#celestial pictures

[filmfandojo]

(via GIPHY)

[venomous-five]

Why do you guys hate Celestial Pictures so much? What’d they do?

Oh, where do I even begin?

(Putting this under a read more because I have quite a few receipts.)

My very first beef with them was their misinformation they had on Kuo Chui’s birth date. It caused a lot of problems (A LOT), more than I can really describe, but I’ll try. I know I’ve talked about it before, but I’m gonna talk about it again because it really frustrated and infuriated me.

So, the way most movie databases work is they get all of their information from primary sources (that’s what the good ones do, at least). And it’s universally agreed that production companies are a trustworthy primary souce-- after all, they owned and produced all of these movies! However! The people at Celestial Pictures don’t seem to have nearly enough accurate information on any of their own actors or movies, and where they should be a trustworthy source, they most certainly are not.

For example, they had said that Kuo Chui was born in 1945-- that’s very, very different from 1951, which is his actual birth date. But unfortunately, THEY are supposed to be the most trustworthy source on their actors! Which means any information they give out will be taken at face value! This is extremely problematic because everyone else will repeat what they say because it’s supposed to be true! The only reason I was able to get Kuo Chui’s correct birth date was because @venomsreviews found me an interview where he stated for himself what his birth date was.

The only thing that is more trustworthy than a production company is that which is said by the actors themselves. That can be an issue in itself because we don’t have very many interviews available in English. So, for most matters, our only option is to trust Celestial Pictures and other production companies.

But what happens when the information they have is wrong? You end up with a nasty game of telephone where a lot of false information is confidently spouted as truth, and it can all be traced back to a production company that should have had their facts straight-- especially when it came to their own actors and movies. Oftentimes it’s like they’ve never researched their own properties. It’s embarrassing.

Look at this. If you go to their official trailer for Invincible Shaolin, this is what you see in the first 12 seconds.

That is NOT Philip Kwok!!! That is so clearly Lu Feng!!! It’s literally the first thing we see in this video, and they just come out the door swinging around misinformation. And naming one Venom as a different Venom is bad enough, but then they do this immediately after:

THAT’S NOT EVEN A VENOM. THAT’S SIU YUK-LUNG, AN ACTOR WHO ONLY HAS BIT PARTS IN THE VENOMS MOVIES.

How many hands did this video pass through at Celestial Pictures before it was uploaded? How did nobody catch this blatant mistake?? WHY HAVE THEY NOT FIXED IT AFTER 9 YEARS? It’s like they couldn’t care less about the actors whose names were tied to their company! It’s an insult!

And then, worse yet, they made a Venom Mob tribute video in 2016. Just look at this lineup.

Someone please tell me why in the hell they put Chi Kuan-Chun dead center when he was BARELY IN 5 OF THE 37 VENOMS MOVIES?? To clarify, I classify any movie that had two or more venoms in it as a venoms movie, which is a much broader scope than the officially accepted 19 venoms movies. However, that means it’s an even broader pool of movies for Chi Kuan-Chun to have shared with the venoms! AND IT STILL ONLY AMOUNTS TO FIVE! Why would they put him there instead of Wei Pai, who was in 8 venoms movies and was a main character for half of those. I mean, my God, Chi Kuan-Chun wasn’t even in The Five Deadly Venoms! Wei Pai was! Even if he wasn’t as prolific as the other venoms, he definitely still deserves recognition!

I need you to understand how much Chi Kuan-Chun does not count as a venom. I have a document keeping track of which actors are in three or more movies with the venoms -- this is the B-Tier Venom List that I often refer to. There are 38 names on this list. Chi Kuan-Chun only comes in at number 33 out of 38.

ALL FIVE OF THE MOVIES HE DID “WITH THEM” WERE ONES WHERE THE VENOMS THAT WERE PRESENT ONLY PLAYED BACKGROUND OR SIDE CHARACTERS. He in no way “made movies” with the Venoms!

I’m sorry if that’s not very visible, but all you need to know is that that is the back of the document, and Chi Kuan-Chun is the one that’s highlighted. If anyone is going to be replacing Wei Pai (which shouldn’t even be happening), then there are so many other actors who would have made a much more reasonable choice. It’s like Celestial Pictures just threw a dart at a wall of names and went with whichever one it landed on.

And they were so damn confident about it.

(I want to clarify that I’m not saying that Chi Kuan-Chun is a B-Tier actor, because he’s not-- but in terms of Venoms Films, then he comes in as a B-Tier Venom.)

