Za ji wang ming dui (1979)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Cheh Chang

Writers:

Cheh Chang (writer)
Kuang Ni (writer)

Release Date:

29 June 1979 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Action | Drama

Plot:

The heroes pose as gun dealers and acrobats in order to get close to the bad guys so they can avenge the death of one of their brothers...

Plot Keywords:

Acrobat | Kung Fu | Pistol | Machine Gun | Revenge

Cast

Philip Kwok	...	Liang Kuo-jen (as Kuo Chui)
Feng Lu	...	Fu Chuan-yi
Sheng Chiang	...	Chen Feng
Chien Sun	...	Mr. Shen Sheng
Li Wang	...	General Han Pei-tsang
Meng Lo	...	Yang Ta-ying
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Shen Chan	...	Chief of Staff
Tat-wah Cho	...	Leung's Father
Han Chen Wang
Hsiung Yang

Also Known As:

Chap gei miu meng dui (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)
Daredevils of Kung Fu (Hong Kong: English title)
Five Kung Fu Darevil Heroes (UK) (DVD title)
Magnificent Acrobats (Hong Kong: English title) (new title)
Shaolin Daredevils (USA) (dubbed version)
The Daredevils (Hong Kong: English title) (video title)
The Kings of Kung Fu (Europe: English title)
Venom Warriors (Hong Kong: English title) (video title)

Runtime:

West Germany:80 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:-12 | West Germany:16 (nf)

Company:

Shaw Brothers

Two Good Fights, not so Good Story for all six Venoms

This is one of the few post "5 Deadly Venoms" to feature all "six" Venoms. Sheng Chiang, while always associated as a venom actually never played one. This film has the "Snake", Pai Wei in a supporting role as an evil bodyguard.

A very uneven film, it bends from light comedy to light seriousness without really delivering either. Some interesting plot elements are not expanded on and that's a shame. There are really only two fight scenes in the whole film, one about half way through and the other at the end for about fifteen minutes. A couple of short training scenes and an ultimately bizarre scene with the bad guys showing off their deadly techniques to a general liven things up a bit. The finale is very good but you have to wade through the very boring second half to get to it. A good portion of the movie is designed to show off the acrobatic abilities of the three actors who originally came from acrobatic troupes in Taiwan. Unfortunately the scenes are not the greatest examples of Chinese acrobatics, if you've ever had the chance to see Mainland acrobats.

Director Chang Cheh and the Venoms have all done better films. Good for Shaw fans. Known as "Shaolin Daredevils", there is nothing associated with Shaolin in this film.