Legend of the Fox, also known as Legend of a Fox, is a 1980 Hong Kong film based on Louis Cha's novel The Young Flying Fox. It was produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio, directed by Chang Cheh and starred the Venom Mob. The film used to be one of the most rare Venom Mob martial arts film available, but has been digitally remastered and released by Celestial Pictures.
Hu Fei and his sick, adopted uncle take shelter from heavy rain in a large private residence. Shortly after, gang leader, Yan Chi and his men take shelter in the same building. Uncle recognizes the gang leader as someone that stole important pages from Hu Fei’s kung fu manual (a reason that he can’t comprehend it) and more importantly, a person of interest regarding the death of Hu Fei’s father, Hu Yidao. Since Hu Fei’s kung fu is incomplete to be able to defeat Yan Chi, uncle wants him to lie low.
Hu Fei sneaks off and witnesses a young man being trained by an old woman as she lists off the names of various people, one being Miao Renfeng, the other, Hu Yidao. Uncles coughing gives away their eavesdropping and they move away to hide. They are found by the guards, but the guards dismiss them as beggars and turn their attention towards Yan Chi’s group who is the bigger threat. When Yan Chi prepares to leave, a man and his wife enters. Uncle recognizes him as Tian Guinong, the man that scarred his face and cut off his arm. When Yan Chi’s men disturb Tian Guinong and his wife, Nan Lan, Tian proceeds to teach them a lesson until Yan Chi and Tian Guinong recognize each other from 18 years ago.
In steps another individual from outside, carrying his young child. Everyone seems to recognize and are visibly afraid of him. He’s revealed to be The invincible ‘Gold Faced Bhudda’, Miao Renfeng. Uncle tells Hu Fei that Nan Lan is Miao Renfeng’s ex-wife and the mother of his daughter (who she willfully ignores). Uncle runs over and whispers something to Yan Chi and he is given several pages of a kung fu manual. When Miao's daughter starts crying out for her mother, he leaves and goes back out into the rain. Hu Fei comes out from hiding and scolds Nan Lan for ignoring her daughter, leading to Nan Lan running off in tears. Once the commotion subsides, uncle tells Hu Fei about what happened 18 years ago:
While uncle was working as a waiter, Hu Fei’s father, and pregnant mother, came to stay at the inn as she was going into labor. Yan Chi became her doctor and, unfortunately, uncle’s family was heavily in debt to a creditor. Hu Yidao gave uncle the money to pay off the debt and also paid for a huge banquet to celebrate the birth of his son, Hu Fei. Miao Renfeng and Tian Guinong arrive at the inn preparing to challenge Hu Yidao but once they hear a baby, they decide to leave. This challenge was apparently the result of a long-standing feud between Miao Renfeng, Tian Guinong, and Hu Yidao, that resulted in the deaths of family members. Hu Yidao writes a letter apologizing for any misunderstandings. He gives the letter to (Dr.) Yan Chi and asks him to deliver it to Miao. Before this letter leaves the premises, Hu Yidao receives a challenge letter from Miao, but asks Yan Chi to deliver his regardless.
Tian Guinong intercepts the letter, tells Yan Chi (now a co-conspirator) that “it’s been delivered”, and for him to prepare 3 coffins, “two big, one small”. Tian confesses to his henchman that he’s the one that’s been spreading rumors about Hu Yidao killing their fathers, that their fathers were already on their death beds, because he wants Hu Yidao, dead. Uncle eavesdropped on this conversation from a distance.
Miao Renfeng returns the next morning and the two rivals drink before their challenge. Miao promises that he will take care of Hu Yidao’s son if he kills him, and the two fight. Neither seems to go out of their way to injure the other, in fact, they begin complementing each other. Out of frustration, Tian Guinong attempts to interfere, but Miao Renfeng tells him not to do it again. Hu Yidao and Miao realize they are both honorable men with equal skills. They stop the challenge and plan to restart the next morning. This leads to a lust for revenge becoming a series of friendly spars in which neither man wants to kill the other, but to learn each other’s sword skills. As a gesture of good will, Hu Yidao kills and brings the head of one of Miao’s enemies and Miao starts to become friendly towards Hu’s family. Unhappy with this turn of events, Tian Guinong comes up with various schemes to undermine their friendly sparring. Eventually, he bribes Yan Chi to put poison on Miao Renfeng’s sword without his knowledge. During what will be their last spar, Miao Renfeng concludes that Hu could not have killed his father.
Hu Yidao is nicked on the arm by the sword and is poisoned. Before he dies, he asks Miao Renfeng if he received his letter, to which Miao says that he hasn’t. Hu Yidao’s wife, who suspects foul play from outsiders, asks Miao Renfeng to take care of her son, then commits suicide. Tian Guinong orders Yan Chi to kill the child and steal Hu Yidao’s kung fu manual, but Yan is knocked unconscious by uncle, who ends up raising Hu Fei after he escapes Tian Guinong. Miao Renfeng goes looking for the child and starts to get suspicious when he sees that the child is missing, and a trail of blood appears.
When we return to present day, uncle gives Hu Fei the kung fu pages given back to him by Yan Chi. He reads the pages and, upon completing them, confronts Yan Chi. Assuming Hu Fei is a beggar, Yan Chi doesn’t take him seriously until Hu Fei mentions that he’s Hu Yidao’s son. Hu Fei kills Yan Chi and his men as his first step towards revenge for his parents.
