TOAD TRIUMPHANT : LO DOWN ON A VENOM-OUS HERO
Its great to see the late era Shaw Bros Five Deadly Venoms and The Return of The Five Deadly Venoms (AKA Crippled Avengers) getting the kind of US DVD release they deserve courtesy of Dragon Dynasty. These titles are of especially interest to me, given that I’m currently working with one of the mainstays of those films, Lo Mang, on a new project entitled ‘Beach Spike!’.
Five Deadly Venoms has, arguably, the greatest cult following of any Hong Kong actioner. The cast members are known collectively as ‘The Venoms Mob’, and Lo Sifu was a key member of the team. A practitioner of Southern style Praying Mantis kung fu, Lo began his film career as a bodyguard to the legendary Shaw Bros director Chang Cheh. Shaws allowed Chang to open his own semi-autonomous film production unit in his native Taiwan, and Lo accompanied his mentor, providing security services and playing supporting roles in Chang’s films.
When Chang returned to Hong Kong, he screened one of his films for studio chief Run Run Shaw. Lo had a relatively minor role in the movie, but, every time he came on screen, Shaw exclaimed that this “young fellow” looked like a star. While filming ‘Marco Polo’ in Taiwan, Chang had fallen out with his previous martial arts choreographer, Lau Kar-leung, and returned to Hong Kong with a new Taiwanese action team. Bitter at Lau’s perceived defection, Chang had sworn never again to work with a Hong Kong martial arts unit. Given Shaw’s sterling recommendation, Lo Mang was one of the main exceptions to this rule.
With key roles in Five Deadly Venoms and Invincible Shaolin, Lo brought his superior physique and distinctive Southern Fist style to the big screen. Fellow industry veterans remember him as one of the relatively few kung fu stars who could really fight, on screen or off. There are numerous tales of Lo engaging in challenge matches and street fights. When I ask him about them today, he shrugs them off, amiably enough, saying “I forget...!”
Lo worked for Chang Cheh and other directors throughout the last great era of Shaw Bros actioners. My favourites of his films from this period are ‘Shaolin Rescuers’, ‘The Kid With The Golden Arm’ and the underrated ‘Lion VS Lion’. One of the wackier Chang Cheh offerings, ‘Two Heroes of Shaolin’, was re-edited and remixed to create an MTV for the Chemical Brothers track ‘Get Yourself High’. Lo Mang takes centre stage, and gets to rap the line “reach out now to the hip hop nation”! (In a similar vein, in 1999, Lo flew to the UK to choreograph the action for an MTV shot by the R&B group Dru Hill to promote their song ‘You Are Everything’, though the vampire-themed promo was never released commercially.)
After the end of the Shaw Bros epoch, Lo became an independent actor for hire. He plays an assassin in John Woo’s epic ‘Hard Boiled’ (also available from Dragon Dynasty). Originally, he was signed to play the role of ‘Mad Dog’, but action director (and fellow former Venom) Kwok Chui cleverly kept the part for himself. Lo’s character was meant to go toe-to-toe with star Chow Yun-fat, but apparently Kwok (again!) warned Chow off (“This guy can hit hard!”), and the clash was never shot.
In recent years, Hong Kong cinema didn’t seem to know what to do with this living legend, and Lo worked primarily on local television. When we were preparing our kung fu volleyball comedy, ‘Beach Spike!’, we created a kung fu fighting character called ‘Uncle Dao’. As soon as I read the script, I realized that Lo Mang fit the role to a T (for ‘Toad’). Though we had never actually met, I knew from mutual friends that he was still in great shape, and I had heard he was keen to make movies again.
Coincidentally, Wilson Ip had just cast Lo in a great comedic cameo in ‘Ip Man 2’. Our director, Tony Tang, saw Lo Mang in this film, and agreed that he would be perfectly cast as our feisty fistic restaurant owner. (BTW The restaurant that Lo’s character owns in the film is ‘Oh La La’ on Pui O Beach, Lantau Island, so all you Venoms fans should make the pilgrimage when you come to Hong Kong!).
For our climactic final volleyball tournament, we decamped for the new Shaw Bros studio. Even though this is not the same facility where Lo first filmed fist and foot, its still an honour to bring this former Venom back ‘home’ to the studio that made his name, and to whose name he brought great glory!
