the audience applauded

That was an excellent one.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

As someone whose first martial arts films were slick movies like Rush Hour and Kiss of the Dragon, I've found most early martial arts movies unwatchable schlock. But I heard this was cult classic and that it had an unusually solid story for the genre - a mystery no less! - so I thought I'd check it out.On the bright side, the dubbing is better and the acting and story better done than other films I've seen from this period. But that's a very low bar.The convoluted story involves a rich man and some ne'er-do-wells, and the "mystery," people talk about involves figuring out who's who, but it's not a mystery as I think of them and the story, such as it is, is told through clunky, matter-of-fact dialogue.There not much martial arts in the early part. There's a tedious bit of showcasing a variety of styles then about a half an hour of "plot" before the next fight. This fight is like watching a high-school martial arts exhibition with sound effects and some acrobatics thrown in. And this movie came out THE SAME YEAR AS DRUNKEN MASTER, whose amazing fights made up for the horrible schlockiness of everything else. After that I decided I would just skip to the end of the movie and see how the final battle was. It was about the same; too dull to even sit through.I will never get why people like this sort of thing.

This was and is one of my favorite movies. It was shown back in the late 70s as the B movie to some other movie I don't even remember now. But the theater got quiet, really quiet, people were glued to the movie - and then this movie became a classic. Theaters would be filled every time it played. I saw this movie over 50 times! Wei Pai, the snake, was my favorite - he is beautiful. When he sits on his chair when the cops come to see him, he recalls to mind Batu Khan, even if Wei Pai is not a Tatar! He was also in 2 more Shaw movies with the same characters as the Venoms - unbelievable fighting in all of them, I think Kid with the Golden Arm and 10 Tigers of Kwangtong or also called N and S. Shaolin. The other actors were in more films, but Wei Pai had left for Golden Harvest. I loved the Snake because, IMO, he is beautiful. I was saddened to find that Wei Pai left Shaw Brothers and moved to Golden Harvest where, IMO, his first film with them was overshadowed by Jackie Chan. He was also in Last Hurrah for Chivalry, but again, he's not the star. This movie is a must see for anyone. Heck, I ran into a professor that ranked this as his favorite movie and he wasn't even into martial arts.

This martial art film is a classic. A storytelling that is very profound, exact, and to the point. " Five Deadly Venoms" makes actual sense. You have a dying instructor who teaches his final student about the five students before him a special kung fu style. The five students were known as the poison clan: The Five Deadly Venoms. They were The Centipede, the Snake, the Lizard, the Scorpion, and the Toad. The Centipede was known for his speed and striking power of that animal. The Snake was known for his agility The Scorpion was known for his pincer grips The Lizard was known for his wall-climbing ability The Toad was known for his near- invulnerability. Three of them are known for committing atrocities against society. Only two of them, aren't so bad. But which ones? So far, the least evil ones are the Lizard and the Toad. The other three haven't seen one or the other after the teaching. The choreography was unbelievable, the action was so profound, it was a shame that the Toad fighter was killed, and they double-crossed the eyewitness they forced to lie, and one of the guards as well. The ending fight scene was amazing, I couldn't have enjoyed it more. This movie got a lot of worth, compared to the others I have seen. A collectible item, and a movie must have and see! 5 stars!

This movie is really good. The plot, which works like puzzle forces viewer to think and guess, what will happen next. Such a trick brings a lot of surprises and makes a viewer really looking forward to solution of a riddle. Fighting scenes are very good. There's a lot of different combat styles (although one of styles was a bit unreal for me, but it's only my opinion) to watch and it's fascinating show. The only thing which may be irritating is actors look. A bit too effeminate (at least for me). Hong Kong was always good at kung-fu movies especially in the 70's and 80's, so "Five Venoms" (or other its versions) is great choice.