House of Traps
House of Traps is a 1982 Shaw Brothers film directed by Chang Cheh, starring the Venom Mob. The story is based on the 19th-century novel The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants.
| House of Traps | |
|---|---|
 movie poster | |
| Traditional | 沖霄樓 |
| Simplified | 冲霄楼 |
| Mandarin | Chōng Xiāo Lóu |
| Cantonese | Cung1 Siu1 Lau4 |
| Directed by | Chang Cheh |
| Produced by | Mona Fong |
| Written by | Chang Cheh I Kuang |
| Starring | Philip Kwok Chin Siu-ho Lung Tien-hsiang Sun Chien Ngaai Fei |
| Music by | Eddie H. Wang |
| Cinematography | Tsao Hui-chi |
| Edited by | Chiang Hsing-lung Li Yen-hai |
| Country | Hong Kong |
| Language | Mandarin |
Plot
When a corrupt prince arranges for the theft of a highly valuable jade antique the emperor dispatches his best men to retrieve it. The only problem is that the prince has hidden the antique in the infamous 'house of traps' from which no man has ever made it out alive. Royal investigator Sun Chien and his men mount a daring raid on the prince's birthday which results in the usual mayhem expected from a Venoms film.
Cast
| Cast | Role | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sun Chien | Yan Chunmin | Inspector |
| Lau Fong-sai | Yumo | Yan Chunmin's servant |
| Ngaai Fei | Zhao Jue | Prince of Xiangyang |
| Philip Kwok | Zhi Hua | "Black Demon Fox" |
| Chin Siu-ho | Bai Yutang | "Brocade-Coated Rat", 5th sworn brother |
| Chu Ko | Lu Fang | "Sky-Penetrating Rat", 1st sworn brother |
| Yu Tai-ping | Han Zhang | "Earth-Piercing Rat", 2nd sworn brother |
| Cheng Tien-chi | Xu Qing | "Mountain-Boring Rat", 3rd sworn brother |
| Chiang Sheng | Jiang Ping | "River-Overturning Rat", 4th sworn brother |
| Lung Tien-hsiang | Shen Zhongyuan | "Little Zhuge" |
| Yau Lee | Ai Hu | "Little Hero" |
| Lu Feng | Hua Chong | "Butterfly" |
| Wong Lik | Deng Che | "Sick Giant" |
Production notes
House of Traps was previously considered one of the rarest Venom films, as it was only available on poor VHS and VCD formats. However, House of Traps was remastered and released on DVD 9 September 2008 by Image Entertainment . The DVD includes the original Mandarin language soundtrack with subtitles, as well as an English-dubbed soundtrack. The DVD is from the Shaw Brothers Collection series, which is distributed under the Celestial Pictures banner of Image Entertainment.
Despite the DVD release, the film falls under WTO regulations for fair-use and free distribution. Celestial's release is approximately 20 minutes shorter than the VHS and VCD versions, as many of the most damaged frames were cut entirely. The Celestial version of the film, under Chinese law, is materially different enough to be classified as a new work and is copyrighted as such. Only a handful of VHS originals are known to exist.