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The Crippled Masters

Original title: Tian can di que
  • 1979
  • R
  • 1h 30m
IMDb RATING
5.7/10
1.1K
YOUR RATING
The Crippled Masters (1979)
ActionDrama

Two Kung-Fu masters betray and cripple their partners, but they combine martial arts to seek revenge against their evil master.Two Kung-Fu masters betray and cripple their partners, but they combine martial arts to seek revenge against their evil master.Two Kung-Fu masters betray and cripple their partners, but they combine martial arts to seek revenge against their evil master.

  • Director
    • Chi Lo
  • Stars
    • Sung-Chuan Shen
    • Chao-Ming Kang
    • Chiu Ho
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.7/10
    1.1K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Chi Lo
    • Stars
      • Sung-Chuan Shen
      • Chao-Ming Kang
      • Chiu Ho
    • 27User reviews
    • 36Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos9

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    Top cast14

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    Sung-Chuan Shen
    • The Crippled Master
    Chao-Ming Kang
    • The Crippled Master
    • (as Jackie Conn)
    Chiu Ho
    • (Guest star)
    Mu-Chuan Chen
    Chang Chung-Kuei
      Wei Ho
      Mei-Lung Hsiang
      Chung Chien Li
        Ei Lu
        Chang Ma
        Chang Ma
        Te-Yun Pei
        Te-Yun Pei
        San Peng
        San Peng
        Liang Tai
        Tou Tieh
        • Director
          • Chi Lo
        • All cast & crew
        • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

        User reviews27

        5.71K
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        Featured reviews

        aggie80

        Pretty typical kung fu flick with standard elements, but talented handicapped actors.

        Let's see, what do we have: Old recluse teacher type, check. Bizarre training regimine, check. Tea house scene, check. Evil bad guy with secret problem, check. Bolo Yeung, hmmm missed on this point, but there is at least one wannabe. Actor with face painted a weird shade of white/green, check.

        Unusual items that make this one different? Never seen the butt used with such force before! The use of too handicapped individuals was very different, one with a limited stump of an arm instead of two and one with two fairly useless legs.

        All in all very typical of the genre. Fight scenes abound linked together with a bit of a plot. The most interesting part was watching the two heroes work their way around doing daily tasks.
        6Sandcooler

        "The worst thing is to be crippled...in your mind!"

        "The Crippled Masters" manages to establish it's tone quite early: within the first ten minutes, you already know this thing isn't going to make a lick of sense. If you were to get your arms cut off would you a)bleed heavily and shriek like a little girl or b)just sorta walk it off and go to a teahouse? If you went for a), you have no business being in this movie's universe. This movie relies heavily on the one gimmick it has going for it, but thankfully it's good enough to last...until around halfway or so. The problem I sorta have here is that they came up with a plot so genius that they didn't bother to do any more writing. The structure is your typical first act injustice-second act training-third act vengeance drill, done without any real wit, creativity or even decent-looking martial arts. These choreographies are really poor, it never looks the least bit convincing that these masters are hurting the villains at all. To make matters worse you hear punch sound effects on the worst possible times. Who dubs in a sound effect during a choke hold, let alone that particular sound effect? Did the sound guys even watch the movie while they did all this? It's just kind of a lazy production, that's all I'm saying. But the gimmick well, it still provides a lot of fun. You just wish they had saved this idea for a production that knew what to do with it. Oh well, I enjoyed it anyway.
        Mitch Weaver

        Stranger than almost anything you will see

        If you think you would enjoy watching a movie about an armless kung-fu warrior and a legless kung-fu warrior who team up to get back at the guys who chopped them up... this is your movie
        7cdevip

        Best of the Worst

        If you can put aside story sophistication, story line continuity, and class, you will utterly love this movie.

        It is a bizarre story of two crippled people working together to beat their evil master. Once these former enemies pair up with some help along the way, they go head to head with their former master in an unforgettable fight scene in the end.

        The Kung Fu was OK, but the ingenuity makes it worth it.

        It's mindless fun and the kind of movie that everyone with a sense of humor will love.

        Enjoyment factor: 10 Sophistication factor: 0
        6Red-Barracuda

        2 Become 1

        Well this chopsocky flick sure has a memorable premise. Two actually disabled martial artists - a thalidomide man with no arms and a man with useless withered legs - team up to get revenge on the evil master who maimed them. The Spice Girls sung a song called '2 Become 1' and I believe its just possible that Geri and the gang got the idea for their number one single after taking a time out from their girl power based activities to unwind to a VHS tape of The Crippled Masters. What Posh and all the rest of them conveniently chose to ignore, however, is that there is a pretty obvious inbuilt exploitative angle to this one, although this also ensures that it is a very distinctive kung fu movie overall which I'm sure Sporty in particular enjoyed, being the one most likely to appreciate the martial arts element in this movie seeing as she regularly wore trainers and tracky bottoms. While Baby may have found the story a little formulaic, she would no doubt have weighed that up with the consolation that the action is elevated a lot by the tricks the crippled masters pull off in their fights, which are highly impressive and comedic at times also. I get the feeling going by the exuberance of their song that the Spice Girls not only found this way above par for a 70's Hong Kong-Taiwanese martial arts co-production but that they also used it as inspiration to go on and conquer the pop world in a general sense.

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        Drama

        Storyline

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        Did you know

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        • Connections
          Edited into Martial Arts Mayhem Vol. 3 (2007)

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        Details

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        • Release date
          • July 16, 1982 (United States)
        • Countries of origin
          • Taiwan
          • Hong Kong
        • Language
          • Mandarin
        • Also known as
          • Crippled Masters
        • See more company credits at IMDbPro

        Tech specs

        Edit
        • Runtime
          • 1h 30m(90 min)
        • Color
          • Color
        • Sound mix
          • Mono
        • Aspect ratio
          • 2.35 : 1

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