Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

The Web of Death Blu-ray Movie Review

They're going to need a really big can of Raid for that spider.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 11, 2011

There’s a strange delirious quality to a lot of Shaw Brothers films, but I daresay none, or at least very few, come close to the sheer delirium of The Web of Death. This 1976 opus plays at times like a Hong Kong version of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 film, albeit without narrative brickbats being thrown at it. It also is lurid in the same way as the 1970’s Hammer Films often were, and it has the same surreal ambience that all of those old Universal “Far Eastern” melodramas featuring Maria Montez and Jon Hall did in the 1940’s. With a patently Shakespearean plotline of warring clans and shifting alliances, there’s enough plot in The Web of Death for at least another film (and maybe another film and a half), with characters popping in and out with such dizzying array that after a while it becomes not just hard to keep track of them, it almost ceases to matter after a while. What elevates The Web of Death into a perhaps legendary realm of camp is the insanely ridiculous special effects, especially with regard to its iconic Five Venom Spider, a Rube Goldberg like contraption that appears to have been cobbled together from leftover cardboard boxes and the occasional unusued Christmas light. The Web of Death may not win any awards for acting, screenwriting or even for martial arts finesse, something that often is front and center in Shaw Brothers films, but for sheer lunacy and crazy-bad-wonderful special effects, this film simply cannot be topped.

Be afraid. . .be very afraid.

The Web of Death isn’t exactly a traditional wuxia film, but under the direction of Chor Yuen, the basic elements of wuxia are played with in an often fanciful and even ecstatic manner that makes this film one of the most hyperbolic in the entire Shaw Brothers canon. Filled with patently over the top performances, and a series of labyrinthine plot developments, The Web of Death is a like a hallucinatory carnival ride where so much color and tumult is thrown on the screen that even if you’re having a “bad trip,” you don’t have time enough to really think about it. The basic plot of The Web of Death is built around competing clans who are involved in a boxing tournament where they all have their own semi-supersecret weapons to help them come out on top. The Five Venoms Clan, our putative heroes, have realized that their Five Venoms Spider is simply too dangerous, and they have hidden it away, though some clan members are arguing for its usage in the upcoming boxing tournament. Of course there’s a traitor in their midst who wants to find the Five Venom Spider for his own nefarious purposes, and so we’re off on a madcap series of set pieces that at times resemble something out of a Hong Kong version of Indiana Jones.

The Shakespearean elements come thick and fast throughout The Web of Death. The “good king”, in this case the leader of the Five Venoms Clan (Wong Hap) has a duplicitous wife who is involved with the traitor, Liu Shen (Lo Lieh). Meanwhile, the clan leader’s daughter Hong Susu (Cheng Lee), is a sort of Mulan-esque female warrior (despite her father’s objections), who has fallen for the heroic warrior of the Wu Dang Clan, Fei Ying-Xiong (Yueh Hua). Unfortunately, she’s also managed to horribly wound Fei’s brother and doesn’t quite know how to tell him about her misstep. Need it be said that Liu manages to get his evil hands on the Five Venom Spider and goes on to wreak havoc at the gathering of the clans for their tournament. Need it also be said that Hong Susu has the elements for salvation within her grasp, if only she realizes it, but once she does, she may have to make a horrible sacrifice?

The Web of Death is so patently silly most of the time that it’s hard to take very seriously, despite the portentous approach of some of these actors. But really there’s an overt winking character to a lot of this film which makes it very apparent that the filmmakers themselves were in on the joke. The patently unreal sets help foster this feeling that we’re lost in a dream world where things may not exactly make a great deal of sense, but there’s a constantly changing panoply of wild sights to take in. The Web of Death boasts one of the most audacious production designs of any mid-1970’s Shaw Brothers films, a riotous collection of lurid reds that recalls the long line of similarly crimson-hued Hammer Films. (It’s interesting to note that Hammer and Shaw Brothers actually collaborated on one completely bizarre film, The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula, also known as The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires). But when we see a moonlit bay across which a supposed female warrior floats (an obvious miniature), suddenly we’re in those faux-Baghdad “tropics” of Arabian Nights, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves or similar Universal fare from the 1940’s.

Most of us grew up too late for the old Saturday morning serials that populated movie houses in days of yore, but many of the Shaw Brothers films capture that same joie de vivre that old campy films from the 1930’s and 1940’s did. The Web of Death is one of those films that simply must be experienced—it can’t be adequately described. The Spider itself is such an over the top contraption that most modern day viewers will probably not believe what they’re seeing, and, yes, there will be an element of “laughing at” this film for a lot of people. But there’s also an appealing earnestness to this production which is hard to dismiss with a jaded, cynical shrug. Web of Death makes no pretenses of being Art with a capital A. It’s Saturday morning popcorn fare, Hong Kong style, and in that regard it succeeds stupendously well.

The Web of Death Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Web of Death weaves its way onto Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 2.37:1. Shaw Brothers films are not models of pristine imagery to begin with, and this film's mid-1970's genesis means the image is frequently quite soft, especially in midrange and far range shots. Colors are often on the lurid side of things, especially reds and purples, which are so deeply saturated here that they're about an inch away from blooming territory. The interlaced presentation doesn't actually seem to harm the image in any way, and there are few if any interlacing artifacts to be found in the presentation. Grain is intact and looks completely natural, and the overall image is decent, if not mind blowing. The Blu-ray's superior resolution does point out some of the less than state of the art special effects this film employs, so be forewarned you may burst out laughing a time or two.

The Web of Death Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Two very good lossless tracks are offered here, a Mandarin DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, both languages are also presented in standard Dolby 2.0 tracks. The English dub, while advertised as a sort of bonus, is typically hyperbolic and probably should be avoided despite its excellent fidelity. The original Mandarin soundtrack, while not incredibly immersive a lot of the time, is nonetheless very enjoyable, with a variety of crazy-wonderful sound effects dotting the sporadic action sequences, and with all the original dialogue very well reproduced. Despite the film's age, there's no appreciable damage to this track, and all frequency ranges are delivered with quite a bit of gusto. Surrounds do kick in intermittently, typically in some of the action sequences, and there are a variety of very fun sound effects utilized throughout The Web of Death that make it a blast to listen to.

The Web of Death Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Only the Trailer is included.

The Web of Death Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As with any enjoyable surreal dream, it's best not to question The Web of Death too much, and to simply go along with its lunatic antics. Filled to the brim with eye popping sets and costumes, and with a host of goofy performances by some Shaw Brothers regulars, The Web of Death may well easily entangle you in its fever-dream of rival clans and their shifting allegiances and top secret weapons. This Shaw Brothers epic may not in fact come anywhere close to the best film the vaunted studio released, but it's undeniably fun and, if you're in the right mood, insanely funny at times. One way or the other, you'll never look at an arachnid the same way again. Recommended.