The Crippled Masters (1979)

The Crippled Masters (1979). 1h 30m | R

“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 heu0026#39;s humiliated. There is an interesting twist, however, in that the fellow who has the herou0026#39;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? u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne 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. Connu0026#39;s legs were left small and withered due to developmental problems during his motheru0026#39;s pregnancy. The result is a film watched with the same voyeuristic interest that you have watching Tod Browningu0026#39;s Freaks. Itu0026#39;s at times so disturbing you canu0026#39;t look away. Their acting is at best wooden (though Sumu0026#39;s work with the staff is pretty cool), but give them credit for trying.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBad acting, worse dialog, but I canu0026#39;t understand why this one hasnu0026#39;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.”