Five Deadly Venoms

Five Venoms

Hong Kong theatrical poster
Traditional 五毒
Simplified 五毒
Mandarin Wŭ Dú
Cantonese Ng5 Duk6
Directed by Chang Cheh
Produced by Runme Shaw
Written by Ni Kuang
Chang Cheh
Starring Chiang Sheng
Sun Chien
Philip Kwok
Lo Mang
Wei Pei
Lu Feng
Wang Lung-wei
Ku Feng
Music by Frankie Chan
Cinematography Cho Wai Kei
Kung Mu To
Edited by Chiang Hsing Lung
Production
company
Distributed by Shaw Brothers Studio
Release dates
  • 12 August 1978
Running time
 98 minutes
Country Hong Kong
Language Mandarin
Box office HK$1,814,610

Five Venoms ('五毒' – Cantonese: Mm Dook) aka Five Deadly Venoms is a cult 1978 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Chang Cheh, starring the Venom Mob, and produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio, about five kung-fu fighters with unique animal styles: The Centipede, The Snake, The Scorpion, The Lizard and The Toad. The film was listed at number 11 on Entertainment Weekly's Top 50 Cult Films list.[1][2]

Plot

The dying master of the powerful Poison Clan dispatches his last pupil, Yang Tieh, on a crucial mission. Worried that the skills he has taught are being used to evil ends, he orders Yan to trace a retired colleague and warn him that the fortune he amassed from the clan's activities is under threat from five of his former pupils, each an expert in his own lethal combat style. Yang must discover the whereabouts and true identities of these masked warriors, and decide which, if any, he can trust to join him in his mission. The 5 pupils are Centipede,Snake,Scorpion,Lizard,and Toad.

The Centipede and The Snake came to the Yun house to get the money, but they never got the money, They murdered the chinese family including an Bookkeeper Yuan and the witness seen the Centipede at the scene of the crime. After the centipede got arrested and charged with murder,The Scorpion who wears a mask tells the Snake to frame the Toad.The judge sends the Lizard away on government business.The Snake paid the officer to make the witness commit perjury,The Toad got framed by the witness by telling the judge that he seen the toad at the scene of the crime. The Toad was drugged by the officer in the jail cell, The Toad was executed and The Centipede was free and acquitted from the murder charge.The officer suffocated the Toad and hangs him in the cell. The Centipede and Snake killed the witness and the officer. Two chinese men in the restaurant tell the Lizard what happened to the Toad while he was gone. The Lizard and Yang practice the techniques on how to defeat The Snake.Yang and The Lizard took matters into their own hands by fighting 3 pupils,The Centipede,Snake,and The Scorpion.The Snake was defeated by The Scorpion's damaging kick.The two pupils were defeated by Yang and The Lizard,and they got the map of the money.

Styles

Each of the Poison Clan is alternatively referred to as either their venom style code name, or as their number in regard to the order of being taught by the master (except Yan, who is never referred to as "Number 6" and is knowledgeable in all 5 animal styles). Among fans, he is known as "Hybrid Venom," as his training contains a little bit of each of the five styles, but it is incomplete, and he must align with one of the venoms to stand a chance against any of the others.

Number 1: Centipede Wriggly and quick, this style is a nice blend of defensive and offensive posturing. The strikes are so fast that it is almost as if he has a hundred arms and legs. The weakness of this style as revealed by Yan Tieh (told by his master) is to attack both the opponent's upper and lower body in a simultaneous assault.

Number 2: Snake On one hand: the mouth, venomous fangs emulated in precise finger motor control. On the other: the stinging whip of a rattling tail. Masters of this ability can even fight extremely well while lying on their back from the floor. The weakness of this style as revealed by Yan Tieh (told by his master) is to stop the "head" and "tail" (the opponent's two arms) from combining, as neither the head nor tail can function well individually.

Number 3: Scorpion The scorpion represents a double threat. Kicks from the Scorpion style are just like the stinging tail of the namesake. When delivered by a master, a single kick can paralyse or even kill, let alone the strong pincer-style attack of the arms to contend with. The weakness in this style is not clearly revealed as Yan Tieh is cut off from his explanation but one can assume (by watching The Scorpion in his bout with Yan Tieh and The Lizard) that it would be to stay out of reach of The Scorpion's damaging kicks and make him come to you.

Number 4: Lizard An emphasis on speed and gravity, the Lizard style is best known for the ability to walk on walls, and can fight with ease from such positions.

Number 5: Toad This is a primarily defensive pose. The Toad is invulnerable to just about any form of damage, including blades and puncture. They can even bend solid metal. The weakness of this style is that any master of the Toad style has a "weak spot" that when punctured, drains the user's Toad style benefits (most notably the iron skin.) Number 5's weak spot were his ears as shown in his fight with The Snake, when The Scorpion secretly struck his ears with his darts. Some thought the way to discover the weak spot in one's Toad style is to use an iron maiden. But when Number 5 was first placed in the iron maiden, he was impervious to the needles. The iron maiden's needles only penetrated the Toad after the Scorpion and Snake exploited his weak spot, the ears, with darts and a snake strike.

Cast

Cultural references

DVD release

The film received a DVD release by the Weinstein Company's Asian label, Dragon Dynasty, on 18 August 2009.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Top 50 Cult Movies". Filmsite.org. 23 May 2003. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  2. ↑ "Entertainment Weekly's Top 50 Cult Movies". Listology. 23 June 2009. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  3. ↑ "The Quentin Tarantino Archives". Tarantino.info. 12 September 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2011.

External links