venoms5 One of the craziest Shaw Brothers action movies. This one mixes Fantasy, Horror and Swordplay action that provides a wild 90 minutes of mindless weirdness about a legend of a crystal maker who spilt blood on one of his creations causing it to come to life. Members of a powerful clan begin turning up dead and the crystal maker investigates only to discover a devious plot by a Martial Clan leader to eliminate his top rival and even members of his own family.Elements of horror permeate the movie with a Gothic flavor in nearly every scene. One of the main characters, who wears a sort of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA type mask, has a special skill with a small scepter that has a skull attached to one end. The skull emits laser-like needles that cause the victims stomach to expand and explode in a geyser of viscera. The same character also has a pipa (a sort of Chinese guitar) made of bones that, once played, causes the victims to puke to death! Another female assailant has a skill that causes people to explode and another that can set people on fire.The final fight also features a main villain with a sword that, whatever it touches, is set on fire; even, on a couple of occasions, the air itself! The ending also features a completely naked and well endowed woman on a cross with netting wrapped all over her body that gets tighter and tighter threatening to tear through her skin. Oh, there's also an army of fighters that wear skull masks with long hair that duel with tridents. All this and MANY booby traps and dollops of gore make for a crazy viewing experience.Very fun B level Shaw film made close to the end of their reign as the HK audiences were shying away from their period style of movie-making. Golden Harvest was doing modern style action and thrillers around this time and that's what most people wanted to see. The same exact fate that befell Hammer years earlier. The Shaws would still produce a staggering 40+ movies in 1983 but by the next year, it would drop to under 20.Fast paced director Hua Shan, who garnered critical acclaim for his big hit thriller, THE CRIMINALS from 74, eventually settled in to directing martial arts and swordplay actioners. One of his best remembered movies is the Roger Ebert favorite THE SUPER INFRA-MAN.

Chung Mo Wuxia or martial world genre, take your pick. Obscure Shaw director Hua Shan, best known for the absurd "Super Inframan", is getting a reassessment with the re-release of the Shaw library. Whether that reassessment is deserved is another matter.A crystal carver applies his blood to his most recent creation, a statue of a maiden, despite the protests of his overweight assistant. The assistant has just finished reading how blood applied to crystal will awaken a malevolent spirit. So after a crystal woman warrior fights and kills several members of the Poison clan, fingers are pointed at the sculptor. The clan sends it's best men out to kill the crystal warrior as well as the sculptor. The sculptor and his buddy set out to find the crystal warrior and stop the killing spree that's being blamed on them. Turns out the sculptor was once a talented swordsman so he's quite able to defend himself. His fat buddy is no slouch in the kung-fu department either. Everyone ends up at the "Du" mansion, a strange place run by a woman warlock who has some hidden agenda.The film bears comparison to other martial world films out of Shaw. While treading a similar territory, Portrait in Crystal is different in several ways. The photography is interesting at times with some very excellent compositions and color design. Other times it's as garish as you can imagine. While the standard Shaw sets do come up, much of the set design is different from other films. Several props seem to come from the local Plexiglas store. There is more comedy then I've seen in wuxia films, supplied by the fat guy. Unfortunately the story gets very confusing and the end is very abrupt and unsatisfying. Hua Shan has some interesting ideas but it's offset by the confusing editing. The martial arts are mostly done with wires and simple editing tricks, that's to say that there are no real martial arts on display. However, the final sword fight is well done.Depending on your taste for garish Shaw style wuxia, you might have a good afternoon with this one. A warning, however, there's a rather extreme torture performed on a naked woman constricted in a fishnet. Not for children!