The film was co directed by Yeung Jing Chan and Ching-Chen Yang it is the latter's directoral debut. Ching-Chen Yang would later go on to direct 18 Fatal Strikes which is a personal favorite.
The film revolves around Lung Yu (Roc Tien) and Lei Chi (Yuan Yi) two brothers whose father runs a prominent kung fu school after they are born the two brothers are being given ceremonial tattoos when they are separated as a kung fu clan led by the father's rival Yu Kay kills their father and destroys his school. The movie then jumps forward 20 years and Lung Yu has become an expert at iron palm kung fu under the training of his father's friend who saved Lung the day the school was destroyed. After his training is complete he sets out to seek revenge on Yu Kay for killing his parents but first he must defeat his bodyguards trained in the art of Karate one of whom is his brother Lei Chi!!!
Revenge films were made popular by Bruce Lee's film Fist of Fury aka The Chinese Connection (1972) in which Bruce Lee must avenge his master by taking out a neighboring school responsible for his death. To Subdue the Evil was released a year before Fist of Fury making it a pioneer of the sub-genre. That didn't stop the distributors from cashing in on the Brucesploitation craze with this film. The Spanish version of this film was released much later presumably after Bruceploitation had taken off and the plot for the dubbed version was changed entirely. The two twins were made to be the sons of Bruce Lee and Bruce's name is dropped throughout the film. I prefer the Spanish dub because I'm a sucker for Bruceploitation and because the dialog is much more fitting. For example in one scene Roc Tien's character has been trailing one of the bodyguards protecting Yu Kay, he finally reveals himself before a badass showdown with the villain. The bodyguard asks "Who are you?" and in the English version he says "None of your business." but in the Spanish version he loudly exclaims "Soy tu muerte!!!" (I am your death!!!). The fact that the whole movie was given a new dub and the plot was changed dramatically just to cash in on Bruce Lee's fame is very amusing to me.
The fight instructor is Ngan Yuk Lung and he makes heavy use of wires and impossible acrobatics. Right from the beginning during Lung Yu's training we see impossible backflips as Roc Tien flies through the air with relative ease. I really enjoyed the wire-fu in this one, it made for some really zany choreography but it wasn't overused as the majority of the fighting is your standard punch and block fight sequences.
This is a fun film which has a pretty standard plot and can be enjoyed without much thought. I recommend having a couple beers with this one and enjoying it for what it is without judging it too harshly. It's not a masterpiece by any means and at times it's kinda all over the place but it's definately entertaining!
The English dub DVD is available at Far East Flicks one of my favorite sites for custom kung fu DVDs,
The Spanish dub has been posted to youtube in it's entirety.
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