Legend of the Fox (1980)
Chin Siu Ho plays a young man who believes himself to be an orphan. Until one rainy night when he and three different men find themselves taking shelter from the storm in the same place. Here the man who raised him tells him at last the story of who his parents were. His father (Lu Feng) was a great swordsman trying to dispel rumors of a wrongdoing and return a lost sword to its rightful owner. Kuo Choi and Chiang Sheng (also master swordsmen) are the parties that Lu Feng is trying to rectify things with. Through cowardly trickery on Chiang's part, a duel ensues and it all winds up with Lu's death. His son is taken to safety by a servant (the man who since raised him). Now with the truth told, Chin Siu Ho seeks out Kuo Choi's aid and seeks vengeance for the wrongful death of his father.
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good back-story, and good acting
Brilliant and touching
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
This is Chang Cheh what can I say. If your familiar with Shaw Brother films this one entertains for sure. You get submerged into a two hour journey of poisons and powders. They even smash their swords together in pretty decent fight sequences.I'm always amazed the way they come up with these species of flowers and the poisons they produce. And of course when poisoned by these flowers you have creative results.The moods and settings in this film are perfect. You always feel like your in this enchanted land where you can't trust anyone or anything around you. Awesome! There is some lesser known stars in the cast but they pull it off without a hitch. There's more story than glory but it's worth it.I recommend this one. It's not the best Shaw film I've seen but it's up there. It would have been better if the healing lady's name was Aunty Dote.
Not sure why I'm surprised I enjoyed this so much. I love the Venom Mob movies and this was one of the best. There is a lot of plot thrown at you up front and I was definitely confused, though I suppose this is not rare for Chinese kung fu movies that want to dig in right away and not take the time to slowly set everything up. Actually, this movie was over two hours long, so there was definitely a lot going on! No need to dig into the plot where others here have. I just wanted to mention a few things.Primarily I was overjoyed by Chin Siu-ho's performance as the lead character. I know him for Fist of Legend and Tai Chi Master, and wouldn't have thought of him as being a Shaw era performer. He was only seventeen years old when he did this! He was spectacular, and was one of my favorite performances to date of the typical young, overeager kung fu master who's emotions lead before his brain and skill. He did his fair share of laughing and boasting and rushing into danger, but had just enough patience to keep him from being annoying (I'm looking at you, Disciples of the 36th Chamber, grrr...). This was a very early performance in his career and I had no issues seeing him supported this time around by legends such as Lu Feng, Philip Kwok, and Chiang Sheng.Lu Feng was a hero for once, and Chiang Sheng was a villain. Loved that. Philip Kwok did what he always did. Loved the action, the love story, the battle between the poison experts -- there was a lot going on and once I wrapped my head around it, I was thoroughly entertained!
Five words you never want to hear (or read as subtitles) in a martial arts movie, "He left without a fight." Unfortunately this movie contains those words. It starts plot heavy with dangerous character building on more dangerous character coming in out of the rain. Why this was not an inn instead of a private home I don't get. Once the players are introduced then there is a flashback. The two main weaknesses of the film are the flip flopping in time and lack of a lead focus. Now about the fights. It's the Venoms and they deliver with weapons. For a two hour movie it is just not quite enough action though. The chivalry however is outstanding. Such politeness and manners between adversaries is quite enjoyable to watch. Overall though I can't rate the movie any higher than an average six out of ten.
Tian Gui Nong (Chiang Sen) is an ambitious swordsman who is aiming at being the most revered and feared fighter of his time. He tricks his rivals: Miao Ren Feng (Kwo Chui) and Hu Yi Dao (Lu Feng), two reputable swordsmen into fighting against each other. By Tian's treacherous plot, Hu is killed with Miao's sword and his wife committed suicide.However to escape Tian's slaughtering Hu's family, a good Samaritan manages to take away Hu's baby son, Hu Fei (Chien Siao Hao), taking along his father's sword skill manual, and later raising him. Sworn to avenge his parents' death, Hu Fei returns to the town 18 years later to confront his father's enemy, Tian Gui Nong.Based on a popular classical wuxia novel, LEGEND OF THE FOX is Chang Cheh's attempt to showcase swordplay with the Venoms and a newcomer, Chien Siao Hao, in the lead role. The story is fairly engaging and the exposition is elaborate. In fact this is the only Venoms' film that runs for 120 minutes. Being a wuxia genre, the main attraction is exhilarating sword fights as well as a more complicated plot. Not many fight scenes to savor but Chang Cheh's trademark: bloody violence, gory deaths and attractive fights are still seen.Unlike LIFE GAMBLE, CHINATOWN KID, TEN TIGERS FROM KWANG TUNG or THE BRAVE ARCHER quadrilogy, which cannot be considered as the Venoms' films because they play supporting casts for famous Shaw Brothers stars (Ti Lung or Fu Sheng), this is still considered a Venoms' film because there are three of the Venoms playing as supporting casts for a newcomer, not any popular star.Recommended for the Venoms' fans only.