''House of Traps'' is a 1982

Shaw Brothers Shaw Brothers (HK) Ltd. () was the largest film production company in Hong Kong, and operated from 1925 to 2011. In 1925, three Shaw brothers— Runje, Runme, and Runde—founded Tianyi Film Company (also called "Unique") in Shangh ...

film directed by

Chang Cheh Chang Cheh (; 10 February 1923 – 22 June 2002) was a Chinese people, Chinese filmmaker, screenwriter, lyricist and producer active in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Chang Cheh directed more than 90 films in Greater China, the majority of them wi ...

, starring the

Venom Mob The Venom Mob is the colloquial title of a group of actors from the Shaw Brothers Studio, popular creators of martial arts films in the 1970s and 1980s. Most were friends since childhood and attended the Fu Sheng Drama School in Taiwan before m ...

. The story is based on the 19th-century novel ''

The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants ''The Tale of Loyal Heroes and Righteous Gallants'' (忠烈俠義傳), also known by its 1883 reprint title ''The Three Heroes and Five Gallants'' (三俠五義), is an 1879 Chinese novel based on storyteller Shi Yukun's oral performances. The n ...

''.

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 Yan Chunmin and his men mount a daring raid on the prince's birthday which results in the usual mayhem expected from a Venoms film.

Cast

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 Entertainmen

The DVD includes the original Standard Chinese, Mandarin language soundtrack with subtitles, as well as an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

-dubbed soundtrack. The DVD is from the

Collection series, which is distributed under the Celestial Pictures banner of Image Entertainment. Despite the DVD release, the film falls under

WTO The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

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.

References

External links

House of Traps
o
IMDb
{{Chang Cheh 1982 films Kung fu films 1980s Mandarin-language films Hong Kong martial arts films Shaw Brothers Studio films Films based on The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants Films directed by Chang Cheh 1980s Hong Kong films