Film Descriptions

• 36th Chamber of Shaolin
• Blood Brothers
• Come Drink with Me
• Golden Swallow
• Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan
• One-Armed Swordsman
• Return to the 36th Chamber
• Vengeance!

Vengeance!

Hong Kong (1970), 35mm, 103 min, Mandarin with English subtitles

Director: Chang Che
Cast: David Chiang, Ti Lung, Wang Ping, Ao Yanjing, Gu Feng
Producer: Runme Shaw
Martial Arts Directors: Tong Kai (Tang Jia), Yuen Cheung-yan (Yuan Xiangren)

Show Time: 4/16 at 7pm at the Metro State Auditorium

1920s-era Peking opera performer Kuan Yu Lo (Ti Lung) confronts his boss over the man's attentions to Yu Lo straying wife. The resulting melee involves Yu Lo valiantly fighting a roomful of hatchet-wielding henchmen before dying a bloody death. Yu Lo's brother, Kuan Hsai Lo (David Chiang)-who shares no scenes with his frequent co-star, other than a brief flashback-comes to town seeking revenge and eventually fights it out with all the crime bosses and their minions. In the culminating fight, Hsai Lo helps one gang beat another only to have the winning gang-members turn on him.

Chang Che moves away from swordplay in Vengance! and in the process, establishes the kung fu template for the Shaw Brothers '70s art-house style. The expert use of cramped interiors highlights this bloody tale of revenge from the consummate anatomist of the male psyche and the master of stylized violence.

David Jiang Dawei (David Chiang)
The son of thespian parents, David Jiang graduated from child actor to stuntman to superstardom in the early '70s with a string of box-office hits directed by Zhang Che, including The Heroic Ones (1970), Vengeance! (1970) and The Boxer from Shandong (1972). Jiang was frequently honored for his acting ability as well as his martial arts skill, and his slender frame, fierce agility and urbane screen presence further set him apart from the Shaw Brothers pack. Jiang remains active as an actor in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Di Long (Ti Lung)
As a young actor Di Long earned the attention of director Zhang Che, who cast him in Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969) and later paired him with David Jiang in such hits as Vengeance! (1970), The New One-Armed Swordsman (1971) and Blood Brothers (1973). The actor, a Wing Chun exponent, also headlined a number of the Chu Yuan-Gu Long films, most notably The Magic Blade (1976) and The Sentimental Swordsman (1967). After a career lull in the early '80s, Di Long made a triumphant comeback opposite Chow Yun-fat in John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986).