"Hidden death! Unmasked terror! In a new kung fu style!"
Masked Avengers is a 1981 Shaw Brothers martial arts film directed by Chang Cheh and starring Phillip Kwok, Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, Chu Ko, Chin Siu-Ho and Wang Li.
The Masked Gang are terrorizing the countryside by killing wantonly. A group of martial artists are sent to take them down.
This film contains examples of:
- Arch-Enemy: Number One of the Masked Gang has an archenemy in Gao Yi, a former member who quit out of disgust and now opposes him.
- Big Bad: Lin Yung Chi leads the Masked Gang.
- Booby Trap: The Masked Gang's lair is full of traps.
- Broken Faceplate: Breaking off the Masked Gang leader's facemasks reveals their true identity.
- Defector from Decadence: Gao was originally the Number Two of the gang, but he quit when Ling had a girl gang-raped.
- Dilating Door: The inner chamber of the Masked Gang's lair is accessible through one of these, activated by pushing a lever. It needs to be pressed on at all times to remain open, however, as one of the redshirts find out after getting crushed by the closing door.
- Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: Every major character demonstrates some martial arts ability.
- Hate Sink: Lin Yung Chi originally seems like a mere rich Jerkass who refuses to help the heroes out of laziness. As it turns out he's secretly the leader of the Masked Gang, whom he sends to kill people For the Evulz. He soon after starts picking off the heroes in incredibly painful ways, slaughtering the majority in his Booby Trap-filled lair. Lin even disgusts his former Number Two, who left the organization after he ordered a woman gang-raped.
- Human Pincushion:
- Several victims of the Masked Gang are executed by having multiple tridents flung and pierced into their bodies.
- The Masked Gang's lairs have hidden arrow-launchers built in the walls, which more than one redshirt ends up getting skewered by dozens of arrows.
- The very, very much well-deserved final fate of Lin Yung-chi, in an attempt to skewer all his opponents at once, he ends up getting grabbed and rendered immobile, before having seven tridents going through his torso, limbs, and guts.
- Hunting the Rogue: The film's Sixth Ranger is Gao Yi, formerly the second-in-command of the Masked Gang, who quit his organization after witnessing the gang's leader and the Big Bad, Lin Yung-Chi, ordering a young woman who is the Sole Survivor of a family massacre to be gang-raped. For most of the film, Gao-Yi is hiding from killers sent by the Masked Gang, his former allies, until he joins a band of warriors dedicated to overthrowing the dreaded Masked Gang.
- Kick the Dog: Number One of the Masked Gang is shown in flashback to have abducted a guy, tortured him to death, and ordered his sister gang raped. This disgusts his Dragon enough for him to quit the gang and pull a Heel–Face Turn.
- Malevolent Masked Men: The Masked Gang got their name by wearing monster masks.
- The Mole: Liang is really Number Two of the Masked Gang.
- Non-Indicative Name: The guys in the masks aren't the ones doing the avenging. They're the ones having vengeance wrought upon them.
- Professional Killer: The Masked Gang slay people for money.
- Sadist: Lin Yung Chi started an assassins' guild despite not needing the money, and one time decided to have a woman raped by his men for no real reason.
