Ode to Gallantry Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Ode to Gallantry Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 25, 2025

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of the double feature presentation of The Daredevils & Ode to Gallantry by Eureka! Entertainment.

Fans of The Five Deadly Venoms* should be excited to see this double feature from Eureka! Entertainment. Both of these films are part of Chang Cheh's celebrated "venom mob" series, and Ode to Gallantry in particular has been rather hard to find. These are two more in the absolutely gargantuan Celestial Pictures effort to offer seemingly endless supplies of Shaw Brothers films in often rather nice looking high definition presentations. Both of the films included here also have two commentaries, one by Frank Djeng and Michael Worth, and the other by Mike Leeder and Arne Venema.

*Note: The link points to a way old release from Vivendi Visual that I reviewed many years ago, but there is also another newer version available as part of Arrow's immense Shawscope Volume One set.

Philip Kwok is tasked with being Jackie Chan, at least more or less, in the goofily enjoyable Ode to Gallantry, where he plays what amounts to The Prince and the Pauper, though the emphasis is definitely on the pauper side of the equation. He's a stumbling, bumbling naif in that "incarnation", and like a lot of fools, or at least a lot of fools in films like this, he ends up with a priceless artifact that then propels him into a whirlwind martial arts learning curve. This is an undeniably silly effort that is nonetheless just one of several adapations of the same source material, including what were evidently some very popular television series. This probably won't have enough action for diehard adrenaline junkies, and some of the schtick can definitely seem forced, but there's an amiably winking quality to the proceedings nonetheless.

Ode to Gallantry Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ode to Gallantry is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka! Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. As usual, Eureka! doesn't really provide any substantial technical information on the release, though having reviewed a veritable glut of these Celestial Pictures restorations at this point, this has the same generally excellent look that Celestial has been bringing to their immense Shaw Brothers project. This is another nicely vibrant looking presentation with a striking palette, and this time, unlike the more "modern" setting of The Daredevils, there's finery aplenty in both costuming and sets that not only provides lots of color, but nicely precise fine detail levels. This has some old school composited effects and there can be very slight downturns in clarity and upticks in grain during those moments. The opening few minutes have a slight but noticeable brownish quality.

Ode to Gallantry Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ode to Gallantry features a perhaps surprisingly robust LPCM 2.0 Mono track in the "original" Mandarin, one that has good midrange and low end and very little (or least markedly less) of the hollow sound that often accompanies effects in particular on some of these vintage Shaw Brothers productions. It's more than obvious that many of the actors were dubbed (hence my quote marks around original, above), and sync isn't just loose, as they say, it's pretty much non existent at times. That said, all dialogue is actually rendered cleanly and clearly, even if it infrequently matches lip movements. Optional English subtitles are available.

Ode to Gallantry Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Eureka! has packaged The Daredevils and Ode to Gallantry together on one disc with the following supplements:

The Daredevils

• Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng & Michael Worth


• Audio Commentary by Mike Leeder & Arne Venema

Ode to Gallantry

• Audio Commentary by Frank Djeng & Michael Worth


• Audio Commentary by Mike Leeder & Arne Venema

Deadly Venoms (HD; 18:10) features Wayne Wong discussing how the death of Bruce Lee led to ensemble based films like the ones on this disc, and indeed all of the "venom mob" movies almost by default, since "mob" kind of implies an ensemble.

Additionally a nicely appointed insert booklet contains an essay by James Oliver, along with cast and crew information and Eureka!'s typical viewing notes and calibration advice. Packaging features a slipcover.

Ode to Gallantry Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ode to Gallantry is just flat out silly and fans who have been jonesin' to see it for years may frankly come away a bit disappointed. Still, it has abundant (if maybe too abundant, at least in terms of trying to shove punchlines and schtick at the audience) humor, and a winning performance (and/or performances) by Philip Kwok. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements enjoyable. Recommended.