User Reviews

The movie flies out of the starting gate with the punishment of Lee Ho. We do not know his crime, just that his arms have to go. You heard correctly. They chop off both his arms. As further humiliation and disgrace, they throw his bleeding, armless body into the dusty street. Minutes after his loss, Lee Ho stumbles through the streets, where his bleeding and armless body is mistaken for a beggar. He offers a man a little money to let him eat, for the promise of double pay the next time (think J. Wellington Wimpy type). He never actually gets to eat anything but is nearly beaten to death. He gets thrown out with the trash and dead bodies, ending up being rescued by the undertaker. He is then discovered by Black and White (henchman of Nin Li Kong, a.k.a. the Master, pronounced Ninja Kong) and is beaten again. After nearly drowning, feeding on some leftover rice and pig feed, Lee finds some purpose. We see Lee performing lots of chores, games and even fighting skills. This is very inspirational stuff.

Ninja Kong (a.k.a - the Master) continues the carnage by taking out the man responsible for dishing out the punishment to Lee. He pours acid over his legs, beats him up and then throws him thrown off a cliff. Ninja Kong seems like he might be Triad. He is constantly trying to strong arm people. He has a scar under his left arm and a playboy mustache. The legless one manages to crawl away but kismet intervenes and instead he meets up with Lee. Lee is obviously angry and pounds on the "leg-less" master.

In the middle of this fight, a wise-old man pops out of a basket. He does this a few times during the movie. He teaches Lee to forgive and unite. United they can exorcise their revenge on the person responsible for everything : Ninja Kong. We next see the traditional "training" sequences. We see all the deeds these two "crippled" masters can pull off. This is some more inspirational stuff. There is also something about the 8 Jade Horses that people are after, but I lost track of things after a while.

The ending is a bit predictable and a final conflict between protagonists and antagonist is quite obvious. The methodology is the surprise. It must be seen to be believed. There is also a great first person perspective of getting our butts handed to us. This movie feels like it could have been used as communist manifesto. I can very easily imagine seeing this movie at a Saturday night "party meeting". What this movie does have is the guaranteed pick-me up. No matter how sick, angry, down or depressed you are, watching this movie will guarantee you will feel more content with your own situation. Who knew contentment could be had for a one time fee of $5 from your local DVD merchant?

-Celluloid Rehab

If you can put aside story sophistication, story line continuity, and class, you will utterly love this movie.

It is a bizarre story of two crippled people working together to beat their evil master. Once these former enemies pair up with some help along the way, they go head to head with their former master in an unforgettable fight scene in the end.

The Kung Fu was OK, but the ingenuity makes it worth it.

It's mindless fun and the kind of movie that everyone with a sense of humor will love.

Enjoyment factor: 10 Sophistication factor: 0

"The Crippled Masters" qualifies as one of the weirdest entries in the Kung Fu genre, which was so popular in urban grindhouses in the early to mid-70's. Despite the 1984 copyright date, this curiosity obviously was filmed at least 10 years earlier & no doubt played a rat infested, inner city theater or two.

No actors or technicians are credited on the New Line print in circulation, but longtime fans will obviously spot some genre vets in supporting roles. The actually crippled "stars" (an armless man and his near-legless partner)probably made this one picture & then faded into obscurity.

A secret Kung Fu society banishes one of its members, but not before cutting of the poor unfortunate fellow's arms. Soon, the individual who presided over this cruel punishment is, himself, banished, suffering an acid bath that nearly disintegrates his legs. Improbably, they end up as partners under the tutelage of an ancient, alcoholic-looking "master" who teaches them kung fu, to help them to exact revenge on the leader of the secret society who ordered their mutilations.

Also figuring into the plot is the search for the "8 Jade Horses", statuettes that imbue "one who understands" with great kung fu powers. Each side wants them, including a "government" investigator sent to find them. This sets the stage for several interminable and amateurish "chop-socky" set pieces as the film lunges and kicks towards its conclusion.

As usual, the dubbing of this Hong Kong production is atrocious and the sound effects accompanying the various blows sound like those of a poorly produced video game. The chief interest of this film is it's sheer "political incorrectness", as it exploits the humiliations experienced by the poor unfortunate cripples cast in the lead roles.

Sadistically sick, but in a cheesy sort of way, it's a definite guilty pleasure. Best viewed with a cold six pack handy!

