When the master of the Iron Flag Clan and the rival Eagles group’s leader have been killed by the mysterious Spearman. The secret is that he has been hired by Iron Tiger (Feng Lu, Centipede from Five Deadly Venoms), who has allowed Iron Panther (Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok, Lizard from Five Deadly Venoms) to take the rap — even though the Iron Flag are known for being virtuous protectors of decency. Iron Tiger promises to send him money so he can be released, but the money never comes. What does happen is that multiple assassins are seeking to kill Iron Panther and in a surprise, the Spearman saves him.

The Spearman did kill the master, but was tricked into doing so. And now, Chow Feng leads not only the Iron Flag Clan, but their mortal enemies the Eagles. No, not with Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit.

Now, Iron Panther and his brother Iron Monkey (Sheng Chiang, Crippled Avengers) are about to get revenge. Yet to battle the Ten Killers of the Underworld, they’re going to have to team with the Spearman.

Chang Cheh also directed Chinatown Kid, The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, Shaolin Temple and so many other incredible martial arts films. Here, he introduces flag fighting to the form and wow, the battles in this are fascinating. They’re also quite gory with blood spraying everywhere and flags piercing evildoers.

The 88 Films blu ray release of Flag of Iron looks so great and comes in a package that I keep taking off my shelf and staring at, so excited that I own such a dynamic piece of art and a film that I’m sure I’ll come back to several times. It features a high definition 1080p presentation of the film with English and Mandarin (newly translated English subtitles) dialogue, as well as audio commentary by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. The first run slipcase has art by Robert “Kung Fu Bob” O’Brien and comes with a booklet and poster. You can order it from MVD or Diabolik DVD.