Crippled Avengers

The Crippled Avengers is a very entertaining film by cult kung fu movies production company called Shaw Brother. It has all the actors who have participated in The Five Deadly Venoms and Chinese Super Ninjas 1. It certainly has a classic cast who knows how to fights beautifully. It also has a cool plot that has surely inspired the directors of Crippled Masters, crappy kung fu movies in which there also some crippled avengers, However, The Crippled Avengers by The Shaw Brothers manages to entertain much more either than The Crippled Masters or The Five Deadly Venoms. Most of its fights are fantastic, even though that some of them can actually bore you. The characters and the acting are very typical for a Shaw Brothers' production. However, The Crippled Avengers has an interesting plot and a faire of blood compared to the average kung fu flick. The story is about a master whose son's hand had been cut before his son and him became revengeful due to that incident. They make innocent people crippled for no reason. Therefore, some of the people who have been crippled by them become avengers, even though that they are crippled. They meet a master who teaches them and train them useful kung fu techniques that can be practiced even by those who are disabled. In a nutshell, The Crippled Avengers is an entertaining kung fu flick that I certainly recommend to those who are in favour of kung fu and martial arts cinema. 7/10

Despite the title, this is not a sequel to The Five Deadly Venoms. it has the same actors and director, but the stories are not related. In my opinion this film is much superior to the original.

It is about an evil politician who cruelly disfigures four men. Once disfigured the four go to learn kung fu. After an amazing training montage, the four go back to get revenge. It is a really fun and campy film.

Besides the venoms it also stars Chen Kuan Tai; Chen Kuan Tai is most famous for his role in Killer Constable, another outstanding film. He has great on screen chemistry with the venoms. This is just a fun and violent film.

Sorry folks, but for me Crippled Avengers (AKA Return of the Five Deadly Venoms - named so probably for the marketing purposes alone, without any connections to the earlier film, except the director and the cast) was a let down, one of the glorified Shaw pictures I found less gripping than many others shaded by it's legend.

It doesn't take a genius to see that Chang Cheh just let it rip with the script and story instead of trying to make a point or create any menacing moods or great wallowing in traditional virtues (although there's a dose of loyalty, friendship and your regular good old heroism and self-sacrifice thrown in for a spice). The story must be one of the most cartoonish in Shaw history, excluding their pure fantasy adventures, and this time in a bad way.

Although in Kung Fu films, action is what mostly counts, I'd like to see some story development and good characters, and mostly there was neither. Even in my eyes the almighty Chen Kuan Tai is plain and hammy in the role of evil master Dao Tian Du. The sympathetic heroes do their best for what is given to them, which is not a lot, script-wise. And instead of a good story, we have a script that just routinely moves from set-piece to other, culminating in the final, mandatory and satisfactory revenge, and that's it, folks.

Then, after all the complaining and bashing, the good things. And of course, there's the acrobatic skills of the cast, being dizzying at best. There's also something compelling about the brashness of the film's most cartoonish fantasy elements, mainly the iron prosthetics that have unusual kill skills and hidden secrets. These add spice to otherwise routine script. And like mentioned earlier, the main cast do their best, especially Philip Kwok in the role of a blinded man, in my eyes definitely the best performance in the film.

Somehow I feel this movie owes it's status to the nostalgics who have seen it first time dubbed in English in the 70's in some grind-house or Chinatown theater. And I can't blame them for that, being a nostalgic in some matters myself. In my books, however, this is more of run-of-the-mill "Another Shaw production" as they called their flicks themself, with some unique spices added on. Entertaining, yes, but doesn't cut the custard like it's reputation lets you think it would.

This is my truth. What is yours?

'Crippled Avengers (1978)' starts with a woman and child being mutilated by a rival gang, and you'd think the rest of the film would follow the now-armless boy as he grows up and learns Kung fu to get revenge on his attackers. You'd be wrong, though. Instead, the boy's father turns up and kills all three of his opponents with a single punch each, then promises to build his son a new set of iron arms and allow him to train in martial arts. Cut to many years later, and the now-adult son has joined his father in ruling over a nearby village with utter contempt and ruthlessness. Driven by bitterness, the pair - and their equally as despicable friend/ coworker - take it upon themselves to disable anyone who so much as thinks about inconveniencing them in even the most minor way. It really is unexpected that these would become the villains, but it makes for a more interesting movie by twisting the format slightly and allowing the true heroes to emerge. Those heroes are the eponymous avengers, and I don't think it's a spoiler to say that each of them crosses paths with the baddies early on. One is blinded because he expressed happiness that mercy was shown to someone, one is deafened (and made mute) because he verbally challenged the antagonist's ruthless rule, one has his legs removed because he accidentally bumps into the man with the iron firsts, and the last - an already skilled martial artist - is given brain damage because he attempts to defeat the evildoers after seeing what they've done to the other three. Needless to say, the punishment does not equal the supposed crime. The four victims find their way to a martial arts master and spend the next three years learning not just how to overcome their disabilities, but how to use them to their advantage. When their Kung fu is strong enough, they set out for vengeance. Although it's a classic revenge story at its core, the flick never really feels like its heroes are in it just for themselves. Instead, it feels like they're fighting for a somewhat 'noble' cause, taking down the villains because it will end their reign of tyranny over the nearby town. There are also brief moments of humour sprinkled throughout the narrative, both intentional and otherwise. Therefore, it feels surprisingly light despite its relatively heavy events. When everything comes together, it's a blast. Just when you think you've seen all the different types of choreography possible in a movie like this, the piece goes and throws in some metal hoops to redefine your definition of 'humanly possible'. Some of the set-pieces are just genius. The feature places more focus on sheer acrobatics than a lot of its peers, which is a refreshing angle to take and allows for some stunning scenes in which the players twist and flip and tumble through the air like they're competing for gold at the Olympics. The different styles of the four heroes also come together nicely, as a lot of a attention is placed on their teamwork and the ways in which they help each other out with their various weaknesses (two bros kick butt and hold hands for a lot of this and it's great). The final third, in particular, is a ton of fun. Some of the stuff before that is a little strained, and the training sequences don't quite convey the sense of progression I'd like them to. The writing is generally quite clunky, and a lot of the dialogue is stilted both in itself and in its delivery (a few of the performers are notably better at fighting than talking). It's unclear how much of this is due to the translation (MUBI's subtitles are clearly incorrect on a number of occasions), but several of the more obviously iffy segments must have been as such from the moment they were filmed. The final fight is also marred somewhat by an obvious and ungainly wirework stunt that serves to do nothing other than pull you out of the experience right when it ought to be at its most satisfying. It's made all the more frustrating by the fact that the actors don't need wires to impress, as evidenced by... well, literally everything we've seen them do prior to this moment. Still, despite some legitimate issues, the overall experience is exciting, well-paced and chock-full of astonishing set-pieces. It's really entertaining.

From a completely martial arts stand point this movie rocks! The fight scenes are very very well done! The Chinese opera performers really did themselves credit.

As for the plot, well it is a typical kung fu theater movie, with the heroes battling incredible odds and adversity culminating in a good but rather short final battle

A must see for kung fu fans