November 2nd 2012 sees the highly anticipated release of the RZA’s long awaited directorial debut The Man with the Iron Fists, starring Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, RZA, Byron Mann, Daniel Wu, Cung Le and many more.
The film is very much his love letter to the kung fu movie genre, so Forces of Geek‘s Man from Hong Kong brings you a quick reference guide to some of the films that have been an influence on the movie and RZA himself, and would be well worth tracking down to further your enjoyment…
The Victim
(orig. 身不由已; Shen bu you ji)
An early directorial outing for Sammo Hung who also stars in the film, the kung fu comedy which was also known as Lightning Kung Fu in some territories is one of the roles that made a star out of Bryan Leung (Leung Kar-yen) who appears in a cameo role in The Man with the Iron Fists as the Hyena Chief. Leung’s Iron Cross style of fighting in this film is used by RZA in his movie to pay tribute to both the film and Leung Kar-yen.
A rich man with a kind heart takes in a suffering homeless orphan named Chun Yau.
The man’s spoiled/jealous son does not take well to his new stepbrother.
Chun Yau grows into a righteous martial artist played by Bryan Leung. Likewise, the jealous son grows into a bitter gang leader, essayed by Chang Yi. The jealous son holds a grudge against his stepbrother because Chun Yau stole his girlfriend. Now, Chang Yi has made it his goal to hunt down Chun Yau and his bride, Yu Ti prompting the newlyweds to spend their lives together running in fear from the gang leader.
But one day Chun Yau runs into a bumbling tough guy named Fatty (Sammo Hung), who immediately challenges him to fight. Chun Yau quickly dispatches of his aggressor, prompting Fatty to set himself up as Chun Yau’s pupil. Apparently Fatty has promised his ancestors that he shall learn proper Kung Fu by training under the man who beats him (and Chun Yau is the first to do so.). However, Chun Yau and his wife are trying to keep a low profile and they want nothing to do with Fatty, as all he does is attract attention. Fatty, meanwhile, can’t help but wonder why such a great martial artist lives in fear.
With his stepfather at death’s door, Chun Yau and his wife go to pay final respects to his ill-struck adopted father.
As Chun Yau enters his father’s room, he finds himself surrounded by Chang Yi’s men. They let Chun Yau speak with his stepfather as the old one expires. Chang Yi appears to be mourning the death of his father, but as soon as Chun Yau leaves his stepfather’s room, Cheng Yi orders his men to attack his stepbrother. Fatty arrives in time to help Chun Yau fight off the gang members.
Chun Yau’s wife can no longer handle the pressures of life on the run, and she begs Chang Yi to stop the violence and she will leave Chun Yau and live with him.
She tells her husband she is sick of life on the run and that she will stay with Chang Yi. Chun Yau is shattered and leaves a broken man, followed by the faithful Fatty. But Yu Ti really does not plan on spending her life with her hated admirer. After Chang Yi calls off the price on Chun Yau’s head, Yu Ti commits suicide rather than succumbing to his desires. The death of Yu Ti only serves to fuel the flames of hatred between these two men. Chang Yi hires martial arts assassins (including Wilson Tong) to deal with his stepbrother.
A plan is composed by Yau and Fatty that leads in the immortal words of Joe Bob Briggs to Kung Fu City!
There’s a widely available Tai Seng DVD release of the film which features an at times informative if muddled commentary featuring Ric Myers and former Hong Kong stuntman Robert Samuels, while if you can find it the Eastern Heroes release does feature a letterboxed original language print.
Five Deadly Venoms: Pick your poison!
Five Venoms also known has Five Deadly Venoms or Ng Dook/ 五毒 in Cantonese is without a doubt one of the greatest cult kung fu movies ever produced by Shaw Brothers, legendary director Chang Cheh was at the helm while Chang and real life Wing Chun master Leung Ting collaborated on story ideas for the project.
The film was listed at number 11 on Entertainment Weekly‘s Top 50 Cult Films list and features the memorable characters known as the Venoms, five kung fu fighters with unique animal styles, The Centipede, The Snake, The Scorpion, the Lizard and the Toad.
The dying master of the powerful Poison Clan dispatches his last pupil on a crucial mission. Worried that the skills he has taught are being used to evil ends, he orders Yan Tieh to trace a retired colleague 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. Yan must discover the whereabouts and true identities of these masked warriors, and decide which, if any, he can trust to join him in his mission.
