an enemy." ”
The next day, the two broke into the Iron Boat Gang alone, after solving some of the little minions and the other two in the "Thirteen Eagles", the two dueled against Yue Xihong, Yue Xihong was strong in martial arts, for a time, the two could not get close, but Yue Xihong was old after all, after N rounds, his physical strength gradually weakened, and he was injured in many places.
Yue Xihong is not only strong in martial arts, but also in scheming, he picked out the identity of Zhuo Yifan, and then provoked Qi Xingxing and Zhuo Yifan to single out, as a result, the two people who suffered along the way actually really fought, in fact, Qi Xing was to paralyze Yue Xihong, when Yue Xihong and Zhuo Yifan fought hard, he suddenly shot, resulting in the former "father", and created momentum, and finally let himself die under Zhuo Yifan's double knife. It turned out that Qi Xingxing had long vowed to die under Zhuo Yifan's knife and let the latter achieve the purpose of revenge and hatred.
In this way, the infamous Yuexi Hong and the "Thirteen Eagles" of the past were destroyed in the rivers and lakes.
"Cold-blooded Thirteen Eagles" is a martial arts film, whether it is plot design or fight content, it can be said to be a superior work, but it lacks depth in thinking, which is actually a common disease of Shaw Brothers' works. Douban 7.2 points, it shows that the movie is decent.
Another major feature of this film is that there are various weapons in the play, such as the three-section stick used by Qi Xingxing, the double knife in Zhuo Yifan's sleeve, the iron eagle claw of YueXihong, in addition, there are pipes, iron rings, chain hammers and so on. These various weapons give the variety of fighting, even no less than the various weapon fights in the popular "Shaolin Temple" 4 years later.
After the broadcast of "Thirteen Eagles in Cold Blood", it won two awards, namely the 25th Asian Film Festival Most Outstanding Actor Award (Dillon Award) in 1978 and the 16th Golden Horse Awards for Best Feature Film Editing in 1979.
Now, more than 40 years after the film, what about the actors of that year?
Dillon, who played the Qi star, was one of the most popular movie stars of the year, starred in hundreds of film and television works, and won countless awards and achievements, and now at the age of 75, he is still active in the film and television circle, of course, basically all supporting roles, is an old Ji Futuo, a representative of the ambition in the thousands!
Another male protagonist in the film, playing Zhuo Yifan's Fu Sheng, it is a pity, in 1983, at the peak of his acting, he died of a car accident at the age of 29, and there was no Fu Sheng in the jianghu. His wife is the famous Hong Kong singer Zhen Ni, who used sperm freezing technology 4 years after her husband's death to give birth to a daughter for her deceased husband, and she herself never married again. This is also a good story in the Hong Kong film and television circle with several sad colors.
Playing Yue Xihong is the old drama Bone Gu Feng, his life has been playing supporting roles, and many awards, among which the audience is more impressed by the character, that is, in Chen Xiaochun's version of Lu Dingji, he plays Hai Dafu, and In Jiang Hua's version of the Blue Blood Sword, he plays Mu Renqing, of course, now 91 years old, he retired 10 years ago.
In this film, there is also an actor who is still active in the film and television circle, he is playing Wanda Kaohsiung, such as in the ghost blowing lamp series "Longling Labyrinth", he has participated, and in the 2020 Zhao Wenzhuo version of "The Great Hero Huo Yuanjia", Kaohsiung plays Huo Yuanjia's father Huo Endi in the film.