I think you need to reset your mind when going in for a Shaw Brothers film, because they're just different in style compared to other Hong Kong productions. There's a different kind of fight style that's very stylised and theatrical, there's the music and not least, the famous Shaw Brothers Blood.
For me, having grown up with Golden Harvest films with the likes of Jackie, Sammo and Yuen, the Shaw Brothers films can seem a bit old and cheesy in comparison - but what they do have instead is very much personality, both in the film itself and definitely in all the characters - this film have six different fighters and even without knowing their names you could tell them apart, even if you only see their fighting style, which is really cool - the actual development of unique fighting styles for all of them.
What I didn't like however was the treatment of the good and the bad guys. To me the film had most of its focus on how the bad guys planned on taking out the good guys, while I would rather have wanted the opposite, where the good guys find a way to take out the bad ones. Sure, it becomes a problem when the creators come up with a character having superhuman abilities where no sword or punch can hurt him, but the amount of torture then spent on this, followed by the aftermath of other people around this person meeting their fate just became too much for me. If this film was a puzzle, all the pieces are already there, it's just how they're placed out that didn't work for me.
It would've made more sense if one of the bad guys possessed the superhuman strength and for the good guys to find a way to defeat him, sure, we get a pretty cool montage over how the goodies plans out how to take out their enemies, but to this point I had lost most interest, because the bad guys had caused too much damage that no matter what happened to them, it wouldn't be enough punishment for what they had done. It's also a missed opportunity to not have all the Five Venoms meet up at the end for a final showdown.
I can recommend watching it, but it's not a film I plan on watching again or getting in my film collection.
For me, having grown up with Golden Harvest films with the likes of Jackie, Sammo and Yuen, the Shaw Brothers films can seem a bit old and cheesy in comparison - but what they do have instead is very much personality, both in the film itself and definitely in all the characters - this film have six different fighters and even without knowing their names you could tell them apart, even if you only see their fighting style, which is really cool - the actual development of unique fighting styles for all of them.
What I didn't like however was the treatment of the good and the bad guys. To me the film had most of its focus on how the bad guys planned on taking out the good guys, while I would rather have wanted the opposite, where the good guys find a way to take out the bad ones. Sure, it becomes a problem when the creators come up with a character having superhuman abilities where no sword or punch can hurt him, but the amount of torture then spent on this, followed by the aftermath of other people around this person meeting their fate just became too much for me. If this film was a puzzle, all the pieces are already there, it's just how they're placed out that didn't work for me.
It would've made more sense if one of the bad guys possessed the superhuman strength and for the good guys to find a way to defeat him, sure, we get a pretty cool montage over how the goodies plans out how to take out their enemies, but to this point I had lost most interest, because the bad guys had caused too much damage that no matter what happened to them, it wouldn't be enough punishment for what they had done. It's also a missed opportunity to not have all the Five Venoms meet up at the end for a final showdown.
I can recommend watching it, but it's not a film I plan on watching again or getting in my film collection.