Styles
Each of the Poison Clan is alternatively referred to as either their venom style code name, or as their number in regard to the order of being taught by the master (except Yan, who is never referred to as “Number 6”, nor has any particular animal style). Among fans, he is known as “Hybrid Venom,” as his training contains a little bit of each of the five styles, but it is incomplete, and he must align with one of the venoms to stand a chance against any of the others.
Number 1: Centipede
Wriggly and quick, this style is a nice blend of defensive and offensive posturing. The strikes are so fast that it is almost as if he has a hundred arms and legs. The weakness of this style as revealed by Yan Tieh (told by his master) is to attack both the opponent’s upper and lower body in a simultaneous assault.
Number 2: Snake
On one hand: the mouth, venomous fangs emulated in precise finger motor control. On the other: the stinging whip of a rattling tail. Masters of this ability can even fight extremely well while lying on their back from the floor. The weakness of this style as revealed by Yan Tieh (told by his master) is to stop the “head” and “tail” (the opponent’s two arms) from combining, as neither the head nor tail can function well individually.
Number 3: Scorpion
The scorpion represents a double threat! Kicks from the Scorpion style are just like the stinging tail of the namesake. When delivered by a master, a single kick can paralyze 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 (by watching The Scorpion in his bout with Yan Tieh and The Lizard) that it would be to stay out of reach of The Scorpion’s damaging kicks and make him come to you.
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.
Number 5: Toad
Toads don’t do much, but they are tough. That is the essence of this style, a primarily defensive pose. The Toad is invincible to just about any form of attack, including blades and puncture. They can even bend solid metal. The weakness of this style is that any master of the Toad style has a “weak spot” that when punctured, drains the user’s Toad style benefits (most notably the iron skin.) Number 5’s weak spot were his ears as shown in his fight with The Snake, when The Scorpion secretly struck his ears with his darts. Apparently, the easiest way to discover the weak spot in one’s Toad style is to use an Iron Maiden.
The film stars Chiang Sheng as Yang Tieh, Sun Chien as Gao Ji the Scorpion, Kuo Chui/Phillip Kwok as Meng the Lizard, Lo meng as Liang Shen the Toad, Wei Pei as Qi Dong the Snake and Lu Feng as Zhang the Centipede, these five action actors would become known as the VENOMS after this movie, and would play in a great many of Chang Cheh’s movies over the the course of his career.
Five Deadly Venoms has been referenced numerous times in films and much, including the works of the Wu-Tang Clan, with Masta Killa sampling the films music on his album No Said Date, and in Kill Bill, the five members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad is of course a reference to the Venoms. Yuen Woo-ping’s True Legend features a villain who uses the Five Venoms Fist and even Kung Fu Panda where the Furious Five are a reference to this film.
The film received a DVD release from Dragon Dynasty in 2009, its a beautiful print and yet despite various interviews with the cast and crew including Leung Ting, Kwok Choy, Wang Lung-wei, Wei Pei & Lo Meng being shot, they weren’t included!
Crippled Avengers: The Return of the Five Deadly Venoms
Crippled Avengers is a 1978 Shaw Brothers kung fu film directed by Chang Cheh and starring four members of the Venom’s team. It has been released in North America as Mortal Combat and Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms.
The film follows a group of martial artists seeking revenge after being crippled by Tu Tin-To (Chen Kuan Tai), a martial arts master, and his son (Lu Feng).
Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms sets the tone of vengeance from the opening scene.
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Chu Twin, a master of tiger style Kung Fu, returns home to find his wife murdered and his son crippled having his arms cut off from the elbows down. Chu Twin has iron arms constructed for his son and trains him in the art of Kung Fu. Even though Chu Twin and his son, Chu Cho Chang, got murderous vengeance against their wrong doers they were still filled with bitterness and evil.
During Chu Twin’s reign over his village, he and his son crippled four men. These atrocities would set the stage for a classic Kung Fu film about brotherhood and bloody revenge.
The town blacksmith, Mr. Wei, was forced to drink a liquid to make him mute, then was deafened by a two-handed ear clap delivered by Chu Twin himself.
Mr. Wei had mouthed off earlier in the tavern because he wanted to sit upstairs but Chu Twin and his entourage occupied it. After Wei was forced to leave the tavern, a traveling hawker was blinded by the iron fingers of Chu Cho Chang for supporting the same sentiments as Wei.
