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Turkey. Ukraine. United Arab Emirates. The Five Deadly Venoms Blu-ray ReviewDeadly but incredibly enjoyable.Reviewed by, May 28, 2011The Golden Age of Hollywood saw the rise and dominance of a handful of major studios, each with their own stable of stars and technicians and each with their own particular style and strength. With the advent of anti-trust laws and the burgeoning phenomenon of television, the Hollywood majors started their slow, steady decline in the late 1940's and 1950's until by the 1960's they were mere shadows of their former selves. Younger audiences who today either go to theatrical presentations or buy or rent home video products and see one 'major' logo after another on any given production may not understand why older folks kind of scratch their head when confronted by co-productions of, say, 20th Century Fox and Universal.
Such things were unheard of until economic realities made them a necessity. Hong Kong cinema commentator Bey Logan (who contributes a madcap commentary to The Five Deadly Venoms) makes a good point that by the 1970's if you wanted to experience something akin to the vaunted Hollywood studio system of days of yore you really had to look to the Shaw Brothers. As Logan mentions, the Shaw Brothers weren't hobbled by those pesky American anti-trust laws, and they didn't just have their own studio, they did their own post-production work and they also owned their own theaters to exhibit their product.
Virtually all of their major stars were under contract to the studio, as was the incredible roster of technicians, making Shaw Brothers the closest thing to the way things used to be in Hollywood at the apex of the film production in the 1930's and early 1940's. That also meant that there was an identifiable 'feel' and certainly look to a lot of Shaw Brothers product, and there's probably no finer example of what a mid-1970's Shaw Brothers film was than the iconic cult sensation The Five Deadly Venoms. The Five Deadly Venoms features the typically lurid Shaw Brothers mid-1970's palette, maybe even more than usual for a Shaw Brothers film, and that bright, colorful look is really beautifully presented on this AVC encoded 1080p presentation (in 2.37:1). This is certainly the sharpest and clearest The Five Deadly Venoms has looked on any home video release, with a gorgeously saturated palette that really pops off the screen.
Fine detail is certainly increased, if not quite at spectacular levels. Some of the film has always looked soft, and that ambience isn't changed very dramatically in this new Blu-ray incarnation. But black levels and contrast are outstanding, and the film simply is a riot of color and a lot of fun to watch in this new high definition presentation. Two lossy mono tracks are offered in Dolby Digital 2.0 presentations, the original Mandarin and the English dub. The Mandarin is fairly spry sounding, though copious looping is more than obvious at times, with fairly apparent ambience changes throughout various voice work. Sound effects have reasonable impact and the original language soundtrack doesn't suffer from any egregious damage or even unbearable hiss. It's obviously narrow and suffers from typical Dolby compression at the high and low ends of the spectrum, but it suffices fairly well for these proceedings.
The English dub is a satisfactory runner-up for those who can't stand to read subtitles, but my recommendation is to stick with the original language track if at all possible. The Five Deadly Venoms is completely over the top, out there, silly fun. It also has a decent mystery at its core which helps to offset the lunatic elements of the story, characterizations and execution of the film.
This is a film that has maintained a legendary luster for well on 30 years now, helping to influence a whole generation of filmmakers. This new Blu-ray looks fantastic, and while the audio leaves something to be desired, it's an attractive package that any Shaw Brothers fan is surely going to want in their personal collections. Highly recommended.
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United Kingdom. Canada. Australia. Germany.
France. Spain. Italy. Argentina. Austria. Belgium. Brazil.
Bulgaria. Chile.
China. Colombia. Czech Republic. Denmark. Finland. Greece. Holland.
Hong Kong. Hungary. Iceland. Indonesia.
Ireland. Israel. India. Japan. Malaysia. Mexico.
New Zealand. Norway.
Five Deadly Venoms English Dub
Philippines. Poland. Portugal. Romania. Russia. Singapore. South Africa.
South Korea. Sweden. Switzerland. Taiwan. Thailand. Turkey. Ukraine.
Five Deadly Venoms Full Movie
United Arab Emirates.