Hu Fei and a dying uncle take shelter in an old temple. They stumble upon two fighters taking a letter to Miao Renfeng. After uncle dies, Hu Fei defeats two men who are looking for the fighters then follows the fighters back to Miao's home. Once delivered, Miao Renfeng opens the letter sent from Tian Guinong discussing his daughter, which angers Miao. He rips up the letter, which releases a poisonous gas into his eyes and blinds him. Hu Fei steps in to assist the blinded Miao Renfeng once multiples of Tian Guinong’s men come to kill him. While Hu Fei does not disclose his name, Miao tells him that he only has two friends… Hu Yidao and “the young man” that has now come to assist him. One of Tian Guinong’s men confesses to Miao that the only person that can restore his vision is “The King of Poison”. Hu Fei goes to the Village of Medicine to find him.
Hu Fei arrives at the village and is greeted by a young woman tending her flowers, whom he asks for assistance. She agrees if he helps her spread manure on her garden. Once he’s done, she gives him two flowers (which grants him immunity to the poisonous nearby flora). A mysterious individual (Murong Jingyue) appears and tries to destroy the young womans’ flowers but he is rendered unconscious by sleeping gas.
Hu Fei arrives at the King of Poisons’ villa and finds two people dead. He begs the (unseen) King of Poison for the antidote. When there’s no response, a mysterious couple appears as he goes back to the young woman, who invites him for dinner and tells him that her name is Cheng Lingsu. Cheng asks Hu Fei to pick up a basket and accompany her on a task, directing him not to speak or fight with anyone, and not to take more than three steps away from her. They go back to the King of Poisons villa and witness Cheng’s sister, Xue Que trying to cure her brother, who is poisoned. Cheng Lingsu gives Hu Fei a vaporized antidote to blow into the villa’s vent, which cures him. She gives Hu Fei several pills then tells him to hide in the bushes. Xue Que and her brother, Jiang Tieshan, come out to confront Murong Jingyue, who appears from the basket that Hu Fei was carrying, who they accuse of poisoning Jiang Tieshan. All three are confused since Jiang Tieshan denies the accusation while he accuses Xue Que and Jiang Tieshan of knocking him out, putting him in the basket, then poisoning him in return. After a short exchange of poisonous gasses, Cheng Lingsu appears presenting a letter informing her sister and two brothers that before his death, their master (the King of Poison) named her as his successor, and to put aside their differences, much to their dislike. Cheng Lingsu puts them all to sleep, then cures them of their poisons. Hu Fei asks Cheng Lingsu (aka, the “King of Poison”) if she, or her brothers/sisters are the source of the poison that has blinded Miao Renfeng, which she states no, but that her uncle, “Poisonous Owlet”, the fraudulent King of Poison, probably is. She offers Hu Fei to go with him to cure Miao, which he obviously agrees.
Tian Guinong, with his men, come to Miao Renfeng’s home, far outnumbering Miao and his two bodyguards. Hu Fei and Cheng Lingsu arrive shortly after Miao’s bodyguards are killed; then Hu Fei challenges Tian to a sword fight. Listening to Hu Fei’s sword skills, Miao suspects that he is related to Hu Yidao, but Hu Fei tells him that his name is “Flying Fox”. Once Tian almost defeats Hu Fei, Cheng Lingsu intervenes and releases “red scorpion powder” that temporarily burns and poisons Tian and forces him and his men to retreat. Cheng Lingsu diagnoses Miao’s eyes and concludes that the poison came from her uncle, the imposter King of Poison.
The imposter King of Poison, Poisonous Owlet, Shi Wancheng meets with and cures Tian Guinong. He is joined by his new disciples Xue Que and Murong Jingyue, with Jiang Tieshan becoming an unwilling accomplice as he was given a mind control substance by Xue Que. Shi Wancheng vows to kill his niece, Cheng Lingsu and take his brothers manual.
Miao Renfeng has his eyes treated and asks “Flying Fox” how he knows the Hu family sword skill, which Hu Fei continuous to avoid talking about. Miao takes him to a shrine for the Hu family, telling him that their spars were friendly, and he didn’t know someone poisoned his blade and that the wife committed suicide. Miao tells Flying Fox that if he wants to take revenge for Hu Yidao, to please take care of his daughter. Hu Fei clearly doesn’t want to kill Miao but still wants to find his parents killer. Cheng Lingsu advises him that Miao did not apply the poison, that whoever tainted his sword is the real killer. Cheng surmises that if the poison came from her uncle, and he is working with Tian Guinong, then Tian is the killer. Hu Fei agrees. Cheng also suspects that her uncle wants the “King of Poison manual” and he is coming to take it from her, and if he does, then all of her accusations are correct. Shi Wancheng and his disciples come to confront Cheng. She tells Hu Fei once again not to speak, fight with anyone, or take more than three steps away from her. Cheng gives Shi Wancheng a fake manual but when Shi attacks Cheng with a poison projectile, Hu Fei disobeys her, attacks him, and ends up contracting “silk worm poisoning”, which Shi claims there’s no antidote. Cheng Lingsu sacrifices her life for Hu Fei by sucking the poison out of his arm since itis the only way to remove it from the body. Before she dies, she sets a booby-trapped candle that kills Xue Que and Murong Jingyue, and poisons Shi Wancheng when they come back to find the real King of Poison manual.
Hu Fei visits his parents graves when Nan Lan comes (followed by Tian Guinong) and inquiries about her daughter and ex-husband are doing. Tian arrives a few minutes later, to which Hu Fei declares he is the son of Hu Yidao. A sympathetic Nan Lan (who ends up leaving Tian) helps Hu Fei find a sword buried behind his fathers headstone. With (vision restored) Miao Renfeng’s help, Hu Fei attempts to take revenge on Tian Guinong and Shi Wancheng for his parents deaths.
