Clan Feuds is a 1981 Shaw Brothers martial arts film directed by Chang Peng-yi, starring Ti Lung, Sun Chien and Lo Meng.
Based on the Gu Long novel of the same name, set in the warring clans of the Song Dynasty, two lovers on opposing sides, the swordsman Yun Keng and swordswoman Leng Qing Shuang are forced to be on the run. Tie Zhong Tang (Ti Lung), an enforcer and elite assassin, is assigned to kill Yun Keng, his close friend, but ultimately Tie Zhong-tang decides to fake Yun Keng's death and help the lovers escape instead. Yun Keng's brother, Yun Zheng (Lo Meng), falsely believes his brother is dead and desires to have Tie Zhong-tang killed to avenge his brother, and soon enough Tie Zhong-tang and Yun Zheng find themselves fighting side-by-side against the clan who wants both of them dead.
There is a remake in the form of a TV series, released in 2018.
Clan Feuds contains examples of:
- Cloth Fu: The all-female bodyguard team attacks Tie Zhong-tang using long ribbons as well as their sashes and robes, in an attempt to ensnare him. He simply turns their weapons and use their sashes to tie them up.
- Deadly Dodging: The banquet scene has Tie Zhong-tang dodging a poisoned needle flung at him, which ends up in the neck of a Giant Mook.
- Decapitation Presentation: Yun Feng, the brother of Yun Zheng, had his head removed and displayed on a flagpole early in the film.
- Defeat by Modesty: When fighting Leng Qing-ping's legion of female bodyguards, Tie Zhong-tang takes them down by ripping off the sleeves of their puffy dresses, exposing their bare shoulders and forcing them to back off.
- Facial Horror: The Day Empress has the right half of her face badly and permanently burnt due to an incident in the past. Seen here
. - Fur and Loathing: Tie Zhong-tang wears a magnificent cape lined with fur as part of his attire.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Right at the start of the movie, an unfortunate victim used as the scapegoat for Yun Zheng's execution ends up getting pulled apart into chunks by horses.
- One-Man Army: The three best swordfighters, Tie Zhong Tang, Sun Chien and Yun Zheng can kick plenty of ass all by themselves, killing between thirty to fifty each throughout the film's runtime.
- Pressure Point: Tie Zhong-tang when fighting Lady Shui uses this method to subdue her non-fatally, paralyzing her with a tap on her neck and taking her enchanted box while giving her a smirk.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: The swordsman Yun Keng and swordswoman Leng Qing Shuang are star-lovers from two opposing martial arts clans locked in a generations-old feud. To make matters worse, Qing-shuang is pregnant with Yun Keng's child.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Tie Zhong-tang kills plenty of faceless mooks which are all males, but when fighting the all-female team of bodyguards the worse he did to them is to tie them up with their own robes and leave them trapped without hurting or killing them.
- You and What Army?: Yun Zheng's attempt to intimidate the Leng clan's mansion early in the film ends up like this.Yun Zheng: "If you have the guts, then come out and fight like a man! I'm not afraid of you and I WILL tear this place to the ground if you refuse! Come on!"[cue around twenty mooks under the Leng clan suddenly showing up and surrounding Yun Zheng]
