The Eagle-Shooting Hero

Toronto International Film Festival Program Book
1994

The Eagle-Shooting Hero
Jeff Lau
Hong Kong, 1994
100 minutes Colour/35mm
Production Company: Jet Tone Production Co. Ltd.
Executive Producer: Wong Kar-wai
Producer: Cai Songlin
Screenplay: Jeff Lau
Cinematography: Peter Pau
Editor: Hai Kit-wai
Martial Arts Director: Sammo Hung
Art Director: William Chang
Music: James Wong
Principal Cast: Leslie Cheung, Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia, Tony Leung Kar-fai, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Karina Lau, Jacky Cheung, Kenny Bee, Veronica Ip

The princess discovers the plot of the Queen and her lover, West Poison, to take over the Empire. Defeated by the pair and disowned by her jealous god-sister, she flees to seek help from her martial arts master, who is killed by a Golden Rocket Boot dropped by the Court Consultant. With the help of East Evil, she seeks the Nine Ying Kung-Fu Book to help her avenge her master’s death and reclaim her kingdom. Bitten by a snake on the way, she retires to a hostel where she meets South Emperor, who was once her fiancé, the honest but confused North Beggar, and the strange Chow Op-Tong. South Emperor falls for East Evil and West Poison fights North Beggar and the Princess is captured by West Poison then freed by South Emperor, just returned from heaven. The Princess and East Evil marry and the god-sister snags the still-confused North Beggar. Got that?

King Hu’s sixties flying swordsman movies, so successfully revived by Tsui Hark in the eighties, are for many the greatest cultural contribution made by the Hong Kong cinema. In this demented send-up, Jeff Lau, who did serious damage to the masked thriller genre in '92 The Legendary La Rose Noire (although his name was removed from the film), assembles an all-star cast—including Leslie Cheung, Brigitte Lin Chiang-hsia, both Tony Leungs (Kar-fai and Chiu-wai), Jacky Cheung and Maggie Cheung—to out-do Hu. Combatants in insanely colourful costumes duel at quadruple-speed. Mad sorceresses shove lizards down unsuspecting throats. Disembodied heads, deliriously in love, race down corridors. All of it at breakneck speed and vastly entertaining. With its thousands of in-jokes and hilarious references, The Eagle-Shooting Hero could well be the most accomplished piece of PoMo culture crunch ever made. But its greatest success is that it will thrill the first-timer as much as the truly obsessed.
—Noah Cowan