cauwboy

I think you need to reset your mind when going in for a Shaw Brothers film, because they're just different in style compared to other Hong Kong productions. There's a different kind of fight style that's very stylised and theatrical, there's the music and not least, the famous Shaw Brothers Blood.

For me, having grown up with Golden Harvest films with the likes of Jackie, Sammo and Yuen, the Shaw Brothers films can seem a bit old and cheesy in comparison - but what they do have instead is very much personality, both in the film itself and definitely in all the characters - this film have six different fighters and even without knowing their names you could tell them apart, even if you only see their fighting style, which is really cool - the actual development of unique fighting styles for all of them.

What I didn't like however was the treatment of the good and the bad guys. To me the film had most of its focus on how the bad guys planned on taking out the good guys, while I would rather have wanted the opposite, where the good guys find a way to take out the bad ones. Sure, it becomes a problem when the creators come up with a character having superhuman abilities where no sword or punch can hurt him, but the amount of torture then spent on this, followed by the aftermath of other people around this person meeting their fate just became too much for me. If this film was a puzzle, all the pieces are already there, it's just how they're placed out that didn't work for me.

It would've made more sense if one of the bad guys possessed the superhuman strength and for the good guys to find a way to defeat him, sure, we get a pretty cool montage over how the goodies plans out how to take out their enemies, but to this point I had lost most interest, because the bad guys had caused too much damage that no matter what happened to them, it wouldn't be enough punishment for what they had done. It's also a missed opportunity to not have all the Five Venoms meet up at the end for a final showdown.

I can recommend watching it, but it's not a film I plan on watching again or getting in my film collection.

I remember the episode of a podcast I listened to about the fight between DC and Marvel and how during the 70s DC tried to copy Marvel's formula but just seemed to fail, since they just didn't understand what made Marvel's heroes so special. Well, there could be another episode about Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest, because without knowing too much about Shaw Brother's history, this film makes it quite obvious why they were out of touch while Golden Harvest just continued to deliver hit after hit.

The biggest problem with this film is the main character Fong Sai-Yuk/Fang Shih Yu (Yes, that Fong Sai-Yuk) - to put it simply, he's an idiot, he's really stupid, it's not even fun how stupid he is. He always wants to pick a fight with the Manchus, even if it could cause problem for his own people, he's the oldest in his class (the actor was 27 when this film came out.) and is probably supposed to be in his older teenage years, while the rest of the kids around him is 7-9 years old. He has to use both hands to write letters and also spin the paper around that he's writing on to finish the letters (and I don't think it got to do with the straps that kept him tied up from fighting). The only thing we know for sure is that he's amazing at fighting and there's never anytime you're worried for him, because he's really overpowered, even when it's him against 20-30 enemies, he just laughs it away like it's nothing.

It's really sad, because the fight scenes in this film (and there are many) are really great ones, amazingly choreographed and a nice flow to them. Gordon Liu as the Monk isn't in this film enough, because he's the character that saves this film (or at least tries to) because at the end of the film I just wanted the film to end, because this version of Fong Sai-Yuk was just the worst, no redeeming qualities whatsoever. While Jackie Chan in Drunken Master, Young Master or Dragon Lord starts off as a rascal, those films guides us through as he learns his mistakes and becomes a better person and finally able to defeat the big bad. In this film, Fong Sai-Yuk was just a bully all the way through, he didn't learn anything and the way he defeated the big bad in the end is just awful and cringeworthy.

I really don't want to watch this film ever again.