One more thing about the birthdays before I forget. On their website, they only have years listed for the Venoms, and none of the months or days. This isn’t as egregious as straight up putting the wrong date, but it seems like information that they should have readily accessible. Once again, these are their actors! Why don’t they know when they were born?

Though, I will say that one thing Celestial Pictures has going for it (aside from the beautiful restoration of all of their movies, gotta give credit where credit is due) is that they correctly identify Sun Chien as Taiwanese and clearly say that he is not Korean, despite rumors due to him knowing taekwondo. (I’m a taekwondo martial artist as well, that certainly doesn’t make me Korean -- that’s not how it works 😂)

There are more little things that they’ve done that have rubbed me the wrong way, but I think this is enough for now.

[kenro199x]

Celestial Pictures Shaw Brothers Universe

The Official Channel of Celestial Pictures' Shaw Brothers Universe Film Library. Celestial Pictures owns the Shaw Brothers Film Library, the world's largest ...

For those unaware, Celestrial Pictures has been unloading complete movies of their Shaw Brothers library to YouTube for a while now. They’re not subbed nor are they in HD, but they’re there for you to enjoy.

Free is free after all so go feel free to check them out! 

[dianebombshelter]

I’ve been working on Prismacolor pencil drawings in my spare time. This is Ti Lung in the movie “The Sentimental Swordsman”, approximately 9in. x 10in.🗡☯️

[grindhousecellar]

[lord-valery-mimes]

Meet the Venoms - Lu Feng

Ahhhh, Lu Feng. He could probably be colloquially known as the EVIL Venom, because with the exception of a few roles, Lu Feng almost ALWAYS was the baddie. I mean just look at him up there. So evil! I kid of course. From all the interviews I’ve seen, Lu Feng seems like a genuinely delightful person. And everyone knows it’s just more fun to play the bad guy.

Like some of the other Venoms, Lu Feng was born in Taiwan and attended a Peking Opera School from the time he was eight until he was seventeen. He came from a poor family, and like many they chose to send him to an opera school where tuition was free and children were also given room and board. Apparently his initial focus while in the opera schools was on singing! Sadly I was unable to find any footage of him singing. Hopefully something will surface some day!

After his voice changed he switched his focus to martial arts and acrobatics. He became involved in the film industry in Taiwan as a stuntman after graduation, and was quickly noticed by director Chang Cheh. Once discovered, he was brought into the fold of would-be stars at Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong.

He also had a terrible freshman mustache because he was just a nineteen year old kid when he started working in films.

Seriously, why didn’t someone tell him to shave that thing?

Apparently he also was a huge fan of Coca Cola, and by his own admission drank so much on set that he could have built himself a house out of Coke cans. That’s the hero that we need right there.

Fun Lu Feng fact, one of his earliest roles where he was more than just a background stunt man was in 7 Man Army (1976) where he plays a colonel whose severed head gets more screen-time than he does.

Why they wanted to cast this baby-faced kid as a colonel is beyond me, but that’s probably one reason why you’d miss him if you blinked.

Although he had already graduated to speaking roles in early films like Shaolin Temple (1976) like the rest of the Venoms, real fame didn’t come until Five Deadly Venoms (1978) where he played the baddest of all the baddies: the Centipede. 

You know he’s a bad guy. Look at how ANGRY that mask is.

His role as the villainous venom seemed to cement Lu Feng as the go-to baddie for almost all future pictures the Venoms would do together. According to an interview, it wasn’t so much that Lu Feng enjoyed playing the villains more, but that box office receipts seemed to show that films where he played the villain were more successful:

“I have told you that our movies do well as long as I am playing the villain to the end; and when many have to combine to defeat me, then I will die miserably.... because I'm too strong (laughs)!”

For the most part, the audiences were right, Lu Feng’s deep voice and furious frowns made him one bitchin’ villain. Although an excellent acrobat, his real strength was in his weapons work. He was a whiz with swords, pole arms, and basically any kind of martial arts weapon you could throw at him. Chang Cheh utilized this to the utmost in his films.

Lu Feng’s villainous characters even earned him accolades as he took home a Best Supporting Actor award at the 1979 Asian Film Festival for his performance as Kao Chin Chuen in Shaolin Rescuers (1979).

Although he had so many memorable roles as villains, Lu Feng also shone in a handful of more heroic parts. He took a wonderfully valiant turn in Legend of the Fox (1980), and he was delightful as the grumpy yet heroic Pao Siao Tung in Invincible Shaolin (1978). 