"The Crippled Masters" manages to establish it's tone quite early: within the first ten minutes, you already know this thing isn't going to make a lick of sense. If you were to get your arms cut off would you a)bleed heavily and shriek like a little girl or b)just sorta walk it off and go to a teahouse? If you went for a), you have no business being in this movie's universe. This movie relies heavily on the one gimmick it has going for it, but thankfully it's good enough to last...until around halfway or so. The problem I sorta have here is that they came up with a plot so genius that they didn't bother to do any more writing. The structure is your typical first act injustice-second act training-third act vengeance drill, done without any real wit, creativity or even decent-looking martial arts. These choreographies are really poor, it never looks the least bit convincing that these masters are hurting the villains at all. To make matters worse you hear punch sound effects on the worst possible times. Who dubs in a sound effect during a choke hold, let alone that particular sound effect? Did the sound guys even watch the movie while they did all this? It's just kind of a lazy production, that's all I'm saying. But the gimmick well, it still provides a lot of fun. You just wish they had saved this idea for a production that knew what to do with it. Oh well, I enjoyed it anyway.

If you think you would enjoy watching a movie about an armless kung-fu warrior and a legless kung-fu warrior who team up to get back at the guys who chopped them up... this is your movie

Lee Ho is punished by Lin Chang Cao with his arms being chopped off. He faces many difficulties and ridiculed by society. He is ostracized and only finds help from a farmer who discovered the cripple eating from the pig trough. He finds acceptance in the farming community. Next, Lin Chang Cao punishes Tang who had supervised Lee Ho's punishment and leaves Tang without his legs. Lin Chang Cao grows in power as he takes down his rivals and becomes the local kingpin gangster. Tang is at his lowest when he encounters Lee Ho again.

The first half is very compelling. It sets up Lee Ho's struggles very well. I thought he was going to encounter and learn from a disabled kung fu master. I didn't see Tang's story coming. I may prefer mine better. The crippled fighting is an interesting oddity. I believe some of it, but not so much at other times. It is unique and I like the duo. The plot does get a bit messy with the introduction of Master Po. He muddies the waters when the story is simply the disabled duo getting their revenge. This is a slightly above average kung fu movie. The disabled angle makes this unique.

This is a pretty ordinary martial arts flick overall, plot-wise. Good Guy is done wrong, is trained in martial arts by an Old Master, good guy gets revenge, the end. The Good Guy, in this case, however, is not just humiliated like the heroes in these films generally are, but dismembered. Both arms are hacked off. Then he's humiliated. There is an interesting twist, however, in that the fellow who has the hero's arms hacked off has his own legs shriveled into uselessness by the Bad Guy, Lin Chung Kung, pouring acid on them. There are some decent martial arts sequences to keep things interesting, but when The Old Master is introduced into the story, seemingly for no reason at all, in food basket, it just gets too corny. I suppose no one really expects high cinematic art from these things, though, do they?

One of the most interesting things about this film are the stars, Frankie Sum (Lee Ho) and Jack Conn (Tau). Sum was a thialidomide baby leaving him born with underdeveloped arms. Conn's legs were left small and withered due to developmental problems during his mother's pregnancy. The result is a film watched with the same voyeuristic interest that you have watching Tod Browning's Freaks. It's at times so disturbing you can't look away. Their acting is at best wooden (though Sum's work with the staff is pretty cool), but give them credit for trying.

Bad acting, worse dialog, but I can't understand why this one hasn't developed the cult following it deserves. Not an outstanding film, even by the low standards of the genre, but it should be seen by aficionados of the grotesque and martial arts both at least once.

After antagonising Lin Chang Cao (Chen Mu Chuan), the local crime-boss and deadly master of kung-fu, a couple of gang members are mutilated (one by having his arms chopped off, the other by having his legs eaten away with acid) and left to die. But, through their indomitable wills and with the assistance of an incredibly flexible yoga/kung-fu master, they become deadly fighters, both alone and as a pair. The film is typical low-budget chop-socky with a ridiculous story, a terrible script and/or dubbing, ludicrous over-the-top fight scenes, and (most notably) ridiculous sound-effects. For fans of 70s kung-fu movies, this is all part of the fun but what separates this outing from its peers, and perhaps elevates it to a classic of exploitation cinema, is its cast: Frankie Shum, who was born with only a partial left arm (due to in utero thalidomide exposure) is the armless Lee Ho, and Jackie Conn, whose legs were congenitally atrophied and non-functional, plays the 'leg-less' Tang. The pair are remarkable athletes and, although their fighting prowess seems a bit unlikely under the circumstances, make great heroes as they methodically dispatch Lin Chang Cao's various henchmen before the inevitable final confrontation. Whether the film (like 'Freaks' or 'Terror in Tiny Town' before it) is exploitation or empowerment (or both) can be discussed, but in the end it gave some exposure (and presumably some cash) to a couple of artists who likely found their options limited. Although the film belongs Shum and Conn, the 'Old Man' who can fit himself into a basket (played by Yoga-master Ho Chiu) is also incredible to watch. Oddly, the film opens with a stagey demonstration of the three stars' athletic abilities before cutting to the story proper. Shown as part of TCM's recent focus on 'people with disabilities in film' and probably not what most people would expect at such a retrospective. Recommended as a one-of-a-kind WTF movie to anyone would still tune in after reading a synopsis.

