|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
Even if deemed a criminal by the police, the Red Eagle was always a
fighter for justice & righteousness ... but that was long ago, now the
Rome (Mitr Chaibuncha), the Red Eagle in civilian life, has seized his
career of crimefighting & decided to lead a quiet life with his love
Vasana (Petchara Chaowarat) - but then a new Red Eagle (Kanchit
Kwanpracha) pops up, & he is a killer.
To find out who's behind this new Red Eagle, Rome on one hand plays the
role of the drunkard who always shows up at the wrong places to
perfection, on the other hand he takes on the guise of Golden Eagle, &
starts his investigations at Jiew tong's nightclub, where he soon frees a
girl, Rachanaj, & secures the help of Jiew Tong's own niece, Benja.
Rachanaj soon hides out at Vasana's place, where Rome can question her
as himself, not disclosing his Golden Eagle identity, & learns that
she & her father, an army admiral, have been taken hostage by an
organisation that plans to turn Thailand into a communist country ...
Meanwhile, police captain Chart also goes onto an undercover operation
to find out who's behind Jiew Tong's gang, in drag, disguised as a
prostitute, but as you might imagine, that plan has the potential to
backfire, & it does & in the end it's only thanks to Golden Eagle
that he's saved. Still, he tries to arrest Golden Eagle after that ...
& has to be knocked out in a fight by Golden Eagle.
Bakin (Ob Boontid), the man behind Jiew Tong's oprganisation & the
head villain of the movie, takes Rachanaj hostage again, & despite the
objections of Jiew Tong, brainwashes Benja to lure Golden Eagle into a
trap ... & Golden Eagle falls for it too, & is only saved by
Vasana in the nick of time.
But at this operation, Benja has given away Bakin's headquarters, so
soon Golden Eagle calls the police (even if they don't like him) & he
& the cops attack the place, resulting in massive shoot-outs, &
Golden Eagle can overcome the fake Red Eagle.
But then he has to put his wits against Bakin, & Bakin seems to
have quite some supernatural powers: he knows the secrets of hypnotism,
can create illusions to throw off his enemies, he can't be hurt by
bullets, & he can split up into several manifestations of himself - an
opponent that is virtually impossible to defeat ... but Bakin makes one
fatal mistake, he gives away a hint that whoever wants to kill him has to
destroy his heart ... & since his heart is obviously not in his body
(or one of his bodies), it has to be ... in a safe in his office - which
is where Golden Eagle finds & destroys it.
But when the police comes after him to arrest Golden Eagle, Rome has
already shed the Golden outfit & given it to a knocked out cop to
throw everybody off track, & finally makes good his escape, in his
traditional Red Eagle-outfit, hanging from a ladder of a helicopter which
Vasana flies ...
... & in real life, this last stunt, though looking rather
unspectacular on screen & having little to do withthe actual story,
did cost lead actor Mitr Chaibuncha, the single most successful Thai-actor
of the 1960's his life when he eventually lost his grip on the ladder ...
You might have guessed it, Golden Eagle, the last film of a
series of Red Eagle-films, is no geat, intellectual film,
it's a rather traditional superhero story done on a low budget, that owes
more than a bit to American serials from the 1930's & 40's, &
leaves hardly any pulp cliché untouched. That said however, Golden
Eagle can be seen as innocent fun, where budgetary restrictions &
at best so-so special effects can't hamper the filmmakers fascination for
their subject & their pulp story, a fascination that is transmitted to
a receptive audience. Of course you mustn't take this film seriously,
otherwise you'll probably hate it.
|