PICK YOUR POISON: Some thoughts on ‘THE 5 DEADLY VENOMS’

When director Chang Cheh first devised the concept for Mm duk (literally: Five Poisons), he had no ambition beyond recreating the success he had enjoyed with his earlier martial arts epics, on which he had collaborated with choreographers Lau Kar-leung (aka Liu Chia-liang) and Tong Guy (aka Tang Chia.) To this end, he enlisted the services of another bona fide kung fu master, Dr Leung Ting, to devise the various fighting methods of ‘The 5 Deadly Venoms.’

I worked for Dr Leung when I first came to Hong Kong, helping him edit the English version of his voluminous encyclopedia of Wing Chun (or, as he spells it, Wing Tsun) kung fu. He is a colourful character. At 3 in the afternoon, we repaired to a Kowloonside karaoke bar, the kind of place you’d normally find yourself at 3am. After belting out a few tunes for the bemused (ahem) ‘hospitality ladies,’ it would be back to work…

Leung Ting was constantly visited by kung fu exponents from Mainland China, and he would invariably drag me with him to his neighbouring mo gwoon for an impromptu sparring match. (These guys were invariably two sizes smaller than me, and Leung seemed to take great pleasure out of my kicking them around, at his insistence, even though I was never one of his students.)

On another occasion, he made me pose for newspaper photos demonstrating how some kung fu masters faked their demonstrations of chi power. For some reason, he had me hold a water melon on my head, while he hacked it with a machete. Of course, he almost sliced one of my fingers off in the process… “You moved, damn it!” he cried. “Did not!” I retorted, as the blood flowed.

As well as being a genuine Wing Chun master, Dr Leung was (and is) a living repository on information about Chinese martial arts and their surrounding culture. He drew on this rich heritage when designing the relevant fighting styles for the Venoms.

The Centipede combined the hand movements of Northern Praying Mantis with Northern Leg kicking techniques.

With the Snake, Leung was careful to avoid comparison with the movements seen in Jackie Chan’s Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, released earlier the same year. His snake features a two fingers extended gesture found in the Hung Kuen Ten Animals Fist, combined with a unique ‘ground slithering’ movement.

The Scorpion focuses on kicking techniques that supposedly resemble the tail of the insect. These are actually the Taekwondo kicks with which the actor playing Scorpion, Suen Kin, aka Sun Chien, was already familiar. (Lau Kar-leung made a similar choice when devising a Scorpion style for the film Operation Scorpio, hiring Korean super kicker Kim Won-jin to play the eponymous villain.)

The Lizard employs Light Body chi gung or hei gong, a staple of the kung fu novels popular in Hong Kong during the ‘60s and ‘70s. The principle behind this was that a practitioner could develop his internal energy to the extent that he could defy gravity. There was also a more pragmatic style, gecko kung fu, which saw its exponents mount the walls of a narrow alley with their feet pressed against opposing walls, using sheer leg strength. The cinematic Lizard combines these skills.

The Toad is a master of ngan or ‘hard’ chi gung, and so immune to blows from ordinary weapons. Kung fu masters used to perform these feats in the street for money. This is the same skill employed by Wong Fei-hung’s nemesis, Iron Robe, in ‘Once Upon A Time In China,’ and you can see Dustin Nguyen’s character perform the Vietnamese equivalent in the Dragon Dynasty release The Rebel.

Leung worked with Chang Cheh again, most memorably on Invincible Shaolin and Ten Tigers of Kwantung, but these films seemed a weak copy of the styles first brought to the screen by Lau and Tang. With Venoms, Leung Ting created something unique; a style of movie combat which proved to be more influential than he could possibly have imagined.

On its first release in Hong Kong, The 5 Deadly Venoms was no blockbuster. It took on a life of its own when distributed in North America by World Northal, where it was seen by RZA (hence the samples in various Wu Tang Clan tracks), by Quentin Tarantino (hence the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad in ‘Kill Bill’), by a New York Bluegrass band who called themselves… The Five Deadly Venoms.

Someone who did catch it on its first release was director Kirk Wong (whose Crime Story is a DD release). Kirk has been threatening a remake for several years now, and had at one stage assembled an eclectic cast including RZA, Maggie Q, Edison Chen, Gordon Liu and Andy Lau. I remember asking Lau about the project at the premiere of Battle of the Warriors (aka Battle of Wits), and he asked me if westerners could understand the concepts behind The 5 Deadly Venoms. I told him that the film was more popular with young Americans than with Hong Kong kids. Though that incarnation of the remake never came to pass, Kirk is still planning to make the film, with An Empress & Her Warriors star Donnie Yen in the lead.

As for Dr. Leung Ting, he’s alive, well and still hitting the headlines. I worked for him as an actor (ha!) in a film called ‘It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Kung Fu World’ (and, if you agree to be in a movie with a title like that, you deserve whatever happens to you…) Like everything with Leung, it was fun and an education. I’d like to thank him publicly for giving me a job when I needed one, and for giving kung fu cinema a new poison just when we needed that…

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