Five Deadly Venoms

Five Deadly Venoms
Hong Kong theatrical release poster
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese五毒
Simplified Chinese五毒
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinWŭ Dú
Yue: Cantonese
JyutpingNg5 Duk6
Directed byChang Cheh
Written byNi Kuang
Chang Cheh
Produced byRunme Shaw
Starring
CinematographyCho Wai Kei
Kung Mu To
Edited byChiang Hsing Lung
Music byFrankie Chan
Production
company
Distributed byShaw Brothers Studio
Release date
  • 12 August 1978 (1978-08-12)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryHong Kong
LanguagesMandarin
Cantonese
Box officeHK$1,814,610

Five Deadly Venoms (Chinese: 五毒), also known as The Five Venoms, is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts mystery film directed and co-written by Chang Cheh and produced by Runme Shaw for the Shaw Brothers Studio. It stars Chiang Shieng as Yang Tieh, a martial arts pupil who aims to follow his master's dying wish: to find the new identities of the master's five previous pupils, and kill them if they have turned towards evil. While doing so, Yang stumbles onto a web of murders and investigations involving all five pupils. Each of the master's previous pupils (the titular "Five Deadly Venoms") practices a unique animal-themed style, with the animals being based on the Five Poisonous Creatures of Chinese folklore.

Five Deadly Venoms is considered one of the most popular martial arts films of its era, and has gone on to be considered a cult film.[1][2] For their roles, Shieng, along with Lu Feng, Sun Chien, Philip Kwok, Wai Pak, and Lo Mang (who portrayed the five fighters), would become collectively dubbed by international audiences as the Venom Mob.

  1. ^ "The Top 50 Cult Movies". Filmsite.org. 23 May 2003. Archived from the original on 31 March 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
  2. ^ Havis, Richard James (11 July 2021). "How Chang Cheh's Venom Mob martial arts films, starting with 1978's The Five Venoms, became cult favourites in the West". South China Morning Post.