My absolute favorite role of Lu Feng’s was when he played the dastardly Yuan Ying Fei in Magnificent Ruffians. Lu Feng was never better for me than when he was playing a bad guy masquerading as a rich benefactor, and he plays this to the max in Magnificent Ruffians (1979).

Nobody can unfurl a fan quite like Lu Feng.

With his background in Peking Opera, Lu Feng was one of the three Venoms who became heavily involved in the fight choreography behind the scenes. This occasionally led to scuffles between he and Kuo Chui (Philip Kwok) as they both vied to be head choreographer. 

*shakes head* Boys.

Like pretty much every kung fu star that came out of Shaw Brothers, his career took a downturn in the mid-80s when interest in kung fu films began to wane. He followed Chang Cheh to Taiwan and attempted to keep his career going there, but after being in just a handful of films in the late 80s and early 90s, he disappeared off the map for several years. 

Lucky for us, a few years ago Lu Feng was suddenly unearthed by the powers that be at Celestial Pictures (the production company who is releasing all the Shaw Brothers kung fu films to DVD). He made an appearance at last year’s Urban Action Showcase & Expo where he was apparently delighted to meet all the US kung fu fans, and give a weapons demonstration. He may be forty years older, but still he is very good at kung fu.

He’s still got cheekbones you could cut paper with, but he looks like a cute kung fu grandpa these days. I know he got married and had some children around the time he found fame at Shaw Brothers, so his kids would be somewhere in their 30s now.

Aww, how cute is that family?

Apparently he works behind the scenes as a director in the Hong Kong tv industry, and like his fellow Venom Lo Mang, he’s so pleased to know that the films he helped to make in his youth are still loved by many to this day.

He may have been the most villainous of all the venoms, but with all his fancy weapons work, coke drinking and fan unfurling, Lu Feng will always be a kung fu hero to me.

[lord-valery-mimes]

Meet the Venoms - Chiang Sheng

That little face up there is another one of the reasons I fell in love with kung fu. There is just something about Chiang Sheng that instantly caught my eye. He looked like such a baby. “Why?” I thought, “Is this fifteen year old kid doing kung fu movies?” After a bit of Googling I had a name to put to the face, and a back story that sent my maternal instincts into overdrive.

In spite of looking like all of a teenager, Chiang Sheng was in fact one of the older Venoms; being in his late twenties when they made it big with The Five Deadly Venoms. If he looked that little in his twenties, can you imagine what he looked like when he was a baby?

Oh, kind of like that I guess. Just look at that face though! My heart.

Like some of his other Venom compatriots, Chiang Sheng was born in Taiwan, and learned acrobatics and fighting at a Peking Opera school. His family was poor and they could not afford to care for all of their children, so the choice was made to send Sheng to the boarding school  where he could at least have regular meals. 

If his Wikipedia entry is to believed, Sheng was eventually expelled for smoking in the principal’s office. After performing on the streets with his school friend, and fellow future Venom Kuo Chui, Sheng was able to find work as a stuntman at Shaw Brothers studio. 

He quickly became a favorite of director Chang Cheh, and after a handful of roles as background henchmen, got his first speaking role in Shaolin Temple (1976).

After this, he would become one of Cheh’s regulars, playing minor parts until his big break along with the other Venoms in Five Deadly Venoms as Yang Tieh the student. 

Sheng also quickly became one of Cheh’s go-to assistant directors, helping out behind the camera even before Five Deadly Venoms. Once established as one of the studio’s breakout stars, he also began to lend his hand at stunt and fight choreography along with Lu Feng and Kuo Chui. 

With his lithe frame and opera school training, Sheng’s acrobatic skills were usually taken advantage of in the roles he played. Although he did take the odd turn as a villain, Sheng usually filled the role of the fun supporting sidekick. He never did this better than when he played Chun Fei, the light skills expert in Invincible Shaolin. 

He also was allowed to used his comedic skills to full advantage with his turn as Wang Yi, the kung fu hero turned childlike simpleton in the Crippled Avengers.

In every film he’s a shining presence, but it was in the time immediately after Five Deadly Venoms that he really got to shine, utilizing his talents both in front of the camera and behind.

American audiences nicknamed him “cutie pie”, and it’s not hard to see why.

Unfortunately apart from the tidbits about his childhood, there is not much information to be gleaned from the internet about Chiang Sheng. I haven’t even been able to find any photos of him that are later than his career at Shaw Brothers, nor have I been able to find any print interviews with him that have been translated into English. Most of the available information about him comes second-hand from interviews with other kung fu stars. I know that he was married around the same time that he found fame with Shaw Brothers, and had two daughters shortly afterward. Sadly life was not kind to Sheng and his star fell almost as quickly as it rose.

