Combate Mortal

Despite the title, this is not a sequel to The Five Deadly Venoms. it has the same actors and director, but the stories are not related. In my opinion this film is much superior to the original.

It is about an evil politician who cruelly disfigures four men. Once disfigured the four go to learn kung fu. After an amazing training montage, the four go back to get revenge. It is a really fun and campy film.

Besides the venoms it also stars Chen Kuan Tai; Chen Kuan Tai is most famous for his role in Killer Constable, another outstanding film. He has great on screen chemistry with the venoms. This is just a fun and violent film.

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".

"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.

... 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.

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.