The 1960s and 1970s were the two decades when Shaw's films flourished. In the early 1970s, Shaw, who was affected by the policy at that time, could not be transferred back to Hong Kong because of Taiwan's redundant funds, so in 1973, Zhang Che set up a "Longbow Film Company" in Taiwan, and the film was released in Hong Kong after filming. Zhang Che has made as many as 15 movies in Longbow, starring mostly members of the "Zhangjia Class", including many newcomers. In 1976, Zhang Che returned to Hong Kong and brought back several new people who had been excavated in Taiwan, such as Guo Chai and Sun Jian, who were later collectively referred to as his "third-generation disciples".
After returning to Hong Kong, Zhang Che made "Five Poisons" and "Mutilation" for Shaw with a strong cult style, both of which are representative works of Zhang Che in the middle and late stages, and are also subversions of his traditional martial arts film style. Last time, the author has already said "Mutilation", this time, let's talk about this "Five Poisons".
In addition to a large number of depictions of human cunning and scheming, the later part of the film is full of grotesque and cult meanings, full of witty, vicious and almost deformed visual spectacles.
The old leader of the Five Poison Gate realized that time was running out, and lamented that the Five Poison Gate had done a lot of bad things before, so he asked the only disciple around him, Yang De (Jiang Sheng), to join one of the brothers to clean up the portal and find the treasure of the master uncle.
The five brothers are the old centipede (Lu Feng), the old second snake (Wei Bai), the old third scorpion (Sun Jian), the old fourth gecko (Guo Chai), and the old five toad (Luo Mang). And Yang De, played by Jiang Sheng, ranks sixth among the crowd, and sets the strengths of the five kung fu.
Among his five brothers, the eldest and the second, the fourth and fifth knew each other, but no one knew the third and sixth. Therefore, in the closed narrative of the film, "Who is the third oldest" has become the biggest suspense point in the first and middle sections of the film. Under such a suspense point setting, the plot of the film has ups and downs, and a small amount of blank space outside the wonderful plot also gives the audience appropriate space for reverie and speculation.
In addition to the fun of watching the movie brought by the suspense point setting, the character building in the film also has a lot of points to watch. The fourth and fifth elders represent the great righteousness between heaven and earth, and are the characters in traditional martial arts movies, who advocate punishing evil and promoting good, and use the martial arts they have learned to claim justice. The gecko of the fourth year walks the wall and the old fifth's toad qigong is essentially defensive kung fu and will not seriously affect others. But human nature is the biggest variable in society, and the old five only know how to arrest people, but they don't know that there is also a phenomenon of collusion between officials and bandits.
Therefore, the death of the fifth elder can also be predicted, and when Haoran's righteous qi is destroyed by the evil demon' outer path, the grief power emitted from it is enough to shake people's hearts.
The eldest, the second, and the third are the villains in the film, and they represent the group of people in the jianghu who will stop at nothing to pursue their own interests. The boss's centipede has a thousand feet and a thousand hands, the second's spirit snake swims, and the third elder's scorpion swings its tail, essentially using the attack to seize the opportunity, defeat the opponent's kung fu, and achieve the purpose of self-interest by harming others.
Therefore, in the end of the film, the old six is used instead of the fifth, and the old fourth cooperates to fight against the other three brothers and sisters. This reflects the mutual checks and balances of martial arts, mutual restraint, and one thing descends from one thing.
If the character shaping of the six division brothers is to serve the theme of the film and is too flat, then the change of the personality of the second brother in the second half of the film can be described as the highlight of the film, he is a rich man, he could have had no worries about food and clothing, but after he accidentally entered the five poisonous doors and killed people, he could only continue like this.
I believe that after watching the first 50 minutes of the movie, you will feel that this movie is a very traditional martial arts kung fu movie. But when you see the 50 minutes after the film, see the "ten thousand needle clothes" that broke the old five kung fu, force the old five to confess the "red back", let the old five swallow the yellow paper soaked in water ("Jia Guan JinJue"), as well as hook throat needles, brain prick needles, you will marvel at the director's strong creativity, although some of these torture and brutal killing methods can be found in ancient books, but they can be visually presented, it is really good.
Although the film presents well in terms of character building, visualization of torture, confrontation between good and evil, and confrontation of attack and defense, it is also the biggest regret of the film that does not continue the suspense of the opening to the end.
After filming "Five Poisons", his original team continued to shoot "Crippled". Since then, Luo Mang has been mixed with TVB, and starred in dramas such as "Drunken Golden Branch" and "Magic Hand Benevolent Heart", and the most recent supporting role with a name was Master Luo in "Ip Man 3".
Lu Feng is one of the martial arts instructors of this film, after filming "Five Poisons", he has starred in many movies, in 1985 after filming "Shanghai Beach Thirteen Taibao" turned to the backstage as a martial arts director and director, and then entered the TV drama industry, in addition to serving as a director and martial arts director, he also created many classic roles, such as the toad spirit King Daolin in "The Legend of the New White Lady" in 1991.
Jiang Sheng, who has been acting and occasionally serving as executive director, martial arts instructor, etc., died on April 24, 1990.
Wei Bai left Shaw in the early 1980s and joined ATV for a short time, participating in the filming of many dramas such as "Four Famous Catches Re-emerge from the Jianghu". In the late 1980s, he faded out of show business and was rumored to have left Argentina.
Sun Jian has been acting, and after 1992, his news can rarely be found on the Internet.
After Guo Chai sold out in "Five Poisons", he served as a male lead in many movies, and then turned to martial arts instructors, participating in directing many movies such as "Across the World" and "The Legend of the White-Haired Witch". He has been nominated for Best Action Design at the Academy Awards twice and Best Action Design at the Golden Horse Awards once. He has also served as an action director for the American film "007: Empire of Tomorrow" and the French film "The Wolf Covenant", which can be described as a career overseas.
Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino has publicly stated that he likes the film very much. In the list of "50 Classic Cult Films in the World" selected by Entertainment Weekly in the United States in 2003, "Five Poisons" ranked 11th, which shows that it has great influence abroad. In addition, the film also has a profound influence on Chinese films, which directly inspired the creation of Gui Zhihong's "evil" trilogy and other Hong Kong cult films.
Maybe "Five Poisons" is not a simple kung fu film, but its reflections on human nature, violence, good and evil in it were of epoch-making significance at that time. Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and as long as the rivers and lakes are there, killing and strife are there. The most poisonous thing is not the poison itself, but the human heart.