Exact Revenge: The Eunuch & The Deadly Knives Blu-ray Review

Eureka Entertainment

Blu-ray Release: June 17, 2025

Video: 2.35:1/1080p/Color (both films)

Audio: Mandarin LPCM 2.0 Mono (both films), English LPCM 2.0 Mono (Deadly Knives only)

Subtitles: English (both films)

Run Time: 98:34 (The Eunuch), 86:36 (The Deadly Knives)

Director: Teddy Yip and Jang Il-ho

The theme of revenge reverberates across pop and exploitation cinema genres, making up a large share of cop thrillers, gangster movies, westerns, slashers, gialli, jidaigeki, and especially martial arts movies. During their dominant era of the 1960s & ‘70s, Shaw Bros. Studios thrived on revenge narratives, thanks to the wuxia and kung fu templates set by Chang Cheh, Ni Kuang, and Lau Kar-leung. These often revolved around a lone warrior or small group of fighters escaping a massacre, then training to reap retribution upon an opposing clan, faction, or school, but there were other varieties of revenge at the studio, such as Chor Yuen’s frothy, erotic melodrama Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972).

Eureka has coupled a pair of otherwise unrelated revenge-based films – Teddy Yip’s The Eunuch (1971) and Jang Il-ho’s The Deadly Knives (1972) – as part of a Blu-ray double-feature that they’re calling Exact Revenge.

The Eunuch (1971)

Eunuch Gui De-hai (Pai Ying) survives an attempt on his life ordered by the Emperor (Lo Wei). After killing the Emperor and his family in cold blood, Gui notices that the Prince is missing and sets out to complete his revenge mission. (From Eureka’s official synopsis)

Above, I credited Chang, Ni, and Lau with the Shaw brand of revenge picture, but the truth is that, at the turn of the decade, everyone was playing catch-up with Bruce Lee and writer/director Lo Wei. Wei’s The Big Boss (aka: Fist of Fury, 1971) – which was produced by Shaw rival Golden Harvest – was a massive hit that changed the trajectory of Hong Kong cinema. Assuming that the IMDb numbers are correct, The Eunuch, which Lo wrote, was released only five months before Fist of Fury. The two films ultimately have little in common outside of martial arts and revenge, but make an intriguing double-feature, because Lo approaches the theme so differently that you might not expect they were written by the same guy.

I can't exactly call The Eunuch ‘old-fashioned’ in comparison to Fist of Fury’s new-school methods, because its brand of costume drama endured for at least another decade. Still accounting for the new-school, Shaw focused on modernizing their formula, while Golden Harvest, with Lo and Lee’s help, gave audiences something new, socially unambiguous, and built it upon mano a mano kung fu, rather than traditional wuxia clashes. Indeed, even though it fills its runtime with enough twists and melodrama to keep the matinee audience engaged, The Eunuch’s script does have a mild case of the ordinaries. Director Teddy Yip keeps things simple, yet handsome, and, even though I wouldn’t call it an action movie, Simon Hsu’s wire & trampoline-assisted choreography is sufficiently bloody.

The practice of castration as a punishment and/or to secure high ranking government employment dates back at least as far back as the Qin Dynasty. Eventually, they gained substantial political power, which is what I assume led to the villainous eunuch character type in martial arts fiction. But I don’t know where the implication that their lack of manhood made them formidable or even supernaturally-endowed fighters started. King Hu’s Dragon Inn (1967) and A Touch of Zen (also 1971) are the earliest film examples I’m personally aware of, but it seems likely that the trope predates film. Perhaps this disc’s extras will clue me in.

