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... as it is sometimes called "The Return of the Five Deadly Venoms", this is vintage Shaw Brothers kung fu at it's finest.

Three men show up at a man's house to kill him, only he's not home, so they decide to chop off his wife's legs and hack off his small son's hands. Just then, the father returns home and calmly slaughters the three killers. Unfortunately, his wife perishes from her wounds, but the son survives, and the father sees to it that he is fitted with fully articulated metal hands. After training into adulthood, the son uses his metal-handed kung fu prowess to cripple the grown children of his mother's killers. And all this just in the first fifteen minutes! All of this training and revenge has left the father and son mean and violent. When a traveler makes an impolite comment, they blind him. When the local blacksmith dares speak out, they render him deaf and mute. When a passerby offers help, they chop off his feet! And finally, when a wandering hero promises to avenge these crimes, they defeat him, put his head in a vice, and give him brain damage! The four victims of the original victims band together and travel to a wise old kung fu master who trains them to overcome their handicaps and become The Crippled Avengers! Exciting, colorful and ludicrous in equal measure, this film actually manages to outdo it's more famous predecessor. Highly recommended to fans of the genre and bizarre-cinema buffs. This genre is definitely not up my film alley, but this one I enjoyed.

'Crippled Avengers (1978)' starts with a woman and child being mutilated by a rival gang, and you'd think the rest of the film would follow the now-armless boy as he grows up and learns Kung fu to get revenge on his attackers. You'd be wrong, though. Instead, the boy's father turns up and kills all three of his opponents with a single punch each, then promises to build his son a new set of iron arms and allow him to train in martial arts. Cut to many years later, and the now-adult son has joined his father in ruling over a nearby village with utter contempt and ruthlessness. Driven by bitterness, the pair - and their equally as despicable friend/ coworker - take it upon themselves to disable anyone who so much as thinks about inconveniencing them in even the most minor way. It really is unexpected that these would become the villains, but it makes for a more interesting movie by twisting the format slightly and allowing the true heroes to emerge. Those heroes are the eponymous avengers, and I don't think it's a spoiler to say that each of them crosses paths with the baddies early on. One is blinded because he expressed happiness that mercy was shown to someone, one is deafened (and made mute) because he verbally challenged the antagonist's ruthless rule, one has his legs removed because he accidentally bumps into the man with the iron firsts, and the last - an already skilled martial artist - is given brain damage because he attempts to defeat the evildoers after seeing what they've done to the other three. Needless to say, the punishment does not equal the supposed crime. The four victims find their way to a martial arts master and spend the next three years learning not just how to overcome their disabilities, but how to use them to their advantage. When their Kung fu is strong enough, they set out for vengeance. Although it's a classic revenge story at its core, the flick never really feels like its heroes are in it just for themselves. Instead, it feels like they're fighting for a somewhat 'noble' cause, taking down the villains because it will end their reign of tyranny over the nearby town. There are also brief moments of humour sprinkled throughout the narrative, both intentional and otherwise. Therefore, it feels surprisingly light despite its relatively heavy events. When everything comes together, it's a blast. Just when you think you've seen all the different types of choreography possible in a movie like this, the piece goes and throws in some metal hoops to redefine your definition of 'humanly possible'. Some of the set-pieces are just genius. The feature places more focus on sheer acrobatics than a lot of its peers, which is a refreshing angle to take and allows for some stunning scenes in which the players twist and flip and tumble through the air like they're competing for gold at the Olympics. The different styles of the four heroes also come together nicely, as a lot of a attention is placed on their teamwork and the ways in which they help each other out with their various weaknesses (two bros kick butt and hold hands for a lot of this and it's great). The final third, in particular, is a ton of fun. Some of the stuff before that is a little strained, and the training sequences don't quite convey the sense of progression I'd like them to. The writing is generally quite clunky, and a lot of the dialogue is stilted both in itself and in its delivery (a few of the performers are notably better at fighting than talking). It's unclear how much of this is due to the translation (MUBI's subtitles are clearly incorrect on a number of occasions), but several of the more obviously iffy segments must have been as such from the moment they were filmed. The final fight is also marred somewhat by an obvious and ungainly wirework stunt that serves to do nothing other than pull you out of the experience right when it ought to be at its most satisfying. It's made all the more frustrating by the fact that the actors don't need wires to impress, as evidenced by... well, literally everything we've seen them do prior to this moment. Still, despite some legitimate issues, the overall experience is exciting, well-paced and chock-full of astonishing set-pieces. It's really entertaining.

