Three men, crippled by an evil warlord, become friends and learn kung fu with the help of an old teacher and his idiot pupil.
Ian Jane of DVD Talk rated it 4.5/5 stars and wrote, "With heroes you can cheer for and bad guys evil enough to hiss at, The Return Of The 5 Deadly Venoms is top tier old school martial arts mayhem at its best." Bill Palmer, Karen Palmer, and Richard Meyers wrote in The Martial Arts Encyclopedia, "The story is somewhat unusual, and there are plenty of excellently choreographed fight scenes." Yes, there is a cheesy scene of a man chopping down bamboo with his fists, and much of the story is set against an obviously fake backdrop. But this is part of the Shaw Brothers charm. We get more of what we love from Shaw, Chang Cheh and the Five Venoms. We also get something of a gimmick with "crippled" fighters. They are a bit more amazing to watch than "drunken masters", at least.
Ian Jane of DVD Talk rated it 4.5/5 stars and wrote, "With heroes you can cheer for and bad guys evil enough to hiss at, The Return Of The 5 Deadly Venoms is top tier old school martial arts mayhem at its best." Bill Palmer, Karen Palmer, and Richard Meyers wrote in The Martial Arts Encyclopedia, "The story is somewhat unusual, and there are plenty of excellently choreographed fight scenes." Yes, there is a cheesy scene of a man chopping down bamboo with his fists, and much of the story is set against an obviously fake backdrop. But this is part of the Shaw Brothers charm. We get more of what we love from Shaw, Chang Cheh and the Five Venoms. We also get something of a gimmick with "crippled" fighters. They are a bit more amazing to watch than "drunken masters", at least.