Five Deadly Venoms

[Mycanid]

Wow ... for the first time in 24 years I finally saw my favorite B grade kung fu movie from a long time ago - The Five Deadly Venoms. It was just as good as I remember it.

I even took the idea of it and embellished it in a Forgotten Realms setting of an elite hired group of wizard/monk assassins (not specifically the prestige class) from the Chult. They are always limited to only 5 members, of course.

Way back in my 1e rp'ing days (1981, I believe) my first ever monk was named after one of the Deadly Venoms: Scorpion. In fact, when Mortal Combat first came out and Scorpion was one of the members, I immediately wondered whether or no it had been based on this movie.

Anyhoo - anyone else seen this one?

 

[sniffles]

That's a great classic old-school kung fu movie. It's fun to watch something with so little wire work. You make me want to dig out my DVD, even though it's got horrid English dubbing.

 

[Mycanid]

Well Ma'am (I assume you are a Ma'am and not a Madamoiselle! :\ ) you're right ... it HAS got horrible dubbing.

But then again I did not watch it to be edified by the magnificent language. If I want that I go and read Charles Dickens, Wendell Berry, G.K. CHesterton, or even Tolkien himself....

 

[Andre La Roche]

They had a showing of it at the recent Seattle International Film Festival. It was great seeing it subbed and in a movie theatre.

 

[sydbar]

I bought the dvd a few years ago at Walgreens of all places, and still watch it every few months, since its a great film.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Shaw Bros Celestial

If any of you have a DVD player that plays R3 DVD's then pick up the Celestial Pictures remaster of Five Venoms. It's BEAUTIFUL.

It's also letterboxed to it's original aspect ratio and lacks the atrocious dub, but did I mention the print is GLORIOUS?

GLORIOUS. I picked mine up locally here in Chinatown NYC but you can get yours here:
http://www.hkflix.com/xq/asp/filmID.529770/qx/details.htm

 

[Celtavian]

re

That's one of my favorites too. I bet they could do a good remake of the movie.

 

[Keifer113]

Wow ... for the first time in 24 years I finally saw my favorite B grade kung fu movie from a long time ago - The Five Deadly Venoms. It was just as good as I remember it.

I even took the idea of it and embellished it in a Forgotten Realms setting of an elite hired group of wizard/monk assassins (not specifically the prestige class) from the Chult. They are always limited to only 5 members, of course.

Way back in my 1e rp'ing days (1981, I believe) my first ever monk was named after one of the Deadly Venoms: Scorpion. In fact, when Mortal Combat first came out and Scorpion was one of the members, I immediately wondered whether or no it had been based on this movie.

Anyhoo - anyone else seen this one?

I just watched this and the Kid with the Golden Arms. Fun movies, and great for DnD adventure ideas!

Ironically, the group of actors from these movies and who became known as the Five Deadly Venoms did not include Snake! The group includes all of the Venom characters and the student sent to find them. Snake ( who played the hero Le in Kid with the Golden Arms) is considered the "sixth" Venom, and never really had any other major parts.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

I just watched this and the Kid with the Golden Arms. Fun movies, and great for DnD adventure ideas!

Ironically, the group of actors from these movies and who became known as the Five Deadly Venoms did not include Snake! The group includes all of the Venom characters and the student sent to find them. Snake ( who played the hero Le in Kid with the Golden Arms) is considered the "sixth" Venom, and never really had any other major parts.

Yeah, Wei Pai (Snake) actually left Shaw Bros and started working for Golden Harvest. He's actually in Jackie Chan's YOUNG MASTER and co-stars with Sammo-Hung and Yuen Biao in MAGNIFICENT BUTCHER both Golden Harvest productions.

The other venoms Kuo Chui aka Philip Kwok - Lizard, Cheng Sheng - the venom student, Lo Meng - Toad, Lu Feng - Centipede and Sun Chien - Scorpion went on to star in a few SHaw Bros Classics like

10 TIGERS OF KWANTUNG
CRIPPLED AVENGERS aka Return of the five Venoms aka MOrtal Combat
MASKED AVENGERS - although sun chien and Lo Meng arent in this one
THE DESTROYERS aka Magnificent Ruffians
FLAG OF IRON aka Spearman of Death
KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM w/ wei pai
SHAOLIN RESCUERS
KILLER ARMY
UNBEATABLE DRAGON aka Invincible Shaolin w/ wei pai
TWO CHAMPIONS OF DEATH

Some of them are pretty cheesey but the fighting in most of them are really good. Especially the fights with Kuo Chui & Cheng Sheng vs Lu Feng. Thier weapons work is amazing and the three of them have a really good timing together which makes thier fight scenes (End of MASKED AVENGERS, THE DESTROYERS, SHAOLIN RESCUERS) pretty intense.

 

[Mycanid]

So then ...

Who was your favorite Venom?

And what other rp'ing "manifestations" related to this movie has anyone cranked out?

Regarding the latter I already mentioned in the first post, but regarding the former I must admit that my favorite venom was probably Lizard ... an opinion formed at the beginning of the movie when the venoms' abilities were being showcased. Being trained in hand-to-hand combat while sideways on walls is too cool.