Crippled Avengers (1978)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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.

What makes this one of the best Venoms movies is the characters of the accidental heroes, who all happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, swearing vengeance against a rich and infamous kungfu grandmaster (played sinisterly by Shaw Bros veteran actor Chen Kuan Tai) and his merciless son (Lu Feng).Kungfu flicks of this era rarely portray handicapped as heroes. So the decision to make them heroes was a breakthrough for kungfu movie lovers.Four laymen: Kwo Chue, a toy hawker, as the blind; Lo Meng, an iron smith, as the deaf and mute; Sun Chien, as the legless; and Chiang Sen, a swordsman, as the retarded become comrades by chance after being brutally maimed by the evil kungfu grandmaster and his son.Seeking for revenge, the four go on some very arduous martial arts training specializing in unique kungfu skills with the help of Chiang Sen's kungfu master. The four then join forces to settle the score with the evil lord and his iron-handed son in a hand-to-hand mortal combat that only the wittiest, not the strongest, survive.This particular Venoms' vehicle is one that helped maintain their fame in the early 80s following their groundbreaking box office hit "THE FIVE VENOMS" (1978). For lovers of old school kungfu flicks, this is one they must not miss !

Classic 70's kung fu, Tarantino might have taken some of his ideas from flicks like this, even the Matrix franchises.The main actors starred in over a dozen films together, although this film has nothing to do with the 5 Deadly Venoms characters, it does not take away its entertainment value. I originally viewed it as "Mortal Combat", perhaps this film was incorrectly renamed "Return of..." due to the infamous video game.Directed by Chang Cheh, he showcased the talented skills each actor possessed, the training/fighting sequences with Philip Kwok (blinded) and Chiang Sheng (scholar maimed an idiot) displayed their "light skills" - acrobatics and incorporating weapons are amazing, Sun Chien (legs cut off) showed off kicks better than a Rockette, Lo Mang (rendered deaf-mute) demonstrated upper body strength training with multiple boxing bags.As an avid VenomBratPacker, I enjoyed "Return of..." aka "Mortal Combat" more than "5 Deadly Venoms".

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