After the Insurrection at the Capitol Building, quite a few pundits tried to rationalize away the nightmare of the day by declaring that nobody brought a lethal weapon into the building. Somehow these paid contrarians completely ignored the rioters that used flagpoles to beat police officers. They ignored that a few of the flags were tipped with spikes so they could be used as a spear if necessary. I daresay that none of these pundits had watched The Shaw Brothers’ The Flag of Iron. This film from 1980 demonstrated how a decorative symbol can used for pure destruction.
Luo (Tomorrow Never Die‘s Philip Kwok) and Yuan (Five Deadly Venoms‘ Chiang Sheng) are part of the Iron Flag Clan which is a martial arts school. They spot two men carrying someone in a sack into a nearby brothel. They discover this is how the whore house has been kidnapping new talent. They also uncover that the Eagle Hill Clan is behind the place. The two visit a gambling casino run by Eagle Hill Clan to let management know they aren’t thrilled by their employee recruitment policies. This turns into a nasty fight that disrupts the betting. After this battle, the Eagle Hill Clan invites the leaders of Iron Flag over for a dinner to broker peace between the two houses. The meal turns into a nightmare when the Eagle Hill Clan break the covenant of hospitality and attack instead of offering a desert course. Iron Flag is up for the battle even when a mysterious Spearman (Drunken Arts and Crippled Fist‘s Tien-Hsiang Lung) in white pops up during the melee. Even though Iron Flag wins the battle, their leader dies. They immediately vote Cao (Crippled Avengers’ Feng Lu) to become their new leader. The cops drop since Eagle Hill wants to press charges. They work out a deal that Luo will take the fall and split town to stay free. He expects to be able to sneak back into town. After a year of laying low, he gets a surprise visitor. Luo gets a serious hint that things might be going according to the plan at the Iron Flag headquarters.
The film starts off like a conventional story of two rival marital arts schools mixing it up. The feud elevates until there’s a massive throw down. Except we get a serious change of direction that I won’t disclose in case you haven’t seen the film before. The action is hard is over the top with even a few surprises like the world’s most dangerous abacus. The ultimate weapon is the flags that can do more than scratch an eyeball. You might laugh at the idea of two people fighting with flags as if it was a marching band goes bad moment. When Lua and Cao let their freak flags fly and bust into each other, you’ll be wanting a bigger TV screen to take it all in. You get the cloth flapping and the poles clanging. Flag fighting ought to be bigger in marital arts cinema.
The Flag of Iron doesn’t overly complicate the story even with a swift twist. The film saves the “you didn’t see that coming” aspect with a few of the strange items that become weapons during battle. Director Chang Cheh made a crowd pleaser out of a flag instead of making it a drag. You’ll recognize that a person with the flag is a threat.
The video is 2.35:1 anamorphic so you get the whole Shawscope image. The 1080p transfer will make you notice how the sideburns are glued onto the various actors. The audio includes the Mandarin LPCM Mono 2.0. Things sound sharp. There is also the original English LPCM Mono 2.0 dub. You’ll think half the voice actors thought they were doing a Spaghetti Western. There are newly translated subtitles to give you a better sense what the Mandarin dialogue is really saying.
Commentary Track is an animated conversation between Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. The two Asian cinema experts give a lot of background. They explain the drinking game that opens the film. They discuss the Venoms that became Chang Cheh’s main actors after Five Deadly Venoms. They talk about how Shaw Brothers ran their studio.
Booklet with an essay about the film by Andrew Graves.
Poster with the original design and the new box cover on either side.
88 Films presents The Flag of Iron. Directed by Chang Cheh. Screenplay by Cheh Chang & Kuang Ni. Starring: Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok, Sheng Chiang, Li Wang, Feng Lu, Tien-Hsiang Lung, Hsiu-Chun Lin & Feng Kuan. Running Time: 113 minutes. Rated: Unrated. Release Date: February 8, 2022.
