Five Deadly Venoms
Five Venoms (' 五毒' – Cantonese: Mm Dook) aka Five
Deadly Venoms is a cult 1978 Hong Kong martial arts film
directed by Chang Cheh, starring the Venom Mob, and
produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio, about five kung-
fu fighters with unique animal styles: The Centipede, the
Snake, the Scorpion, the Lizard, and The Toad. The film
was listed at number 11 on Entertainment Weekly's Top
50 Cult Films list.* [1]
1 Plot
The dying master of the powerful Poison Clan dispatches
his last pupil, Yang Tieh, on a crucial mission. Worried
that the skills he has taught are being used to evil ends, he
orders Yang to trace a retired colleague, 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 ex-
pert in his own lethal combat style. Yang must discover
the whereabouts and true identities of these masked war-
riors, 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, and
Lizard and Toad know each other, but none know the
Scorpion, who always wears a mask. Before he dies, the
master teaches Yang the weaknesses of each style.
The Centipede and the Snake come to the Yun family
house to steal money. They murder the entire family
when Yun refuses to divulge the location of his fortune. A
witness sees the Centipede at the house. Later, the Scor-
pion investigates the scene and retrieves a hidden map.
The Lizard, working as a policeman, recruits the Toad to
help arrest the Centipede. After the Centipede is arrested
and charged with murder, the Scorpion tells the Snake to
frame the Toad for the murders. The corrupt judge sends
the Lizard away on government business. The Snake pays
an officer to make the witness commit perjury. The Toad
is framed by the witness, who tells the judge that he saw
the Toad at the scene of the crime. Toad refuses to con-
fess, and his kung fu initially makes him invulnerable to
their torture. The Scorpion devises a torture device to
counteract it. When this fails, he cripples the Toad with
darts to his weak spot. Subjected to further torture, the
Toad passes out, and his signature is forged on a confes-
sion.
The Centipede is acquitted of the murder charges and
goes free. The officer suffocates the Toad and hangs him
in the cell as if he committed suicide. The Centipede
and Snake kill the witness and the corrupt officer. Two
1
Chinese policemen in the restaurant tell the Lizard what
happened to the Toad, the witness, and the officer while
he was gone. The Lizard's supervisor, Chief Constable
Ma, encourages him to forget the issue, but the Lizard
refuses. Yang identifies the Lizard, teams with him, and
together they practice techniques to defeat the others. As
Yang and the Lizard prepare to confront the Centipede
and the Snake, the chief constable joins them. During
the fight, he reveals himself as the Scorpion and reveals
that he intends to kill everyone and keep the Yun for-
tune for himself. The Scorpion fatally injures the Snake
and bribes the Centipede into helping him. Yang and the
Lizard defeat the Centipede, and the Snake helps kill the
Scorpion before he, too, dies. Yang and the Lizard re-
trieve the Scorpion's map from his corpse, vowing to use
the fortune for good to restore the reputation of the Poi-
son Clan.
2 Cast
• Chiang Sheng as Yang Tieh, last student of the
Venom House. His style is a mix and is incomplete;
he must ally with one of the others to defeat the rest.
• Sun Chien as Gao Ji, the Scorpion/Chief Constable
Ma. His style uses deadly kicks.
• Kuo Chui as Meng Tianxia, the Lizard/Constable
He Yu. His style focuses on speed and gravity, and
it allows him to walk on walls.
• Lo Mang as Liang Shen, the Toad/Li Hao. His style
gives him invulnerability. If his weak spot is at-
tacked, his invulnerability is canceled.
• Wei Pei as Qi Dong, the Snake/Hong Wentong. His
style focuses on accurate strikes to vulnerable spots.
His weakness is being attacked from two sides at
once, which he can not defend against effectively.
• Lu Feng as Zhang Yiaotian, the Centipede/Tan
Shan-kui. His style focuses on speed, and his weak-
ness is being attacked both high and low at once.
• Wang Lung-wei as Justice Wang
• Ku Feng as Bookkeeper Yuan
• Dick Wei as dying Head of Five Venoms House
2 8 EXTERNAL LINKS

