The Revenger (1980)

Blood for Blood

Ti Lung played a dual role in The Revenger, a film that covered twenty years. The title was a misnomer because in neither the father role nor the son role did he truly play a vengeful character. That's not to say there wasn't plenty of revenge to go around, but at least for the title character, revenge was not his defining characteristic.

Chou Tu is a force for good, protecting the abused and downtrodden. This puts him at odds with Mao, a ruthless and underhanded villain. Chou rescues the lovely Shih Szu and ends up taking her as a mate. After being murdered in an explosive ambush, Shih Szu is rescued by two comedic kung fu experts who help her to raise her baby. With Chou Tu gone, Mao fully established his power and destroyed a family who were not loyal to him. The neutral swordsman, Ling Yun, takes the baby daughter to raise while Mao grabs the family's son to raise for vengeful purposes.

Eighteen years later, Shih Szu tells her son, Chou Shu about his father's murder and how his bones are scattered amongst the treacherous villains. Shu is bent on revenge but on her deathbed his mother makes him promise to not seek revenge only to retrieve his father's bones so that she and the man she loved could be buried together. The little girl grew up to be Hsu Feng whose only desire is to destroy those who killed her family while her brother grew up to be Dorian Tan (with no kicking abilities!) who is loyal to the dastardly Mao. It doesn't take long before the new generation is set on a collision course and the bodies around them start to stack up. Though Chou Shu kept his promise there couldn't have been more death in this film had he gone on a purposeful murderous rampage.

The fights used more weapons than actual hand to hand and were more comparable to kung fu dancing than fighting. There was quite a bit of kung fu posing and conversely, sped up fights as well. Why they had Dorian "Flash Legs" Tan play a milquetoast character who only used a whip, I'll never know. His part was extremely small making it seem he might have been filming another movie and only showed up when he had time. Hsu Feng, as the sister, along with her master Ling Yun, were the two most vengeful characters though they didn't have much screen time either. Wong Ching wasn't the most menacing of evil doers and could come across as a sniveling stab you in the back guy instead. Ti Lung as an eighteen-year-old was a stretch but he did give it a good try to distinguish the two characters. Like a less vengeful Inigo Montoya it did become a bit humorous as he kept repeating to each of the numerous villains that he was not there for revenge, only to retrieve his father's bones because no sooner would he utter the words than the bodies would start dropping.

Twenty years' worth of story with numerous characters condensed into 100 minutes made it difficult to emotionally connect to anyone. The second generation had revenge and familial elements that would have made for a more gripping story had they been properly expanded on. It the story is not compelling the fights have to be dynamic and these fights were below average for a 1980 movie. The potential was there, but this was one skeletal script that fell apart.


3/13/23

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