The Eagle Shooting Heroes (1993)

A parody of Louis Cha's renowned novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes. The story begins with the Queen of Golden Wheel Kingdom and having an affair with her cousin West Poison, both of ... See full summary »

Director:

Jeffrey Lau (as Jeff Lau)

Writers:

Louis Cha (novel), Jeffrey Lau (screenplay)

Stars:

Leslie Cheung, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung

Cast

Cast overview:
Leslie Cheung	...	HuangYao-shih
Brigitte Lin	...	Third Princess
Maggie Cheung	...	Imperial Master
Tony Chiu-Wai Leung	...	Ou-yang Feng (as Tony Chiu Wai Leung)
Tony Ka Fai Leung	...	Tuan Wang-yeh
Jacky Cheung	...	Hung Chi
Carina Lau	...	Chou Po-tung
Joey Wang	...	Wang's Sweetheart
Veronica Yip	...	Ou-yang Feng's Cousin
Kenny Bee	...	Wang Chung-yang, the Taoist

Storyline

A parody of Louis Cha's renowned novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes. The story begins with the Queen of Golden Wheel Kingdom and having an affair with her cousin West Poison, both of whom are planning to take over the Kingdom. The 3rd Princess discovered their treason but she was defeated by West Poison. She flees and sought for her master's help. He spoke of a powerful secret martial arts manual hidden in the mountains, which if she could retrieve and learn, she would be able to defeat West Poison. But things get complicated along the way when West Poison beat her to it and stole the secret manual away. She soon gathers an alliance to challenge West Poison's exponentially increased new power.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Fantasy

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Did You Know?

Trivia

In addition to a score by James Wong, the film contains a song set to the overture from Gioachino Rossini's Guillaume Tell, as well as uncredited excerpts from "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" from Georges Bizet's Carmen and Danse des petits cygnes from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

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Connections

Followed by Ashes of Time (1994)

User Reviews

I Didn't See Any Eagles, So I Don't Know Who Was Shooting Whom

This comedy from Jeffrey Lau is supposed to be a parody of Louis Cha's novel. When it comes to the plot, it's impossible to synopsize, but that's not a problem, because it's really about people acting in silly fashions, mockery of normative and romantic sexual relationships, and Sammo Hung's comedic fight choreography. A lot of it seems to be modeled on the Three Stooges.

There are comedies in which no one does anything funny. It's simply that things turn out well, according to the classical distinction between Comus and Momus. Then there are a lot of comedies in which people do lots of funny stuff, until someone says "This is all well and good, but we're ignoring the story." So they stop being funny to show us how things turn out well according to the classical distinctions between etc. and the change in tone makes me yawn. The boy gets the girl? Well, I'm glad you told me. Sorry I nodded off there.

This movie works at keeping you laughing through the end. Some of the boys get some of the girls and some of the boys get the boys in the next life, when it will be all right, and some of the boys get to go to Heaven, even if they don't get the girls, so that's all right too. And the baddies get their butts kicked. Is it a well told tale? No. But it was funny through the end.

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Release Date:

5 February 1993 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Eagle Shooting Heroes

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$311,461

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jet Tone Production, Scholar Films Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1