Liu Dan, Sun Zhong, Shu Peipei
Sun Zhong, born in 1941 in Taiwan, shandong. After graduating from the National Art College in Taiwan, he worked as a reporter and assistant director in a film company, and officially joined Shaw in 1971, with his first work being "Wind and Thunder Magic Mirror". Sun Zhong's early career was widely involved, and fashion action films, comedies, and horror films had good performances, such as "Peach Economy", "Cohabitation", "Hong Kong Strange Case No. 2 "Murder", "Man Snake and Mouse" and so on. After 1977, he turned to the filming of costume kung fu films, including representative works such as "Cold-Blooded Thirteen Eagles", "Godhead", "Little Knife with Broken Sword", "Eight Generals of a Thousand Doors" and so on. He also often collaborated with Ni Kuang and Tang Jia, and his films were often compared to Zhang Che by fans. The movie "Seven Flames" is exactly the work of his ambition to compete with Zhang Che.
"Seven Flames" is a suspenseful fight film, not only with a novel theme, but also with a new face in terms of characters... Director Sun Zhong, after careful consideration, especially from the seventy students in the martial arts training class, selected seven lucky people starring... "Seven Flames", of course, refers to seven evil people, but there are nine evil people in the film, and not exactly including seven newcomers, the director's name is "Seven Flames", just to cooperate with the seven newcomers... Four of them were killers, a catcher, a chivalrous, and a master sent undercover by the imperial court. —— Hong Kong Film & Picture, No. 156, December 1978
The seven newcomers are: Deng Weihao, Xiao Jianming (Xiao Yu), Luo Jun, Luo Sheng, Lin Zhitai, Shi Gang, and Madero. However, the final product we see, Madero disappeared (replaced by Meng Dingge), the scenes of Xiao Yu and Lin Zhitai were greatly deleted, and Luo Jun and Luo Sheng were also reduced to supporting roles.
Now let's do it again: the so-called "Seven Killings Society", there are eight altar masters and one altar master, not seven killers. The title of "Seven Flames" follows the setting of the seven newcomers earlier and has not changed.
Shi Gang, Yuan Hua, Wang Longwei, Yuan Bin, Meng Dingge
Luo Sheng, Luo Jun, Deng Weihao
There is no doubt that these eight altar masters are naturally the protagonists. The poster has been clearly displayed: Deng Weihao, Luo Jun, Luo Sheng, Shi Gang, Yuan Hua, Wang Longwei, Yuan Bin, Meng Dingge. This lineup looks a little strange. There are four newcomers, Deng Weihao, Luo Jun, Luo Sheng, and Shi Gang, of which Luo Jun and Luo Sheng are Luo Mang's brothers; there are Yuan Hua and Yuan Bin from the "Seven Little Fortunes"; there is Shao's classic boss Wang Longwei; and there is a fierce Ding Brother who is completely a number, and none of them are big stars.
Right one Cao Dahua
In contrast to the "Seven Flames Society" are the official forces headed by Yang Zhenyu (Cao Dahua), the minister of punishment. Yang Zhenyu was entrusted by the imperial court to gather the jianghu Haojie, intending to cooperate with the undercover agents who had been lurking for many years, find out the true face of the "culprit" (the chief altar master), and cut the grass and root out the "Seven Flames Society". In fact, just by looking at the poster, the discerning person should be able to guess who is the hidden master, so the biggest suspense of this film is "who is undercover".
Deng Weihao, Wang Longwei, Shi Gang
The plan of Yang Zhenyu and his people is very simple, and it is used as a counter-plan. However, "one trick is fresh, eat all over the sky", this plan has caused several altar masters to be suspicious of each other and fight with each other. Fighting all the way, with several altar masters fighting and dying, the master of justice saw victory in sight. Unexpectedly, the master of the general altar calculated deeply and set up a trap to introduce various heroes into the headquarters of the "Seven Flames Society" and ignited explosives... According to the principle of the movie "the first to die must be innocent", the last to live is the real undercover. So who survives to the end of this film? Wang Longwei, Deng Weihao, Shi Gang. One boss, two undercovers! To tell the truth, Fu Fat guessed that the chief altar master was the big altar master, but he didn't expect that there were two undercover...
Yuanhua
Yuanbin
Yuanbin, Yuanhua
The most eye-catching thing about this film is the performance of Yuanhua and Yuanbin. In terms of styling, the two self-destruct their images (of course, there is not much to destroy), one wears a hood and dresses up as a head, and the other has long eyebrows, neither male nor female. Yuanhua is worthy of turning over the heels for Bruce Lee, and Yuanbin is not to be let go. As soon as the connoisseur made a move, he knew if there was one, and the smoothness and dexterity of the two of them completely overshadowed all the other actors. And Yuanhua showed extraordinary acting skills, and the sinister and cunning master of the second altar played by him was particularly conspicuous in the face paralysis performance. At the same time, he has his own yin and dove temperament, standing next to Wang Longwei is not inferior, laying the groundwork for the future path of villains.
In short, this film is still worth watching, although there are no big stars to join, but the plot is compact, the pace is bright, and the martial arts are acceptable. The film was damaged (as can be seen from the screenshots, the picture after the restoration is still dull yellow), Tianying has not been repaired for a long time, and it is said that it was only under the call of foreign fans that it was able to see the light of day, and its influence overseas can be seen.
The picture above is the spit of foreign netizens in 2010 for Tianying's delay in repairing "Seven Flames", borrowing the mouth of the main creators. The first on the left is director Sun Zhong. "Ric Meyers" in the lower right corner is an American writer, screenwriter, consultant, actor, editor and teacher who has made great contributions to the promotion of Chinese kung fu films in the United States. Wikipedia has his information, interested friends can check it out.
Ric Meyers
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(The foolish opinions I have published about the film are all sorted out in my spare time, and it is inevitable that there will be omissions and deficiencies, so please correct them.) ）