Director: Park Yun-Gyo
Co-director: Godfrey Ho
Cast: Hwang Jang-Lee, Gwak Mu-Seong, Sarah Sit Chi-Lin, Nam Chung-Il, Chiu Chun, Kim Yu-Haeng, Pok Chung-Sit, Choe Mu-Ung, Kim Gi-Jong
Running Time: 95 min.
By Paul Bramhall
If there’s one aspect of the kung fu world that’s more deadly than any secret technique, it’s the IFD Films distributed kung fu movie. Virtually every readily available Korean kung fu movie from the 70’s and 80’s is likely to be viewed in the form of the IFD (or Asso Asia) version, a distribution label helmed by Tomas Tang and Joseph Lai. The pairs modus operandi was to take these kung fu flicks, reconfigure the plot (usually in its entirety) via an English dub, re-edit and cut like it’s going out of fashion (and occasionally even throw in scenes from different movies all together), and finally create new opening credits that replace whoever the original director was with their buddy Godfrey Ho.
The 1980 production Eagle vs. Silver Fox is about as classic an example of this as you can get. Not only do we get all of the above, but there’s also an element of Silver Fox-sploitation thrown in with the title, named after the villain of the piece played by Hwang Jang Lee. It was the role of Silver Fox in 1976’s Secret Rivals that put Jang Lee on the map, and on a couple of occasions the name would be resurrected in an attempt to make a movie more marketable. 1979’s Rivals of the Silver Fox was the first to use this approach, also a slice of Korean kung fu, although Continue reading
3 Comments