Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Five Deadly Venoms Blu-ray Movie Review

Deadly but incredibly enjoyable.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 28, 2011

The Golden Age of Hollywood saw the rise and dominance of a handful of major studios, each with their own stable of stars and technicians and each with their own particular style and strength. With the advent of anti-trust laws and the burgeoning phenomenon of television, the Hollywood majors started their slow, steady decline in the late 1940’s and 1950’s until by the 1960’s they were mere shadows of their former selves. Younger audiences who today either go to theatrical presentations or buy or rent home video products and see one “major” logo after another on any given production may not understand why older folks kind of scratch their head when confronted by co-productions of, say, 20th Century Fox and Universal. Such things were unheard of until economic realities made them a necessity. Hong Kong cinema commentator Bey Logan (who contributes a madcap commentary to The Five Deadly Venoms) makes a good point that by the 1970’s if you wanted to experience something akin to the vaunted Hollywood studio system of days of yore you really had to look to the Shaw Brothers. As Logan mentions, the Shaw Brothers weren’t hobbled by those pesky American anti-trust laws, and they didn’t just have their own studio, they did their own post-production work and they also owned their own theaters to exhibit their product. Virtually all of their major stars were under contract to the studio, as was the incredible roster of technicians, making Shaw Brothers the closest thing to the way things used to be in Hollywood at the apex of the film production in the 1930’s and early 1940’s. That also meant that there was an identifiable “feel” and certainly look to a lot of Shaw Brothers product, and there’s probably no finer example of what a mid-1970’s Shaw Brothers film was than the iconic cult sensation The Five Deadly Venoms. (The film actually exists under a number of alternate titles), Entertainment Weekly listed The Five Deadly Venoms as one of the most “important” cult classics of all time, for whatever that’s worth, but even less portentous (and pretentious) observers would be hard pressed to find a more enjoyable, if often sillier than silly, film experience within the confines of Hong Kong martial arts flicks.

The Five Deadly Venoms has had a cultural impact unlike virtually any other martial arts film, having made it into the public lexicon in everything from the World of Warcraft online role playing game to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films. The Five Deadly Venoms refers to five “secret” experts in various forms of kung-fu, each named after a totemic creature. These five are The Centipede (Lu Feng), The Toad (Lo Meng), The Snake (Pai Wei), The Scorpion (Sun Chien), and The Lizard (Kuo Chue, also known as Philip Kwok). The Five Deadly Venoms plays out as something of a mystery as the film’s protagonist, a young kung-fu student named Yang Tieh (Chiang Sheng) is tasked by his dying master to track down five former students (that would be the five deadly venoms, just in case you were wondering) to see if they’re using their powers for good or evil. The problems is that the five have always worked as all good (or evil) superheroes do, in secret and with masks, so no one is quite sure who they are. Yang Tieh must therefore not just divine their identities, he must also figure out if they’re good guys or bad guys, all the while attempting to counter their highly specialized fighting techniques with his more generalist knowledge.

This film has an element of those old story problems you had to solve in math or logic, you know the ones that always the boy in yellow lives two houses away from the girl in green who goes to the store with the woman in red on alternate Thursdays, and you then had to place the correct people in the correct homes on a map. Yang Tieh’s dying master wants Yang Tieh to track down his five former pupils, but he only has some cursory information on all of them, aside from their disparate fighting styles. While a couple of the five knew each other and trained together, there’s very little to go on in terms of figuring out who they might be now and where they’ve ended up. The dying master has one salient clue to help uncover the identities of the five venoms, but it involves yet another unknown person, one with a considerable fortune at his disposal which any venom predisposed toward the evil side of things might try to purloin for himself.

The rest of The Five Deadly Venoms plays out in a series of set pieces where Yan Tieh discovers who’s malevolent (especially after a series of brutal murders), while at the same time not entirely sure who’s actually working for good. A number of fight scenes are of course part and parcel of this package, staged with a sort of lunatic frenzy that may elicit some giggles but which is really a major component of the film’s patently daffy allure. So many films have come along in the wake of The Five Deadly Venoms that feature much better wire work, special effects and frankly dramatic competence that this film may seem hilariously quaint by comparison, but whatever Venoms may lack in flash and execution it more than makes up for in style and, in its own strange little way, substance.

While The Five Deadly Venoms never shirks the hyperbolic elements that so define Shaw Brothers films, director Chang Cheh seems to be in on the joke, letting the audience enjoy the film for the often goofy ride it is, without trying to be overly arch or self-referential. In fact it’s the very deadly (no pun intended) earnestness of the cast that may in fact give the film some added camp value, but which is also oddly one of its most endearing elements. It’s a rare film that can both take itself seriously on its own terms while also reveling in its own over the top elements, but those seemingly disparate approaches work side by side with amazing ingenuity throughout much of The Five Deadly Venoms.

The Five Deadly Venoms Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Five Deadly Venoms features the typically lurid Shaw Brothers mid-1970's palette, maybe even more than usual for a Shaw Brothers film, and that bright, colorful look is really beautifully presented on this AVC encoded 1080p presentation (in 2.37:1). This is certainly the sharpest and clearest The Five Deadly Venoms has looked on any home video release, with a gorgeously saturated palette that really pops off the screen. Fine detail is certainly increased, if not quite at spectacular levels. Some of the film has always looked soft, and that ambience isn't changed very dramatically in this new Blu-ray incarnation. But black levels and contrast are outstanding, and the film simply is a riot of color and a lot of fun to watch in this new high definition presentation.

The Five Deadly Venoms Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Two lossy mono tracks are offered in Dolby Digital 2.0 presentations, the original Mandarin and the English dub. The Mandarin is fairly spry sounding, though copious looping is more than obvious at times, with fairly apparent ambience changes throughout various voice work. Sound effects have reasonable impact and the original language soundtrack doesn't suffer from any egregious damage or even unbearable hiss. It's obviously narrow and suffers from typical Dolby compression at the high and low ends of the spectrum, but it suffices fairly well for these proceedings. The English dub is a satisfactory runner-up for those who can't stand to read subtitles, but my recommendation is to stick with the original language track if at all possible.

The Five Deadly Venoms Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Feature Commentary by Hong Kong Cinema Expert Bey Logan. Logan is always informative, but he either had a lot of Red Bull or this film just gets his juices flowing more than usual, because he does a variety of rather strange voices throughout this commentary. As always, his views are very informative and entertaining—maybe more than usual this time out.

The Five Deadly Venoms Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Five Deadly Venoms is completely over the top, out there, silly fun. It also has a decent mystery at its core which helps to offset the lunatic elements of the story, characterizations and execution of the film. This is a film that has maintained a legendary luster for well on 30 years now, helping to influence a whole generation of filmmakers. This new Blu-ray looks fantastic, and while the audio leaves something to be desired, it's an attractive package that any Shaw Brothers fan is surely going to want in their personal collections. Highly recommended.