672. Avenging Rescuers of Shaolin! 1979

                       I have talked about this movie here before, and in the pages of Xenorama.  I love it.

483. The Spearman of Death vs. The Flag of Iron!

           This is a movie that gets better after repeated viewings.  It is that enjoyable!

311. The Kid With the Golden Arm lives again!

       

The Five Deadly Venoms

There are actually about eight Venoms in this movie.  It's probably my favorite kung fu movie of all time.  It's ironic, that it's doesn't feature an actual kung fu style in it.  There is no real "Venom Clan".  This is probably a good thing, since the whole gist of the movie is that they actually did a lot of bad things for money.  It works really well, though, and it's even a bit of a mystery.  The ending was a surprise to me the first time I ever saw it (way back in 1984 on WDCA Channel 20).  I kind of miss those Black Belt Theater days, though they also showed a lot of really bad martial arts movies as well.

Invincible Shaolin (1978) trailer

Here's a fun movie I never saw until I was much older. I can't say it's one of my favorites, since it takes a huge lapse of logic to get the film going- the bad guy turns the North Shaolin students against the South Shaolin students, when a simple talk it out would settle things easily.

Five Venoms fighting styles

I love this movie. I've never watched it in any Chinese language though, interestingly enough. It's pretty close in English as it is. I remember exactly where I was when I first saw this movie, in WV, watching it with my cousin Tuck. The wonderful Channel 20, WDCA, of course. While they had fallen off the cool cartoon bandwagon, they still came through with some great movies.

THE AVENGING WARRIORS Of SHAOLIN - BLACK BELT THEATER

this was my first full length Shaw Brothers movie. I knew nothing about them or the Venoms or even kung fu, but I sure enjoyed this movie. it must have been the early 80s when it made the rounds on local tv. naturally I never thought to write down the names of these films. so for years I never knew it's name, nor if I'd ever see it again.

Five Deadly Venoms - Trailer

one of my favorite kung fu movies- favorite Shaw Brothers' movies- you name it. none of the styles are actually a real form (the snake style is invented in for this movie). it's got an unusual set up and story, which is what sets it apart from most other martial arts movies. I saw this in West Virginia on the great Channel 20, some weekend afternoon.

Two Champions of Shaolin (1981)

the original US title Two Champions of Death is a better name for this movie, since it's filled with a lot of killing.  and with a Chang Cheh that is saying something.

the movie kind of ties in with the other Shaolin movies he has done, except Hu Wei-Chen (Chiang Sheng) finally gets the spotlight (usually it's Fong Sai-Yuk or Hung Si Kwan). he teams up with Tung Chien-Chen (Lo Mang) to take down the local Manchu people.


I wanted to like this movie more than I did.  it has some great fights in it, and some cool weapons as well.  it's that the plot is a bit confusing.  to it's credit, it doesn't present the Qing/Wu Tang people as completely evil, which leads to the totally downer ending.
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