CelluloidRehab
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
stone-bell
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.
broaf
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.
DelMonte
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.