Yuan (Kuo Chui) finds the remains of Golden Snake Yi in a cave and, being a righteous sort of fellow, discovers the secrets that will lead him to a fortune in gold (which he plans to give to Yi's heirs). Along the way, he meets the beautiful Qing Qing and her family. She leads Yuan to believe that she's a male, though she's clearly attracted to him (and he to her, in a Manly sorta way...). Yuan is put to the test by the five male members of the Qing family, who utilize The Five-Element Array. If ever an actor could convincingly fend off five skilled opponents, it was Chui: he was a triple threat, an actor whose skill set included almost effortless acrobatics, consummate martial artistry, and absolute believability (whether doing comedy or drama). Some great action throughout. Highly recommended.

Like most kung fu films, we lose a lot in translation, but we get the gist of a young hero learning ways to fight powerful evil people.Here, we're not sure for a while who the evil ones will be. In fact, the hero is played by an actor who often plays bad guys.Here, he is a very likable chap, and he meets a girl who is very stubborn and has a bad temper. That's what makes the film as good as it is. The two leads are very charming and charismatic.The acrobatics and constant gymnastics are what often become tedious in these films. Here, they are more than tedious. We stick through this crazy choreography, though, because of the charisma of the two lead characters.Fortunately, although our hero ends up having to fight 5 kung fu artists by himself, he is not totally alone, as two family members are there to make sure the "henchmen" don't interfere. They have a brief battle of their own. A mute servant also adds to the appeal, as does some very stylistic settings, including a cave of danger with an Indiana Jones atmosphere.All in all, very watchable, although the tedious fight scenes are a bit of a drag. In this film, it is the drama in between that salvages it.

After watching the rather silly 36th Chamber trilogy this weekend, it was refreshing to finally see The Sword Stained with Royal Blood, which represents what I loved best from the Shaw Brothers era. Chang Cheh was by far my favorite director, the Vemon Mob folks were so extremely talented, and I loved the more serious and great stories that were being told in their movies. The story seems to jump around a lot early on, but it all comes together quite well by the end. Kuo Chui carries the film as usual and is excellent. Loved the sequence early on of him discovering the cave, though I have no idea why he went there in the first place. A lot of great action and I still just think these are so well made and better than the rest. Though I admit I'm pretty crazy about all the Shaw Brothers movies.

During their heyday, the Venoms played in three wuxia films: LEGEND OF THE FOX, THE SWORD STAINED WITH ROYAL BLOOD and ODE TO GALLANTRY. I got the chance to see LEGEND OF THE FOX and this at the cinema and is my favorite of the three!Kwo Chui plays an orphan raised on the mountains by a revered swordsman and his mute servant. Fate brings him to discover a hidden treasure chest of the Golden Snake swordsman (Lung Thien Siang), whose skeleton is also found inside the cave with the chest, containing a snake- shaped sword and its training book. Having trained himself to become a swordsman, he travels to a nearby town to solve the mystery of the Golden Snake's death. Upon reaching town, Kwo gradually gets entangled in the mystery and must confront the Golden Snake's archenemy (Wang Li) and his clan members.The story has its twists common to a wuxia film, which add flavor to an otherwise clichéd plot. Women characters played by Wen Shue Erl as the daughter of the Golden Snake, and Ching Li as his wife are also introduced to complicate the plot.The one against five weapon-fight is of high-octane Venoms' quality: fights that involve exciting swordplay and fight-in-the-air stunts. Watch how Kwo Chui takes on his five opponents - a band of deviously skilled swordsmen: Wang Li, Lu Feng, Chiang Sen, Yu Thai Phing, and Chu Ke! Worth watching for Venoms fans who want to see the Venoms' strutting out their kungfu skills in a wuxia film.