Guest Kwok Choi Posted August 16, 2007 Share Posted August 16, 2007 I remember vaguely someone asking why Kuo Chui,Lu Feng and Chiang Sheng did not jump ship to Golden Harvest when Shaw Brothers was about to stop making films? I've wondered about this since and there are many debatable hypothetical ideas one could come up with but a few striking questions come to mind: Were the Venoms stale or unstable at this point? Was the invincible box office trio of Sammo,Jackie,and Yuen Biao modeled on Kuo,Lu,and Chiang Sheng therefore there would have been a conflict of interest? Was the rivalry just too intense between the two companies for this to be a possibility? Would the SB Venoms be given the same clout as The Fortunes in choosing project? Was it an ego thing on both sides (The Venoms / The Fortunes) or was Golden Harvest just happy with the box office magic of Sammo and co;careful not to rock the boat? Were the 3 Venoms just tired of Hong Kong? and why when Golden Harvest eventually hired Kuo Chui wasn't the footage of his fight scenes (which were said to be terrific) included in Jackie Chan's Police Story 3.Finally why did Kuo leave the project? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest oldeschool17 Posted August 16, 2007 Share Posted August 16, 2007 I was the one that asked that actually. Thanks for ressurecting that question back up cause no one seemed to address it. I think they could have had a great career at Golden Harvest. Maybe they felt loyal to the shaw brand, whether it was afloat or dead? Theres gotta be something we're missing cause if Wei Pai can make a move(granted he had close ties to Woo) so could've the Venoms. Just think, what if Lu Feng and Chiang Sheng made a move to Golden Harvest, he might be alive today(considering he was hurting bad for jobs up until his death in the 90s). Anybody know why he and his wife separated? Was it cause of the money issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest killer meteor Posted August 16, 2007 Share Posted August 16, 2007 Even if they couldn't keep the lead roles, they could have perhaps joined Sammo or Jackie's teams. Perhaps they felt it was better to have starring roles in lousy movies rather than smaller but more consistent work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest oldeschool17 Posted August 16, 2007 Share Posted August 16, 2007 i still want a venoms reunion dammit. They could easily do a 5 Venoms script where the original members are the masters passing on their knowledge to up and coming LEGIT kung fu actors(no pepsi pop singers) with no bullshit CGI and wires. Oh well, one can dream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmungus Posted August 16, 2007 Share Posted August 16, 2007 from what i understand, 'the venoms' simply werent that highly regarded. for (many of) us they re beloved cult characters now (reminder: we re a predominantly western crowd and from a recent thread in the general section asking members`ages i gather a large # of us is still in their 20s), but how did ie the GH execs think of the venoms back in 1983 ?!?!? (GH execs= definitely no westerners in their 20s :b ) Maybe they felt loyal to the shaw brand, whether it was afloat or dead? :eek :x naaaah. c'mon. seriously ???? if anything, they were feeling loyality towards CC. venoms or other shaw stars, i find it an interesting topic to learn more about everyone`s career situation around 1983-84 and how they`d deal with the decay of the studio. maybe venomaniac venomsfreak knows some details on the subject concerning kuo, chiang & lu; but afaik- and all info i keep coming across is in support of that- venoms were only considered 2nd grade stars- so why bother signing some guys who were regarded s/t like the "33rd, 39th & 50th ranked/most popular m.a. actors" when u already have #1, 3 and 5 in your team (and then some). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest killer meteor Posted August 16, 2007 Share Posted August 16, 2007 That reminds me: Gordon Liu didn't seem to maintain his star status - at least in films - after Shaws folded. What happened there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted August 16, 2007 Share Posted August 16, 2007 A lot of the old school stars struggled to make the transition to modern day films. It wasn't just Liu Chia Hui...... what about David Chiang, Chen Kuan Tai, Lo Lieh, Pai Piao, Wong Yue, etc... the all ended up in character parts. Ti Lung had John Woo and A Better Tomorrow but before that his career was seriously on the wane. The success of that film kept him in action for the next eight years until he went into semi-retirement. One of the most successful was Derek Yee for he turned to directing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest killer meteor Posted August 16, 2007 Share Posted August 16, 2007 Didn't some make a succesful transition to TV? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest vengeanceofhumanlanterns Posted August 16, 2007 Share Posted August 16, 2007 I think it may have had a little something to do with the fact that, Kuo Chui and Lu Feng, were'nt getting along so well, in regards to those two anyway. Also, they along with Chiang Sheng were the main choreographers, but as for the others, I think Markgway is somewhere on track here. I also remember hearing somewhere that the Shaws Brothers were very annoyed with the complaints, and or threats to leave, by all the stars mentioned above at this time for higher percentages in pay, because they were doing so well in the theatres, and so Shaws studios may have taken some sort of actions to stifle their careers. It also does seem that the genre, to the stars involved, was really just falling apart and had run it's course. I'm sure also, they were just too tired and rundown from working so relentlessly for the last decade or more. Were talking non-stop filming during their Shaws tenure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 Didn't some make a succesful transition to TV? Hardly the same thing though... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest killer meteor Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 Maybe not, but it's bread on the table and public exposure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Karlos Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 From what I understand, once GH films starting taking over the Asian box office in the mid 80's, movie goers took to these contemporary flicks with a fervour. The modern day cycle was well and truly IN and thusly, SB all it stood for was pretty much OUT. It's been said that for a while SB there was almost a stigma about being connected to SB and so many actors found themselves without film work shortly after SB closed it's doors - hence the tv work. Harsh... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tosh Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 I would have to believe that the Venoms would of had minor roles at gh, so they just went home to Taiwan, what a dream fight though - Jackie, Biao, and Sammo vs Chui, Feng and Sheng, if I had my way - Jackie vs Chui Sammo vs Feng Sheng vs Biao Then a blowout with all 6 of them at the end:eek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest oldeschool17 Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 Ok ive heard so many supposed stories that fu sheng and kuo choi had problems, but i could have sworn i read a Kuo Choi interview i believe on one of those cheng cheh/venoms websites where he says that wasnt true. Can you provide your source(s) that there were problems between the two? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest killer meteor Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 There was some sort of dispute between Lu Feng and Kuo Choi, hence the former's abscence from Ode To Gallantry and the latter's from Two champions Of Shaolin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Markgway Posted August 17, 2007 Share Posted August 17, 2007 Both Kuo and Lu wanted to be the top choreographer. It was a temporary battle of egos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Cognoscente Posted May 17, 2021 Member Share Posted May 17, 2021 After the record-breaking 30 million dollar success of My Lucky Stars (which resulted in the literal smash hit of ice), Cinema City should have tried to rival Golden Harvest by doing a Venoms Go Places franchise...which would have been superior to Golden Harvest's Lucky Stars Go Places (1986) no matter the significance of Lau Kar-Leung working on the finale of that movie. A Venoms/Places crossover would have been more lucrative than Cinema City's The Thirty Million Dollar Rush (1987), which Lau worked on, and whose box office intake failed to live up to the suggestive nature of the title. Lu Feng should have been replaced by Johnny Wang Lung-Wei. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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