Crippled Avengers (1978)

Three men, crippled by an evil warlord, become friends and learn kung fu with the help of an old teacher and his idiot pupil.

Director:

Cheh Chang

Writers:

Cheh Chang, Kuang Ni

Stars:

Kuan-Tai Chan, Feng Lu, Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok

Cast

Credited cast:
Kuan-Tai Chan	...	Tao Tien-tu
Feng Lu	...	Tao Sheng
Phillip Chung-Fung Kwok	...	Chen Shun (as Kuo Chui)
Meng Lo	...	Wei Da-ti
Chien Sun	...	Hu Ah-kuei
Sheng Chiang	...	Wang Yi
Lung Wei Wang	...	Lin Yung
Chen-Tu Tan	...	Master Law Bo
Tai-Ping Yu	...	(Guest star)
Miao Ching	...	Li Jing-ying
Helen Poon	...	(Guest star) (as Ping-Chang Pan)
Dick Wei	...	Tien Nan Tiger #1 of the Southern Sky (as Lung Tu)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hsi Chang
Shih-Ou Chang
Chih-Lu Chen

Storyline

A wealthy kung fu expert, who is turned bitter and evil by the slaying of his wife and the loss of his son's hands, bullies a town through terror and force. They find pleasure and satisfaction by crippling those who stumble in their way. Four of those who are crippled, a hawker who is blinded, a blacksmith made mute and deaf, a drifter who loses his legs, and a fighter who loses his sanity, band together to use their disabilities to the best of their advantage. The four are tested time and time again, and demonstrate their strengths and abilities.

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Plot Keywords:

kung fu | venom mob | grindhouse film | kung fu classic | cult film | 

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Genres:

Action | Drama

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film wasn't given an American release until 1981.

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Alternate Versions

German version was cut by ca. 16 minutes to secure a "Not under 18" rating.

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Connections

Referenced in The Cinema Snob: Mr. No Legs (2017)

User Reviews

Five Deadly Venoms are the 5 actors

Just to clear something up, since a lot of people are complaining that it's not a sequel to five deadly venoms... Actually after the movie Five Deadly Venoms, that group of actors became known as "The Five Deadly Venoms" just like "The Rat Pack". So the title "Return of the Five Deadly Venoms" refers to a return of those 5 actors, not the 5 characters from the first film.

I saw this film when it was titled "Mortal Combat" which was actually quite a few years before the famous arcade game Mortal Kombat.

I hate to admit it... but I really do enjoy the dubbed versions. I know they add quite a bit of "cheese" to the movie, just like how ridiculous Godzilla is in English. And normally I would hate that.. but I guess since I grew up with the cheese, I enjoy it.

Either way this is a great film, I finally got ahold of the newly remastered version "Crippled Avengers" and it's worth getting. Much better than my "Return" DVD.

I rated it 10 out of 10 because it was the one movie from way back that stood out in my mind. I'm so happy i finally found it! still it's at least 8 without the happy memories.

Details

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Release Date:

November 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mortal Combat

Filming Locations:

Hong Kong, China

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shaw Brothers

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min 100 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1