The Five Venoms (1979)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Simply A Masterpiece

Must See Movie...

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

As someone whose first martial arts films were slick movies like Rush Hour and Kiss of the Dragon, I've found most early martial arts movies unwatchable schlock. But I heard this was cult classic and that it had an unusually solid story for the genre - a mystery no less! - so I thought I'd check it out.On the bright side, the dubbing is better and the acting and story better done than other films I've seen from this period. But that's a very low bar.The convoluted story involves a rich man and some ne'er-do-wells, and the "mystery," people talk about involves figuring out who's who, but it's not a mystery as I think of them and the story, such as it is, is told through clunky, matter-of-fact dialogue.There not much martial arts in the early part. There's a tedious bit of showcasing a variety of styles then about a half an hour of "plot" before the next fight. This fight is like watching a high-school martial arts exhibition with sound effects and some acrobatics thrown in. And this movie came out THE SAME YEAR AS DRUNKEN MASTER, whose amazing fights made up for the horrible schlockiness of everything else. After that I decided I would just skip to the end of the movie and see how the final battle was. It was about the same; too dull to even sit through.I will never get why people like this sort of thing.

I recognised this Chinese film as one of the titles that used to feature in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so I keen to see if I would agree with this recommendation. Basically the dying old master of powerful Poison Clan and head of Five Venoms House (Dick Wei) sends his last pupil, Yang Tieh (Sheng Chiang) on a crucial mission to find five former students. The students, the Five Venoms as they were known, were each taught unique, special and deadly styles of kung fu, they are the Centipede, the Snake, the Scorpion, the Lizard, and the Toad. Each have now changed their identities, the master never saw them remove their masks during training, so he has no idea what they look like, and some of the five students also don't know each other. Yang is tasked with finding them and seeing what they are doing now, he knows little about each style of kung fu, but he eventually finds two of the good students, Lizard (Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok) and Scorpion (Chien Sun), they must work together to destroy the students that have become evil, Snake (Pai Wei), Toad (Liang Shen) and Centipede (Feng Lu). Also starring Lung Wei Wang as Judge Wan, Feng Ku as Old Master Yuan and Shu Pei Sun as Constable Lin Kuang. The story is just about simple enough to follow, there are some sections when it slows down, but the training and fight scenes, filled with superhero style gimmicks and very high pace, are the most memorable moments, overall it's not a bad martial arts adventure. Worth watching!

My all time favorite Kung-Fu movie! Why someone has not made a remake of this classic is mind boggling to me. I hated they chose Toad-Style to die because he was the best all around character. He was good, Innocent, trusting & almost invincible. They could make five movies based on each one's life then culminating in an epic final movie just a thought. The other style that I mostly liked was of course Snake-Style. The overall look of the actor made the character awesome. Also the fact he helped the good side in the end was most honorable & inspiring. The fight scenes are awesome even with old school sound effects. This movie has one of the best story lines of any Martial arts movie ever made. It will leave you wanting more as the ending is abrupt. If anyone knows how to get a director/producer on board for remaking this classic then please do so. Peace...

A dying Kung Fu master sends out his last student in order to track down what happened to the previous five students who were members of the banned Poison Clan.He is to see if they are acting for good and if not he his to stop them The master also wants the student to find another member of the clan who ran off with the clans money which the master wants used for good. The earlier students were all taught in a different style snake, centipede, scorpion, lizard, toad, while the last student was taught a little in each style. All of the students end up in one town looking for the old man with all of the money,and soon everyone is battling to get the money.Classic martial arts film has title that even many non-fans know. I've spoken with a couple of casual fans and this seems to be the one film that sticks in their head. Its a very good movie, though I'm not really sure why this film stays with people when for my money there are other films that are better from the Shaw studio (One armed Swordmen or the Brave Archer series for example). This isn't to sell the film short, its not, since the film is structured like a mystery, our hero has no clue who anyone is and the Venoms themselves only know at best who two of the others is. We're given the identity of four but we still have to work out who the fifth really is. The film is also odd in that for a martial arts film, other than a training sequence at the start and the killing of the old man and his family for the money, there is really no action for about 40 or 45 minutes. Its a bold move to do it but it pays off since the plot and the performances hold your attention. (The film is also odd in that its the first martial arts film I think I've ever seen where there are no women. I don't think one has a speaking role and I'm pretty sure that none appear in the background. Its indicative of nothing, its just something that struck me.) This is a good solid little film that may not live up to the reputation it has in some circles, but is still a really good film to curl up with on your couch.Around 7 out of 10.