Nothing like a good old-fashioned wuxia whose title tells the audience right off the bat that they mean business.
Valley of the Fangs is a 1970 Shaw Brothers wuxia film starring Lo Lieh, Li Ching, and Wang Hsieh.
When the Ming Emperor dies and is succeeded by his young son, a child emperor, the ruling authority is immediately taken over by the corrupt Prime Minister Jia Shou Dao, who enforces a dictatorship and have allied himself with a legion of bandits, with his personal lackey, Commander Gao, delightfully carrying out a killing spree under the Minister's orders.
A group of resistance fighters organized by the still-lawful Chief Judge decide to travel to the capital city for reinforcements and assistance to expose the Minister, but unfortunately the Minister already had Commander Gao and several of his underlings awaiting for the heroic warriors in a key passage of their journey; the dreaded Valley of the Fangs, swarming with marauders, assassins and all sorts of evil-doers in the martial world. But luckily, a righteous, wandering swordsman named You Ru-long (Lo Lieh) arrives in time to help.
Valley of the Fangs (1970) contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Li Ching plays Sister Song, one of the resistance's leaders and an expert swordswoman by her own right, deadly with a sword and capable of taking names.
- Catch and Return: The bandit leaders, Ma and Niu, tries to nail down Ru-long with darts. Ru-long catches three of them, and throws them back... into the thrower's hair, without killing them.
- Chairman of the Brawl: During the tavern brawl, Ru-long uses a table as an improvised shield to block swords from three corrupt inspectors, before pushing the table and sending all three of his opponents through a wall.
- The Dragon: Most of Minister Jia's atrocities are carried out by his equally villainous subordinate, Commander Gao Si-xian. And there's also...
- Co-Dragons: Ma and Niu, two bandit leaders working directly under Minister Jia's dragon, Commander Gao.
- Defeat Means Menial Labor: The farmhouse battle between You Ru-long, Sister Song and the resistance, against a legion of bandit mooks is interrupted by the Imperial army, where at which point the outnumbered bandits are forced to surrender. One scene later, the bandits are shown rebuilding the farmhouse as punishment.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The titular valley, which is filled with bandits and murderers. Unfortunately, in order to expose Minister Jia's atrocities and overthrow his dictatorship, the heroes must cross it, and battle their way against the numerous bandit and marauder gangs under the minister's employment.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: Niu, one of the two Co-Dragons, dies in this way: after missing a lunge, he ends up hitting himself face-first into a huge bell, where he gets disorientated long enough to be stabbed In the Back by Sister Song.
- The Drifter: You Ru-long, the wandering swordsman and the hero of this Shaw outing, who decides to help overthrow Minister Jia Shou Dao during his journeys.
- Fingore: One of the bandit leaders suffers this after having four of his fingers hacked off via sword.
- Gorn: One of the gorier wuxia movies. Expect plenty of mooks getting killed graphically onscreen, with loads and loads of red.
- Hero Insurance: Averted in You Ru-long's very first first fight scene; after defeating a group of corrupt inspectors in a tavern and sending them fleeing, You Ru-long gets stopped by the tavern's owner because during the fight he demolished the tavern's back wall, by flinging three enemy mooks through. The tavern's boss complains, until Ru-long gives the boss a massive silver yuanbao at which point the tavern boss shuts up.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Commander Gao in the final battle, with You Ru-long sending his trusty sword into his gut. With that sweet, sweet geyser of High-Pressure Blood shooting maybe five meters into the air, which Shaw Brothers simply loves to use in the deaths of major baddies.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: You Ru-long is a devil when it comes to throwing darts. And coins.
- In a Single Bound: You Ru-long and Sister Song both have the ability to traverse great distances just by jumping.
- Mad Eye: On one of the minor bandits, Sun Lan. Seen here
. - Money Mauling: Ru-long, besides using darts, can also throw copper coins with deadly accuracy, embedding the coins into flesh, wood, or into walls.
- Puppet King: The Ming Dynasty Emperor is a child, due to his father and predecessor's untimely death, with the corrupt Prime Minister, Jia Shou Dao, taking over the ruling authority.
- Rump Roast: In the farmhouse battle, this happens to Hu-San, You Ru-long's sidekick, when Hu accidentally sat down on a burning stove during a fight. He spends the next entire minute running all over the place with his ass burning, leaving Ru-long fighting all alone, until Hu-San finds a water trough to sit in, where after extinguishing the fire he goes back fighting.
- Sword Fight: All over the place, with both heroes and villains preferring the use of swords. These comes with plenty of High-Pressure Blood as well.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Part of the backstory where Minister Jia, being given authority after the child emperor's initiation, then decide to turn the government into a harsh dictatorship, having his own personal army of cutthroats and bandits enforcing his control by terrorizing the local populace.
- Wretched Hive: The titular valley, which is the hideout of the numerous bandit clans working for Minister Jia, who robs and terrorizes peasants for fun.
- Wuxia
