Crippled Avengers (1978)
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE. My Top 10 has a BRAND NEW ENTRY. This is a Shaw Brothers classic. It is the film I thought The Five Venoms was going to be. It features incredible action and astonishing acrobatics, in a classic tale of brotherhood and revenge. The film opens with Chen Kuan Tai returning home to see his wife murdered (legs chopped off) and son mutilated (hands chopped off) by some wrong-doers. He kills them, and maims their sons years later. He even fashions iron hands for his son (Lu Feng) to wear, that fire darts out of the knuckles. He is still consumed with hatred, however, and rules over a town with a heavy hand. The town blacksmith makes his mouth go, and is made deaf and mute as a punishment. Another bloke, travelling through, is blinded for his insolence. A third guy who wishes to use the blacksmith has his legs chopped off below the knee for this 'crime', and a kung fu master vows to avenge them. After a struggle, his is captured, and has his head clamped so badly it turns him into a giggling simpleton. The four travel together to the poor man's old master, and spend three years learning advanced techniques to deal with their disabilities. They then head back to town near Chen Kuan Tai's birthday to dish out revenge.
The story rattles along at a fair old pace, and contains some great flourishes. The henchman of Chen Kuan Tai, for example, think of ways to exploit the disability of each fighter. When the deaf/mute and blind guy are in the same room, they use the banging of shields to disorientate the blind guy (who relies on acute hearing) and shiny surfaces to skank the guy who relies on sight (Lo Meng), and can't verbally warn his comrade. There's some astonishing weapons work here, as the blind guy (Phillip Kwok) spins the pole round with amazing speed to ward off aggressors. The punch and block action is super, and the iron-legged Sun Chien delivers some killer kicks. In the final scene, the simpleton (Chiang Sheng) uses hoops in his fight with Lu Feng, and teams up with Phillip Kwok to deliver a performance of speed, precision and ingenuity. It could be argued that in this scene, it looks too artsy, and more like a performance than an attempt to hit the other guy, with the fighters jumping through the hoops and somersaulting over each other. I say, so what? It looks terrific, and I'd also say that the attempts not the kill are in keeping with Chiang Sheng's character, who doesn't really understand what is going on and seems to think of things as a game.
Granted, there's some ludicrous things going on in this film, but it's all brilliant fun and thoroughly entertaining,. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Now I know why the Venoms are so highly rated.
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE. My Top 10 has a BRAND NEW ENTRY. This is a Shaw Brothers classic. It is the film I thought The Five Venoms was going to be. It features incredible action and astonishing acrobatics, in a classic tale of brotherhood and revenge. The film opens with Chen Kuan Tai returning home to see his wife murdered (legs chopped off) and son mutilated (hands chopped off) by some wrong-doers. He kills them, and maims their sons years later. He even fashions iron hands for his son (Lu Feng) to wear, that fire darts out of the knuckles. He is still consumed with hatred, however, and rules over a town with a heavy hand. The town blacksmith makes his mouth go, and is made deaf and mute as a punishment. Another bloke, travelling through, is blinded for his insolence. A third guy who wishes to use the blacksmith has his legs chopped off below the knee for this 'crime', and a kung fu master vows to avenge them. After a struggle, his is captured, and has his head clamped so badly it turns him into a giggling simpleton. The four travel together to the poor man's old master, and spend three years learning advanced techniques to deal with their disabilities. They then head back to town near Chen Kuan Tai's birthday to dish out revenge.
The story rattles along at a fair old pace, and contains some great flourishes. The henchman of Chen Kuan Tai, for example, think of ways to exploit the disability of each fighter. When the deaf/mute and blind guy are in the same room, they use the banging of shields to disorientate the blind guy (who relies on acute hearing) and shiny surfaces to skank the guy who relies on sight (Lo Meng), and can't verbally warn his comrade. There's some astonishing weapons work here, as the blind guy (Phillip Kwok) spins the pole round with amazing speed to ward off aggressors. The punch and block action is super, and the iron-legged Sun Chien delivers some killer kicks. In the final scene, the simpleton (Chiang Sheng) uses hoops in his fight with Lu Feng, and teams up with Phillip Kwok to deliver a performance of speed, precision and ingenuity. It could be argued that in this scene, it looks too artsy, and more like a performance than an attempt to hit the other guy, with the fighters jumping through the hoops and somersaulting over each other. I say, so what? It looks terrific, and I'd also say that the attempts not the kill are in keeping with Chiang Sheng's character, who doesn't really understand what is going on and seems to think of things as a game.
Granted, there's some ludicrous things going on in this film, but it's all brilliant fun and thoroughly entertaining,. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. Now I know why the Venoms are so highly rated.
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