The opening scene of The Crippled Masters sees a villain's lackey having both of his arms chopped off as punishment for breaking the rules; the man is then turfed out to presumably die of blood loss. However, not only does he not bleed to death, but one of his arms appears to grow back a bit - he's got a teeny-weeny flippy-floppy stump with a wibbly-wobbly digit on the end. This is because the actor playing the unfortunate armless man is genuinely disabled, a sufferer of thalidomide syndrome, and absolutely no effort is made to hide this fact. Yup, The Crippled Masters is what we call pure cripsploitation, where genuinely disabled performers are used to draw in curious punters.

Of course, the film's title mentions 'crippled masters', PLURAL: the other 'master' is another of the villain's henchmen (the one who chopped off the first man's arms!) who has corrosive liquid poured onto his legs, leaving him with shrivelled limbs. The two men's paths cross once again in the wilds, the armless man gaining the upper hand (albeit a small flippy-floppy hand); he intends to torture the legless guy for what he did to him, but his plans are interrupted by the appearance of an old yogi (a practitioner of yoga) who convinces the two cripples to work together to take revenge on their ex-cruel master. After the obligatory training scenes, the guys are sent to steal a set of jade horses from the bad guy, which leads to the inevitable showdown between the crippled masters and the villain.

Like this film's follow up, Two Crippled Heroes, the martial arts action featuring the two disabled men is a tad disappointing (although the armless guy is pretty good at twirling a staff, all things considered): try as they might, the pair cannot hold a candle to skilled fighters with all limbs intact, and the novelty factor soon wears off. That said, this one is slightly more enjoyable than Two Crippled Heroes thanks to the fact that we are shown how both men became cripples, and how they gained their martial arts training (I'm a sucker for a training montage). The film is also more bizarre than the follow up, with the villain inexplicably boasting a metallic hump, a henchmen with a blue/white face, and the yogi contorting his body to hide inside a food basket.

Well this chopsocky flick sure has a memorable premise. Two actually disabled martial artists - a thalidomide man with no arms and a man with useless withered legs - team up to get revenge on the evil master who maimed them. The Spice Girls sung a song called '2 Become 1' and I believe its just possible that Geri and the gang got the idea for their number one single after taking a time out from their girl power based activities to unwind to a VHS tape of The Crippled Masters. What Posh and all the rest of them conveniently chose to ignore, however, is that there is a pretty obvious inbuilt exploitative angle to this one, although this also ensures that it is a very distinctive kung fu movie overall which I'm sure Sporty in particular enjoyed, being the one most likely to appreciate the martial arts element in this movie seeing as she regularly wore trainers and tracky bottoms. While Baby may have found the story a little formulaic, she would no doubt have weighed that up with the consolation that the action is elevated a lot by the tricks the crippled masters pull off in their fights, which are highly impressive and comedic at times also. I get the feeling going by the exuberance of their song that the Spice Girls not only found this way above par for a 70's Hong Kong-Taiwanese martial arts co-production but that they also used it as inspiration to go on and conquer the pop world in a general sense.

There's nothing much to say. People who have lost limbs are exploited on film. What they do with what they have is pretty remarkable. But if they had been exposed like this in the real world, the next thing that would be picked up would not be an arm or a leg; it would be a head or a carcass or worse. I agree with the guy who can't fathom the sick individual that came up with this idea. I have no interest in talking plot elements.