Shortly after 1980, director Chang Cheh left Shaw Brothers and went off to start his own film company in Taiwan. Chiang Sheng and a few other Venoms also relocated, leaving Hong Kong. Unfortunately the timing of this move proved disastrous for Sheng’s career. The popularity of kung fu films began to wane, and so did the roles for acrobats and fighters. As he struggled both with a drinking problem, and with finding work, he and his wife divorced. Shortly afterwards his drinking spiraled out of control, and in 1991 Chiang Sheng was found dead of a heart attack at the young age of forty.

Now I get that it’s weird that I feel so maternal towards this guy. He was born on the other side of the world, was old enough to be my father, and he died when I was still a kid. However I can’t deny that there is something about him that just speaks to my heart even though I know very little about him. There is just something about him that makes me wish I could have been there for him to give him a hug when he was going through hard times. As silly it might seem, I just love him so much. 

When I see him on the screen doing his fights and acrobatics, my heart swells with pride. It fills me with sadness that he never knew that the movies he starred in and helped to direct would have such a lasting legacy, and still have legions of fans to this day. Although he’s been gone for years, and I never knew him, he’ll always be my kung fu son.

[lord-valery-mimes]

Meet the Venoms - Lo Mang

Lo Mang (sometimes referred to as Lo Meng because apparently there are no hard and fast rules about how to translate Chinese characters into roman ones which is annoying as hell) is probably best remembered for one of his rare villainous turns as the eponymous Kid with the Golden Arm (1979). 

He is most easily distinguished from the other Venoms by his muscled physique. Dude is seriously jacked.

Apparently his stage name “Mang” means clumsy or foolish in either Mandarin or Cantonese which makes a hilarious contrast to his perfectly chiseled appearance. However after seeing him in a few of his more comedic roles, it’s quickly obvious that there’s much more to Lo Mang than a six pack you could crack open at a barbecue.

Lo Mang was the only one of the Venoms to have any formal kung fu training that wasn’t grounded in the Chinese opera schools. He trained in both tai chi and mantis-style kung fu. He also was the only Venom to not come from Taiwan as he was born and raised in Hong Kong making him sort of the odd man out. Hilariously, he started off in the accounting department at Shaw Brothers Studios, but quickly was noticed by producer Run Run Shaw. After playing smaller roles in a handful of Shaw pictures, he was cast as the Toad in the Five Deadly Venoms (1978), and he along with the rest of the Venoms were catapulted to stardom.

I’ll admit that I simply cannot choose which of the Venoms is my absolute favorite, but I find Lo Mang incredibly likable. He can go from tough and intimidating, to exaggerated and comedic in the blink of an eye. I feel like he makes himself memorable in every role he plays. I adore his tough-as-nails-but-also-naive-to-a-fault Toad character in Five Deadly Venoms, but he’s equally endearing as a tofu seller/would-be hero in Shaolin Rescuers (1979).

Look at those frickin’ dimples for fuck’s sake. He’s just too cute.

One of my favorite Lo Mang roles is Chu the Mantis practitioner in Invincible Shaolin (1978) who’s forced to eat eggs for months until he learns to do push-ups without breaking them under his hands.

But my absolute favorite Lo Mang role has to be Wei Da-Ti, the blacksmith from Crippled Avengers (1978). The fact that the character cannot speak or hear, means that Lo Mang spends almost the entire film having to emote using just his face and body and quite frankly, it’s a thing of beauty...

I don’t care how hammy he is, I find him just delightful. His performance in this film cracks me up no matter how many times I see it. He’s like the Harpo Marx of kung fu. 

Out of all the Venom Mob, Lo Mang has made himself the most accessible to western audiences. He’s been a guest to the Urban Action Showcase in Philadelphia on a few different occasions, and there are several translated interviews with him available on Youtube, courtesy of Celestial Pictures. He’s still active in Hong Kong entertainment, mostly sticking to television comedies these days, which doesn’t surprise me in the slightest considering what a flair he had for comedy in his Shaw Brothers days.

He also apparently still does kung fu every day, preferring that to working out in the gym. And he’s barely aged at all in the thirty years since the Five Deadly venoms, so kudos to him for that. 

Suffice to say, Lo Mang is an absolute treasure of kung fu cinema, and I’m so glad to know that he’s still around, and aware just how much his performances are loved by people to this day.