Synopsis: The character of Du Tiandao, a great martial artist, changes greatly from kind into cruel and cold-hearted after his wife is brutally murdered by an awful society, the Three Tigers of the South. The Tigers also chop off the arms of his beloved son, Du Chang, in the same attack. Since then, Du Tiandao has hated everyone he comes across and, together with his son who he has fitted with two metal arms, cruelly abuses anyone who offends them. One day, as Du Tiandao and Du Chang have a meal in a restaurant, they hear someone making a speech nearby. As they approach, the speech-maker Wei Datie luckily manages to escape. But a hawker standing nearby, Chen Shun, who had applauded the speech, attracts the attention of Du Tiandao who gouges out his two eyes. When they return home, Du Tiandao orders his servants to bring Wei Datie to him. When Wei arrives, Du Tiandao forces him to drink a cup of poison and then claps his hands hard over his ears,leaving Wei deaf and dumb. As Chen is blind and unable to make a living, Wei lets him stay in his metal shop. Soon after, disaster befalls another young man, Hu Agui. As he quarrels with his boss,he shouts that as long as he has his hands, he would not die of starvation. But, Du Chang overhears him and, thinking that Hu is mocking his armless state, chops the man's legs off with his powerful metal arms. Later, Hu is also given shelter by Wei Datie. Finding out that his crippled victims are staying at Wei's, Du Tiandao sends his servants to attack Wei's metal shop. He also warns the local peasants to isolate the three crippled men. One day, a young warm-hearted martial artist, Wang Yi, visits the town. When he discovers what has happened to the three men, he promises to avenge them. However, Du Tiandao and his son defeat Wang, forcing him to wear a special vice-like crown which leaves him brain damaged. By chance, the three other victims learn that Wang Yi is a disciple of Li Zhengying, a highly renowned martial artist. Wei Datie, Hu Agui and Chen Shun accompany Wang Yi to see Li Zhengying, who promises to teach them martial arts so that they can take revenge on Du Tiandao and Du Chang. After practising for three years, Li finally decides that the four men are ready to deal with the Du family. The four abused and crippled men return to the village and wreak their revenge on the vicious Du and his son. (106 Mins)

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Views: Chang Cheh's Crippled Avengers wastes no time at all in getting stuck into the nitty gritty, with the Three Tigers attacking Black Tiger's home only to cut off his wife's legs and his young sons arms. Although his wife passes, Black Tiger assures his son that he will make him metal arms once his wounds heal. 10 years later, Black Tiger has kept his word and after teaching his son the Tiger Fist style, makes him take revenge on the Three Tigers sons – leaving them crippled or badly injured out of spite. Still angered and riddled with hate since losing his wife, Black Tiger lives his life as a tyrant who puts fear into those around him, from the quietest villager to the strongest fighter. Backed by his metal-armed son and right-hand-man, Keeper Wan, the Tiger Style master soon destroys the lives of a group of men that leaves each of them with a severe disability for standing up to him. Now, with something in common, the strangers join forces to maximise their strength and take revenge on the Black Tiger clan, which leads to a brutal duel to the death and an incredible display of kung-fu action!

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With the success of The Five Venoms, it was inevitable that Cheh would be quick to fire-out a follow-up film starring his new team of performers. While often known as Return Of The Five Deadly Venoms in some territories, Crippled Avengers is most definitely not a sequel to the latter – which is obvious for many reasons. Of course, it was made the same year and starred the majority of the same cast – except for Wei Pei who had to step-out of the film world briefly due to his suffering of Tourette's syndrome. He did return for Invincible Shaolin (also made in 1978), as well as Ten Tigers Of Kwangtung and The Kid With The Golden Arm before departing Chang Cheh's legion and the Shaw studios for Golden Harvest. I would have to say that The Five Venoms was definitely much tighter in story and script compared to Crippled Avengers, even though it was written once again by Chang and prolific screen-writer Ni Kuang. Making his debut in 1967 with the Chang Cheh directed classic, One-Armed Swordsman, Kuang had written well over 100 films by this stage – most of which were for the Shaw Brothers studio and director Chang Cheh. Crippled Masters would actually only be 1 of 20 scripts he had penned in 1978 (or at least, put into production) alongside Shaolin Invincible Guys, 36th Chamber Of Shaolin, Enter The Fat Dragon, Avenging Eagle, Heroes Of The East, and The Five Venoms of course. As well as a few small roles in Hong Kong movies over the years, Ni Kuang has proven to be one of the industries most successful writers with over 300 published novels and 400 films scripts completed over a few decades, and has delivered the scripts for some of the greatest Hong Kong movies since the late 60s. That said, there are moments at the start of Crippled Avengers that could have been handled better, such as the jump in time of Black Tiger's armless son to adulthood, the character development of the Venom Mob – some of whom were attacked for the stupidest reasons, and most of whom accepted their brutal maiming with no issues at all. While these tiny gripes happen early enough in the film, there is still plenty of violence, kung-fu, and training to entertain, but I'd have to admit that things really turned around for the better on the halfway mark – delivering a much stronger second half with non-stop martial arts action and a faster pace.

