Five Deadly Venoms
Five Deadly Venoms is a 1978 film from Hong Kong, directed by Chang Cheh, running 101 minutes. reelscum files it under martial arts.
- Year
- 1978 · 1970s films
- Country
- Hong Kong
- Runtime
- 101 min
- Director
- Chang Cheh
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (41/100)
- Also known as
- The Five Deadly Venoms · Five Venoms · The 5 Deadly Venoms
Defined in the glossary: Martial arts
Chang Cheh's oddest. Five styles, five masks, one whodunit.
Chang Cheh's strangest and most beloved film. A dying master sends his last student to find five former pupils, each trained in a different animal style and identity hidden, and the film becomes a murder mystery in which nobody knows who can be trusted. The styles, Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard, Toad, are distinct.
It is more plot-driven and stranger than the usual Shaw Brothers picture, and the masked-identity structure has kept it a cult favourite for decades. The Wu-Tang Clan took their whole aesthetic from it.
One of the most distinctive kung fu films ever made.
Trailer
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