The Story: Ah Chien and Ta Po are steadfast friends who make their meager living as errand boys for a restaurant and a bean curd maker. They are also quite adept at martial arts, with Ah Chein favoring the Mantis Fist Style, and Ta Po using the Black Tiger style, which basically is an acrobatic and improvisational weapons (like stools, bowls, and chopsticks) form. Both wish for something more out of life, and they soon get it.

Renegade monk Pai Mei, has aligned himself with the Manchu's, betrayed his fellow monks, destroyed the Shaolin temple, and sent its members fleeing into the hostile countryside. Chief among these men is Hung Sze Kwan, who was severely wounded in the attack. Sze Kwan makes his way to the Llama School, but is turned away because the schools master Chow Ching has also bowed to the Manchu's power. Also, thrown out of the Llama School was student Chi Chai, who was the envy of his fellow classmates, and who found friends in Ah Chien and Ta Po, the three hanging out and training together. And it is the three of them that discover the badly wounded and castaway Sze Kwan, recognizing him as a Shaolin patriot, the kind of man they envy. They hide him away and try to gather the money for the much needed special medicine that will cure his wounds. While Sze Kwan heals, the Llama School and five deadly Machu warriors continue to hunt around and try to find Sze Kwan. The bad guys begin to close in, tracking the medicine to the three men, so it is a good thing that Sze Kwan is healing, training them, polishing their martial skills, and waiting for a fellow Shaolin compatriot to appear. The Manchu's eventually find them, and after a narrow escape, the five men seek revenge on the Llama school, and hole up in a dye mill, awaiting the inevitable battle (involving so many weapons I cant begin to name them all- poles, spears, hammers, fork daggers, vases, iron rings, swords, etc.) with the deadly Manchu's waiting outside.

The Film:

First, the obligatory part for those that don't know- The Venoms are a team of martial arts stars that broke big when the five of them starred together in Chang Cheh's Five Deadly Venoms. The film was a huge hit and subsequently attempts were made to team them up, whether it be all five, four, or three of them, in other films. While none of the films have any relation to Five Deadly Venoms other than the casting, the team was named the Venoms and the movies have become known as Venom films. Some of the Venoms films are: Crippled Avengers, Brave Archers, Chinese Super Ninjas, The Kid with the Golden Arm, Nine Demons, The Chinatown Kid, and Invincible Shaolin. The Venoms are- Lu Feng, Wei Pai, Sun Chien, Kuo Chui, and Lo Meng (as well as, sort of honorary Venom, Chiang Sheng).

The DVD: Venom Mob films presents what kung fu fans should be getting used to, yet another tape transfer of an older kung fu film. So, if you want to replace your worn out vhs copy, or have never bought it before, you could do worse than this low priced disc. However, the moment someone releases a cleaned up letterboxed transfer you'll find this disc in the garbage. But, in the long run, the Shaw Bros. restoration will take awhile, so its better to own this DVD that wont wear out every time you want to slo-mo that special spot where a neat kick is delivered. Picture- Full frame, worn print, suffers from softness and being a tad too dark. On the plus side, not too many blemishes. Sound- Pretty basic mono, English dub, with the usual amount of minor wear, reverb, and occasional hiss. Overall, clean and audible, just not very dynamic. Extras- 12 Chapter Selections, unfortunately it pauses a little between them when you play the film.- Gallery of stills.- Venom Mob bio and filmography, that gets points for mentioning how many Venom's were in each film, but offers no story descriptions which is a minor grumble.