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Although some of them had appeared a year or two before in titles such as Chang Cheh's Shaolin Temple, Magnificent Wanderers, The Brave Archer, and Chinatown Kid, The Five Venoms and Cripple Masters allowed each of the Venoms to light-up the screen without being over-shadowed by the likes of Alexander Fu Sheng, David Chaing, or Ti Lung. Here, they are joined by the brilliant Chen Kuan Tai, one of the Shaw Brothers first real martial-arts trained actors. Chen started of as a bit-player before getting his big break with the fantastic Boxer From Shantung. Around the same time, he tried his hand as both a producer and fight choreographer on films like The Crazy Instructor, Cold Blade, The Chase, and Invincible Iron Palm, and as the roles came flooding in after the success of Boxer From Shantung, Chen soon got round to making his directorial debut with The Simple Minded Fellow – a comedy starring James Yi Lui and Dean Shek. But it would be his second film as a director that would anger the bosses back at Shaw Brothers, with Iron Monkey proving to be quite the hit. Chen's next directional effort was Invincible Monkey Fist, that saw him star alongside the brilliant Billy Chong as well as starring in Tough Guy – a loose sequel to Iron Monkey which is also known as Iron Monkey Strikes Back. To settle things with his old bosses, Chen agreed to return to the studios for a role here and would continue to jump between his independent titles and Shaw Brothers to deliver films such as the brilliant Shaolin Kingboxer (aka Iron Fists), Killer Constable, The Master, Big Boss From Shanghai, and many more. To date, Kuan Tai has starred in over 160 features – including modern hits such as Derek Kwok's Gallants, 14 Blades, Dragon Tiger Gate, 7 Assassins, Once Upon A Time In Shanghai, and more. The ever-popular Johnny Wang Lung Wei, who stars as the Black Tiger's right-hand man Keeper Wan, gets to make up for his lack of action in The Five Venoms by trading moves with the majority of the crew. This was Wang's 20th role since his debut with Shaolin Martial Arts having fast become a regular fixture of Chang Cheh's movies, and impresses once again with his villainous persona and strong moves.

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The stern-faced Lu Feng stars as Dao Chang – Black Tiger's poor son who gets his arms cut-off by the Three Tigers who are played by the wonderful Dick Wei, Jamie Luk, and Stewart Tam. As an adult, Dao gets fitted with a pair of deadly iron arms and lives his life in anger, snapping at anyone who looks at him the wrong way. After starring in his first real prominent role in The Five Venoms, Lu gets to up his game as the villain-by-default and makes for an interesting character. Although he went onto star in many of Chang Cheh's films from there on in, Feng tried to find some direction after Cheh's departure from the studio in films like Attack Of The Joyful Goddess, The Demons, and Shanghai 13 – going on to appear in some fun roles in films like Fight Among The Supers, Ninja Kids: Kiss Of Death, Death Ring, Ninja Condors, and a cameo in Cheh's Ninja In Ancient China before retiring from the scene in the mid-late 90s. The wonderful Philip Kwok leads the way as Chen Shuen, the man who loses his eyes to Feng's metal fingers. Probably the most popular and successful of all the Venoms, Kwok started his film career with roles in Chang Cheh's The Fantastic Magic Baby, Marco Polo, Boxer Rebellion, and Seven Man Army, also appearing in outside titles such as One-Armed Boxer Vs The Flying Guillotine, Hand Of Death, and The Traitorous. 1976 was a crazy busy year for Kwok, appearing in 10 titles in all including Cheh's New Shaolin Boxers and Shaolin Temple, going on to follow his friend and co-star Chiang Sheng with the same run of titles (for the most part) over the next few years. After co-directing, choreographing, and starring in Ninja In The Deadly Trap with some of his Venom brothers, Kwok spread his wings when it came to the end of Chang Cheh's contract and appeared in other Shaw studio titles such as Holy Flame Of The Martial World, Demon Of The Lute, and Crazy Shaolin Disciples. As the late 80s crept in, Kwok moved into modern action with memorable roles in The Big Heat, The Peacock King, Seven Warriors, In The Line Of Duty 6: Forbidden Arsenal, Story of Ricky, and the epic Hard Boiled – as well as many others.