I didn't mean to watch this movie when my friends of "SunFlower Tavern Association" (which gathers all the people like we are) came up with it, but then we were all very happy. Finally we've got to watch a movie where WE get our revenge against "normal" people. While watching this movie we felt like our armless condition is not a handicap, but actually a weapon to fight against a common enemy, which is intolerance. Two crippled guys, enemies at the very beginning of the story, find a way to combat the society (represented by the evil master who put them into their condition) joining their forces and martial abilities. Joe Law leaves us in a very opened ending because there will be always a new enemy to challenge with and we'll have to join our ideals to keep overcoming those racists. I'd like the reality was like this movie, all the people could live together to build a better world, and we wouldn't be that ashamed only because Mother-Nature (the evil master) gave us this "different gift".

This was a very fun movie to watch on a boring Saturday night. I ordered in some Chinese food, sat on my couch, popped it in, and enjoyed. A great revenge story, with lots of cheesy sound effects, and tons of funny fight scenes. I don't feel that it was degrading towards physically handicapped people. Actually I feel like it was a tribute towards them. Watch this movie with some Pork Spare Ribs, Chicken Chow Mein, Orange Beef, and some Green Tea. Follow my guidelines and you will enjoy this movie. This film is definitely re-watchable, and you can definitely jump to a fight scene and enjoy a good 5 minute fight scene quickly before you go out for the night. 7/10

-DANIEL MANIA! COMMENT-

The film was ok and the concept was acceptable but the ending could have been better! The villian was a little corny with the whole iron back attacks and when they beat him they should have taken his limbs off!! I mean gosh, the viewer would think that after all of that the two main characters should have returned the favor and cut off the evil master's arms and legs!!

Anyway this is not a movie I could set through again and it was definitely a 5/10.

Daniel K. Nelson

Crippled Masters? Who get the ideas for these flicks? I can barely imagine the sick person who was looking for a story to make a good flick and all he come up with is "I know! I'll make a movie about two crippled guys who do kung fu!". Anyway, the guy who thaught of this get high points for originality, as watching an armless guy and a legless one beat up people is highly entertaining. Just don't expect anything more than cheesy, campy fun.

About the story, it goes a little like this: A man gets both arm chopped off(producing a low amount of blood for this kind of flick) by an evil warlord(who has a weird drawing thingie under the eye). He then stumble around with both arm chopped off, eating pig food and such. He then meet a follow handicapable(hehe) who had his leg melted with a very low quantity of acid by the same warlord. Fast running on hands and stump hits ensue.

First of all, you gotta respect the two actors' ability to cope with their handicap and do kung fu. And they're quite good at it too(for crippled guys, I mean).

Next thing that make this movie fun is the very low production value, causing bizarre and often funny mistakes. This film also got the loud punching sound that goes along with kung fu flicks.

In the end, I'd recommend renting this flick if you feel like watching two crippled kung fu masters fight again an evil warlord who can block with his back can be entertaining, or just for the novelty factor, because there isn't much else to it...

Anyone can be a martial artist whether they are normal or handicapped. For two men, they overcame betrayal. One man lost his arms to the other fighter, and the one who maimed him is double-crossed by his own master, gets his legs burned off. So both men are have to cooperate against him and his crew. The armless fighter packs some powerful kicks and his stubby end helps him hold the staff without major difficulty. The legless fighter works on his arm strength, and can land his weight with devastating results. The mission for these men is Revenge! Betrayed by their master, these men will not stop until he is dealt with! Now training in the martial arts is grueling, and it happens to strengthen the individual. For people who are crippled, they have to experience the same with a few differences there. This movie is very fascinating, very intriguing, and very intensifying. I enjoyed it very well. 3 out of 5 stars!

This film is so incredibly stupid and corny, it has to be considered as one of the funniest action films ever made. The plot is serious so it shows it isn't a joke- 2 fighters for a boss get duapelegiac (only 2 legs and 2 arms between the 2 of them) by they're employer, so they strengthen up to get revenge. Possibly the weirdest film to be generated, but it is actually a comedy in my mind. The sound effects and editing looks like something that came from King Gimp, the fights are faker than the Ninja Turtles fighting and the dubbing makes Godzilla look like Das Boot (to many similies you might say). But it is done so badly well, Ed Wood Jr. would find this better than his Plan 9 from outer space. Creative in a way actually parodied earlier by the Zaz comedy team. A

