In "Crippled Avengers" (aka "Mortal Combat," aka "Return of the Five Deadly Venoms"), pioneering Hong Kong action director Chang Cheh officially enters the realm of total fantasy. "Five Deadly Venoms" looks crude and tentative next to this absurd concoction of high-kicking, baton-twirling superheroics, and if you liked that film, you'll love this one.
Chen Kuan-tai is a martial arts master whose home is invaded by three rivals; Chen manages to kill them, but not before they murder his wife and chop off his son's hands. The son (Lu Feng) grows up, becoming a hateful bully with prosthetic hands made of iron. He, his father, and the father's chief henchman (Wang Lung-wei) cripple anyone who challenges their appalling behavior: a local blacksmith (Lo Meng) is made deaf and mute; a traveling salesman (Kuo Chui) is blinded; a passerby (Sun Chien) loses his legs after trying to intervene; and a visiting martial artist (Chiang Sheng) is rendered "slow" (does that adjective meet your exacting standards, IMDb?) when the villains put his head in a vise. These men band together, becoming pupils of Chiang Sheng's elderly sifu (Ching Miao) in their quest for revenge.
That synopsis sounds gruesome, but all of the violence in this film has a cartoonish, unreal quality. None of it is even remotely convincing, and that includes the fight scenes themselves: they look more like acrobatic exhibitions than fights. Are the opponents actually trying to hurt each other, or are they just performing tandem somersaults? That's the problem with "Crippled Avengers." It goes without saying that the actors are physically talented, and the acrobatics are fun to watch...up to a point. But the conspicuously flashy choreography, the flowing hair and silly costumes, and the lack of anything resembling human characterization ultimately left me with a feeling of sterility. This is the kind of movie that's generally more appealing to a young audience.
Chinese martial arts cinema as we know it would not exist without Chang Cheh, so it feels unfair to knock him for the stylistic overindulgences of a film like this. Still, I prefer the Chang Cheh of "Trail of the Broken Blade" and "Blood Brothers": the Chang Cheh who staged epic, bloody kung-fu battles *and* made his characters seem like real, three-dimensional people who had things at stake.
Chen Kuan-tai is a martial arts master whose home is invaded by three rivals; Chen manages to kill them, but not before they murder his wife and chop off his son's hands. The son (Lu Feng) grows up, becoming a hateful bully with prosthetic hands made of iron. He, his father, and the father's chief henchman (Wang Lung-wei) cripple anyone who challenges their appalling behavior: a local blacksmith (Lo Meng) is made deaf and mute; a traveling salesman (Kuo Chui) is blinded; a passerby (Sun Chien) loses his legs after trying to intervene; and a visiting martial artist (Chiang Sheng) is rendered "slow" (does that adjective meet your exacting standards, IMDb?) when the villains put his head in a vise. These men band together, becoming pupils of Chiang Sheng's elderly sifu (Ching Miao) in their quest for revenge.
That synopsis sounds gruesome, but all of the violence in this film has a cartoonish, unreal quality. None of it is even remotely convincing, and that includes the fight scenes themselves: they look more like acrobatic exhibitions than fights. Are the opponents actually trying to hurt each other, or are they just performing tandem somersaults? That's the problem with "Crippled Avengers." It goes without saying that the actors are physically talented, and the acrobatics are fun to watch...up to a point. But the conspicuously flashy choreography, the flowing hair and silly costumes, and the lack of anything resembling human characterization ultimately left me with a feeling of sterility. This is the kind of movie that's generally more appealing to a young audience.
Chinese martial arts cinema as we know it would not exist without Chang Cheh, so it feels unfair to knock him for the stylistic overindulgences of a film like this. Still, I prefer the Chang Cheh of "Trail of the Broken Blade" and "Blood Brothers": the Chang Cheh who staged epic, bloody kung-fu battles *and* made his characters seem like real, three-dimensional people who had things at stake.