 

Of course, Philip had also been keeping himself busy over the years doubling-up as a martial-arts director and action-choreographer which began in the late 70s with Chang Cheh's Ten Tigers Of Kwangtung, The Daredevils, Magnificent Ruffians, and others, before going on to handle the action in many modern hits such as A Chinese Ghost Story with Tony Ching Siu Tung, The Peacock King, Erotic Ghost Story, Tiger Cage 2, Zen Of Sword, The Bride With White Hair 1 & 2, Hard Boiled, and worked with Michelle Yeoh on her international breakthrough role in Tomorrow Never Dies as well as her self-produced adventure, The Touch. Super-kicker Sun Chien stars in 1 of his 4 roles from 1978, as Hu Ah Kue, the villager that loses his legs by Feng's hands for no major reason. After making a splash with his debut performance in Chinatown Kid, Sun secured his place in kung-fu cinema (and Shaw Brothers) with The Five Venoms that would see him go on to star in a host of classics such as this, The Daredevils, Kid With The Golden Arm, House Of Traps, Bastard Swordsman, and so much more. By the mid-80s, Sun would make a move into low budget ninja movies and martial-arts adventure films that saw his career take a bit of a dive, eventually retiring from the scene after a small role in the fun Jackie Chan produced Angry Ranger - of which he also co-directed alongside one of his co-stars, Johnny Wang Lung Wei. The brilliant Lo Meng stars as the Blacksmith known as Wei Jia Jie, and is one of the more exciting characters in my eyes. This accountant-turned-actor joined the Chang Cheh train in Shaolin Temple after he watched introduced to the director by one of the Shaw brothers. Meng followed the same path as the rest, eventually starring in many other titles for Shaw's such as Hex Vs Witchcraft, Lion Vs Lion, Human Lanterns, and Bastard Swordsman. In the mid-80s, he would start appearing in more modern works such as Michelle Yeoh's Magnificent Warriors, Hard Boiled, Return To A Better Tomorrow, Ebola Syndrome, Sex & Zen 3, and the fun Anna In Kung Fu Land – eventually finding a resurgence of sorts in the film world when he was cast as Master Law in Donnie Yen's Ip Man 2, followed by Gallants, The Grandmaster, Vampire Clean-up Department, and returning as Master Law for Ip Man 3 & 4.

 

And finally, Cutie Pie himself (more widely known as Chiang Sheng) plays Wang Yi – the swordsman who sets out to stop Black Tiger's evil ways after seeing what he has done to the crew. Starting life at the Fu Sheng Drama School in Taiwan, Chiang soon got into the film industry when Chang Cheh founded his own production company under the Shaw Brothers banner. After many supporting roles and appearances as an extra in titles such as Wild Tiger, 18 Shaolin Disciples, The Condemned, Hand Of Death, and New Shaolin Boxers, Chiang got his first real prominent role in Cheh's epic Shaolin Temple that kick-started a strong career at Shaw's from there on. After starring in titles like The Naval Commandos, Magnificent Wanderers, The Brave Archer, and Chinatown Kid, Chiang added a notch to his belt by doubling as the assistant director on The Brave Archer 2 before moving onto The Five Venoms and this. The year after, Chiang would continue to star and help Cheh with directing as well as turning his hand to that of a martial-arts director – much like the rest of his co-stars would do eventually. Leaving the Shaw Brothers studio with Chang Cheh in the mid 80s, Chiang went onto star in a number of fun titles for a few more years including Attack Of The Joyful Goddess, Five Fighters From Shaolin, Shanghai 13, Ninja Kids: Kiss Of Death (a personal favourite), Ninja USA, and Exciting Dragon, eventually retiring from the screen by '89. Although his career and skills were highly praised and loved by kung-fu fans the world over, Chiang's life in the film industry came to an abrupt halt when his wife forced him to give it up – only to divorce a year later. Chiang soon sank into a world of alcohol and depression, sadly passing at the age 40 in 1991 with a broken heart. His body was found by his friend and co-star Ricky Cheng after lying alone for 3 days.

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It's interesting to note that elsewhere in the studio the same year, the ever-popular Lau Kar Leung was scoring big box-office points with 36th Chamber Of Shaolin, Shaolin Mantis, and Heroes From The East, as was Chor Yuen, Sun Chung, and other directors with their movies – not to mention what was on offer from young directors like Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo Ping, etc. And while it was quite different to the other 3 productions Chang made the very same year, Crippled Avengers still managed to offer up something a bit different than everyone else, and has long been revered as one of Cheh's best and a true classic of Hong Kong cinema – going-on to inspire RZA and Eli Roth for their well received Hollywood flick, The Man With The Iron Fists (along with many other Shaw Brothers titles). With more amazing choreography once again from Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, and Robert Tai, kung-fu fans should never tire of what's on offer – especially with it's highly impressive and highly enjoyable 15 minute finale that allows the Venom mob to show off some of their finest moves. While I would love to have seen a sequel of these characters, it would be typical of Cheh – except for The Brave Archer films – to often move quickly onto the next project before his latest film would have even reached the big screen. Released in a 2K restoration as part of Arrow Videos Shaw Scope Vol.1, Chang Cheh's Crippled Masters has never looked better and is well worth the watch!

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Overall: As with many of Chang Cheh's Venom mob movies, Crippled Avengers is packed with amazing kung-fu battles, violence, and charm that comes highly recommended!

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Blu-ray Extras: 2K Restoration, Interview with Lo Meng, Featurette on Chang Cheh, Trailers, Image Gallery

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Watch my unboxing video of this Arrow Video release HERE

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Buy your copy HERE