(1979) Crippled Masters DUBBED MARTIAL ARTS ACTION

The movie is called "Crippled Masters" and had only seen the dubbed version which the movie has no credits except the title of the movie- no mention of the director or who are any of the characters. At the start of the movie showcases a guy getting both his arms chopped off, except that it looks fake and that it's very obvious in the get -go to viewers that he was already born like that. He doesn't have to see no doctor, but goes to try to eat at a local inn since he was hungry. The people at the restaurant as well as the owners then treat him like less-than-nothing including mocking him, even though he's just lost both his arms. I find this very hard to believe and unrealistic. The next scene showcases the guy who ordered the guy's legs chopped off gets double crossed by the main baddie, and they pour hot acid over his legs making him unable to walk. Both characters are eventually going to team up and take on the main baddie using martial arts of course. What should be obvious upon anyone watching this is that the 2 main stars this film is referring to "Crippled Masters" are obviously ordinary people who were just born like that. One guy born without normal legs and the other guy was born without arms, but does have some small fingers on his right. If there is any reason to see this it's only to see them, since the fights are just as corny, slow and fake as most martial art movies made in the 1970's. And anyone were to use their eyes should be able to make sense that if his arms were really chopped off, how was he still be able to use a staff on his right. The movie was probably made in a week and that producers obviously thought they can exploit their real life physical disabilities by giving them a movie and instead harms them rather than give any kind of encouragement.

My apologies if I don't get the credits right. Few of the performers have appeared in any other movie I am familiar with, and although the director, Chi Lo, has been in charge of more than sixty movies, I can't recall having seen any.

Sung-Chuan Shen and Chao-Ming Kang are crippled by their evil master, who cuts one's legs off and the others' arms. Happily, they are succored by a jolly master who lives in a bamboo hat box, who teaches them all his secrets of kung fu. Meanwhile, the evil master goes about, doing evil stuff and laughing about it, occasionally pausing to defeat one of his underlings. This goes on until the final big battle.

It's a typical kung fu movie plot line, except for the rather serious issue of the two leads. They apparently appeared in three other movies together in this period, so this was seen as a viable gimmick for a while. The unnamed director of photography does a very nice job with his compositions, but I was unimpressed by Mu-Chuan Chen's fight choreography, which was shot in a way that made it clear how the cheating was going on. In addition, the sound effects that accompanied the fighting was stupid.

It's movies like this that inspired Jackie Chan to make movies that were intended to be funny, instead of ridiculous, like this. It was popular enough to warrant a couple of sequels, but I doubt it was because of the positive light in which it portrayed the handicapped.

This movie is amazing. The awesome fight scenes with the edited sounds on contact are almost enough. But there's more. See this movie. We had never laughed so hard watching a movie. Not for the most sympathetic of people. If you are not P.C. and enjoy Kung Fu flicks this will be on your shelf in no time. The fact that these 2 guys can fight to avenge their disabilities is incredible. These are real actors with legitimate disabilities. When they fight together they are a formidable duo and incite nonstop laughter. Lots of humor to be had and good life lessons as well. Teamwork is good. Always listen to the master in the basket. Crippled Masters is a masterpiece in that it will amaze you and leave you in stitches.

Let's see, what do we have: Old recluse teacher type, check. Bizarre training regimine, check. Tea house scene, check. Evil bad guy with secret problem, check. Bolo Yeung, hmmm missed on this point, but there is at least one wannabe. Actor with face painted a weird shade of white/green, check.

Unusual items that make this one different? Never seen the butt used with such force before! The use of too handicapped individuals was very different, one with a limited stump of an arm instead of two and one with two fairly useless legs.

All in all very typical of the genre. Fight scenes abound linked together with a bit of a plot. The most interesting part was watching the two heroes work their way around doing daily tasks.

People dis on this movie, but let me tell you something: If you see one movie, EVER, let it be this. If I had 50b thumbs, every last one of them would be up. I mean how can you go wrong with a line like, "Funny... most people sleep in beds, but I... I sleep in steamer baskets."

Enough said.

In all seriousness I ended up renting this movie as something I thought would be funny to watch. I even thought the two crippled masters would actually be two normal people simply holding their arms in their shirts and filming only from the waist up. Boy was I wrong. I can't imagine how the coreographers managed to pull this off, but the movie is awesome. The fight scenes are far above average, the plot is decent, and the main bad guy has a big iron hump on his back. What more could you ask for in a kung fu movie?

This movie contains very impressive martial artistry by guy with no arms and guy with no legs. However, that is beside the point, as anyone that would possibly want to watch this movie would do so for purely camp value. Oh yes, Crippled Masters has camp value. By the end, the film quality gets much worse, and there are obvious film edits mid-shot, and it ends with a big freeze frame. It's very funny how terrible this movie is, as long as you aren't too sensitive about handicaps.