Another traveler who wishes to hire the blacksmith has his legs chopped off below the knee at the orders of Chu Twin, who had declared the blacksmith’s business off limits.
One day a young Kung Fu master known as Yuan Yi comes to town and discovers the tortures committed by Chu Twin and goes to avenge the three crippled men. Yuan Yi is good, but he is young master, and alone is no match for Master Twin, his son, and his best strong arm, Mr. Wan. Yuan Yi is defeated, and bound in chains.
Chu Twin turns him into an idiot by crushing his head in an iron head vice.
Together the now four disabled men travel to Yuan Yi’s master’s temple, where they are trained in Kung Fu.
Each heightening his remaining senses to compensate for his individual disability. Wei, deaf and mute, learns sign language to communicate and wears reflective bands so he can see what he can’t hear. The hawker’s ears become his eyes, with the pin point accuracy to hear a leaf falling and stick it with a dart. Mr. Wei outfits the legless gimp with prosthetic iron legs and feet. Yuan Yi needed no further training, for he was already a master, however his Kung Fu was now more like Idiot Fu, constantly laughing and playing while fighting as if he were playing a child’s game.
The four men make plans to return to town on Chu Twin’s 45th birthday and exact their revenge. Mr. Wan, Chu Twin’s enforcer, hires other Kung Fu masters to stop the unlikely heroes. The other masters, though very strong, underestimate and cannot stop the four.
In the final fight extra long fight scene the four misfit masters defeat Chu Twin and Chu Cho Chang, however Yuan Yi, the master of Idiot Fu, is killed sacrificing himself for another, all the while giddily laughing like a child.
Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms is a classic Hong Kong Kung Fu film, making full use of the genres tell tale qualities of vengeance, loyalty, and brotherhood. Produced by Sir Run Run Shaw this film is Kung Fu through and through.
With the theme of revenge, long fight scenes, training and the overcoming of strife, comic relief, and the final freeze frame shot symbolizing brotherhood and loyalty with the three remaining heroes walking away, hands joined and raised in victory.
RZA’s character in The Man with the Iron Fists by the finale boasts metalic arms styled very much in the style of Chu Cho-chang’s in this film.
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Dragon Dynasty released a slick presentation of the movie on DVD a few years ago, lacking in extras but it is a slick pristine print.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
(少林三十六房, Shào Lín sān shí liù fáng), also known as The Master Killer and Shaolin Master Killer, is a 1978 Shaw Brothers film, directed by Liu Chia-liang and starring Gordon Liu.
The film follows a highly fictionalized version of Sann-Te, a legendary Shaolin martial arts disciple who trained under the general Chi Shan, portrayed by the director’s adopted brother Gordon Liu.
36th Chamber of Shaolin is widely considered to be one of the greatest kung fu films and a turning point in its director’s and star’s careers. It was followed by Return to the 36th Chamber, which was more comedic in presentation and featured Gordon Liu as the new main character with another actor in the smaller role of San Te, and Disciples of the 36th Chamber.
A young student named San-Te is drawn by his activist teacher into the local rebellion against the Manchu government.
The government officials suppress the uprising and destroy the school, killing friends and family members as well. San Te seeks vengeance. Wounded in an attack by Manchu henchmen, he flees to the Shaolin Temple, and seeks training in kung fu.
Initially, the Buddhist monks reject him, since he is an outsider, but the chief abbot takes mercy on the young man and lets him stay. One year later, he begins his martial arts training in the temple’s 35 chambers and advances more rapidly than any previous student.
However, as San Te nears the end of his education, the temple officially exiles him in a surreptitious way to allow him to aid the people against the oppressors. He returns to the outside world, namely to his hometown, and assists the people by teaching them martial arts. Before the political revolution he is inspiring to complete, he is forced into conflict with the Manchu governor.
Finally, he triumphs and returns to the Shaolin temple, where he establishes the 36th chamber, a special martial arts class for laypeople to learn kung fu.
36th Chamber of Shaolin also widely known as The Master Killer is widely considered to be one of the greatest kung fu movies ever made, making a star out of leading man Gordon Liu (Liu Chia-hui) whose career continues to this day. Most recently Liu appeared in dual roles in Kill Bill, and playing the role of the Abbot in The Man with the Iron Fists.
The film received a DVD release by Dragon Dynasty in 2007, and features commentary by the RZA and an interview with Gordon Liu.
