This review may contain spoilers
Bromance times four!
Shaw Brother classic, The Crippled Avengers, may have had an unfortunate dated title, but it was old school kung fu fun. Director Chang Cheh wasn't too interested in realism instead he gave the audience a spectacle which at times more resembled a circus acrobatic act than it did a martial arts throw down. The Five Venoms (the group of actors, not the characters) teamed up once again, this time to take on a butchering bad guy.Hero Chen Kuan Tai's Black Tiger came home to find his wife dead and his son's arms cut off. He quickly dispatched the hatchet men and made a 180 into villainy. Through the years he provided his son, Lu Feng (Venom Centipede) with new and improved metal arms and hands, training him in the three Tiger Styles. Anyone who crossed them or spoke a word against them incurred their wrath. Johnny Wang acted as his chief enforcer Wan.
Along came the Venoms. Philip Kwok (Venom Lizard) made the mistake of looking at the son's metal hands and was blinded. Lo Meng (Venom Toad) spoke out against The Black Tiger's cruelty and was made mute and deaf. Sun Chien (Venom Scorpion) bumped into the son and lost his feet. Chiang Sheng (Venom apprentice) confronted the Black Tiger over his ruthlessness and had his skull crushed leaving him brain damaged. The four men made their way to each other and took Chiang home to his master. His master vowed to teach them kung fu styles to overcome their disabilities. For three years they trained before returning to confront their nemesis and his gang.
The training scenes were quite fun to watch as Chiang and Kwok were quick and acrobatic. Any fights with them and/or Lu Feng didn't need wire work because they could jump, flip and tumble with the best of them. Kwok's abilities with the metal pole and rings were fast and amazing to watch. Chiang always looked like gravity didn't apply to him as he tumbled off of and onto furniture. Lo Meng, though trained in martial arts tended to do more kung fu posing. The "Shaolin Hercules" never met a shirt he wanted to wear and liked to show off his muscles. Though one of the main four characters, Sun Chien and his metal legs tended to disappear for long stretches of time showing up just when someone needed a deadly kick. This was not Bruce Lee kung fu, it was kung fun, more theatrical than useful.
Though the main characters were all disabled, there was no humor at their expense. The best part of the whole film was the obvious camaraderie between the men as they relied on each other to survive. It was a buddy movie times four. Lo Meng's Wei and Kwok's Chen, the deaf man and the blind man, were quite heartwarming in their tactile friendship as they protected each other. For a 1970's kung fu movie, it was fairly sensitive, admittedly the bar was set pretty low on that subject, but at least there was some effort in the machismo genre.
I enjoyed this movie more than the Five Venoms and thought the fights were more original and at least some of them were quicker. The story wasn't afraid to embrace the ridiculous with things like a character having bionic arms who could shoot darts out of them. But it was the more human aspects of the movie that made it memorable. The friendships that developed between the main characters and the characters' growth were unusual for this genre where relationships often took a back seat to fighting. I found those aspects of the movie refreshing. For anyone who enjoys old kung fu movies, this is definitely one to give a try, even with the horrible title.
3/14/23
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