Five Deadly Venoms

Five Deadly Venoms, also known as The Five Venoms, is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Chang Cheh and produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio. It stars Chiang Shieng as a martial arts pupil who faces five kung fu fighters, each of whom practices a unique animal-themed style: the Centipede, the Snake, the Scorpion, the Lizard, and the Toad (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. 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. Plot The dying master of the powerful Poison Clan dispatches his last pupil, Yang Tieh, on a crucial mission. Worried the skills he taught are being used for evil, he orders Yang to locate an old compatriot, Yun, and warn him that the fortune he amassed from the clan's activities is under threat from five of his former pupils, each an expert in his own lethal combat style. Yang must discover their whereabouts and true identities, and decide which, if any, he can trust to join him in his mission. The five pupils are the Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard, and Toad. Centipede and Snake were the master's first and second pupils and knew one another. Lizard and Toad were the fourth and fifth pupils respectively and also knew each other, but Scorpion, the third pupil, was unknown to the other four members. Before he dies, the master teaches Yang all the weaknesses of the five styles in order to give him a fighting chance.