Tiger Love
Encyclopedia
Tiger Love is a 1977
Hong Kong
martial art film
produced by Kan Yeung Film Company.
In its theatrical and DVD releases, the film has been under several different titles: Le Jeune tigre du kung fu (French), Kung Fu Zombie vs. Tigerkralle (German), Legend of the Tiger, The Tiger Love, Tiger's Kong Fu, Tiger's Love, Todesschrei der Tigerkralle (German), Ren Hu Lian (Cantonese), and Tiger Love. The film has passed into public domain
and can be found on several martial arts film compilations produced by Mill Creek Entertainment
.
For twenty years Shinlian lives in the valley with the tiger and raises her son Xiaochang. By observing and imitating the movements of his ‘uncle’ tiger Xiaochang learns a tiger-like style of martial arts. Watching him practice his mother realizes he is becoming a man and tells him the story of his father. Curious he returns to the village where he is confronted and attacked by the townspeople because of his strange leopard-skin clothing. After a short fight with several villagers he is confronted by a man that he discovers is his father.
When his father discovers his wife is still alive he goes with his new wife to the valley to invite her to return to the village. She states that she has become accustomed to life in the forest and cannot leave uncle tiger, but urges them to take Xiaochang so he can live among other people.
One day Xiaochang stumbles upon a tiger hunt by the Shi family, his mother’s family and the sworn enemy of his father’s family. Xiaochang jokingly ‘captures’ and becomes enchanted by his cousin, Xiaoling. She informs him to leave before he is seen by her family.
At a local restaurant Xiaochang overhears that the Shi family is having a party to celebrate the hunt and decides to go to see Xiaoling. Pulling her away from the crowd he reveals his feelings for her and she returns them but says their love is impossible because of the feud between their two families. Xiaoling’s suitor in the Shi family then discovers the couple and starts a brawl with Xiaochang in which one Xiaoling’s brother is killed.
Both Xiaochang and Xiaoling’s familis then forbid them to see one another again. Upon learning of the death in their family, the Shi’s attack the Ling family in force killing several people including Xiaochang’s father. This leads to a counter attack by Ling family in which several more people die.
When Shinlian goes to her family to try and stop the violence she is wounded by Xiaoling’s suitor. Before she dies she tells her son he also a member of the Shi family and he must end the war.
Seeing Shinlian die uncle tiger kills a night watchman in anger. He reveals that for the past twenty years he had not killed, but that this is the one-hundredth person. He states that with this killing that when the moon is out he can transform into a demon in the shape of an old woman and hunt down the Shi family, which he proceeds to do.
In the end only Xiaochang and Xiaoling are left alive. They eventually kill uncle tiger by pouring boiling oil over his demon form.
Hong Kong films of 1977
This is a list of films produced in Hong Kong in 1977.-1977:-External links:* * Hong Kong films of 1977 at...
Hong Kong
Cinema of Hong Kong
The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China, and the cinema of Taiwan...
martial art film
Martial arts film
Martial arts film is a film genre. A sub-genre of the action film, martial arts films contain numerous fights between characters, usually as the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often as a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts are frequently...
produced by Kan Yeung Film Company.
In its theatrical and DVD releases, the film has been under several different titles: Le Jeune tigre du kung fu (French), Kung Fu Zombie vs. Tigerkralle (German), Legend of the Tiger, The Tiger Love, Tiger's Kong Fu, Tiger's Love, Todesschrei der Tigerkralle (German), Ren Hu Lian (Cantonese), and Tiger Love. The film has passed into public domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
and can be found on several martial arts film compilations produced by Mill Creek Entertainment
Mill Creek Entertainment
Mill Creek Entertainment is a home entertainment company that manufactures movie and television DVD compilation box sets at "value" prices. Nashville's Amity Entertainment is an affiliate to Mill Creek...
.
