Vengeance! 1970

“Zhang Che made the transition from the swordplay subgenre with this ultra-violent revenge drama set against the backdrop of early 20th-century China. David Jiang Dawei and Di Long – Zhang’s preferred pairing of heroes throughout the 1970s – appear here in their first film together. Di Long plays a dignified Beijing Opera performer whose murder at the hands of a corrupt local cabal launches his mysterious white-suited brother – a relentless, wraithlike Jiang – down the path of bloody retribution. Vengeance! heralded the rise of 70s kung fu and radically revised narrative and stylistic templates at the Shaw Brothers studio. A somber, tragic paean to male honor, Vengeance! is energized by Zhang’s unfailingly inventive representation of violence. Zhang combines expressive widescreen camera angles, dynamic editing and breathtaking use of slow motion to forge a stylized depiction of mayhem unrivalled outside Peckinpah’s valedictory Westerns.” — Jesse Zigelstein, Heroic Grace, The Chinese Martial Arts Film