Crippled Avengers

1978 "Where the better man stays alive!"
7.3| 1h46m| R| en| More Info
Released: 21 December 1978 Released
Producted By: Shaw Brothers
Country: Hong Kong
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A group of martial artists seek revenge after being crippled by Tu Tin-To, a martial arts master, and his son.

Genre

Drama, Action

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Director

Chang Cheh

Production Companies

Shaw Brothers

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Crippled Avengers Audience Reviews

Steineded How sad is this?
ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre
Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Staci Frederick Blistering performances.
jeff-45688 The Five Deadly Venom's return with Mortal Combat aka Crippled Avengers. This is a true popcorn martial arts lovers fun fest!. The story is different because each hero has a different back story and reason for hating the warlord for crippling them. From the deaf/mute, blind man, man with no legs and finally the fight he makes lose his mind. After his son loses his arms as a child the warlord shows no mercy to anyone who offends him. Classic Venom Mob directing from Cheh Chang as there are no quick cuts but full view fighting in that Shaw Brothers style. Classic film all the way 10 stars!
gavin6942 Three men, crippled by an evil warlord, become friends and learn kung fu with the help of an old teacher and his idiot pupil.Ian Jane of DVD Talk rated it 4.5/5 stars and wrote, "With heroes you can cheer for and bad guys evil enough to hiss at, The Return Of The 5 Deadly Venoms is top tier old school martial arts mayhem at its best." Bill Palmer, Karen Palmer, and Richard Meyers wrote in The Martial Arts Encyclopedia, "The story is somewhat unusual, and there are plenty of excellently choreographed fight scenes." Yes, there is a cheesy scene of a man chopping down bamboo with his fists, and much of the story is set against an obviously fake backdrop. But this is part of the Shaw Brothers charm. We get more of what we love from Shaw, Chang Cheh and the Five Venoms. We also get something of a gimmick with "crippled" fighters. They are a bit more amazing to watch than "drunken masters", at least.
Leofwine_draca Another top-notch offering from the Shaw Brothers stable, this time utilising the unique storyline of using one's disability to overcome the odds, as well as including all of the bloody action and martial arts skills one has come to expect from what was one of the most reliable studios (in terms of film quality) in the world. The hilarious plot includes all manner of strange and shocking incidents, as well as incredible cheesy dialogue ("I have no arms. You have no eyes. Now we're even!"), strong and imposing characters and even plenty of comic relief, coming from a brain-damaged hero who proves to be more of a hindrance than a help when it comes to fighting with our heroes.The story goes that a warlord returns home to find his son armless and his wife dead of blood loss after having her legs cut off by an enemy. He duly kills the men responsible, but as the years pass he becomes twisted and begins to torture innocent folk. His son is fitted with iron hands which can also shoot deadly darts from the fingers (I bet they don't sell those down at M & S!) and also goes around beating up and crippling everyday townsfolk to make himself feel better about his disability! Thus, the four heroes are formed. The first a wanderer who finds himself blinded in a savage encounter; the second a tough guy who is made mute and then deafened in addition; the third a guy who has his legs cut off for some reason or other, and the fourth a would-be hero who becomes an idiot after his head is crushed with an iron band! After some tough training techniques in the outback (including hilarious shots of wooden dummies being kicked to pieces, some excellent acrobatics with steel rings, and a guy punching a jug through the holes in a spinning wheel) the guys return to town to take on the bad guys and get their revenge.Whew! That's one hell of a plot and CRIPPLED AVENGERS is one hell of a movie, a totally solid viewing experience for martial arts fans which is basically one big long action sequence with only a few pauses in between. The fights are kept varied and are always fast and furious with good camera angles and techniques, and it's often impossible to take your eyes from the screen once they begin. The bad guys are extremely evil and sadistic and hissable, the good guys an odd but worthy bunch who make for interesting and original hero types. The storyline incorporates some fairly suspenseful moments along with a lot of imagination and effort, and the film is also extremely violent. The exciting climax finishes things off nicely and as a whole the film is great fun, with strong production values and a wealth of excitement, weirdness and danger right from the beginning. Just my cup of tea in fact. Highly recommended for fans of the kung fu genre.
I-Sense-A-Plot Crippled Avengers, aka Return of the Five Deadly Venoms (named so, because it stars five of the actors who came to be known as the Five Deadly Venoms after its movie namesake), star as five men who are horrifically crippled by a bitter crime lord/politician.The first, is rendered blind. The second becomes deaf mute because he swears and curses at the crime lord for all of his bullying and wrong doing, the fourth has his legs cut off by the same villain, and the last, the only one who knew kung fu, is rendered an "idiot" in an attempt to confront the villain and bring justice to the wronged four men who are bullied and harassed by the rest of the town for being crippled.They are led to the idiot's kung fu master and are later taught kung fu. The idiot of course, causes much trouble and his master declares him without "feelings anymore" because of his mental condition, so it was okay to hurt him during practice! The other avengers know that this man was injured trying to avenge them, so they treat him as fairly as they can, then decide to go back to the town to get revenge on the villain and his son.Good movie, lots of campy fun. Definitely a recommend from.