Plot
After eloping a young couple is confronted at the edge of a cliff by the bride’s father who wishes her to marry her cousin. When she refuses the father’s henchmen attack and overpower the husband Lin Xiaohou. Believing her husband to be dead the young woman, pregnant with her husband’s child, throws herself off of the cliff. Landing in a tree branch, the woman, named Shi Shinlian survives the fall and awakes to find a tiger beneath the tree. The fright causes Shinlian to wet herself which she later discovers brings the tiger under her spell.For twenty years Shinlian lives in the valley with the tiger and raises her son Xiaochang. By observing and imitating the movements of his ‘uncle’ tiger Xiaochang learns a tiger-like style of martial arts. Watching him practice his mother realizes he is becoming a man and tells him the story of his father. Curious he returns to the village where he is confronted and attacked by the townspeople because of his strange leopard-skin clothing. After a short fight with several villagers he is confronted by a man that he discovers is his father.
When his father discovers his wife is still alive he goes with his new wife to the valley to invite her to return to the village. She states that she has become accustomed to life in the forest and cannot leave uncle tiger, but urges them to take Xiaochang so he can live among other people.
One day Xiaochang stumbles upon a tiger hunt by the Shi family, his mother’s family and the sworn enemy of his father’s family. Xiaochang jokingly ‘captures’ and becomes enchanted by his cousin, Xiaoling. She informs him to leave before he is seen by her family.
At a local restaurant Xiaochang overhears that the Shi family is having a party to celebrate the hunt and decides to go to see Xiaoling. Pulling her away from the crowd he reveals his feelings for her and she returns them but says their love is impossible because of the feud between their two families. Xiaoling’s suitor in the Shi family then discovers the couple and starts a brawl with Xiaochang in which one Xiaoling’s brother is killed.
Both Xiaochang and Xiaoling’s familis then forbid them to see one another again. Upon learning of the death in their family, the Shi’s attack the Ling family in force killing several people including Xiaochang’s father. This leads to a counter attack by Ling family in which several more people die.
When Shinlian goes to her family to try and stop the violence she is wounded by Xiaoling’s suitor. Before she dies she tells her son he also a member of the Shi family and he must end the war.
Seeing Shinlian die uncle tiger kills a night watchman in anger. He reveals that for the past twenty years he had not killed, but that this is the one-hundredth person. He states that with this killing that when the moon is out he can transform into a demon in the shape of an old woman and hunt down the Shi family, which he proceeds to do.
In the end only Xiaochang and Xiaoling are left alive. They eventually kill uncle tiger by pouring boiling oil over his demon form.
Cast
- Hu Chin
- Lo LiehLo LiehLo Lieh was a Hong Kong actor in martial arts films. His real name is Wang Lap Tat. After his parents sent him back to China he attended acting school in Hong Kong. He began his martial arts training in 1962 and joined the Shaw Brothers Studio in the same year and went on to become one of the...
- Wang YaWang YaWang Ya , courtesy name Guangjin , formally Duke of Dai , was an official of the Chinese dynasty Tang Dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reigns of Emperor Xianzong and Emperor Xianzong's grandson Emperor Wenzong...
- Hsia Chih-mo
- Stephen Tung Wei (aka Stephen Tung Wai).
Reception
When looking at the 1980 DVD release, So Good Hong Kong DVD Reviews wrote that the opening scenes of Tiger Love were bordering on "perverse and disturbing" in its suggestion that Hu Chin was impregnated by a tiger, but that the film was then seen to be "nothing more than another martial arts entry" that was dull for its lack of decent choreography. The review finished by noting the director made the final 20 minutes more entertaining when a switch was made to a horror format as the "titular" tiger sought revenge.External links
- Tiger Love at the Hong Kong Movie DatabaseHong Kong Movie DatabaseThe Hong Kong Movie DataBase is a bilingual website that was created in 1995 by Ryan Law to provide a repository for information about movies originating from Hong Kong and the people that created them....
- Tiger Love at the Online-Filmdatenbank (German)
- Tiger Love at Hong Kong Cinemagic
- http://www.publicdomaintorrents.com/nshowmovie.html?movieid=450 Screen shots from the movie Tiger Love