This is the third classic Hong Kong martial arts movie I've watched in the last few days, and it dawned on me I'd been taking something for granted: no stunt doubles. It seems obvious now, but it's always cool when the actors are genuinely doing all their own stunts, and there's no awkward editing to hide switch-ups between actor and stunt double.

Crippled Avengers proved to be another satisfying martial arts film. It at first seems to centre on a father whose wife is killed and his son maimed by getting his arms chopped off, and their desire for revenge (the son gets metal arms built for him that make his punches super deadly). But no - these two are the villains, and either they were evil all along, or the tragedy made them evil, because they go on to maim another four characters in various ways, and they're the heroes who train for the purpose of seeking revenge for their permanent injuries.

The first third is the weakest - it's all the set-up and main characters getting injured/disfigured one by one. The second third is focused on training, and I think I enjoyed that part the most. And then the final third is where most of the action/revenge is, and it was also largely satisfying, with plenty of impressive choreography and creative fight scenarios on display.

Like many martial arts movies, the ending feels abrupt. I think the first act is a little repetitive, and the way the writers keep finding reasons to send the hero with metal legs out of the action (he's the most powerful, because he had his legs cut off and replaced with iron, much like the main villain's son's arms) gets pretty comical. But most of it works well, and I did find the story and characters more engaging than I usually do in martial arts movies. I think it's pretty successful overall.

"All in color, for a dime" - that's what comic books were said to offer in their "Golden Days", action and adventure impossible to perform in "real life", presented in a colorful, but inexpensive, format. Of course nowadays, comic books cost as much as movies, and actually more than "bargain basement" video, such as this re-release of the Shaw Bros. classic "Crippled Avengers".

As I write this, "The Fantastic Four" is going into national release; it is hard to believe that Marvel Comics publisher Stan Lee spent some 30 years trying to get that film made; and it will have cost millions of dollars; and it involves tons of computer-graphic effects; and it is being hyped "4 wall", as the ad-men say, i.e., in every possible media, as if it were the new "Gone With the Wind"; when, after all, it is only a childhood fantasy, however entertaining.

Fortunately, by the time he began making the "Venom" ensemble pictures, famed Hong Kong director Chang Cheh had learned to stop taking such films all that seriously. While the production values of this film are quite good for their day, Chang Cheh is not intent on making a classic here. He merely wants to make a colorful comic book of a movie suggested by Chinese folk legends, allowing the Venom actors (most of whom had actually trained in dance and acrobatics) a chance to show off their athletic talents. And just to be on the safe side, he placed at the center of the film Chen Tai Kwan, a classically trained martial artist who had also developed considerable skill as an actor. His presence adds credibility to what, after all, is itself a childhood fantasy.

For its kind, for its day, this is an exceptional bit of genre fluff; and one has to mention the creative charge brought to this film by a performance ensemble in its prime, and in which everyone is clearly having a great time providing their audience with a great time. This film is just dam' fun to watch, and more than once! One loves these characters, despite the occasional bit of ham, and I repeatedly find myself in awe at the acrobatics of the concluding fight sequence, even though I have seen similar, & more spectacular, feats performed live (i.e., w/o the aid of editing) at a circus. I suppose that's partly because the actors rely as little on the editing as possible, and the director insists on getting as much on film in single takes as possible, and wisely shoots the fights in full-shot, so we can watch these bodies move with as much grace as the actors can conjure. But it's also because all involved are asking their audience to set aside adult judgments on their performance and simply enjoy a well-rehearsed and directed bit of old-fashioned Chinese-style showmanship.

When people say "they don't make them like they used to", this is the kind of film they're talking about. A genre-defining moment in the history of "old-school" kung fu films, this film was frequently imitated, and never bettered.

Classic 70's kung fu, Tarantino might have taken some of his ideas from flicks like this, even the Matrix franchises.

The main actors starred in over a dozen films together, although this film has nothing to do with the 5 Deadly Venoms characters, it does not take away its entertainment value. I originally viewed it as "Mortal Combat", perhaps this film was incorrectly renamed "Return of..." due to the infamous video game.

Directed by Chang Cheh, he showcased the talented skills each actor possessed, the training/fighting sequences with Philip Kwok (blinded) and Chiang Sheng (scholar maimed an idiot) displayed their "light skills" - acrobatics and incorporating weapons are amazing, Sun Chien (legs cut off) showed off kicks better than a Rockette, Lo Mang (rendered deaf-mute) demonstrated upper body strength training with multiple boxing bags.

As an avid VenomBratPacker, I enjoyed "Return of..." aka "Mortal Combat" more than "5 Deadly Venoms".