The Deadly Knives (1972)

Two young lovers Guan Yue-hua (Ching Li) and Yan Zi-fei (Ling Yun) have their relationship tested when Yan's family comes under threat by Japanese thugs, led by Ogawa (Ching Miao). He becomes determined to avenge their honor, even if that means taking on Guan's corrupt father. (From Eureka’s official synopsis)

Lo had nothing to do with our second feature, The Deadly Knives (1972), which is funny, because it is very much inspired by Fist of Fury, from its more modern setting (it isn’t specified, but it seems to be the late 1930s) and Japanese villains to its use of kung fu and alternate US release title, Fists of Vengeance. While infused with plenty of weeping, star-crossed lovers, and other dramatic sensationalism (including a really uncomfortable masturbation fantasy and multiple sexual assaults), the plot eventually becomes a delivery system for bone-crunching fight scenes. It’s also brimming with that Fist of Fury brand of righteous jingoism, noting that the villains aren’t exclusively Japanese – some of them are traitorous Chinese people who have sold their dignity to the Japanese.

The Deadly Knives doesn’t come with a load of pedigree behind the camera. Director Jang Il-ho had a prolific career, but not one that was very well-represented outside of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, and writer Kuo-Heng Chung only has four credits to his name. However, the fight choreography is credited to Yuen Woo-Ping and his brother Yuen Cheung-Yan, who also has an acting credit alongside Yuen Shun-yi. Deadly Knives was only Woo-Ping’s third and Cheung-Yan’s sixth credits as choreographers/fight instructors, but they were already off to a strong start, including a gruelling climatic brawl.

Video

Neither film was released on official US DVD, but both were importable (without subtitles) from Hong Kong and, as is the case for most of these Celestial branded Shaw Bros. releases, Deadly Knives could be found in HD on streaming services over the last decade (I can’t find evidence of The Eunuch ever streaming). As per usual, these new 2.35:1, 1080p transfers were provided directly to Eureka by Celestial Pictures and the image quality matches the standard set for the company’s other Shaw Bros. HD masters.

The Eunuch was shot by dual cinematographer Charles Tung Jr. and Yu Chi, while The Deadly Knives was shot solo by Wu Cho-Hua. The Eunuch has the advantage in terms of color depth and rich black levels, thanks in part to several sequences being shot either outdoors or in moody lighting. The Deadly Knives is generally a softer looking movie and utilizes more of the backlot sets, which dulls the dynamic range a little bit. Both transfers have minor compression issues, but, as per usual, I only really have a problem with the slight mushiness of some textures.

Audio

Both films are presented with their original Mandarin mono dubs in uncompressed LPCM sound and The Deadly Knives has an additional English mono dub option, also in LPCM. Like the video quality, the tracks meet expectations set by similar releases. The sound is a bit crushed, but there’s very little distortion, even at high volumes. The Deadly Knives’ English dub is notably quieter than its Mandarin counterpart and the vocal performances are slightly ‘clippy.’ Chou Fu-Liang is the credited composer on both films, though all good Shaw Bros. fans know that most of the music was actually borrowed from the De Wolfe music library.

Extras

• The Eunuch commentary with Mike Leeder and Arne Venema – Casting director/stunt coordinator/producer, Leeder, and his critical companion and Neon Grindhouse: Hong Kong co-writer, Venema, bring their usual energy while discussing the careers of the cast & crew, the filming locations, the busy plot and its themes, and connections to other films. They also briefly cover the history of eunuchs in Imperial China, going beyond what I was able to find on Wikipedia while writing up my review. 

• The Deadly Knives commentary with Frank Djeng – Everyone’s favorite NY Asian Film Festival programmer flies solo this time as he explores the film’s release, the lives and wider careers of the cast & crew (including several interview anecdotes), the political themes and historical context, and connections to similar movies.

• Falling Leaves, Flying Daggers (13:27, HD) –  A new video essay by Jonathan Clements, author of A Brief History of China: Dynasty, Revolution and Transformation: From the Middle Kingdom to the People's Republic (Tuttle Publishing, 2019), who talks about the making of The Deadly Knives, its connections to Fist of Fury and other films, the meaning of its original title (Falling Leaves, Flying Daggers), and the complex web of real-world politics that led to such prominent anti-Japanese sentiment in Hong Kong action movies (including discussion of multiple films available in Eureka’s Horrible History collection).

The images on this page are taken from the BDs and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.