3 Styles ter the Scorpion and Snake exploited his weak spot, the
ears, with darts and a snake strike.
Each of the Poison Clan is alternatively referred to as ei-
ther their venom style code name, or as their number in
regard to the order of being taught by the master (except 4 Cultural references
Yan, who is never referred to as “Number 6”and is
knowledgeable in all 5 animal styles). Among fans, he is • The film was referenced extensively in Juuken Sen-
known as“Hybrid Venom,”as his training contains a lit- tai Gekiranger, in which the Five Venom Fists (五
tle bit of each of the five styles, but it is incomplete, and 毒拳 Godokuken) are based directly upon the Five
he must align with one of the venoms to stand a chance Deadly Venoms, each reflecting the fighting styles
against any of the others. in the film. In turn, they were brought into Power
Rangers Jungle Fury as the Five Fingers of Poison.
Number 1: Centipede - Wriggly and quick, this style is
a nice blend of defensive and offensive posturing. The • This film is also referenced frequently in the works
strikes are so fast that it is almost as if he has a hundred of the Wu-Tang Clan.
arms and legs. The weakness of this style as revealed by
• In Kill Bill the five assassins of the Deadly Viper As-
Yan Tieh (told by his master) is to attack both the oppo-
sassination Squad are a reference to the Five Deadly
nent's upper and lower body in a simultaneous assault.
Venoms.* [2]
Number 2: Snake - On one hand: the mouth, venomous
• In the new 2010 film True Legend, the foster brother
fangs emulated in precise finger motor control, designated
of Su (The Drunken Master), Yuan, has mastered
to aim for the target's vulnerable spots with pin-point ac-
the 5 Venom Fists. His dead father was using it to
curacy. On the other: the stinging whip of a rattling tail.
kill innocent people and was killed by Su's father to
Masters of this ability can even fight extremely well while
stop him. In another scene, they show Yuan putting
lying on their back from the floor. The weakness of this
his arms into nests with the 5 venom creating crea-
style as revealed by Yan Tieh (told by his master) is to stop
tures, and they inject and give it to him through his
the “head”and “tail”(the opponent's two arms) from
skin. They portray it as the source of his Qi.
combining, as neither the head nor tail can function well
individually. This usually meant pinning the two limbs,
at an angle, as far away from each other.
5 DVD release
Number 3: Scorpion - The scorpion represents a dou-
ble threat. Kicks from the Scorpion style are just like
The film received a DVD release by the Weinstein Com-
the stinging tail of the namesake. When delivered by a
pany's Asian label, Dragon Dynasty, on 18 August 2009.
master, a single kick can paralyse or even kill, let alone
the strong pincer-style attack of the arms to contend with.
The weakness in this style is not clearly revealed as Yan
Tieh is cut off from his explanation but one can assume 6 See also
(by watching The Scorpion in his bout with Yan Tieh and
The Lizard) that it would be to stay out of reach of The • List of Dragon Dynasty releases
Scorpion's damaging kicks and make him come to you. • Venom Mob
Number 4: Lizard - An emphasis on speed and gravity,
the Lizard style is best known for the ability to walk on
walls, and can fight with ease from such positions, even 7 References
maneuver in such a way that can rebound off such sources
to both dodge assaults as well as strengthen own attacks. [1] “The Top 50 Cult Movies”. Filmsite.org. 23 May 2003.
Number 5: Toad - This is a primarily defensive pose. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
The Toad is invulnerable to just about any form of dam- [2] “The Quentin Tarantino Archives”. Tarantino.info. 12
age, including blades and puncture. They can even bend September 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2011.
solid metal. The weakness of this style is that any master
of the Toad style has a “weak spot”that when punc-
tured, drains the user's Toad style benefits (most notably 8 External links
the iron skin.) Number 5's weak spot were his ears as
shown in his fight with The Snake, when The Scorpion • Five Deadly Venoms at the Internet Movie Database
secretly struck his ears with his darts. Some thought the
way to discover the weak spot in one's Toad style is to • Venom Lo Mang's first visit to U.S. / Philadelphia,
use an iron maiden. But when Number 5 was first placed August 2007
in the iron maiden, he was impervious to the needles. • HK Cinemagic entry
The iron maiden's needles only penetrated the Toad af-
 3

9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.1 Text
• Five Deadly Venoms Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Deadly_Venoms?oldid=732098579 Contributors: Olivier, Emperor,
David Gerard, Jason Quinn, Bumm13, Ajplmr, Gnomz007, Gorgeousp, Ajshm, Atatncnu~enwiki, Euchrid, Behemoth, Tarc, Gsp, Colin
Barrett, Wisekwai, Irishguy, Darien Shields, Nikkimaria, Sugar Bear, SmackBot, Lds, Yamaguchi 先⽣, Bluebot, JFrawley032759, Fractyl,
Andrew777, Ohconfucius, Kurt000, HelloAnnyong, Iridescent, CmdrObot, Thrashmeister, Cydebot, Lugnuts, Thijs!bot, Chubbles, Sree-
jithk2000, SmokeJaguar, Acierbf, Esanchez7587, Chen lung, Rwessel, Atama, Bovineboy2008, NinjaRobotPirate, Pjoef, AlleborgoBot,
Aspects, Sfan00 IMG, ClueBot, TapOut 013, WDavis1911, The Wild West guy, Addbot, LRed6629, Bertrc, Underwaterbuffalo, Aktsu,
Timmyshin, FrescoBot, Soangry, Lind j a, Lotje, EmausBot, John of Reading, Ssjmonkeyking, Andrey Petrov, Whiteguru, Rocketrod1960,
19jduryea, Mtesfai87, Imdabes7, NewMutants and Anonymous: 74

9.2 Images

9.3 Content license

• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0